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Okay, this may seem like beating a dead horse, but I wanted to put my thoughts on this all in one place. I am a diehard DC fan from way back, but in recent years, the direction of the line has really put me off, to the point of not buying the monthly comics. The recent news of this reboot has just compounded my disgust that my favorite characters are being woefully mishandled.
But my personal feelings aside, it seems really obvious that DC has been changing direction willy-nilly for half a decade now. A strong editorial hand can steer you into clear water, or smash you into the rocks.
While lip service has been paid to there being a "master plan" for the DC over the last several years, these events, to me, prove that is in no way true:
• Just a few years ago, DC released two mega-event comics that once again changed their continuity and created a new multiverse for creators to play with, those being Infinite Crisis and 52. Current head DC writers Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison were involved. The multiverse concept was the perfect way to execute a company wide reboot. Just shift the focus to another Earth. That way if the reboot tanks, just shift the focus back.
• When the Young Justice animated series was launched, DC made sure that the fans knew that this series was legit by taking place on one of the 52 Earths, Earth 16 to be exact. This indicated that DC Comics would be working more closely with other arms of their brand to ensure corporate synergy across the board. Well...
• Status quos were changed "forever" in several titles coming out of these events and the "One Year Later" stunt that propelled the titles a year forward in the characters' timelines. THIS was meant to be a great jumping on point for new readers. The new status quos established in these books were quickly abandoned due to multiple crossovers.
• Countdown was created as a weekly follow-up to 52 and a lead-in to Final Crisis, which was meant to put a cap on all the DC mega events. The events in Countdown made little sense, because events in Final Crisis did not line up with them. Other similar editorial snafus occurred at this time, such as New God characters dying, but returning in other books with no explanation.
• Blackest Night was a hugely popular crossover event for DC. The edict from editorial was death was now permanent in the DCU. The follow-up series Brightest Day followed several revived heroes, re-established for a new DCU. As soon as the last issue shipped, DC announced they were totally rebooting their comics line...
To me, this all points to the fact that no one at DC has made any long term plans, despite the fact they insist they have. If you are going to undertake such ambitious projects, shouldn't you wait and let them bear fruit? Brightest Day is the biggest kicker of all.
If DC's reins had changed hands during all of this, I could understand the constant change in direction, but Dan Didio has been at the helm this whole time.
Now to the reboots themselves:
• Gripes about individual title direction aside, NOT rebooting the Batman and Green Lantern titles along with everything else is just mind-boggling. I know that the GL titles are extremely popular, and Morrison is DC's most lauded writer currently working for them, but cheery-picking what stays and what goes like this seems disastrous and off-putting to new and old readers alike.
• The 5 year plan doesn't really work. For instance, apparently Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake AND Damian Wayne were all Robin over a 5 year period!!! Batman went through Robins like toilet paper.
• It almost appears that there are TWO separate reboots of Superman going on. I know Morrison's Action is set in the past, but with two incredibly divergent takes on the Superman look (T-shirt Paul Bunyan/Bruce Springsteen in Action, over-armored Kryptonian in Superman) the effect is two different iterations of the character coexisting.
• The random selection of which characters exist, and which do not is puzzling. Fan favorite characters such as Wally West and Donna Troy apparently do not exist. This despite the fact that Wally West is the version of Kid Flash seen on the Young Justice animated series.
• In interviews that have been published online thus far, many of the creators seem confused about what is going on with their titles. They also seem very defensive, as if they know what they are doing is extremely risky, and potentially off-putting.
• Many of the redesigns make the characters unrecognizable, which seems counter-productive to corporate synergy when there are cartoons, toys, clothing, etc out there with the classic designs. Plus, let's face it, many of them are very dated to the early 90s look epitomized by Marvel's X-Men and early Image titles.
Over all the impression to me is that this reboot is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to continually flagging sales. The abrupt ending to the current titles indicates that this reboot was not thought up very far ahead of time, especially considering the magnitude of this relaunch.
Chris
But my personal feelings aside, it seems really obvious that DC has been changing direction willy-nilly for half a decade now. A strong editorial hand can steer you into clear water, or smash you into the rocks.
While lip service has been paid to there being a "master plan" for the DC over the last several years, these events, to me, prove that is in no way true:
• Just a few years ago, DC released two mega-event comics that once again changed their continuity and created a new multiverse for creators to play with, those being Infinite Crisis and 52. Current head DC writers Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison were involved. The multiverse concept was the perfect way to execute a company wide reboot. Just shift the focus to another Earth. That way if the reboot tanks, just shift the focus back.
• When the Young Justice animated series was launched, DC made sure that the fans knew that this series was legit by taking place on one of the 52 Earths, Earth 16 to be exact. This indicated that DC Comics would be working more closely with other arms of their brand to ensure corporate synergy across the board. Well...
• Status quos were changed "forever" in several titles coming out of these events and the "One Year Later" stunt that propelled the titles a year forward in the characters' timelines. THIS was meant to be a great jumping on point for new readers. The new status quos established in these books were quickly abandoned due to multiple crossovers.
• Countdown was created as a weekly follow-up to 52 and a lead-in to Final Crisis, which was meant to put a cap on all the DC mega events. The events in Countdown made little sense, because events in Final Crisis did not line up with them. Other similar editorial snafus occurred at this time, such as New God characters dying, but returning in other books with no explanation.
• Blackest Night was a hugely popular crossover event for DC. The edict from editorial was death was now permanent in the DCU. The follow-up series Brightest Day followed several revived heroes, re-established for a new DCU. As soon as the last issue shipped, DC announced they were totally rebooting their comics line...
To me, this all points to the fact that no one at DC has made any long term plans, despite the fact they insist they have. If you are going to undertake such ambitious projects, shouldn't you wait and let them bear fruit? Brightest Day is the biggest kicker of all.
If DC's reins had changed hands during all of this, I could understand the constant change in direction, but Dan Didio has been at the helm this whole time.
Now to the reboots themselves:
• Gripes about individual title direction aside, NOT rebooting the Batman and Green Lantern titles along with everything else is just mind-boggling. I know that the GL titles are extremely popular, and Morrison is DC's most lauded writer currently working for them, but cheery-picking what stays and what goes like this seems disastrous and off-putting to new and old readers alike.
• The 5 year plan doesn't really work. For instance, apparently Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake AND Damian Wayne were all Robin over a 5 year period!!! Batman went through Robins like toilet paper.
• It almost appears that there are TWO separate reboots of Superman going on. I know Morrison's Action is set in the past, but with two incredibly divergent takes on the Superman look (T-shirt Paul Bunyan/Bruce Springsteen in Action, over-armored Kryptonian in Superman) the effect is two different iterations of the character coexisting.
• The random selection of which characters exist, and which do not is puzzling. Fan favorite characters such as Wally West and Donna Troy apparently do not exist. This despite the fact that Wally West is the version of Kid Flash seen on the Young Justice animated series.
• In interviews that have been published online thus far, many of the creators seem confused about what is going on with their titles. They also seem very defensive, as if they know what they are doing is extremely risky, and potentially off-putting.
• Many of the redesigns make the characters unrecognizable, which seems counter-productive to corporate synergy when there are cartoons, toys, clothing, etc out there with the classic designs. Plus, let's face it, many of them are very dated to the early 90s look epitomized by Marvel's X-Men and early Image titles.
Over all the impression to me is that this reboot is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to continually flagging sales. The abrupt ending to the current titles indicates that this reboot was not thought up very far ahead of time, especially considering the magnitude of this relaunch.
Chris
...but I grew up with these characters and I guess I still don't want to grow up 
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