DC Comics Rebooting Entire Universe Back to #1

[Vault Citizen]

I'm in the "hardcore and annoyed" category of fans. Losing the continuity bothers me a ittle but not nearly as much as the prospect of losing characters like Damian Wayne or Cassandra Cain (who has only just become a Bat family member again). In the particular case of Birds of Prey its stupid it is getting a reboot (assuming it will still be up in September) because it is only on issue 12 now (possibly 13).

To the people who dislike the continuity it really isn't that big a barrier, if you have access to wiki then it should fill in any of the gaps you really want to know and I think it is only stuff like Grant Morisson's take on Batman that requires you to know all of it. I, for example, only got into Green Lantern in Blackest Night and I haven't been lost once.

As it stands (assuming I don't just drop my dc reading when it comes to September) the two positives I see to this are

1)It will give me a chance to drop some titles and order less comics each month
2)I could read characters I have never read before, since I don't know anything about them their reboot won't annoy me as much and so I can see what characters I've been missing while buying pretty much everything Batman that dc puts out.

 

[Keirgo]

Firstly....AAAAARRRRGHHHHHHHH!!!! *MUCHFROTHING*

Second, if the entire point is to 'inject new life' into the stories wouldn't, I don't know, continuing to write stories and let the world advance work better? The stagnation is caused by them refusing to move forward, moving backwards is not going to sovle this. Batman and Superman's stories have been told a million times over. EVERYONE knows them now, but as many people have said, things like Dick as Batman is genuinely new and interesting. There was promise at the end of 52 of Wonder Woman becomming interesting as Donna Troy took up the mantle as Diana left it to work for Checkmate.

Hell, lots of interesting promise keeps getting shot down the drain to keep things as they used to be. Why do comic writers keep thinking 'new' means 'go back to the beginning'?

 

[Nami nom noms]

Are they ACTUALLY changing the characters? They don't look that different...
I only ask because I've never really been into any of the DC lot. They don't really appeal to me... but if they mix it up a bit maybe.

 

[Toriver]

I never got into comics because, well, fuck reading 60 years worth of comics for hundreds of heros just to get caught up.
I am actually really interested in this, and if I can pay online and have a comic delivered to my inbox every month (Week? month?) then that greatly increases the odds of buying.

This for me too. I've been wanting to get into Big 2 comics myself for years (I read some Dark Horse comics and the Archie Sonic SatAm comics as a kid), but it's always the f***ed up continuity and 50+ years of having to read EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER's comic just to understand one character's story that puts a very heavy bar on getting into them. The downside of having adult fans with Trekkie-like attention to detail and ability to whine about messing with even a letter of it, coupled with that 50+ years of history and having to come up with unique stories for that amount of time. Not to mention the idea of crossovers, which are cool for seeing your favorite characters interact but provide the biggest potential to screw up not just one continuity but that of all characters involved. With this complete reboot, they can start over fresh and bring in many fans of the characters like myself, who may have been reticent to actually read the comics for those reasons, as well as the kids. It may not be just the kids who will get introduced to superhero comics...

 

[PorkChopXpress]

So...does this mean Grant Morrison is going to abandon Batman Incorporated, and Dick Grayson isn't going to be Batman anymore?" I've loved these books so far, and I'd hate for them to wrap this up prematurely just so DC can reboot itself all over again. DC you really irritate me sometimes.

 

[Lazarus Long]

Yeah. Because Brand New Day went over so well. I got a shiny new quarter says this lasts about as long as Superman's death.

 

[Hollock]

Why is Cyborg on the team? He's part of the Teen Titans, or at least that's where he starts. Or will there be no Teen Titans, and each one of the members is already doing something else? If that's the case, then I have no interest in this. Teen Titans is the only DC comic series that I read. This also raises an interesting point for Nightwing. Is he going to be reset all the way back to Robin, or will he stay as Nightwing? If he does go back to Robin, will he ever become Nightwing? So many questions.

I don't know if this is the case with all comics right now, but right now nightwing is gotham citys batman while Batman Batman is making batman inc.

Edit: And I was just getting used to the continuity too (started really reading around blackest night)

 

[Cookiegerard]

*Cough*Money making scheme*cough*

 

[wikiman]

To all of you who said that "decades of history" are a barrier, that keeps you from reading comic books i say : NO IT ISN'T. Because all those years of stories were erased from existence ten times over. They are all irrevellant now.
Let's make a challenge. Ask me anything about some of DC titles, and i will tell you in three sentences or less everything you need to know to start read it. If those books are really burdened by years of continuity, then i shouldn't be able to do it, right?
Come on test my mettle.... or something.

 

[Ukomba]

Again?

 

[nathan-dts]

This is why I don't buy comic books. You can't just retcon things out of existence.

 

[Druyn]

I was going to ***** about how this whole reboot and younger cast thing didn't work that well with Marvel's Ultimates line, but you know what? Fuck it. It's not like they're getting rid of anything good. The big two haven't put out a decent storyline since Secret Wars, and there's no reason this will be any worse than the current offerings. If it works out alright maybe I'll buy DC comics some more.

Really? Not a fan of the Brubaker-Cap run, or Civil War?

Shit, Civil War is what I meant. Sorry. That is the one that is the last thing that was good. Secret Wars... I must've sounded like a real tool there.

Yeah, just a little bit. all the yearly crossovers since them have really dropped in quality, but that was gold. Whenever I get depressed about the way comics are going, I find any comic with the Marvel Ares in it. That's a great way to pick it up. Or Silver Surfer Requiem, which is the greatest comic ever written as far as I'm concerned. It actually made me cry. Check it out if you can.

 

[4173]

I'm leery, but I'm willing to wait and see, because same day digital distribution IS A FREAKING AWESOME IDEA.

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

I'm not much of a comic fan, especially DC.
I loved the Marvel cartoons of the 90s, easy to get into and followed the basic storylines very well, but once I turned my attention to the comics, they were normally too far ahead of the storyline to really get into.

Its mainly why I like spin-off series, especially the What if? and alternate earth comics, (e.g. Earth X series, Exiles ect.).
They take what I'm familiar with, but take it in new directions.

 

[Ericb]

I hear you, once you've read stuff like Luther Arkwright, Zenith, Transmetropolitan etc (the list is near endless), you begin to wince at the very existance of Marvel/DC. Seriously i think those two companies are about the best argument against comics being art

All right, thanks for the suggestions!

But yeah, they've become nothing more than street-level drugs, still around only to suck the money off of the addicted who get nothing out of it but a quick and forgettable fix.

 

[xdom125x]

I could get into this. I only recently started reading comic books (just DC stuff) and have been in fear of the continuity lock-out, so this could help me.


P.S. Seriously, why is Cyborg there?

 

[ultimasupersaiyan]

I'm happy about the reboot because it will be an all new universe just for newcomers scared of the density of the current one. I see it living side by side with the current universe but never crossing paths like all the different TMNT series that come about... unless they do a Turtles Forever kinda thing...maybe I should have shut up at the start of my point.

Regardless I only just started buying DC's video game based comics and the idea of following newer iterations of Wonder Woman, Flash, Lex Luthor... I mean Superman and Batman from newer origins sounds good to me.

 

[PrinceofPersia]

So are there any new superheroes this time around? Like completely new?

Next to none most likely. Both Marvel and DC like to recycle old material rather than take the time to be creative and forward looking with new supers. This whole mess is primarily the reason I got out of superhero comics. There is no end to their stories it just keeps going and going as long as the company makes money.

 

[Manji187]

So are there any new superheroes this time around? Like completely new?

Next to none most likely. Both Marvel and DC like to recycle old material rather than take the time to be creative and forward looking with new supers. This whole mess is primarily the reason I got out of superhero comics. There is no end to their stories it just keeps going and going as long as the company makes money.

*Sigh*... they need to grow a pair. Apparently, they'd rather make a bad Superman comic than an epic "new superhero" comic, cuz the former will sell anyway. This short term "business sense" could prove to be their long-term undoing.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

Damn, as a nerd, I feel almost sacrilegious in saying that I'm in support of this.
I mean, I don't read comics, but I've always wanted to, and getting into a story thats been running longer than I've been alive is really hard.
Plus, comics are expensive. I'm not sure I want to shell out $10 every week for 20 pages of a story that I might not even be that invested in.
However, a reboot would allow me to get in a foothold on comics, and digital distribution is a lot cheaper and easy to manage.

Besides, it doesn't seem like DC is gonna strip out all the backstory and lore that they've built up over the decades, that's not how they roll or how a company works.