New JLA "Relaunch" Picture

[Earth 2 Chris]

Look, I can accept change, when it is well done, to my favorite characters. I've accepted Batman in body armor in the movies for years, despite the fact that he never wore it in the comics up to that point. I accepted Byrne's revamp of Superman. I accepted Wally West as the Flash. I even accepted Kyle Rayner as GL despite the horrible storyline that introduced him.

But based on the editorial direction DC has been going since DiDio took over, I can't have any confidence in this relaunch, based on what I'm seeing. "Floundering" is a good word to describe things at DC. I'm not seeing a strong creative surge behind all of these rather random changes. It seems very editorially driven, and the creators who have been spoken too do not seem legitimately enthusiastic. If anything, they've been borderline defensive.

This reeks of desperation, and not well-thought out desperation, I might add. It really does seem that DiDio and Lee locked themselves into an office for a week, mapped out all the changes, with Lee redesigning everyone, and then they called up everyone in Lee's address book.

If the DCU was relaunching from the get-go with strong creators on every title I'd be right behind it, young or old. But this ain't it.

Chris

[Werewolf]

I'm not seeing a strong creative surge behind all of these rather random changes. It seems very editorially driven, and the creators who have been spoken too do not seem legitimately enthusiastic. If anything, they've been borderline defensive.

I agree. This does not come off as an artistic or creative decision. This is a corporate decision, in my opinion. It's like some random out of touch exec got the idea to "Poochie" the DC Universe by trying to make it artifically hip and trendy. The "extreme" and "edgy" 90s live again.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Poochie...nice analogy there! Well said.

Chris

[argent007]

Chris,
Well said.

My concern with both Marvel and DC is the number of titles for a particular team or character and the number of places a character is supposed to be in during the same month's comics. With 52 titles coming out, this issue is going to continue.

I'm sure DC has run the numbers, but if I were to do a relaunch I would put out a lot less titles per month, but also do a few anthology titles.

[Bizarro Amy]

There have always been things I wish would change about certain characters, especially Wonder Woman. This isn't the change I'm looking for, especially with the new creative team. I won't pretend the renumbering doesn't bother me, but I could get over that. I just wish DC would start pushing their writers to just create good stories, no gimmicks, no universe-altering events.
And what really ticks me off, is that they haven't decided what to do with the JSA yet. Last I heard, they weren't planning to have JSA book for a while. I'm really going to miss that book every month. I wish they would just have someone write stories about them, set in WWII, not worrying about where it fits in continuity. This would be the perfect opportunity to do something that I've always wished for.

[Cosmicman]

And what really ticks me off, is that they haven't decided what to do with the JSA yet. Last I heard, they weren't planning to have JSA book for a while. I'm really going to miss that book every month. I wish they would just have someone write stories about them, set in WWII, not worrying about where it fits in continuity. This would be the perfect opportunity to do something that I've always wished for.

I think later down the road in this semi rebooted universe you may find the JSA mysteriously returned to their Earth 2 with no explanation and nobody will noticed.

[boynightwing]

18-34 is the demographic? I just turned 35...