The All-New DCU
The comics community has been abuzz with the news of DC’s announced relaunch of just about all of their titles. Some say it’s a bold move, while others say it’s desperate. Some think it marks the beginning of the end of the comics industry, and some think it’s exactly the shot in the arm that the industry needs right now. Clearly, it’s a big gamble, and it has the potential to be either a huge success or a massive failure.
This isn’t the first time that the folks at DC have flipped a giant reset switch on their continuity. But it seems like this may be the most thorough reboot to date. Details aren’t completely clear yet, but it sounds like the 52 new titles launching in September will completely wipe the slate clean, instead of creating a new reality to exist alongside the previous ones, as the various “crises” have done. (Let me acknowledge here that I am not a regular reader of DC comics, so I apologize if I’m getting stuff wrong.)
A lot of long-time DC fans are upset over this move, and who can blame them? Imagine following a character for years or decades only to be told that everything you knew about him has been erased and will be replaced by a new version. Many fans have thrown up their hands and swear that they’ll never read another DC comic. But without a twelve-step program, I imagine many of them will relapse.
I’m sure DC is prepared to lose some readers in this deal, but they’re hoping to gain more new readers than they lose. The idea is that there are people who might be interested in reading comics, but are intimidated by the decades of convoluted back story. Maybe a new reader would be more willing to get on board with a first issue than with a 601st. Marvel tried something similar with their Ultimate line, and it was fairly successful for a while. But in that case, they created a new continuity that existed in addition to their main lines, and that led to some confusion. DC’s plan eliminates this confusion by simply starting from scratch.
At the risk of angering any DC fans out there, I must admit that the idea of a reboot intrigues me. DC’s animated shows have piqued my interest in their comics lately, but the ton of back story (and really confusing back story at that) has turned me off. With all that swept aside, I’ll probably be checking out several of the new series.
The other big factor in the relaunch is that the new series will have electronic versions available on the same day as their print counterparts, which is a bit of a mixed bag. It may be a good move for publishers, and for the comics industry as a whole, but comic shops will likely suffer. The move to digital is probably as inevitable in the comics industry as it was in the music industry, but it will be a painful process for many.
This is a pretty complicated issue, and I know I’m late to the party. But I’m interested to know what you think of it. How do you long-time DC fans feel about the move? And if you’re not already a DC reader, does the relaunch make you want to check them out? Discuss!
I’ve been expecting something lilke this ever since Marvel came out with their Ultimate line, which saw tons of new readers jump on board.
The problem is, that it doesn’t take long for the new launch to become packed with backstory. No more than a couple years and you’ll have people saying theres to much to catch up in order to start reading. That’s what happened with the Ultimates.
Personally I think I’ll give them a shot. Because like many, I’m just too overwhelmed by backstory to start reading DC at the moment.
Yeah, that’s a good point. To the average non-comics-reader, three years of back story may be just as intimidating as 60 or 70. Still, I think that DC’s extensive library of back issues, with multiple continuities and reboots, was so tangled that something needed to happen. Also, I wonder if the easy availability of digital back issues will make people more likely to dive in after a couple of years.
Sometimes I think that there ought to be some kind of “no continuity” line of comics. Something that would be a handy “jump-on” point for new readers. I don’t know how you’d do it though.
I do know that as you’ve mentioned, continuity scares people off. Also, I know that the comics in the average store are intimidating to kids. Or at least to my kids.
When I brought them in on “Free Comic Book Day,” one of my daughters asked me, “Where is the kids’ section?” and then I realized that there wasn’t any. Once they got their free comics and I picked up the ones I was going to buy, there wasn’t any reason for them to stay in the store.
So maybe there ought to be a kids line too?
Or maybe a gateway line that continually produces mini-series for characters that’s oriented toward people who don’t know 20 years of history?
Anyway, I hope it works for DC. Rebooting for the current era seems like the sort of thing that should happen, but doing it and keeping current readers has got to be a challenge.
One of Stan Lee’s old rules of writing for comics was “Every issue is someone’s first issue.” I don’t know if it holds true today like it did back in the ’60s and ’70s; if you go back and read some of the Silver Age comics you can pick up some of the tricks they used to keep readers who’d missed the previous issue(s) from getting too confused.
Anyway, it depresses me to pick up an issue of a comic and find a full page synopsis of “The Story So Far…”. It makes sense for comics that are going to be collected eventually that the writer not remind the reader every 24 pages of what’s happened, but it makes it a little less fun to just grab a series one is unfamiliar with.
I understand why Stan did things that way in his day, but it made for some pretty clunky writing. In every issue of Spider-Man, there’d be a panel where Peter Parker would think “Ever since that radioactive spider bit me…” or “My failure to act cost Uncle Ben his life. I can’t let that happen again!” There’s a fine line between being accessible for newbies and being annoying for your regular readers.
My very first thought when I heard this news was, “Are they having trouble coming up with ideas for bringing Batman back to life or something?” But they apparently already brought him back, which shows you how closely I follow comics. Which is probably why I was kind of happy to hear the news. I know some people could never read another super hero origin story and die happy, but I love origin stories and with this move, odds are I’ll get a few more. Maybe I will check out a few titles, we’ll see.
I’m not really clear on whether or not there will be new origin stories for everyone. Since they’re releasing 52 new series in one month, that would be a lot of brand new superheroes in the universe all at once. But at this point, nothing would surprise me.
This whole thing about “there’s too much backstory to catch up on/continuity is intimidating” argument…It’s never made sense to me. It’s like saying you can’t enjoy a baseball game because there are too many statistics to catch up on or fantasy league comparisons are too intimidating. The backstory is there if you want to get in to it, but I don’t see where any writers have made it critical to anyone’s enjoyment. Sure, you might come in at the middle of an arc, same as you come into a movie or tv show halfway through. That doesn’t make the story utterly impenetrable, does it?
BTW, The Specialists is a great comic. Keep up the good work!
First, thank you for the kind words, Kaisius!
You’re absolutely right, there’s no requirement that anyone catch up on the entire back story of a comic. If that were the case, there’d never be any series that got past a few dozen issues. And certainly, when I got into comics as a kid, most of the series that I followed (Spider-Man, Iron Man, etc.), were already into triple digits.
But I think these number-reseting stunts are more for new readers, and also for people who may have missed out on comics in their youth. When I was a kid, comics cost about $.75, and you could find them in convenience stores and grocery stores. And in the days before cable TV, video games, and the Internet, comics were a cheap and accessible entertainment.
Then the comics landscape shifted. The direct market disappeared, so you generally could only find comics in specialized comic stores. And as the quality of the printing increased, so did the price, until it cost a few bucks per issue. At that point, comics were no longer a simple distraction that you might pick up as an impulse buy while you were getting a Snickers at the corner convenience store. They became a specialty item. People who liked the latest superhero movie and wanted to check out the comics it was based on would first have to find a comics store, and then found themselves overwhelmed by the racks and racks of issues, and in many cases, multiple titles for the character they were interested in. Then, finding that the latest issue was the 520th in the series, they might decide that their $3 or $4 could be better spent on something else.
Clearly, the numbering and the back story is probably the least of the comics industry’s problems. Making comics cheaper and more available might have a greater impact. Of course, there’s only so much that can be done in that area. Rebooting the entire universe and starting from scratch probably seems like the easiest way to shake things up.