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DC Comics full relaunch

havok1977

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So even tho this is not a comics related forum I figured I would ask opinions from fellow fanedit members.

You might be aware that coming September, DC is rebooting/relaunching their whole line of comic books - yes every single title that they publish is going to start again from almost scratch.

Explanations and motives behind this move must be many, ranging from netting new readers and making older ones come back into the fold, to cleaning up decades old continuity issues that could bring problems to the potential future of their characters - but that argument sounds all too familiar.

Despite a full blown restart, the current powers that be at DC, Eddie Berganza, Bob Harras and Jim Lee explain that the most important/popular pieces of continuity will be kept. I can only put this face :shock: as on how they plan to pull it off, as work from brilliant writers such as Alan Moore and Grant Morrison to name a few will be kept or tossed out the window depending on what parameters I wonder?

I've never been too much into DC's properties myself aside from the usual suspects, the only characters of theirs that I care about are Batman, Green Lantern and such offbeats like The Spectre and of course Sandman and related topics, but those fall outside the regular output and even in other DC owned imprints.
But I know there are many Superman fans roaming around here, and I'm sure many others will have an opinion about the rest of the DCU.

I for one, think that will be taking a plunge in a few of the titles, some of which interest me because of their huge profile and others because they are an integration of the Jim Lee kickstarted WildStorm imprint which is now being merged with the regular DCU. I really like WildStorm specially with such greats as Planetary and The Authority, let's see what happens now...

Will anyone here take a chance to check it out? Perhaps checking out the titles and voting for which actually interest you might be a good start.

So, what does everyone make of this? I for one will be picking up a few titles and give them a chance.
 

Mark Moore

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I fell away from superhero comics around 2005, but I'm really upset about this, if only because it means the current "Supergirl" title won't make it past #80, which I was really hoping it would do as a slap in the face to that arrogant Peter David.
 

Sunarep

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I might be a little more on the radical side but I hate this obsession with "continuity" - the least of the things i want when reading a comic is that they have to acknowledge the (mostly useless) baggage of other writers

I mean just look at aunt may - if we were so keen on continuity she'd be dead, bruce wayne would be way beyond dark knight returns

comics have similar origins (i.e. the shooting of bruce's parents) but yeah, give me a good story over some convoluted timetravelling batman to fix plotholes anytime
 

Uncanny Antman

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There is no real continuity anyway, so I don't see why everyone is in a huff. (On the net, not here specifically.)

All the characters, both DC and Marvel only have roughly defined 'definitive back-stories' at the best of times. Any given month, I could show you three Batman titles that are mutually exclusive. Or two titles with Spider-Man which cannot possibly take place in the same rough time period. And don't get me started on Superman having three "real origin" stories told in the past decade.

No, my good friends...this new age changes nothing really. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Modern...now join me as we step into DC's Digital Age. (If that catches on, remember who said it first. ;) )
 

nOmArch

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All sounds good to me, I used to read the Beano and that was about it until someone introduced me to The Walking Dead comics a few weeks ago and now I'm completely hooked so I look forward to trying out loads of new stuff in the near future.

btw if anyone is not reading The Walking Dead do yourself a favour and pick it up it's bloody amazing!
 

steelio2006

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i'm still kind of wary bout this new reboot. just because i've been a DC comics fan for a little while now. going on ten years now. which is crazy how fast time goes.

but im interested to see how the Authority and Planetary turn out, now that they are in the DCU. i'm not happy though with what's happening to a couple of characters tho. cause for one, I'm a big Tim Drake fan and to see him basically being rebooted will be a slap to the fans that have been following this character since he arrived on the scene in '89. another character i'm not happy bout is Connor Kent aka Superboy. and then there's the Teen Titans, who I've been a fan of for bout six years now after I found geoff johns run that had the lineup of Starfire, Kid Flash, Cyborg, Robin III, Superboy, Beast Boy, Raven, and Wonder Girl.

then theres some characters who's fate is unknown bout what'll happen to them when the reboot happens like Cassandra Cain (the second batgirl) and Stephanie Brown (the third batgirl or Spoiler). and why are they bringing Barbra Gordon back as Batgirl? i personally feel like it's a backstep for her character to go from Oracle back to Batgirl. same goes for Dick Grayson as Nightwing. And I actually enjoyed Dick Grayson as Batman more than I have with Bruce Wayne back as Batman.
 

L8wrtr

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So I missed comic books growing up. It is one serious deficiency in terms of childhood obsessions. The only comics I read (outside of newspaper) were movie adaptations of Star Wars, Raiders, and The Black Hole. It wasn't until a high school friend lent me his Watchmen graphic novel that I grasped how cool a comic could actually be, and my brother-in-law has school'd me on Batman and Superman etc. Growing up love for the Superman character came largely through the old black and white tv series and then the Chris Reeve movies.

Despite knowing that continuity and history of the characters is not of primary importance, I always found my lack of history/familiarity with comics as a major road block to getting into them mid-stream so-to-speak. I try reading Superman now and again, but the plots have gotten so convoluted and far away from the main mythos that I grew up with (a giant floating new Krypton with other Kryptonians and Superman as a double-agent working for Zod? WTF?) that I find it difficult engage. My point in all this rambling is that this reboot actually sparks an interest for me where I can jump in at the beginning, and gives the writers the chance to also strip out all the insane clutter.

But no matter what they do with a universal reboot, it wont mean anything if the writing is crap. This reboot will do its job in getting new readers (at what cost to life-long devotees remains to be seen) but ultimately if the writing is compelling, then it will work. If the writing blows, oh well.
 

steelio2006

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if the writing is crap, then a lot of it won't stick and things may change back to how they were before.
 

Dwight Fry

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If they do it just to get rid of a lot of dead weight, then great. If they do it to suck it up to what's "hip" or "trendy" this week, they can go to Hell.

I know I'll check the Batman reboot out anyway.
 

havok1977

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steelio2006 said:
but im interested to see how the Authority and Planetary turn out, now that they are in the DCU. i'm not happy though with what's happening to a couple of characters tho.

As fas as it has been announced, Planetary will not be relaunched. And I hope to all heaven that they never touch it as Warren Ellis' run is almost on par with Watchmen in my opinion.

The Authority however is being rebranded (backbranded?) as StormWatch, with the Martian Manhunter in the lead of the group - no word on Jenny Sparks or Quantum yet, best to keep her out methinks - ... but the rest of the team appear to be back; and it's one of the titles I'm looking forward to.

steelio2006 said:
and why are they bringing Barbra Gordon back as Batgirl? i personally feel like it's a backstep for her character to go from Oracle back to Batgirl.

Yes, this is a major issue, I am not familiar (nor really care) with the other Batgirls but changing this brings it all a big step backwards.

As for the rest of it, I can only hope they make it interesting...

L8wrtr said:
My point in all this rambling is that this reboot actually sparks an interest for me where I can jump in at the beginning, and gives the writers the chance to also strip out all the insane clutter.

But no matter what they do with a universal reboot, it wont mean anything if the writing is crap. This reboot will do its job in getting new readers (at what cost to life-long devotees remains to be seen) but ultimately if the writing is compelling, then it will work. If the writing blows, oh well.

As a non DC devotee I feel exactly the same as you express here L8, yet I can't help but wonder what would my reaction be if it was Marvel doing it... I think that i would feel some outrage for all the apparently waste of time and interest that a 'throw everything overboard and start again' would cause. Not that it would happen, they have that newer blood segment covered with The Ultimate imprint.

And yes everybody agrees: good writing is the gist of it, and many of the creative teams attached have a great track record, so my fingers are crossed.
 

Q2

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Wasn't this what Zero Hour was suppose to do? Restart all titles at 0? That didn't happen. This is probably more marking, and I'd bet they'll take the numbers back up at some point.

On that note, DC has announced monthly subscriptions starting in Sept for iPad so I may check out some of my old favorites and see if it's worth following any of them.
 

Omaru1982

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I've been doing this anyway, only picking up trade's as opposed to weekly comics and I sort of have a batman timeline that begins with year one, and ends with batman RIP which I think is a good place for me to end things (though I guess this will be missing some vital parts covered in the comics, as per most trade editions) I'm not really a fan of Damien Wayne or Bruce having a son in general so I haven't gotten batman & son, and I won't get battle for the cowl, especially with Bruce returning through time *facepalm*

By reboot I guess they intend to start with the 'year one' era of most of their characters and build from there, with none of the silver age, 1970's campy stories.
 

steelio2006

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Battle for the Cowl is really awesome. definitely worth reading. but then again, i'm now a big Jason Todd fan.
 

bionicbob

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With the apparent financial failure of the Nu52 -- sales jumped originally, but are now apparently lower than before nu52 -- DC is at it again with REBIRTH....


I know as a long time DC fan (over 40 years worth... wow, am I old!!!), the Nu52 definitely lost me as a regular reader and it sounds like I was not alone. In DC's effort to attract that 20 something demographic they tossed out everything that made DC unique and special (i.e. HISTORY) and lost a large majority of their long time hardcore supporters.

Judging by the imagery and Johns carefully chosen words, it sounds like they are attempting to bring DC's long, rich history and legacy back into the mainstream canon, though it is not clear how they are going to do that...?

Another observation I have made and I believe is directly connected to this DC Rebirth, while browsing Amazon, DC has newly listed dozens of new trades of stories from the Golden, Silver and Modern (80s and 90s) Age, particularly titles and stories that have been erased by the current continuity.
 

bionicbob

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An interview with Johns providing a bit more insight into REBIRTH....

http://www.comicbookresources.com/a...h-plan-seeks-to-restore-legacy-to-dc-universe

I must say, I am very happy ACTION COMICS and DETECTIVE COMICS will be returning to their original numberings. Though the cynic in me says this has less to do with DC's respect for their own history and more with the corporation just wanting to cash in on the upcoming #1,000 issue.
 

theslime

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Back then I was cautiously optimistic about the new 52 (the continuity was getting overwhelming, and a fresh start sounded like a good idea), but they really dropped the ball by focusing on boring retreads, inane crossovers, and fan-fiction-like storylines that never should have seen the light of day. Even interesting stuff like the Animal Man/Swamp Thing crossover in 2011/12 fizzled out into nothing, and one of the other highlights, Wonder Woman, lost the direction mid-run. And don't get me started on Batman: Zero Year.

Instead of using the clean slate to fix what didn't work, they amplified the continuity porn aspects and made sure no storylines ever ended properly, but just branched out into everything and nothing.

It's really sad that the DC universe before 2011, with all its flaws, was actually in better shape (Morrison's Batman, Final Crisis, Stephanie Brown as Batgirl, Gail Simone's Secret Six, etc.).
 

theslime

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That said, I'm cautiously optimistic about Rebirth. Both because there's not much to ruin now anyway, and because Geoff Johns has his heart in the right place, at least - although a lot of his recent-ish stuff has been pretty terrible.
 

Zarius

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I'd much rather have a line devoted to both N52 and Pre-Flashpoint rather than try to marry the two continuities, it'll just muddy the waters even further and doesn't quite try to give us what we want as well as hold on to the few fans that liked the N52.
 

bionicbob

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^ I agree, it would be the smarter, cleaner approach to the issues DC faces. Marvel did this successfully for ages with their Ultimate Line, and it makes even more sense for DC since they spent the past year or more re-introducing the Mutltiverse.

I think one of the big problems is the Two Top Dogs that shape DC (Johns and DiDido) seem to have two completely different visions for what they want DC to be. Johns has always struck me as a builder on the past. He understands core iconic concepts and knows how to make them relevant to modern audiences without tossing the baby with the bathwater. DiDido is a different animal. He was originally brought in to DC to rejuvenate the line, and in the beginning he did... but he never struck me as a good Storyteller, he is more of an Event Planner. More focused on chasing Marvel, on copying Marvel, rather than focusing on what makes DC unique and building upon it.

Just because you can do something, doesn't always mean you should. And I think the direction the Nu52 quickly veered into is a classic example of this. Instead of remembering why certain characters have worked for DECADES, writers let the genies out of their bottles and painted themselves into some very ugly corners! (holy metaphors!!! LOL)
 

theslime

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I agree with your take on DC's problems, but I disagree with your solution. I think the Ultimate line was a bad idea to begin with and only made Marvel Universe really complicated for the uninitiated. I know (despite several quality titles) it made me shy away from Marvel for several years. The universe is way too complex already, and having two separate continuities is quite frankly a decadent indulgence (IMHO) and it's the kind of thinking that makes kids stay away from comics entirely.
 
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