By now, the tidal wave of news about DC’s “historic renumbering of all superhero titles” will have already washed over the internet, leaving outcry and confusion in its wake. Understandable… DC fans will once again have to wonder whether their favorite characters will be left in one piece and what importance, if any, past stories and continuity will have on the brave new world to come.
I won’t get into the thick of this speculation. First of all, because such thinking is pointless; the decision has been made and no amount of overthinking will change it. Second, and perhaps more importantly, I believe that continuity in comics, especially where mainstream comics are concerned, is a non-issue.
The comics universe is malleable, a creation of many writers and artists across generations. Ultimately, this universe and its characters serve as vehicles for telling stories. Sometimes a story can draw inspiration from continuity to build itself (Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns have proven experts at this); other times a story is best served by paying as little attention to continuity as possible, or even ignoring it altogether (Frank Miller and Alan Grant produced some of DC’s best works this way). The important thing is tell the best stories possible, and continuity isn’t really a prerequisite for that.
We don’t know if the DCU of the coming fall will be a major departure from what we’re now familiar with, or if the changes will be at most superficial. Each of DC’s reboots represented a reaction to the times. Crisis on Infinite Earths produced a DCU that could be a better reflection of the real world and more sympathetic to its maturing audience. As that audience grew older, Infinite Crisis and subsequent stories revised the DCU in an exercise of nostalgia: classic incarnations of characters returned, and titles got back their original brands and numberings; the multiple universes were resurrected.
DC has tried for a while to be true to their past to keep hold of their loyalists, while at the same remaking themselves to appeal to a new audience; these dual efforts haven’t always meshed well, if not downright interfering with each other (think of Superboy relauching Adventure Comics, only to have the original Silver Age Legion of Super-Heroes take over the title with its old numbering, and then replacing them with a brand-new cast of Legion Academy). It’s likely this “restart at number one” strategy, coupled with the greater digital push, is DC’s decision to more wholeheartedly pursue a new generation of comic book readers.
To which I respond with a shrug. If DC can assemble the talent to take advantage of this change of slate to produce great stories and trends for all these “new” titles, then all the power to them; it’s not as if the classic stories of the past will suddenly become less powerful or enjoyable, and in some cases characters may profit from having their pasts wiped clean, or mostly so. But if DC employs its usual mix of great and not-so-great creators, then this coming universe will be as much of a mixed bag as the current one we’re already used to. But at least the whole thing will be new; there’s a lot of appeal in that.
-Minhquan Nguyen
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Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: | DC, DC Comics, DC Relaunch
I’m with Minhquan on this one, I’m fine with continuity being played with as long as the stories are satisfying and enjoyable. I used to be a purist about it but finally came around to believing that a good story is a good story and doesn’t hurt previous good stories. This is why I’m enjoying the Flashpoint storyline so far….having Andy Kubert draw it doesn’t hurt either, his designs for Cyborg and Thomas Wayne’s Batman are superb. All the Batman titles right now are great (yes including Finch’s “Dark Knight” series). Batman Inc. is shaping up to be a rousing Morrison event (could this have something to do with DC’s decision to noodle with the titles?) and a lot of fun. I really enjoyed Max Lord in the Generation Lost series…he and Amanda Waller are two of my favourite “villians” in comicdom and the whole “Checkmate/OMAC/Secret Six” thing has really worked for me. Superman’s titles are very entertaining right now also. I’ve almost abandoned Marvel however. I’m essentially reading DC and indie titles (Boom’s Planet of the Apes is amazing so far, Dynamites Vampirella is really good too) exclusively. Marvel’s Avengers has turned into a silly soap opera with “fights” peppered through it to make it look like a superhero book. The Luke Cage character bores the hell out of me. I haven’t picked up “Fear Itself” and it’s attached titles at all. The X books are utterly floundering as far as good story telling goes (and I’m a fan of Remender’s work). Mike Deodato is the only reason I’ll even look at a Marvel title these days. I’m not DiDio’s biggest fan by any means but DC has got an incredible and diverse talent pool (Gail Simone is doing great work) so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, although toying with Bruce Wayne’s age might be an issue for me if that happens. I like Bruce Wayne in his 30′s, he’s at his intellectual, combat, ideological and physical peak in that context and his “father” role to Grayson, Drake and Damian is something I’m really enjoying right now. Anyway…we won’t know who and what gets affected until later this year so let’s save the applause or the castigations for DC until then.
Actually most of the big name characters like Superman and Batman are really in their mid to late forties. Consider this Dick Grayson is in his mid to late twenties and Tim Drake was like eighteen or nineteen, around the same age as Beast Boy, so the TEEN Titans were going to lose him anyway. The deaging works to our benefit because will probably actually get our favorites back in their late twenties to early thirties giving us years of new continuity free stories. I’m excited to see Bruce and Damian together as father and son that should be interest. We shouldn’t be bitching here we should be asking what will happen and speculate on that because if this works this will be so much fun. Oh the old DC is a paradox that makes no sense whose core titles are effectively dying a slow painful death. Look at Wonder Woman it doesn’t make sense at all and Superman is fighting a Doomsday clone again. The JLA has been completely disappointing for several years I mean Congorillla really James Robinson should be beaten. This Relaunch gives me Geoff Johns, whose writing style I think is best suited for the League, and Jim Lee, easily one the best and most experienced artist in the industry, bringing the League back to life. Through all this Batman and his camp are what been keeping me buying DC. Besides Grant Morrison will be finishing up the original Batman Inc story-line which I’m siked to see what happens. Overall I’m amped and can’t wait to see what happens.
I hope this change isn’t my fault!
In all seriousness i actually gave up reading most of my DC selections a few months ago. I got tired of the whole multi-coloured ring thing and brightest day was a major disappointment. I still like some Batman and Jonah hex but that’s about it. Instead I’ve been reading more and more independents as well as some Marvel stuff like Thunderbolts, Captain America, Thor, Avengers well a lot I guess. Sorry to see DC struggling, but they just aren’t as enjoyable as they could be.
You know, I’ve heard a lot of people say DC’s lost a lot of its creative juices, but I still feel they produce a pretty comparable number of strong titles, middlers, and dogs to Marvel. I mostly attribute Marvel’s greater success to their stronger marketing/publicity efforts and their image as a hip, edgy publisher. But honestly, the differences in terms of the actual writing/artistic qualities of their titles are, in my opinion, negligible and mostly aesthetic. After all, DC produces great titles like Secret Six, Birds of Prey, and Xombi, and almost their entire Batman line is consistently strong, unlike, say, Marvel’s X-family of titles.
I stay away from anything with ‘X’ on the title. Secret Six is great stuff and I’ve been reading it since day one. Not thrilled with the art on it though. When it comes down to it, it’s personal preference but I found myself shifting more towards Marvel simply because I enjoyed reading the books. Same with the Mignola books, Walking Dead and others.
Secret Six is great, isn’t it? It’s a crying shame more people don’t read it, as its quality is almost universally acknowledged.
Well said, MQ. I’ll admit, this news made me do a double take, but your perfectly right. The state of continuity has never really affected the quality of stories, and certainly never the art. I will be sad to see Damian Wayne disappear, which seems likely for a move like this, but who knows? Again, like you said, we still don’t know what this shake-up will ultimately look like.
Now, I’ve got to ask, what do you think this will mean for the Earth-1 line of comics from DC? The reason they are giving for this change sound eerily close to the goals for that project. Does this mean we’ll never see Johns and Franks take on Batman?
Well, since Earth-1 is essentially an Elseworlds title, and since DC already has JMS working on the sequel to Superman: Earth-1, I expect that Johns and Franks really want to, they can continue working on their Batman: Earth 1 project. That is, if Johns can be spared from Justice League and spearheading the design of the entire DCU proper.
Awesome job MQ–I think with the huge outcry both for and against (well, mostly against) this kind of measured take is exactly what was needed.
As a (fairly) new comic reader, I don’t mind this much; in fact I kind of look forward to it, as long as excellent new titles (like Batman Inc, as another commenter noted) are allowed to continue.
Only annoying thing to me is, they just went through ALL the trouble of setting up a status quo with Brightest Day, KNOWING this was gonna happen? That’s…really not ideal. Unless it will somehow be reflected in the ‘new’ DCU.
Like I said, we know very little about how and to what degree these changes will be executed. For what it’s worth Dan DiDio told USA Today that “This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today’s audience.” What that really means in terms of concrete changes is up in the air.
I can only imagine DC will try to accommodate things so that successful storylines can continue or at least reach their conclusion. Considering the popularity of Batman Incorporated, that’s one title that may be preserved as much as possible, if any title gets that distinction.
My biggest concern is: what will happen to Batman Inc.?
My advice is not to worry. Until DC comes out and announces specific changes, I’d assume the really popular titles will get a measure of preservation, or at least some resolution before being done away.
Hah….looks like my speculation in the ‘Tec review comments section is slowly coming true.
BC is reporting a new Nightwing #1. Will not be surprised at all that it’s written by Snyder.
Also, Babs is Batgirl again.
And it looks like Simone may be writing the Deadman Adventure Comics.
I am a little sad about the Babs Batgirl thing. I was enjoying Steph Brown as Batgirl.
I wonder what this does to the Duke Nukem Forever of the DCU: Batwoman #1 by JH Williams?
If the report is accurate, then I’ll be saddened as well. I do very much like Steph as a Buffy-like Batgirl, and I really appreciate Babs as Oracle, since I think that’s a really cool, relevant character DC created from a tragic story conclusion. We’ll see how all this will work out, I suppose.
I sort of agree that Babs to Batgirl is a bit too regressive, but with Simone off of BoP, and if I’m reading her mysterious tweets correctly, there’s a possibility that she could be writing the new Batgirl…which would be cool.
Of course, she’s only writing two ongoings….so Batgirl+Deadman in Adventure (which I’m 85% sure on) means Secret Six is getting the axe. And that would make me a very, very sad panda.
Secret Six gone from my life will be sad, but at the same time, when you consider recent events in the title, you have to wonder if, since they seem assured of the endgame now, it’s best the rest of their sordid lives remains a mystery to us. But who knows? It’s not as if they can’t ever come back to us in some for, and again written by Simone. Birds of Prey did.
Yeah, it’s depressing to think of a DC Universe without Simone writing Ragdoll every month…
Incidentally, might this whole renumbering/rebooting thing be the reason they keep delaying the start of Batwoman?
You know, I didn’t think of that until you said it, but I can definitely see how the delays plaguing the launch of Batwoman may wind up a very handy thing for a brand-new DCU.
That exactly what it was.
JH came out and said that the delay until fall had nothing at all to do with the work running late, and that it was publishing’s decision to do it, to benefit from a “bigger marketing push in the fall.”
Now we know what the big deal about the fall is.
They could number the comics in hexidecimal for all I care, just so long as they keep the Synder/Jock/Francavilla/Baron team together on Detective.
Great article. I agree with you, that continuity is a non-issue. I remember the whole ‘Heroes Reborn’ in Marvel. I didn’t like it then, I don’t like it now. How do you reboot something to attract new readers without slapping the old readers in the face? My hopes aren’t up, but we’ll see. Johns himself was the one that managed to reboot GL succesfully because he had a great deal of respect for the old readers and fans, so there’s that…
You can’t really call Johns’ Green Lantern a reboot, since he essentially kept all the continuity intact; it’s not like he denied Hal Jordan became Parallax, went crazy, died, and became the Spectre. He just brought Hal back to life and explained away all the Parallax weirdness. A real reboot would have done away with Kyle Rayner and probably Guy Gardner and John Stewart as well, and likely revised some of Hal’s essential background points. If we’re gonna use techie terms, I’d say Green Lantern: Rebirth was more of a patch on the GL OS.
Ha! Yeah, you’re right. There have been ‘casting’ changes, character killings, and retcons, but a straight up reboot? I can only think of Marvel’s ‘Heroes Reborn’. And come to think about it, Jim Lee was heavily involved with that too! In it’s time, the ‘Reborn’ thing was kind of accepted, gained some hype, but in the end it was totally dropped…
Great article MQ!
I kinda think the reboot/renumbering is no big deal. And, we really don’t know how much of a reboot it’s going to be anyway. We’ll just have to wait and see on that.
The key is going to be the creative teams. I’ve drifted away from DC heavily over the last few years because I generally don’t enjoy DC’s characters much and have found their creative teams to be mediocre. Really outstanding teams like Morrison plus a steady artist producing ON TIME make me interested. Morrison with a changing cast of artists producing late work just reminds me that I can live without the character.
The thing I’m discouraged about is that it looks like Johns is taking a bunch of the titles and I’ve just never been a huge fan. He’s pretty good at reboots, but I feel like all of his story arcs kinda read the same and I’m bored.
The bigger news to me is the same-day-digital publication. Comic shops are dying and it is interesting to see how DC is basically just telling Marvel, “Congrats! You win the game of direct market comic shop! See you in the digital world.” It’ll be interesting to see what their pricing is. I’d bet they’ll do $2.99, but I don’t think they’ll get as many new readers at that price. 99 cents isn’t feasible either for a myriad of reasons, so it’ll be interesting to see if the price at $1.99.
Also interesting will be to see if Marvel responds. There’s no reason for them not to go to same-day-digital now and figure out the pricing of that offering over the next few months. Marvel has a better digital infrastructure in place than does DC, so it wouldn’t be hard to do and I can’t imagine Marvel will just concede this early round of digital to DC.
Also curious to see what the Images, Boom!s, IDWs, etc. do.
For those of you who don’t know, dfstell’s falling-out with DC was a very grim, drama-laden affair. It’s very awkward between them now, especially when DC sees dfstell in the street with Marvel, his new companion. We try not to talk about it around here. ^_<
But yes, I think if DC makes a push to become the leader in digital comics, and essentially the leader in the next generation of comics-readers, they'll have to make some serious, even painful commitments now to secure themselves for the future. And yup, those commitments may and should include a significantly reduced price point to draw people in.
My only problem with this, is that now we’re going to have to quite possibly go through and revamp the whole Earth numbering system.
And Marvel believes it got its characters right the first time, which is why they’ll never admit to a reboot or retcon…..
What does this mean for a guy like me? Well, I’m guessing Batman will still be Batman, no matter who wears the costume. Of course, as always, Bruce Wayne is Batman. And not the other way around, despite what some would have you believe.
I agree with the gist of your sentiments, though.
Greetings from Hungary btw. Love this page.
Thanks for reading, man! Wow, nice to know we’ve got readers from outside the continent.
I hope, if they reboot Batman as well, it’ll be close to Nolan’s version. Any chances?
Kind of up in the air, since the image of Batman for the JL#1 seems to be Dick. But at the same time, the last issue of Batman in August has Dick going through an identity crisis. Dun-dun-dun!
One thing is for sure, Batman Inc ends in August also, so where does that leave Bruce Wayne?
You rule, MQ.
I was just coming online to write more or less the same article.
All the little forumites are simply being the cynical whiners that they’ve always been. Internet forum comic fans are an online community that I’ve never been a fan of.
Personally, I’m excited. I feel the energy of this big move, and I also see it as a really cool chance to check out titles that have sucked for some time now. (JSA and JLA in particular)
It’s not clear to me that renumbering a title will change the amount of suck. A 73 on The Suck Scale is still a 73, whether or not the issue is numbered 1 or 1000.
I wasn’t referring to the numbering. In fact, I’ve never given a rat’s ass about numbering and always kind of laugh at how rattled people get by it.
I was really referring to the shuffling of creative teams. For instance, we already know that Guggenheim is off of JSA and that Nicieza is stepping in on Teen Titans.
Like I say, if DC uses this opportunity to really clean up the slate, not only in terms of its characters, but its creative capital as well, then it’s an opportunity well used. I won’t really get into it, but I can definitely list a handful of writers they need to get out of their payroll immediately, because those people have produced nothing worthwhile on almost anything they’ve worked on.