So I’m not only running late tonight thanks to shopping but WordPress puts up a brand new editor (I was hoping the admin editor wouldn’t be changed but sucks to be me…I’m not a fan of the new block system) and I have to figure it out and make the article even later. Joy.
So in order to give you guys something today let’s discuss DC’s obsession with reboots. Comic Drake just released a video about DC’s history of using them, but he’s a lot nicer about it than I’d be. (Also for some reason he reversed the images of Superman in the thumbnail and it looks like they drew Bizarro wrong. Of course I’m in a sour mood today so no offense intended to Drake.) So I’ll let him explain the history of reboots and add a few caveats of my own.
The problem not mentioned in the video (ignoring softer reboots like Zero Hour) is that it makes it seem like they don’t care about their own history. Dan DiDio defended the New 52 by saying Julius Schwartz told him the universe needs to be shaken up every 5 years, which I don’t agree with. I know people who don’t follow the DC comics universe because as they see it none of it will matter. The universe will be ended, or at least they’ll stop telling stories in that universe and shunt it off somewhere in the multiverse so why should they care if the creators don’t?
And these things aren’t really thought out. Post-Crisis Power Girl came from another universe and the events of Crisis either did or didn’t happen depending on who you asked because only a few people remember it. And yet Barry is still dead (until they undid that just before Flashpoint), Donna Troy and Hawkman’s origins are all confused, and there was this mess they never properly cleaned up.
The New 52 was even less poorly thought out. There was a Teen Titans until there wasn’t, Batman still have four or five Robins despite only being around for five years, Batman Incorporated still existed from the previous universe, there are still a ton of Green Lanterns, and nobody knew what the timeline was because they never actually had one. George Peréz left DC because he was ticked off Grant Morrison, telling Superman’s early years, didn’t tell him what his plans was so his modern Superman made any sense. In the end it was all a mess and should never have happened, especially when writers were in the middle of stories they didn’t get to finish because DiDio wanted to force his darker DC on us.
DC Comics needs to stop rebooting their continuity, hard and soft. Just make a dedicated timeline and stick to it. If you want us to care about the DC Universe show us you and the creators and editors in charge of it care. Otherwise you’re just going to continue to lose fans.
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