DC reboots again... #1's for everyone!

[MEMEGO]

I Hope The Tie The Current Universe Up Nicely, That Way I Can Can Some Of These New Stupid Books, Not That Some Of The Current Books Have Not Been Trash As Well.
These Books Will Be In The 2 For A Dollar Bin In About 4 Yrs.

[MEMEGO]

Dc Read This:
It Is Sad You Can't Be Original And Have Not Been Original For A Number Of Years. That Will Cost The Current Move Will Cost You Many Readers, And Todays Marker Is Not Attracting New Readers, So You Can Use All The Buyers U Can Get.

[Earth 2 Chris]

You know, DC has had the perfect excuse for reboots the whole time, and they've just overlooked it, every single time.

Rather than have a wholesale slaughter of continuity with retroactive implants, etc, why not just shift the comic line focus to...a parallel earth?

Just imagine back in 1985 if DC had just said "You know, we're kind of done with Earth 1 for now. We may come back and visit, but from here on out, the comics will take place on another of our multiple worlds. We can invite comic's hottest creators to pitch new spins on old favorites, and create new characters and adventures to boot."

Now DC has the multiverse back (kind of). Why not just start over on a new Earth, but leave the current one intact in case they need to pull the corporate emergency chute?

So damn obvious, it's stupid.

Chris

[MIB41]

A new universe for a new generation. We who are aging notice this more than others... It's a sad state of affairs in our reality. Continuity is a lost art form.

[boynightwing]

Do you suppose in 1985/86 there were a bunch of guys like us saying "I can't believe this Crisis BS! How dare they restart our universe?". Of course I didn't start collecting till pretty much right after Crisis so it didn't bother me one bit. I was 10.

[kingdom warrior]

Do you suppose in 1985/86 there were a bunch of guys like us saying "I can't believe this Crisis BS! How dare they restart our universe?". Of course I didn't start collecting till pretty much right after Crisis so it didn't bother me one bit. I was 10.

Yeah there were, I was in college studying art and advertising.......everyone hated that they were rebooting. I remember being in a room full of artist and we all were debating and cussing DC......history repeating itself only now online

[samurainoir]

Now DC has the multiverse back (kind of). Why not just start over on a new Earth, but leave the current one intact in case they need to pull the corporate emergency chute?

So damn obvious, it's stupid.

Chris

I think that was SUPPOSED to be the strategy for their All Star line... and the Earth 1 OGN's. Copying Marvel's extremely successful Ultimates line... particularly since Ultimates pretty much is the R&D point for the films, video games and other assorted merch (Mark Bagley's Spiderman has graced pretty much every product imaginable).

It will be interesting to see what Grant Morrison does with the Superman relaunch.

On the other hand Geoff Johns can't be everywhere and thus far DC doesn't really have the half dozen top tier "architects" that Marvel's stable currently boasts.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I was both excited and frightened of Crisis as a fan. The epic nature of it was really there. DC had never done anything like it before. It's hard to imagine now, but it blew my 10 year old mind. The DCU afterward was full of possibilities...but many of them were quickly squandered, IMHO.

Chris

[samurainoir]

Apparently the Justice League will boast about 14 members. Whether we get the Satellite League of the 70's that so many of us remember or something more contemporary with Batwoman and Blue Beetle remains to be seen.

I can't help but think a bit more cynically that this will be much more cosmetic as changes go... just like the One Year Later title.

Any predictions about what else we might see?

I'd assume that Justice League International must be still on track from Judd Winick after the success of the Generation Lost series.

A Red Hood ongoing?

They have also mentioned a new emphasis on other genres like Horror, Westerns, War, Sci Fi etc. Swamp Thing is obviously a given.

After Brightest Day, I'm actually not that excited about Adventure Comics #1 starring Deadman.

[The Toyroom]

When the original Crisis came out in '85 I was definitely in to it...It seemed like a nice way for DC to celebrate their 50th and fix some things and the scope was epic and unimagineable. EVERYONE was in the freakin' book.

Where it fell apart immediately was getting rid of the multiple-earths IMO...they weren't THAT confusing if you were a long time reader and if you were a new reader, well let's face it, the multiple earths weren't really used that often once 1985 rolled around anyway, it was really only once a year in one title (JLA).

By putting not only Earth 1 and 2 together and re-writing all of history to fit the JSA into the new continuity they had to add Earth-S, Earth-X and Earth-4. Which was unneccesary....Earth-S (Shazam) characters have had problems ever since (Remember Roy Thomas' crappy "Shazam! A New Beginning" mini-series?). Earth-X characters (Freedom Fighters) really weren't used anyway since their defunct 70s series. And the newly acquired Earth-4 (Charlton) had to quickly mesh with the new DCU just as readers were learning who they were.

[The Toyroom]

Apparently the Justice League will boast about 14 members. Whether we get the Satellite League of the 70's that so many of us remember or something more contemporary with Batwoman and Blue Beetle remains to be seen.

If it was all Satellite Era I could deal with 14 members...But non-powered characters like Batwoman don't belong on the team IMO. 1) She's redundant and 2)Batman should be the only non-powered member because he's the "Goddamn Batman!"

Blue Beetle IV has been forced down our throats enough...And ex-Titans and ex-Inifinity Inc members don't belong with the big guns IMO....

[The Toyroom]

On the other hand Geoff Johns can't be everywhere and thus far DC doesn't really have the half dozen top tier "architects" that Marvel's stable currently boasts.

That's true....and even his batting average has been a little suspect as of late...He's not hitting 'em all outta the park anymore....

[The Bat]

Well, I bit. Originally I wasn't going to...but I just picked up issue # 1 & 2 of "Flash Point" and told them to put me down for the rest of the 5 issue series. At least this way I might have some idea the direction in which they're going with this.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I would say Flashpoint is now disappearing from shelves, for those not completely put off by this.

Chris

[ctc]

>Do you suppose in 1985/86 there were a bunch of guys like us saying "I can't believe this Crisis BS! How dare they restart our universe?".

Yes, but not as many; or as loudly. Superhero continuity has ALWAYS changed, but you didn't get the squawk you do nowadays. (It's why Flash sometimes has a helmet.) I think part of the problem is the older fan. It used to be that the life expectancy of a superhero fan was something like 3 years; then you'd get bored and move on. (Unless the weird reboots and such didn't bother you; which for some, it didn't.) If you have a long term collection of any book (especially a team book like X-Men or Justice League) you can see it: new costumes, new members, story changes. (So.... is the future run by Master Mold, or Nimrod, or Ahab, or the MLF, or the Hounds, or the Xavier institute....?)

....but something changed by the late 80's. Continuity was a big deal, so was lining up ALL your facts so's they made sense. I've never figured out what exactly caused this; but I suspect it was because companies started marketing the "behind the scenes" stuff. The "who drew this issue?" thing became more important than the actual story. Increasingly, readers weren't content to let the story happen; they'd been pulled out of it, and their disbelief was overwhelming. At the same time "relevance" was a marketing tool as well, and you got a huge tertiary industry built around the idea of comics: magazines discussing who's hot, analyzing plots months before they came out, retrospectives, and an increasing fixation on detritus and minutia that really doesn't matter. But the old crowd ate it up, because it rekindled their interests in books they were growing bored of. As this became the way of things, you'd not attract new readers because there was WAY too much to absorb. (Think about the guy buying original art in "Unbreakable;" but look at that scene from HIS point of view.) Nowadays you see it going the other way: long term fans weary of the baggage, wishing things were "fun and simple," like when they were kids.

Don C.