DC Comics Teases a New CRISIS

[Slayer4472]

Jesus, didn't we just go through this rigmarole a few years ago?

Seriously DC, make interesting content, don't just throw rocks at the reset button every time the Mad Ocelot God tell you to make a poor decision.

 

[SeeDarkly_Xero]

All I can do... is laugh.

I have said often that if New 52 fails badly enough, DC has MORE than shown their willingness to shut down everything and start over. It's just a matter of time... but sadly, I don't really believe THIS is THAT time.

The only thing DC and Marvel care about is sales and issue number 1's sell best Marvel are going to restart with issue 1's for every story are so once every year or 2 while DC do the continuity reboot that it self takes 1-2 years.

I disagree with such comparison. Obviously businesses want to make money. I don't dispute that. But intent and behavior matters.
DC's issue is that instead of trusting talent to do creative and interesting things with the characters, they do whatever marketing and PR execs think will earn them better sales, forcing creators to focus on attaining marketing goals with what they write instead of writing the best stories they can.
I can go into much detail about this theory, but it eats up a lot of my time when I do. Suffice to say I've watched the evidence of this accumulate ever since New 52 began. It's not hard to recognize.

Marvel, on the other hand, may have a habit of "volumizing" titles now, restarting numbering... but not at the expense of the storytelling. And I don't really see that as "bad" if it is an effective strategy for getting new readers. Because honestly, who cares what number the issue is, if the story is creative & good and the product has credibility, and the PR people stay out of the creative teams' way.

Because that's at the heart of the difference between how the two do business:
DC manufactures PR that dictates what their creative teams have to work into the stories...
Marvel trusts its creative teams to tell great stories and their PR department simply reports on what they are doing.
One is passion for the art, the other is just avarice.

 

[shrekfan246]

I hope not. Yes, some of the stuff they have done with the new 52 has been hit and miss but I have actually enjoyed alot of it. I think I am in the minority but I am enjoying Superman for the first time in years.

I wasn't that big on the Action Comics line, but the actual Superman comics I found to be pretty decent. Other than that, I've only really been following Batman though.

OT: This is one of the reasons I took so long to start actually reading comics in the first place. Continuity is insane, and it's impossible for me to even fathom trying to follow all of the nonsense they've been doing. I saw a blog post a few weeks back that was trying to organize the entire post-Year One Batman continuity (it had categories for Gold- and Silver-Age as well) and reading through it was fascinating simply due to how ridiculous and bloated it was. You wonder how Batman ever has time to help out the Justice League in the first place.

As far as DC rebooting everything again is concerned, eh... I mean... fine? I'm really enjoying Batman and Batman Eternal as well as a good number of Detective Comics and Batgirl, but other than that I don't really care and I've never been someone who's really let canon bother me anyway. EDIT: It's all just about finding good points to jump in where minimal extraneous reading would be required.

 

[thebludragonwarrior]

Um... People realize that when DC has a crisis it doesn't always mean a reboot, right?

Anyway, I haven't read Forever Evil yet so I can't really comment too much about potential plot points (since apparently they set up some stuff for a new crisis there) but otherwise... I'm okay with a new crisis as long as it's good. If it's written by Johns (and lets be honest, he's totally gonna be the writer) than I'd put my money on it being good.

If they do decide to go with a reboot, personally I'd rather they keep the new 52 or (preferably) just go back to post-crisis DCU and maybe brush this whole thing under the rug like Heroes Reborn... but that'll never happen.

 

[Akiraking]

I really like the new 52. I have been working my through from the start and have a long way to go to catch up but I don't get the hate. Superman is great in the stories and I got used to the new suit in seconds. As long as he is blue with a red cape he is superman. Action comics by the way is a really good read so I hope this crisis does not turn out to be a reboot that destroys the young version of Superman as he is my favorite character at the moment. Funnily enough I have checked out most of the different characters in the new 52 including the obscure like Hawk and Dove but have not gotten to Batman yet. I see him in everything else it is nice to give him a break and explore the rest of the universe.

Last thing though, they are setting up the multiverse again and things have been getting darker with the forever evil storyline and Future Past storyline so it would make sense to have a big event that brings everything together. Only thing is don't they usually do a crisis to fix up continuity and get rid of useless alternative universes? The New 52 has introduced most the law and the multiverse specifically really well, the only thing they need to fix is explain how Batman can have four robins over five years. Seriously that makes no sense.

 

[Zhukov]

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why never ending serials inevitably make for shit storytelling.

They just keep going. And going. And going.

Until the only way to make anything seem interesting is to wipe the board. And then do it again. And again. And... etc etc.

 

[Vausch]

...I'm not a comic guy, save for the classics and the occasional Deadpool volume, but didn't DC JUST HAVE a big reboot? Why reboot again? Constantly hitting the reset button isn't going to fix things guys.

Crisis comics for DC don't technically mean "reboots". Crisis on Infinite Earths wasn't a reboot per-se, it was more an attempt to simplify the DC universe by merging all the mutliverse stuff into one so things would make a little more sense, but none of the characters restarted with an origin story or started over with another first issue.

It didn't help, but it was a really good story and it did put all the DC heroes in the same universe, so it at least succeeded.

Infinite Crisis on the other hand basically undid that. Everything that happened prior still happened, but the universe split again into another multiverse and resulted in 52 different universes being created. Now DC basically says "Any TV show is taking place in one of these universes". DCAU for example is Earth 12 and Young Justice is Earth 16.

Flashpoint/New 52 was the first actual reboot DC has done, in that they started over with everybody and erased past stories...except they didn't for some, and others did, and some were undone but still did reference other things until they re-wrote them to say they didn't and others did and this is really making me think DC should just stop.

If anything I'd like to hope that a Crisis event would undo the new 52 and get things back on track. But DC doesn't get what makes an event comic any more, constantly shaking things around and killing characters without ever establishing a status quo so nothing is ever eventful or jarring or has a sense of being new. One crossover leads into another event which leads into another crossover, nobody can stay in their own books any more!

 

[Shiftygiant]

For fuck sake it's been only 3 years since you rebooted your universe DC. I know Marvel have the edge right now, but going to the formula of a big shakeup every time you are stagnating isn't healthy, even when you're doing fine. Just be nice to your audience and creators, stop making every little change a big story, and maybe then you can repair your reputation. I get that Crisis means you can simplify the DCU, but if you wanted a comprehensive universe, maybe you should have torn everything up, not do the 5 year plan thing.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, reboot and start again.

Hell, just go back to what it was before New52, that'd be a step up.

 

[Archer666]

I only care if they bring back Shade the Changing Man somehow.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

My guess is they are going to "unreboot" a lot of unpopular things from the New 52 (such as Wonder Woman's pants, I assume she still has those) and to make everything more in line with the upcoming films.

DC doesn't seem to notice that, the more times you change the foundations of the DC universe, the less impressive it is. Overexposure and all that jazz.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

All I can do... is laugh.

I have said often that if New 52 fails badly enough, DC has MORE than shown their willingness to shut down everything and start over. It's just a matter of time... but sadly, I don't really believe THIS is THAT time.

Marvel, on the other hand, may have a habit of "volumizing" titles now, restarting numbering... but not at the expense of the storytelling. And I don't really see that as "bad" if it is an effective strategy for getting new readers. Because honestly, who cares what number the issue is, if the story is creative & good and the product has credibility, and the PR people stay out of the creative teams' way.

Marvel used to be "PR driven", particularly during the 90's. After it resulted in disaster (see the trainwreck that was the "Clone Saga") they have given the writers a bit more freedom. The success of the Marvel films has helped out on this front immensely. DC hasn't learned a thing since the 90's, only that Big Events=Big Cash.

 

[Idon'tcareanymore]

Hopefully this is just "Crisis of restoring Wallie West and Donna Troy and undoing all of our shitty little mess."

... Maybe the title isn't pithy enough.

 

[Willinium]

Agh no. You just rebooted! Give the new universe some time before you rip it a new one! Well if this is anything like the first Crisis then some characters will be returning. Here's hoping for Lain Harper to return.

 

[elvor0]

My guess is they are going to "unreboot" a lot of unpopular things from the New 52 (such as Wonder Woman's pants, I assume she still has those) and to make everything more in line with the upcoming films.

Nah, WWs trousers didn't even make it to the first comic. They didn't even make it to the second wave of promotional material as far as I'm aware.

Spoiler: This is her current outfit