For more detailed information on the New 52 and all of the reboot details, you should check out DC's website where there is a ton of information to read and pretty comic art to enjoy.
As I said, I've stayed quiet on this topic since it was first announced, which as a nerd blogger is a rather strange thing to do. Here is one of the biggest comic book stories of the last few years, and I haven't devoted even a single word on my site to it until now. Why did I stay quiet on this topic, you ask? Well, to be quite honest I wasn't sure what to make of DC's reboot when I first heard about it, and I wanted more information before I began ranting and raving. I also had mixed feelings on the idea itself and I needed time to process those feelings before I could eloquently express my thoughts on DC's bold new direction. I've had the time I need though, and I've collected the additional information that I wanted. I've finally come up with something to say about this big reboot, and . . . well . . . it's probably not going to sit well with a lot of my fellow comic book fans out there. There's no real easy way to say this, so I might as well come out and say it. Here we go.
I am 100% behind DC Comics on this and think a full universe reboot is a wonderful idea.
Not only that, I think that this should have happened a long time ago, and I really hope that this works for them and that Marvel Comics will soon be following up with a full scale universe reboot of it's own. If you are wondering how I, a life-long comic book reader can willfully advocate for every DC comic book story I've ever read being undone, the answer to that is simple. In fact, it boils down to two basic points.
1. The Future
I want all you to think hard on a few questions I'm about to ask you. I want you to seriously think about these for a minute. When is the last time you walked into a comic book store and saw someone under the age of 15 in there buying comics? When is the last time you saw a kid in a park reading a comic? When was the last time you even heard of a kid you knew who had gotten into comics on their own, without their parents pushing it on them when they were younger?
I can't speak for everyone, but for me the answers to those questions are all the same. A long, long time ago. As a kid, I'll admit it, I got into comics because of my older brother. When and how he started reading comics, I'm not certain. I know my parents didn't read comics though. This was something that only we kids did. I remember going into the comic book store and seeing a bunch of other kids my age buying comics too. All of my friends read comics too. We'd spend hours upon hours discussing them at recess or at lunch. As I've gotten older, I've noticed that the average age of the people in the comic book stores has gotten oder with me. In fact, it's still people my age whom I mainly see when I go into a store to see what cool new stuff there is to buy. I'm 33 years old now, and to this day when I walk into a comic book store I see guys and gals that are in their late 20's to late 30's on the average. Every now and then I'll see a fan in their early 20's and some older fans in their 40's or higher, but generally it's people in my generation or the one before or right after it. I don't see kids in comic book stores anymore.
I know I'm not the only one who noticed this. DC Comics seems to have noticed it too. Their average reader age keeps climbing higher and higher, and there isn't a large group of younger readers who will replace them as we eventually get older and start dying off. It's freaking DC's management out, so they've decided to do something desperate to get kids reading comics. They are thinking in the extreme long term, say another 30 to 50 years out. Who will be reading comics then? How can a paper-based media compete for the attention of kids and adults who will be raised in a digital age where movies, music and even novels are all delivered to them digitally on demand? There are all huge questions that the folks in charge of the comics industry need to be asking themselves if they wish for their businesses to still be alive for generations to come.
Aside from the much discussed actual rebooting of the comics themselves is also the fact that DC Comics will be the first publisher to deliver comics digitally to mobile devices like the ipad on the same day that they are released in comic book stores. This is all part of making things more accessible to a wider, younger audience who are tech savvy, and who are much more likely to download comics to their tablet devices than they are to driving down to the local comic store and picking up books on a weekly basis. The word accessibility is really at the heart of what DC is trying to do here, which actually brings me to my next point.
2. Continuity Is A Killer
Many of today's biggest comic franchises have been running for so long, they are drowning under the weight of their own past stories. The folks who write the web comic Penny Arcade refer to it as "dreaded continuity" and it is making a large number of the comic industry's biggest titles completely inaccessible to new readers. I couldn't even imagine being a kid today and picking up an X-Men comic for the first time. I'd have no idea what the hell is going on, or who anyone is. The same goes for Spider-man and Batman. Today's comic stories are so convoluted and so dependent on knowing about what has come before that they are a turn off to little kids who only want to read about Spider-man punching this month's villain in the face and stopping their evil plan to rob a bank or destroy Manhattan or something like that.
This is all sort of related to the first point. An aging comic audience has demanded more adult, complex stories that matches their mental level. The problem is, these complex, convoluted stories are keeping kids away from trying out new titles. Do you know what originally got me reading X-men comics back in the day? A franchise reboot. How many of my fellow 30-something comic fans remember this?
That's the cover of X-Men #1, released in 1991 (when I was 13 years old). It was an attempt on Marvel's part at the time to make the Uncanny X-Men series and their characters more accessible to newer readers. You know what? It worked. Over the years I've spoken to a ton of people who cite this as their jumping on point for the X-series of books. While this didn't retcon past storylines, it didn't really focus on the past either. During this era, the X-Books focused on newer villains and new characters like Gambit and Cable to tell their stories. Retconning histories isn't a new phenomenon though. It, like everything else in comics, has been done before. Shall we recall a little event DC once did called Crisis on Infinite Earths?
Even Marvel has gotten into the reboot act on a large scale before where whole histories and continuities were thrown out the window. That's what the whole Marvel Ultimate universe was about. They started their big lines like Spider-Man, The Avengers and The X-Men over from scratch, with absolutely zero history or continuity whatsoever. And again, it worked beautifully. The Ultimate line was very successful for Marvel. The first Spider-man movie was even heavily influenced by the Ultimate Spider-man storyline, and the upcoming Avengers movie is heavily steeped in The Ultimates (aka the Ultimate name for The Avengers) stories.
Does this team look a little familiar to you?
What makes history deleting reboots like Marvel's Ultimate line work is that it allows for brand new stories that no one has ever seen before. It frees writers from having to fit their stories into established universes and allows them to play with characters and settings to create wholly new universes where both new readers can jump on and old readers can enjoy as different, new versions of the characters they know and love. I know that last statement is a bit of a stretch, as comic fans generally loathe change, but it does happen from time to time. Growing up, my favorite character has always been Spider-man. I'd read his books my whole life and when the new Ultimate Spider-man series came out I'll admit that I was very wary at first. Once I started reading it though, I began enjoying it even more than the regular series books. It was something new, something fresh, yet it was still something wholly Spider-man. It was a fun, lighthearted series at the start. Young teen aged Peter Parker didn't have the world on his shoulders like older, 20-something Peter did. This leads me to my third point.
3. Comics Are Just Too Damn Dark For Kids These Days
Comics have always had a bit of darkness to them. Even in the 50's, when Batman comics were awash in bright colors everywhere and campy-ness reigned supreme, The Joker was still a crazy killer. However, they didn't show blood as much and you didn't have Alan Moore style violence where he was shooting people in the face at point blank range with panels that showed the blood shooting out of the back of someone's head.
A lot of comics are just too damn dark these days. I don't have any kids myself, so maybe I'm a bit off base here, but I wouldn't go letting my 8 year old kids read today's Batman books without reading them myself first to see if they were ok. Going back to point #1 again, an aging comic audience has lead to more adult-centered books with graphic violence and stories. Comics seem to have forgotten that you can make things fun and interesting without going dark constantly. Look at the cartoon show Batman: The Brave and The Bold. The writers of that show have crafted something that simultaneously lighthearted and campy, yet still quintessentially Batman at its heart that even older fans can enjoy. Why isn't this being done more often in comics.
Don't misunderstand me here. I'm not pushing for adult comics to go away at all. As an adult comic book fan, I love having adult level superhero comics to read. All I'm saying is that there is room for both in the main Marvel and DC universes. DC started it originally with their Vertigo line and Marvel quickly followed suit with their Marvel Max lines. There's no reason for dark, gritty superhero stories to go away, I just wish that those stories didn't bleed over from their respective sub-lines to the main titles, which really should be aimed at attracting younger readers. We adult fans frequently forget that we were once kids too, and the reason we got into reading comics in the first place is because they catered to people our age at that time.
In the end, I think what DC is doing is ballsy, and I fully support them in what they are doing. If there is any one complaint I have about The New 52 though, it is this . . . .
They aren't going far enough.
In an attempt to please long time fans, DC is trying to walk a tightrope act where they are retconning some older stories, but not others. Some histories are being re-written, some aren't. This, to me, is them pussyfooting around and not fully doing what needs to be done. If you're going to do a full on hardcore universe reboot where you are wiping out all established continuity up to this point, you don't go half-assed about it. You man up and take the plunge. You go all out and wipe everything away at once. Have some big climactic story arc mini-series where something huge happens, and it reverts your entire universe (and I mean ENTIRE universe) back to square one!
That's what I would do if I was in charge of DC Comics right now. I'd revert everything back to the very beginning where you'd see new storylines such as:
- Superman #1 - A young, inexperienced, rural farmboy & reporter named Clark Kent walks into the Daily Planet for his first day on the job where he is introduced to and teamed up by his editor with a more veteran reporter named Lois Lane. His first story? Covering a large press conference for billionaire industrialist Lex Luthor who is showing off giant new military robots that he has developed for the US Government, which promptly go haywire and cause a mysterious new hero named Superman to appear and save the day for the very first time.
- Batman #1 - A brooding young Billionare named Bruce Wayne has just returned home to Gotham City for the first time after years of training abroad to make himself the ultimate crime fighting machine. Deciding that he needs to strike fear into the hearts of Gotham's criminal underworld (and to protect himself and those who know him), he puts on a mask and goes out into the night as Batman.
- Wonder Woman #1 - A beautiful young warrior named Diana is forced to leave her island home for the first time to help save it from being destroyed. Upon leaving the island, she learns of the outside world and its problems. Despite being forbidden to do so by her mother, she decides to stay in this new place because she feels that it is her duty to use her power to help those who need saved.
- Justice League #1 - After investigating the same case from their respective cities, Batman and Superman meet for the first time and are forced to work together. Along the way, they meet up with other heroes whose help they need to save the day. By the end of they day, they realize that some problems are too big for them to handle individually, so they decide to work together to help save the world.
See? It's not that hard to do. Just wipe the slate clean and start fresh. Will you piss off a ton of fan boys and girls? Yes, of course you will. Bitching is one of the favorite pass times of comic fans. No matter what you do, you'll be pissing someone off. However, will those same fans stay loyal to you so long as your new stories are great and you stay true to what makes your characters who they are? Yes, they will. And along the way you might even pick up some new readers to boot.
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