A Lot of Thoughts on DC's Rebootingest Reboot Ever

Note: People, I know this is all over the place a bit, but I need to get it published, because they're leaking info every day that's making me go back and rewrite things. If I'm still interested when all the titles and status quo have been revealed, I'll probably follow up.

DC is rebooting their continuity. But this time their approach is different enough to warrant slightly less apathy than that statement would usually entail. They're canceling most of their line and launching 52 new number ones in September, with the intention of continuing on unhindered by decades of near-worthless continuity and never going back there again. It's a gutsy move. Others have spelled out the business angles eloquently and comprehensively (do check out Greg Hatcher and David Uzumeri's takes), so let me just hit you with some of my thoughts:

So, how exactly does this new continuity operate? Okay, let's run this down. Crisis on Infinite Earths started everything over again. New continuity, nothing old counted, many new origins (back when that was still interesting). Infinite Crisis was a lot more subdued; it was basically the same post-Crisis universe with a few background details changed: Batman caught his parents' killer, Wonder Woman was a founding member of the Justice League, Kryptonians are now a race of xenophobic warmongering monsters. Same house, different furniture. As I understand it, this is different from those two. It's an entirely different universe, ala Marvel's Ultimate universe. When all of DC's new titles hit, we're reading about characters with pasts completely untied to anything that happened in the “original universe,” and they're a few years into their careers. This is a good way to go about things. Because it means...

No more origin stories. We know why Batman fights crime, okay? You don't have to keep telling us these stories with new “twists” and “insights.” It's pretty much been done to death, and adds nothing substantial anymore. Assuming I understand the direction of their “new universe,” they've got this problem pretty much licked. You don't have to explain how Superman decided to be Superman, how Lex Luthor became such a prick, and why they have this antagonistic relationship. They've met, they hate each other, we all know it. That's where we start, and now you can just GO, y'know? Sweet.

It's going to be refreshing to not have to worry about continuity even a little bit. Did you read Flash: Rebirth? I suggest you don't; one of the issues was literally a lecture about the complexities of the speed force, which had grown from a simple convenient explanation into this huge tumor that was cutting down on the amount of pages where the Flash could catch bullets and stuff. How about Legion of 3 Worlds? Much better, but still pages and pages of what happened to the Legion, why there were three Legions, where were the Legions that weren't those three Legions, etc. etc. In this new status quo, Superman can just go to the future and have an adventure with the Legion; you don't have to “clean things up” before you can have your fun. You don't have to jump through hoops to explain how Sinestro is alive; he's just alive in this new continuity. I've always thought that most comics just aren't long enough for the money, but cutting out most of this crap is going to be equivalent to a 20% page increase, easy.

Treat each story like a movie. I recall one of the writers of Ultimate X-Men said that he planned each six-issue arc as a movie: beginning, middle, and end, with enough information to get those who hadn't seen the original up to speed, as well as a few sequel hooks. If you're going for the casual fan, this has to be done; they're not going to stay when they pick up a trade that has 3/4ths of a story. Whether your arc is one issue, four issues, twelve issues, whatever, stick to that formula. I'm not saying give up the serial, soap-opera nature of comics; just keep in mind that you can't trust that the new fans you want will follow your title with soap-opera dedication. And with that in mind:

Keep each issue exciting. Can we please have a “one fight scene per issue” rule or something? Don't get me wrong, you can have your big emotional issues. Just... 19 times out of 20 have a goddamned fight scene in your superhero comic book, and make sure you have a good reason for not including one the 20^th time.

Keep each title relatively self-contained. You want Wonder Woman to team up with the Flash? Cool. Have the writer of the Flash just write Wonder Woman into his story. None of this part one in Flash, part two in Wonder Woman crap. Keep things as simple as possible here. Oh, with that in mind:

No more crossovers. Lately, as DC has been getting more and more desperate (desperate enough to try this rebooting thing, even), they've been cranking out the crossovers, and good God nobody cares any more. Flashpoint had something like 27 tie-ins, and I don't mean regular issues that were crossing over. Specially-produced tie-ins. Come on. I wouldn't read as much Flashpoint as they're publishing if they gave me the issues for free. Knock that off. So now you're thinking, okay, how about a few summer issues where all the heroes team-up and fight a cool fight, keeping the entirety of the events self-contained so as not to mess with the story-arcs of the individual titles? That's called Justice League. No crossovers.

Keep in mind that it won't last forever. You're trying to get away from continuity and having to make sure everything checks out with all of the stories you've published in the past. Soon enough though you'll have to fact check with the new stories you're publishing, and you'll start running into the same pitfalls. Don't get me wrong: you'll be going at it in a much more unified, cohesive way than the “what the hell ever, they're just comics” mindset of writers in the 60s, but soon enough you'll have to make sure everything jibes, make a retcon here and there. So, just as you're saying that the current DC Universe's story is done, know that eventually your new universe will have to bow out and be replaced as well. Plan for it. Oh, and with that in mind:

Don't bring anybody back from the dead. Start your new universe with the people you want alive, alive. If you don't want them to die, don't kill them. If they do die, let them die. You're going to have to reboot the whole shebang again soon enough anyhow, so you can bring them back without the crap later.

You now have more wiggle room for change... but not too much. Your B-listers can be completely different and go in whatever direction you want now. Good! Maybe you can make people care about Hawkman. But let's face it... Superman and Batman are always going to be Superman and Batman. You're not getting too far away from that iconic stereotype. And that's not a bad thing; hopefully, with this new, tighter continuity, you won't have to pull ridiculous Knightfall-style stunts to keep them relevant and fresh and interesting.

New! Characters! It's fun watching the Legion fight the Fatal Five. But don't just throw a list of old, rejuvenated supervillains at us. Howzabout some new ones? And some new heroes too! And supporting cast members! And maybe some new settings! Go for it! You have a new world to build, do it! Take pitches! So far we've seen maybe a third of the massive list of September titles, and so far they've all been characters we know and love. And that's fine and all, but I hope a handful of them are completely new, promising characters. Put a few more in the backgrounds of group shots. Surprise me!

The old universe isn't going away yet, and that's terrific. DC execs have said that the higher-selling titles, such as the Green Lantern franchise and Grant Morrison's big Batman storyline, are going to continue. This is good for two reasons. The first is that both of these get a ton of mileage out of the decades of twisted continuity. Now, in Green Lantern's sake it's half clean-up work and I get the feeling the same stories could be told better and quicker without having to twist old continuity to fit, but in Grant Morrison's case he uses that 60s Batman stuff in really terrifically interesting ways. The second reason is that now they have to worry a lot less about stepping on other writers' toes. Everyone else is going to be gone, so you can shoot “old” Superman in the head if you want to. Blow up the Earth. Go nuts, we don't need it tomorrow. Of course, once those story-arcs are done, I'm guessing it'll be toodle-oo to “old Earth.” Cya, pal!

Make it easy for new readers to distinguish between “old” Earth and “new” Earth. Alright, so. Grant Morrison's Bat franchises are staying put. I don't know how many of the supporting Bat-books are going to continue being published, but it'll be at least three or four. Over in the reboot, there's going to be another ten Bat-books launched, some by the same creative teams with very similar arcs (e.g. Damian Wayne, Batmen around the world). You want new readers to read the second one. I don't know how that's all going to shake out... put a disclaimer on the cover or something. Do not let those new readers walk into anything about the Black Glove, that is for very advanced, sophisticated readers which new readers are not.

52 #1's is insane in all the best ways. DC is launching 52 new series, set in their new, simpler continuity, in September. A lot of people have said that it would be much less risky to start with the big guns and slowly transition in. But that wouldn't be nearly as much fun. It says to me that they're really putting a lot of weight behind this. This is their new universe, in its entirety, and you're going to see every corner of it immediately. Street level, cosmic, horror, western... all the major heroes, the New Gods mythology, everything baby. They're trying to replicate that feeling you first got when you picked up a comic and saw all these characters you didn't know and all of these veiled references to past events you didn't recognize, a universe bigger than one book. We've all since kind of... memorized the universe, know the major players and their convoluted backstories, and know that nothing new will ever happen. Here's new players, new backstories, and new things, and it's all here at the same time. They're going whole hog on it, and more power to 'em. While it's probably foolhardy from a business perspective, that's exactly what endears me to it.

This works so much better than twisting current continuity. When a team of writers pitched a reboot of Superman back at the turn of the millennium, they used the principle of “recognize and transcend;” instead of changing time and starting over, acknowledge that the old stories happened and introduce new storylines that take the character and status quo where you want it to go. That's been DC's policy for the last decade or so, and... it really hasn't been working. They've mostly been taking things back to the 60's status quo, so, for instance, Superman's cousin shows up in a rocket and becomes Supergirl just like in the 60's. Hooray! But, in the meantime, there's been three or four other “Supergirls” that have filled in that role. From a storyline perspective, this is the fifth Supergirl that Superman's met and worked with in roughly twelve years, but he's never going to acknowledge that or mention it or have that past experience weigh on him in any way because it detracts from the “pure” 60's status quo they're trying to create. It doesn't work, at least the way they've been doing it. So, just starting over, they can do whatever the hell they want. Go for it.

This is coming out of left field, huh? I thought Flashpoint was just some Flash-centric crossover, but it turns out it's going to alter everything more radically than any other storyline in comics history. Was this planned from the start? It's weird... at first I thought Flashpoint would be a Sinestro Corps War-style self-contained crossover. Then I found out it was more of a Blackest Night-style super crossover taking over the entire line. Then it turns out it's the biggest and most “important” crossover in comic history. I was fed up with the second one, but like the first and third... there's a bell curve thing going on. And I guess this makes Professor Zoom the greatest villain in DC history?

Seriously, this fixes so many ways continuity gets in the way of the story. Like, how they have to kind of handwave the fact that Batman's had 70 years of adventures in roughly, what, 12-13 years of time? Or that the Earth has almost been destroyed roughly 400 times in those 12-13 years, and every living person isn't hiding in a bomb shelter every single day? Or that Superman's fought Brainiac literally dozens and dozens and dozens of times and he always comes back and repeats the same process? Now, this all goes back to the fact that for the majority of comic history writers weren't worried about the next issue because they though the series wouldn't be around in six months. Compare to Ultimate Spider-Man, where the villains show up differently, sparingly, and always come back in a clever way, and the first 100 issues or so take place in one year of Peter Parker's life (that poor, poor bastard). This new universe should take its cues from that.

The girls finally get to put some pants on. Thank you almighty God in heaven. If nothing else, this makes everything worth it. DC has decreed that there will be no more panty shots. Wonder Woman's weird armored bathing suit is the worst looking thing ever, and the fact that DC is finally, finally changing it to something much more practical speaks volumes about their commitment to this new universe. This is great.

Justice League is DC's front runner. Justice League #1 launches on August 31^st. It's the “first chapter” of this new universe, its golden boy, and this is as it should be. It's amazing how much they've shafted that book, when it should be their #1 book. It's got all of their most recognizable heroes; when a kid wants a comic book, you should give him or her Justice League. So... making it their #1 book is good. Do that.

Digital comics! Wait, I don't actually care that much about digital comics. At least not until they come out with a color Kindle; reading for any length of time off a traditional computer screen hurts my eyes. Still, it's a super-obvious idea. Maybe you can sell them to people that don't go to comic stores! Even do some commercial advertising. But I'd say price the comics in the "less than one dollar range" and make sure that at the end of each issue you can find all the related titles easily. Also, if you're going to do that last one, give Justice League #1 away for free, and then let readers find Superman, Wonder Woman, the Bat-universe, etc. with a variety of convenient buying and subscription options.

But... will they really change that much? At the end of the day, the same group of people that have gone to extreme lengths to transform the line into the comics they read as a kid now have nothing stopping them from doing just that. There's going to be a lot of streamlining, don't get me wrong, a lot of getting rid of the crap weighing the characters down, but I'm thinking that we're mostly going to see the classic characters. They say they're updating them for the new generation and all, but I dunno... Not that there's anything inherently wrong with the classics, but give us a new Green Lantern or something.

Please don't “normalize” things. Let's face it, in the X-Men movie universe, Prof. X isn't going to be falling in love with an alien battle princess any time soon, nor will the X-Men go to hell, travel through time, or fight Dracula. They cut out a lot of the totally crazy comic stuff, for a lot of good reasons. Though I know you're just dying to get a piece of that huge superhero movie pie, recognize the difference in medium and don't follow the studios' logic minutely. When I say “steamline,” I mean cut out the retcons on top of contradictions on top of explanations that have piled onto each long-running character's backstory, not take away the crazy fun stuff that made us endure through it all. If your oh-so-valuable new readers are too jaded to accept tiny, bespectacled mind control worms from Venus, then your new readers can get fucked. Keep DC swarming with magic robots.

So... yeah. I'm down! Put me down for a copy of Justice League, Martian Manhunter (you know it's coming), maybe a few Bat-titles, Legion... hell, my wallet...

Still not planning to read Flashpoint.