Amph DC Comics Hits the Reboot Button

I didn't see any thread for DC comics itself so I started this new one about the pending reboot for DC Comics. Basically, every book is being rebooted after Flashpoint. And sorry for the long post below, I just copied my rant off my blog.

Hearing or seeing the word reboot when it comes to comics generally sends a cold chill down my spine. Mostly because I?m old school and like to respect the past storylines that have been told. That being said, sometimes a reboot can be a good thing for refreshing iconic characters. DC recently announced that starting on August 31 they will be rebooting the entire line of DC Comics and going down to 52 series. Additionally Jim Lee has redesigned and/or tweaked the costumes of about 50 major characters in the DC Universe.

Starting in August DC will release 50 first issues, their intent is to create ?a more modern, diverse DC Universe.? DC?s Senior Vice President-Sales Bob Wayne provided some more information about the reboot. He stated there will be ?some character variations in appearance, origin and age. All stories will be grounded in each character?s legend ? but will relate to real world situations, interactions, tragedy and triumph.?

DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio was interviewed by USA Today and provided more information about the reboot and its intended effects on the DC Universe. This is one of the interesting parts of the interview:

In September, an additional 51 first issues will make their debut, introducing stories that are grounded in each character?s specific legend but also reflect today?s real-world themes and events. Lee spearheaded the costumes? redesign to make characters more identifiable and accessible to comic fans new and old.
?We really want to inject new life in our characters and line,? says Dan DiDio, co-publisher of DC with Lee. ?This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today?s audience

It seems as though Flashpoint is the mechanism that will allow the bulk of these changes to take place. The DC Universe has already been changed leading up to Flashpoint and my guess is that when Barry Allen tries to make things right it will cause the reboot of the DC Universe. Everything will seem familiar but there will be minor changes, all as a result of Flashpoint. It?s a smart way to make the changes, I have to give them credit for that.

The question is what kind of things will be rebooted? Are major plot points going to go away, and if so how will fans react? An example of some of the defining moments of the DCU that could be changed are:

The Death of Superman
The Marriage of Superman and Lois Lane
Bane breaking Batman?s back
The inclusion of Robin in the Batman books.
The crippling of Barbara Gordon, the first Batgirl.
All of the Crisis stories, specifically the death of Barry Allen
Barry Allen?s subsequent resurrection
Blackest Night
The fall and eventual redemption of Hal Jordan
These are just some examples, but it seems like DC has made just about everything fair game for the reboot. The question is, where do you draw the line? How do you remove some moments of DC history that fans love but not others?

DC has provided a preview of the new Justice League and in the preview, pictured below, we can see some of the minor costume changes that have taken place. Jim Lee was give free rein to make changes an on whole they look pretty good. There are two costume redesigns that stand out to me. First, Wonder Woman is keeping a costume very similar to the one Lee just created. Next Superman?s costume has been tweaked some. He now has a high collar and the S shield has been modified some. Purists might not like it, but I can live with the change.

[image=http://nerdsoftheroundtable.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/jim-lee-dc-reboot-justice-league.jpg]

It seems to me there is a lot of potential for ?fanboy rage? to come out of this reboot. I guarantee rage if they retcon Bane breaking Batman?s back. It sounds intriguing to me, but if

 

I've been wanting to get into comics more than I am at the moment but the problem I find is that because they've been going on for so long and they cross over a lot is that I can't see an easy entry point into any series. I was lucky with Star Wars Legacy in that I got to follow it from issue #0 and it's been a great series, but with Batman and Superman there's so much history and back story that I feel lost.

What would be good is if they did the reboots in and alternate universe and had the new stories separate from the old while keeping the old stories going in the regular universe. That way all the major plot lines will be there for the old fans and the new fans can step into the new universe and not miss anything.

Hopefully I'll be able to follow more than one.

 

Frankly mousse, with the way DC is on continuity, it's best not to be too attached to it. I tend to follow creators on the big two more than characters and that solves the bulk of the difficulties.

 

I am somewhat wary of the upcoming reboot, although people had been speculating about it for quite a while by now when DC hadn't released their post-Flashpoint solicits. DC events sometimes change continuity (Infinite Crisis I think was the last one, since Final Crisis was more about epic battle than universe-changing events), but this sounds more like a reboot than how IC "adjusted" continuity in a few places, especially based on how quite a few solicits are sounding.

I'm most worried about the Batman books. While the news of Morrison on a Superman book does sound quite great, I think Morrison is really hitting his Batman Inc. series is really hitting its stride now (the last one, #6, was quite excellent). Even aside from Batman Inc., just about the entire Bat universe is doing great with series like Red Robin, Batgirl or the recent Gates of Gotham. so while I know nothing lasts forever, I still hate to see it end. If they leave the Bat books alone, I'll feel better.

Although I think I read somewhere this was also being done to shake up the Superman and Wonder Woman franchises, and after JMS's tenure those two could use a boost. Though it depends on how much Superman's life changes (I believe people are worried about his marriage to Lois, but as long as Superman doesn't make any demonic deals, it can't possibly end up worse than Spiderman's attempt to be "young and hip" since apparently Spiderman being married was a big sticking point for certain Marvel people). Not to mention an iconic Justice League again, written by Johns I believe. Although not as big a fan of Johns anymore, but he's still definitely one of the biggest writers so that combined with yet another big title like JLA (which has been in a slump since IC) should work out ok.

I like the sound of digital though. I follow quite a few series, but have had to cut back as I'm running out of room to store them. And not even needing to go to the comic store to get my issues (and my area occasionally has shipping problems too) sounds very, very exciting.

While I don't want the Bat books to be rebooted, I can see them changing the status quo back to something more classic with the next Batman movie coming out next year (sorta like how Steve Rogers will be back as Cap by the time his movie is out). Although the best thing about the current Batman Inc. is that Bruce Wayne is still Batman, he's just not the only one. The same thing with the Green Lantern movie actually.

Some new solicits just came out, and honestly the one I'm most interested in is the new Justice League International series, as I liked the Generation Lost series, intriguing new line-up, and its always interesting to see how Booster Gold ends up after big timeline changes with his unique place in history.

 

Don't really mind a reboot. I was all of five or six years old for the last one and even DC's relatively streamlined-seeming continuity nowadays seems an impossible task at times.

 

From what I understand it's not going to be a total reboot, just that they are going to put everything back to #1. Batman Inc and all that will continue. Green Lantern will continue as is.

The costume redesigns, especially for Superman, suck.

 

I'm mostly just ticked at messing with the bat books when they really weren't broken and were instead rather fresh and interesting. Others have said they should have made their own Ultimate universe. And I'd agree. That would have been best for all.
Unfortunately, they didn't and now Dick Grayson is back to Nightwing and Oracle's 20 year career is over and Barbara Gordon is back as Batgirl, leaving Stephanie Brown out in the cold with Cassandra Cain. No idea what's going on with Tim Drake. He may stay as Red Robin since Damian Wayne is retaining the mantle.

I'm sure other things that we'd like retconned (The ENTIRETY of Cry for Justice and aftermath) will stay the same. Sure Roy looks to be getting his arm back, but I'll bet anything that Lian Harper is still dead or never happened.

 

What We Know (And Don't) About the DC Relaunch

Read #1

 

I personally would love a total reboot of DC comics. I'd say restart the entire DC Universe. Start everyone off a a new #1, complete with reworked origin story. Set things in the modern day. Spend the next ten years telling stories in a coherent universe, one that doesn't reference back to previous continuity, and which allows for the retelling of some of the better arcs in DC history.

I'd set things up so that the only comic that doesn't get restarted would be Booster Gold. He (and his supporting cast) would be aware of the change. For everyone else? It'd be a whole new world, from the ground up.

 

I'm firmly in the wait and see camp. I mainly follow Batman and Green lantern, and those books appear to be pretty stable. That being said, I didn't see Tim Drake mentioned in any of the Bat solicitations. I like Tim Drake, so i'm not happy about that.

DC needed to do something, Marvel has been beating them in slaes for a long time. A reboot with books priced a dollar less might help.

 

Tim is going to be in Teen Titans as Red Robin. I like the costume with the exception of the feathers.

[image=http://www.thefanboyseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/titans.jpg]

 

Teen Supes looks pretty awesome! I like it.

 

Superboy looks terrible. Just like Superman.

Also, I hate Red Robin's Falcon wings.

 

Books I will still get, in TPB:

Batwoman
Batman Inc
All Star Western

The rest? Meh. As major screw-ups go, this is DC's version of DHC's axing of KOTOR / Legacy but several times over! The only reason for the above 3 is:

JH Williams III is a briliant creator and Amy Reeder, already excellent, will only get even better working with him.
I've read Morrison's Bat-epic this far, it's the finale thus...
I've loved Palmiotti & Gray's Jonah Hex run, easily one of the best and most consistent titles going

Outside of this, I cannot be bothered to care. I've only read DC properly since around 2004/5, in that time there's been about 3-4 reboots of one kind or another and I've had enough of it all.

 

Well, there goes Batman Inc. Such a shame, I've been loving Stephanie Brown as Batgirl, such a nice change of pace from the rest of the darker world of comics these days. Not to mention I think I grew up with Barbara Gordon as Oracle, so while crippled it was cool to see the character was able to support both kinds of roles (crimefighter and super-hacker), and now possibly reverting to just Batgirl? Not to mention the decades (I think?) of stories.

Teen Titans I'm somewhat looking forward to as I think its the same Robin/Red Robin writer, and I've liked his style. Robin's series ran for well over a hundred issues, and Red Robin has mostly been a continuation of that, so I'm looking forward to what will hopefully be a stable run on Titans (ever since Infinite Crisis Teen Titans has never really recovered).

I'm still sad to see the Batman books changing this much, I liked how they are right now. Oh well, at least seeing Bruce Wayne and Damien as Batman and Robin should be good.

And yeah, I hope Booster Gold at least won't change, even if his series relaunches, given that his whole role in the DCU is about fixing reality and time travel and all that.

 

I think DC's biggest mistake was making Babs Batgirl again, especially since the Steph book has been doing well (as a second or third tier book). What they should have done was make a Batgirl team-up book starring Babs, Cass Cain, and Steph with Miller as the writer instead of taking some chances with some of the new books.

 

I am absolutely fine with them rebooting the series but I hate the fact that they make Wonder Woman look like the devil's wife. Superman's new original costume looks nice but hate the red belt, and how they make him look like crap in this one picture of him with torn jeans, a cape that looks like a small towel, and a weird shirt. Finally my perosnal favorite the Kryponian warsuit which let's be fair is awesome when we're talking about the ressurection of Superman after his death at the hands of Doomsday.


Anyway I hope DC Comics doesn't screw this up becasue they all look like kids who just got out of College which is totally cool if we're talking about Superboy, and Wondergirl. Anyway these are my thoughts it will be intresting to hear other people's thoughts considering there is also a protest at San Diego Comic Con against this relaunch with over 100 people supposed to attend.

 

I've been dreading the reboot but the more I see I'm liking it more and more.

Damian Wayne is still Robin, I'm very glad Damian is still around. Jason Todd is still the Red Hood. Tim Drake is still Red Robbin. The only things I don't like are Dick going back to Nightwing and I'm wondering what is going to happen to Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown.

Wonder Woman seems to be once again without pants, and I've always liked that look more than the pants version.

The new Captain Atom seems interesting, it looks like the DC Universe might get their own Dr. Manhattan.

Green Lantern is really looking good. Sinestro is the new Green Lantern... that is just awesome. I'm still wondering how they are going to handle that. The New Guardians series seems interesting, with the exception of it lacking Larfleeze. The New Star Sapphire uniform... I can't decide if I like this one or the old one. Of course I'm going off the assumption that it's Carol on the cover and not a new Star Sapphire. I'm really looking forward to the Red Lantern series too, if only for more rage-kitty. And a reboot might add more Guardians back, they were dropping like flies before. I'm really wondering how they'll handle the Sinestro Corps now though.

So I'm definitely going to be getting the Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Justice League, and Red Hood tpbs when they come out. And depending on how it goes I may get the new Teen Titans and Captain Atom.

 

I'm disappointed that they didn't make this Crisis 4 and clean up the Final Crisis fiasco. I like those events and they sell well

But ultimately, wish they went the Marvel Dissassembled -> Civil War -> Secret Invasion route. Deal with the universe you have, rather than trying to reboot every few years. It's never going to be perfect no matter how hard you try

 

News just in:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dcnu-superman-lois-lane-break-up-110718.html

The key facts:

Superman is no longer married
Ma and Pa Kent are both dead
Superman more Kryptonian than human in outlook

If anyone can make this fly it'll be Morrison, but I have to wonder if he can pull it off.

 

Well at least Spiderman got a better deal. When he lost his marriage he got to keep his elderly aunt. Superman loses his his birth parents, adopted parents, and his wife.

 

The launch of the new comics is coming and I still don't know which ones to pick up. Looking at the whole list just makes my brain feel asplody and I don't know what the difference between all the Batman comics.

 

The Batman title to get is... well, Batman, as it's written by Scott Snyder and he's easily the best of the bunch. He used to write Detective Comics, and has done some good work on that book.

Personally I'm picking up:
Action Comics
All-Star Western
Demon Knights
Green Lantern
Resurrection Man
Stormwatch

I'm on the fence about Animal Man, as I'm not sure whether I enjoyed that comic because of the character or because of Grant Morrison. Similarly undecided about I, Vampire and JL: Dark

 

Yeah it's official DC has ruined the comics I'll just stick to movies, and other stuff from know on.

 

Oh come on, the books aren't even out yet.