PSAs From Panels: Dealing with the New DC Universe [Comic]

Poor DC is stuck between freshening things up for comic readers while not abandoning mainstream-friendly characters for inevitable movie treatments. I'm learning from trying my own reboot (http://infinitereboot.blogspot.com/) this summer that it's harder than it looks.

That said, a periodic reboot is probably good for the system, like a big glass of prune juice. It may not go down easy or come out clean, but you'll feel a whole lot better after it's all over.

Who needs emotions when you have abnormally long arms, zombie faces and stock 80s cartoon poses.

Oh Yeah. because Peter Milligan in the mainstream DC universe is ALWAYS a total win! COF Infinity inc COF.... sorry, just something on my throat. :D ..

Instead of rebooting the entire DC line in order to create new continuity, I think I would have preferred seeing more attention paid to newer, less utilized characters. I love stories about the Justice League as much as anyone else, but some of these characters are like, 70-80 years old. I understand that they are popular, but I think some of these characters should just be retired to make room for new heroes and villains, and their stories. Newer characters like Static Shock for instance have a lot of potential.

I know that retiring certain major characters would anger a lot of readers, but like life, things change, and actually seeing a hero like Superman die and stay dead would have made the DC universe a much more interesting world to read about. Such an irrevocable event would have forced all of DC's heroes to step up to the plate in Superman's absence.

Rather than retiring the old guard, we have characters die and return from the dead within months. Nobody cares about these stories because there's no real sense of surprise or danger, and in essence no real sense of sacrifice. Imagine what a Superman-free DC would look like today? For better or for worse, the possibilities would have been endless, and would have probably been the most interesting DC has been in decades.

I do not hate the idea of new continuity, I just don't understand the point of it. It's like shaking an etch-a-sketch. No matter how many times you shake the damned thing, it'll still be an etch-a-sketch. The stories will still be about the same characters doing the same things. Bolstering younger characters and introducing new ones on the other hand would lead to new adventures and offer a truer possibility for DC to change it's image.

Change can be good or bad, blissful or painful, but no change can be made if no changes ARE made. Until we as readers and the writers/editors of DC are ready to let go of our past heroes, we will never have enough room for our heroes of the future.

I think I've put my finger on what bothers me about the reboot: it's the fact that it's editorial reshaping a full line without putting any thought into what each individual book may need. And yes, that means I would take issue with just about any full-line reboot, regardless of what the specific plans are.

For the editors, rather than the writers, to declare "OK, from now on character X has a HIP NEW INCARNATION with THIS costume and THESE powers and THIS supporting cast" is problematic. I realize editorial needs to make decrees, but in the past these were based on picking what worked and discarding what didn't. Nobody liked Mort Weisinger, but he had a formula for success on the Superman books, and when people broke from that in order to be "hipper" the book's sales went down, never to recover. That's not to say I don't think writers should be able to have a bold new take on a character, but it really seems like DC's just throwing s*** at the wall rather than trying to analyze what the books need. And no matter how good a reinvention is, it's not going to work if you keep ditching everything every year and trying something new.

To use a positive example: look at Blue Beetle. The character has caught on, not just in comics but on TV, because creators support him and keep using him, even after his book was cancelled. Comics readers are a conservative bunch, so they tend to reject the new at first; editorial can't just panic and pull the plug as soon as sales dip, they need to be consistent and support a new character or reinvention. That's assuming they're good, of course, but even a so-so idea can find success if its creators believe in it enough (as the career of Mark Millar will attest). I think DC needs stability first, to get its numbers back up and to reach younger viewers, and THEN it can worry about tweaking its books.

I'll tell you what would interest me: if DC announced that its whole superhero line was going PG-rated and would be aimed squarely at people under the age of 13 from now on, with possibly a couple of exceptions like Batman, and then they backed that up with more OGNs and digital comics aimed squarely at kids. That's the kind of thing DC needs right now. But it's not likely to happen with Harras and Dan "why can't it be the early 90s again" Didio in charge.

The Most Accurate.

Quick question, who is the reboot aimed at? People who don't read comics at all or comic book readers that don't read DC comics?

Either way are there really that many people that have stayed away from reading say a Superman comic because there are hundreds of back issues out there? I mean regardless if your reading issue number 1 of Superman or issue number 39245793573909, your still reading about a super dude with superpowers from Krypton who wears glasses to fool the world into thinking he's a reporter. So...why change the numbering?

Where does this episode fit in the continuity of 'The Rack"?

I mean, Lydia and Jerry seem on friendly terms and we know that is not currently the case. Is this an alternate universe story? Or an imaginary tale?

If this will be an on-going Ultimate type of story. I hope some serious consideration will be given to an appropriate numbering scheme.

Thank you.

``we must move forward, not backward, upward not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!"

I am not digging this "don`t-call-it-a-reboot-launch" thing, not at all, but that doesn't mean it's going to be bad. I'm sure there will be some great things and some not-so great things, but for me, it isn't what I`m looking for (for now). This strikes me as another type of event (following like, 4 in a row) with a different spin. I'll wait for this launch to impress me, and then I'll start picking over what's left come Trade/Hardcover time. I won't blindly jump into it, but I'm not shunning DC comics forever, we're just taking a break to re-evaluate our relationship after it's mid-life Crisis.

I was all for the reboot until I saw the redesigns.