Posts tagged comics
Posts tagged comics
Some questions that popped into my head about DC’s Universal Reboot, and some answers I thought up for those questions based on what we know so far:
The most obvious question: is this a stunt?
Is this something they’re going to revert in a year, something that just leads up to some other event where they’ll return to the current status quo?
I sincerely hope not. That’s not because of any hatred for the current situation – I mean, it is what it is – but I’d really be curious to see what an entirely new sustained take on the DC Universe would look like. It seems that a year is fairly standard for all-new, all-different situations, but I hope this reboot does well enough creatively and financially to make it stick.
If DC’s ever going to try a massive reboot like this – and let’s face it, they’re infinitely more likely to try it than Marvel ever will be – then they’re doing it the way it looks like they’d need to, to pull the adhesive bandage off with one big jerk. But if they want the wound to heal, they’ll have to leave it off and not patch it back up.
It’s going to piss off a lot of fans, to be sure. We comics folk sure seem to like things to stay the same. We like the illusion of change, but if any change is too great, we want it rolled back as soon as there’s a good opportunity (or even before). If we’re suddenly being told that everything is different and that it’s going to stay that way, that’s going to be a mighty big dump in our collective cereal.
How are established DC creators taking this development?
It’s going to piss off a lot of creators, too – what effect does this massive reboot have on something like what Grant Morrison’s been building with Batman, Incorporated, for instance? He has a years-long story he’s been working on – is that entirely undone now as we get a new take on Batman? Morrison’s notoriously kind of prickly about his treatment from the major super-hero companies; this could be the sort of thing that would make him take his ball and go home.
Unless, of course, this whole line-wide reboot ties into Morrison’s Multiversity concept, and Johns and Lee got him on board at the start. If that were the case – honestly, if the multiverse is involved _at all_ – that would be a marker on the “everything gets undone in a year” side of the board.
(UPDATE: They’re now saying that Morrison has finally been given one of the Superman books, so I guess he’s cool with it. And I bet that definitely means Multiversity is part of whatever’s going on. As much as I wouldn’t want to see him end his Batman run if he wasn’t ready (though we don’t yet know if that’s the case or not), having him on one of the main Superman books would be pretty much the bestest thing ever.)
I’d imagine a great many creators would be excited about getting in at the start of something that’s going to get a huge amount of attention, at the possibility of telling fresh stories that aren’t tied down to all the history that’s come before. But a lot of creators like that history and will, I’m sure, be less than thrilled. It’ll be very interesting to see the launch books and creative teams.
Does the renumbering really matter? They’re really going to renumber Action Comics and Detective Comics?
We don’t know for certain as I write this, but yeah, it looks like they’re really gonna do it, and no, it really doesn’t matter. Sure, it’s cool to realize that these books have been published continuously with the same numbering since the 1930’s, but it doesn’t really matter — whatever the number, we know the history. We’ve had so many renumberings and new volumes that those issue numbers don’t have the meaning they once did. (Do you have any idea what issue number Sports Illustrated or Time is up to?)
And I’ll admit it will be kinda cool to have a new Action Comics #1, but only because it hasn’t been done before. Just this once, DC, you hear me?
If DC is serious about this universal reboot, they couldn’t leave a couple of books out of it. The fact that they’re willing to go this somewhat drastic step is a sign that this step might really be permanent (well, as permanent as anything gets in comics).
What does this mean for the Earth-One original graphic novels?
Oh, ha ha ha… I’m sorry, I couldn’t quite keep a straight face even asking that question.
Honestly, the success of Superman OGN probably helped spur this massive-reboot idea along — it shows that people outside the current fanbase, readers I’m sure DC is eager to get their hooks into, don’t mind that the details are different. Those new readers aren’t as invested in the particulars as much as they are the fundamental concept of the characters. Whether Superman’s a 19-year-old kid or a 30-year-old man doesn’t really matter as much as that he’s Superman and does Superman-y things in a Superman-y way.
I wonder if there’s any chance of Johns’ ideas for Earth One Batman making their way into the “real” Batman’s history…?
What’s all this about day-and-date digital?
Underneath the new number ones and the flashy Jim Lee costumes, it’s easy to lose sight of the single most important aspect of this announcement: major-company super-hero releases coming out in digital format the same day they’re released in stores. When these stories have come and gone and we’ve either moved on to the next thing or reverted back to the last thing, the fact that comics are coming digitally on the same day as their print counterparts will continue to be the one thing that will mark this step as revolutionary. There’s no going back once DC goes day-and-date-digital – once people get used to buying their comics on their iPad or laptop, they’re not willingly going to give that up. I suspect if any attempt were made to re-bottle that genie, readers would more likely stop reading altogether than go back to the comics shop.
It’s not surprising DC would be the first to go this route; they’re in second place, and more in need of trying something new. But once it’s done, Marvel’s going to be forced to follow suit sometime in the next year or risk falling behind.
They say these characters will be more diverse now. Do they mean it?
I don’t know yet, but I hope so. They’ve changed some of the characters who had been replaced with minorities (such as the Atom and Firestorm) back to the old white versions, and to no real storytelling advantage other than the names were what they’d been in the seventies).
We do know now that Cyborg is part of the new Big Seven Justice League, and I think that’s a fantastic idea. He’s a complex, powerful character who’s now been around for thirty years and certainly deserves to be considered upper-echelon at DC. Hell, he’s even been in costume more on Smallville than Superman ever was.
DC has implied that there will be some more racial switchups with some of these characters, and I think that’s a good thing. For most of them, there’s nothing that says they have to be white, or even the gender that they’re currently assigned. Why couldn’t the Flash, just for example, be black? Would that fundamentally change anything about his being the Fastest Man Alive? John Stewart is as every bit a Green Lantern as Hal Jordan. Why can’t the Atom be Chinese-American? Or Hawkman be truly Egyptian rather than just Egyptian-flavored?
I’d imagine we’re finally going to get to see Batwoman #1, and hopefully there will be other gay and lesbian characters featured a little more prominently. We’ll see.
More to come, I’m sure.
