As the New Year slowly approaches-oh, wait *checks calendar* yeah, we're getting there-we will see the fifth year of DC Comic's current comic book universe develop after it's last reboot. In this case, I have decided to swallow my pride and sit you readers down and tell you about The New 52. Oh boy.
DC Comic's had an event called "Flashpoint" that reset their current universe and in September of 2011 they released the first issues of 52 comic titles as part of their new universe initiative "The New 52". In the years prior, DC had considered stories from the 1970's to 2010 actual events in their universe, with that much real world time equalling maybe fifteen to twenty years in their fictional universe. Despite Batman's first Robin appearing in 1940 and his latest in 2006, the story's would tell you the Robin's appeared around fifteen years from each other. Stories from the 40's-60's were considered the events of another DC Comic's world called Earth 2, we'll talk about that some other time. The point of the New 52 was to say all those years of history no longer factored into their new universe. This would allow old fans to get fresh takes on their favorite characters and for new fans to feel included and not confused. It should be noted that Marvel Comic's "Marvel NOW" did something similar where they did not reset their universe, but rather restarted every book back to #1's, provided background on all their characters in these books and continued their character's stories. The other selling point was that DC's spin-off publishing companies could be fully integrated into the DCU. Vertigo Comic's Swamp Thing, Animal Man, and HellBlazer were made part of The DCU, Wildstorm's Stormwatch, Voodoo, and Grifter joined the DCU, and Milestone's Static got his own book for a short time. This meant fans of Vertigo and/or Wildstorm were not left out of this new comic universe.
DC Comic's lineup of book would change with cancellations, additions, and name changes, but when it began with 52 titles it was also given a nifty category list: "Justice League" included not only the main JL, but also spin-off teams and members of The JL's solo titles. "Batman" featured many of Batman's books, as well as the books of his allies. "Superman" did mainly what "Batman" did, but with Superman characters. "Green Lantern" again, did what "Batman" did, but with Green Lantern characters. "Young Justice" featured books about teenaged superheroes. "The Edge" featured crime, war, science-fiction and western stories and was home to Wildstorm books. "The Dark" featured horror, supernatural and fantasy books and was home to Vertigo books. Again, these categories would grow and shrink as time went on.
Now lets look at what's good about The New 52. First and foremost it did achieve it's goal of attracting new readers and provided some excellent comic books stories. For the most part, characters have been given revisions and updates that have upped their reputations, the most obvious example of this being Aquaman who-under Geoff Johns' writing-was written into a likable and respectable character. The method of integrating Wildstorm and Vertigo makes the world feel bigger and more connected, mixing DC's Martian Manhunter into Wildstorm's Stormwatch and mixing Vertigo's John Constantine into Justice League Dark were interesting changes. This event modernized many older, more obscure books like Blackhawks, Men of War, GI Combat, Dial H, The Green Team, The Movement, and Prez. These books don't effect the DCU as a whole, but it nice to see DC Comics showing love to some of their older titles.
Now for the bad things about The New 52. Characters took heavy criticisms with how they were presented in The New 52, Starfire, Arsenal, and Barbara Gordon being a few. DC Comic's editorial was another problem, with allegations of sexism being brought up by using Harley Quinn, Voodoo and Starfire as examples. Batwoman-DC's most prominent lesbian character-was planned to marry her fiance Maggy Sawyer, but Dan DiDio put a probation on this marriage on the principle that superheroes shouldn't get married because Batman characters should not be allowed to be happy as that contradicts the turmoil of being a hero. This thought process also led DiDio to dropping Stephanie Brown (Spoiler/Robin/Batgirl) from The New 52 for a few years because of her chipper nature. Needless to say, myself and many other comic book fans were offended and against DiDio's claims. Characters like Aquaman and Superman have been married before and their themes have not been ruined because of those changes. Batman himself-while not settling down-has had four sons and three daughters as his surrogate family and it has not ruined the theme of his books in the past. Some decisions from Editorial also hurt writers and titles because of attempts to "stay modern". Gail Simone had a legendary run on Batgirl, a run so good it excused the fact that DC Comics retconned Barbara Gordon's crippling and removed her time as the handicapped hero Oracle from continuity. However, after leaving the book, Gail's run was covered up by DC's new agenda to make Batgirl "hip, young, and social" despite the heavy difference between Gail's run and this poor attempt to be trendy. Jeff Lemire had a terrific run on Green Arrow, but as soon as CW's Arrow became more popular amongst non-comic reading fans, Lemire was kicked off in favor for Andrew Kriesberg, the executive producer for Arrow! So the book just turned into the TV show! Currently, Aquaman has taken on a darker, more barbaric stylization, not too distant from how he will be portrayed by Jason Mamoa in "Batman v. Superman: Please Kill Me". And as for that integration I mentioned? No more Static Shock book, only one Wildstorm book, and only one Vertigo book.
So was The New 52 a good idea? The fact is, DC Comics has had like seven reboots since the 1980's and things have changed like this all the time. Writers and Editors and Artists don't always get along and we-as readers-sometimes suffer for this in-house fighting. In the modern age, comic book publishers will always try to make their comics match their movies with the hope that the films convert some movie-payers to become comic-payers. I think DC Comics had three options: Reboot, Reboot, but keep the old universe as a continued universe (kind of how Marvel had it's main Universe and The Ultimate Universe in the 2000's), or keep on keeping on. By rebooting they drew more, newer readers in and got a chance to make big changes. If the reboot was a legit reboot-like Superman #1 starting from the day he first showed up in Metropolis or if Batman #1 was right after "Year One"-I think people would have been more accepting of the changes. But to do a reboot set in the middle of their character's lives, drop the old universe, and make changes they know pissed people off, DC gave themselves a rough start. There are only a handful of DC book I currently read, and I happen to be reading more Marvel books to my surprise. I think The New 52 was a good idea, but just because the concept was good does not mean the execution was. If DC focused on what their books good before changing, considered the old fans just as much as the old ones, and kept a better respect for writers and artists, the New 52 could have been the turnaround that'd put DC in the popular opinion. I can only wish DC the best of luck with their current-more diverse-lineup of books. Or hey, hire me. I'll save your company. "My first act as DC Executive: You! Go slap Dan DiDio in the face".
Thank you for reading!
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Now for the bad things about The New 52. Characters took heavy criticisms with how they were presented in The New 52, Starfire, Arsenal, and Barbara Gordon being a few. DC Comic's editorial was another problem, with allegations of sexism being brought up by using Harley Quinn, Voodoo and Starfire as examples. Batwoman-DC's most prominent lesbian character-was planned to marry her fiance Maggy Sawyer, but Dan DiDio put a probation on this marriage on the principle that superheroes shouldn't get married because Batman characters should not be allowed to be happy as that contradicts the turmoil of being a hero. This thought process also led DiDio to dropping Stephanie Brown (Spoiler/Robin/Batgirl) from The New 52 for a few years because of her chipper nature. Needless to say, myself and many other comic book fans were offended and against DiDio's claims. Characters like Aquaman and Superman have been married before and their themes have not been ruined because of those changes. Batman himself-while not settling down-has had four sons and three daughters as his surrogate family and it has not ruined the theme of his books in the past. Some decisions from Editorial also hurt writers and titles because of attempts to "stay modern". Gail Simone had a legendary run on Batgirl, a run so good it excused the fact that DC Comics retconned Barbara Gordon's crippling and removed her time as the handicapped hero Oracle from continuity. However, after leaving the book, Gail's run was covered up by DC's new agenda to make Batgirl "hip, young, and social" despite the heavy difference between Gail's run and this poor attempt to be trendy. Jeff Lemire had a terrific run on Green Arrow, but as soon as CW's Arrow became more popular amongst non-comic reading fans, Lemire was kicked off in favor for Andrew Kriesberg, the executive producer for Arrow! So the book just turned into the TV show! Currently, Aquaman has taken on a darker, more barbaric stylization, not too distant from how he will be portrayed by Jason Mamoa in "Batman v. Superman: Please Kill Me". And as for that integration I mentioned? No more Static Shock book, only one Wildstorm book, and only one Vertigo book.
So was The New 52 a good idea? The fact is, DC Comics has had like seven reboots since the 1980's and things have changed like this all the time. Writers and Editors and Artists don't always get along and we-as readers-sometimes suffer for this in-house fighting. In the modern age, comic book publishers will always try to make their comics match their movies with the hope that the films convert some movie-payers to become comic-payers. I think DC Comics had three options: Reboot, Reboot, but keep the old universe as a continued universe (kind of how Marvel had it's main Universe and The Ultimate Universe in the 2000's), or keep on keeping on. By rebooting they drew more, newer readers in and got a chance to make big changes. If the reboot was a legit reboot-like Superman #1 starting from the day he first showed up in Metropolis or if Batman #1 was right after "Year One"-I think people would have been more accepting of the changes. But to do a reboot set in the middle of their character's lives, drop the old universe, and make changes they know pissed people off, DC gave themselves a rough start. There are only a handful of DC book I currently read, and I happen to be reading more Marvel books to my surprise. I think The New 52 was a good idea, but just because the concept was good does not mean the execution was. If DC focused on what their books good before changing, considered the old fans just as much as the old ones, and kept a better respect for writers and artists, the New 52 could have been the turnaround that'd put DC in the popular opinion. I can only wish DC the best of luck with their current-more diverse-lineup of books. Or hey, hire me. I'll save your company. "My first act as DC Executive: You! Go slap Dan DiDio in the face".
Thank you for reading!
Facebook: The Panel Biter
Twitter: @ThePanelBiter
Podbean: PanelBiter.podbean.com
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