How We Can Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the DCU’s Reboots

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