DC RELAUNCHING entire Universe in September

[thenammagazine]

I really like the dynamic between Batman and Superman. I don't see how they can keep that with a 22 year old Superman and a what, late 30's early 40's?, Batman. Bats will just see Supes as a young idealist and Supes will see Bats as a crochety geezer instead of understanding and appreciating the strengths and weakneses they each have, and how they counterbalance it in one another.

Assuming they even know each other.

 

[The Mike]

Perez can't draw young people for crap (I do love Perez's art though) my thought is since they are all on Justice League together that Superman tells the current time (whatever that is) and Action Comics is a like a prequel comic that tells what happened before hand. Superman looks older in Perez's art for Superman #1

I don't see a late 30s Bruce but 20s Wondy, Supes, Hal and Barry ever working in terms of a dynamic.

 

[Agent0028]

Ah, sorta like the Batman Confidential comics that are set in his earlier years as Batman. That makes sense...and makes it seem like even less of a reboot. Thanks for the clarification. I read the TPB's so talking about actual titles throws me off sometimes. That Batman has half a dozen titles of his own makes my head spin when trying to get everything right continuity wise.

 

[thenammagazine]

Perez can't draw young people for crap (I do love Perez's art though) my thought is since they are all on Justice League together that Superman tells the current time (whatever that is) and Action Comics is a like a prequel comic that tells what happened before hand. Superman looks older in Perez's art for Superman #1

I don't see a late 30s Bruce but 20s Wondy, Supes, Hal and Barry ever working in terms of a dynamic.

In two years, the shareholders will unanimously agree to send Dido and Lee packing for the record low book sales and we'll come to discover that Mxyzptlk will have been behind this whole thing, Batman will trick him into saying his name backwards and everything will return to normal.

 

[The Mike]

It isn't exactly clarification mind you just my own logical attempt at something that so far has no logic. We're all waiting for September. If you're lost on continuity then September is the perfect time to join in because they'll be making a new one at that point.

 

[amusedjester]

Mike, your points hit everything exactly on the head.

I've been an avid DC reader since the original crisis. Throughout the X stories from marvel, I was reading DC titles. Even when Image was at the top I was with DC.

How many times was Superman revamp at these time, 4 or 5? How many cosmic events did DC have in the last 5 years? Identity crisis, 52, death of the new gods, world war 3, final crisis, trinity, one year later, blackest night, war of the rings, brightest day, countdown, war of the supermen, krypton, death of bruce wayne, return of bruce wayne....I've been with DC good and bad and now what does DC do?
Screw the old readers because it wants to get the attention of a new generation stuck on their gadgets with their game apps and limited attention span.

Be careful what you wish for DC, you just might get the attention of a new generation for all of 15 minutes then they're off to the new thing, leaving you behind to come back to your old tried and true readers.

And yes, I am going to read this re-launch to give it a chance ( a year) because I am a DC man, through and through.

 

[Agent0028]

It isn't exactly clarification mind you just my own logical attempt at something that so far has no logic. We're all waiting for September. If you're lost on continuity then September is the perfect time to join in because they'll be making a new one at that point.

After all the time I've devoted into trying to put everything in place with the current continuity? Screw that. I'm right there with you long time readers in being annoyed.

 

[karamazov80]

The only thing I'm reasonably interested in so far is the Stormwatch. Was a pretty great title when Warren Ellis took over and when it transitioned to the Authority. Neat to see a mainstream DC character involved. But even so, it seems like an Elseworlds deal, and not something that belongs in the traditional DC Universe.

Robin, Harley Quinn, Deathstroke, Superman, and most others here look like poo. And they didn't even use this as an excuse to make Ted Kord Blue Beetle again. Lame.

If I'm gonna be honest though, some of those covers look great purely as pieces of comic art.

 

[Silent December]

I don't usually get emotional over fictional characters but I found this touching, By Phil Noto:

 

[Serpentor]

really we need moody Supergirl again? That worked so well when Loeb did that on his first 6 issues and everyone hated the book. It took forever for Kara to get a good writer who managed to make her an interesting character and made the book enjoyable. So I guess the Linda Lang secret identy is gone and if she doesn't love the people of earth why even be Supergirl?

It really looks like Batman and Green Lantern got to keep continuity for the most part because of Morrison and Johns everything else was given the reboot shuffle. And there is so many decisions that scream are they really that stupid, bring Barbara back as Batgirl ok great so Casandra fans get angry so do Stephanie brown fans. Why not give Casandra an ongoing in Hong Kong where she represents Batman Inc? oh yeah right because Batwing gets his own title......Casandra being Asian and female isnt good enough.

I don't see many long time DC fans jumping up and down with joy for this re-launch its not what we asked for, its not what we want. We'll see come December-January how well this re-launch goes. I'm sure all the issue 1's will sell well enough.

 

[sfa]

After hearing the news about this re-boot I foolishly allowed myself to get excited over it.

As a hardcore long-time Batman fan I thought this would be a great opportunity to start collecting Batman comics again since I imagined they would just erase a lot of the ridiculous, thick, cloudy, muddy mess of characters & storylines we've had in the recent few years and start fresh again - along the lines of classic characters in their original incarnations but a more modern setting with fresh stories.

But no....

After reading the solicits for the reboot comics it seems they've hardly changed anything for Batman at all.
Batman Inc. is still a very large part of Batman's world it would seem since almost all the new Batman related titles mention it. (personally I hate the whole Batman Inc. thing - IMO it doesn't suit the characters' mythos or MO in any way)
Damian is still Robin, Tim is still Red Robin, Grayson has still been Batman (although thankfully he is Nightwing again!!!! - there should always only be Bruce as Batman IMO)
The only real change I can see is that Babs is now Batgirl - something I would have been a lot more enthusiastic about if this had been a real reboot for the Bat-world. As it stands now I get the feeling she'll have still been Oracle all these years but something has changed to allow her to be Batgirl again.

All in all I just feel really underwhelmed by the whole stunt. I personally feel they have missed an opportunity here. I mean, if your gonna reboot something then you should grab the bull by both horns and do it!!
I know most people now are saying this is a revamp and not a reboot (although the impression we all got at first was that it would be a reboot) but that still doesn't negate my points.

I really feel now would have been the perfect time to start fresh with Batman again. IMO there are just too many characters, too many allies, too many new-gimmick villains and too many cross-over storylines that it's all just become a bit.... non-Batman.
Also with the current continuity I feel like they'd hit a bit of a 'growth peak', like there's not really any further they could have gone without the characters becoming somewhat unrecogniseable.
How much more of a step would it have been until we saw a Batman with meta-human abilities or super powers?

Anyway, I'm clearly ranting now so I'll wrap it up

I really want to get back into monthly comic collecting again so I'll almost certainly give the new comics a try incase I'm (hopefully) pleasantly suprised, but for now I'll just keep on dreaming of the awesomeness that could have been.....

 

[sithlord13]

The best relaunch I remember save maybe post crisis dc universe as a whole was the five years later storyline for legion of superheroes back in 1989
And of course dc chickened out ruined it and then revamped it away

 

[Jair]

In two years, the shareholders will unanimously agree to send Dido and Lee packing for the record low book sales and we'll come to discover that Mxyzptlk will have been behind this whole thing, Batman will trick him into saying his name backwards and everything will return to normal.

Like the shareholders have anything to say regarding DC, DC Comics is such a small part of the whole Warners pie, they just keep it around for the IP of the characters. Movies, Games and licensing is where the money is at. Didio and Lee will be with DC long after most of us stop reading comic books.


Evan

 

[Kabukiman]

Are the writer/artist combos gonna stick, or are these just for the #1's? If they're sticking, I'm going to have to check out Morrison's Action Comics. Everything looks and sounds horrible right now, but the man has given us one of the best Superman stories ever with All-Star Superman.

I'm not really a Justice League fan, but it's hard not to get excited about Johns and Lee taking on that title.

I love Batman, but there is just waaaaaay too much going on there. I'm not going to touch a single one of the 80 bajillion bat-titles.

Aside from that, Demon Knights sounds good, Dark Justice League sounds interesting, and I'm really kinda intrigued by Suicide Squad.

I like what I'm seeing with the Green Lantern books too, but I get those anyway. I'll be in for the 3 GL books, not interested in Red at all.

 

[thenammagazine]

Like the shareholders have anything to say regarding DC, DC Comics is such a small part of the whole Warners pie, they just keep it around for the IP of the characters. Movies, Games and licensing is where the money is at. Didio and Lee will be with DC long after most of us stop reading comic books.


Evan

A siv is a siv. Tme Warner can still own the IPs whether or not DC's publishing anything. Makes me wonder how they're gonna deal with the Superman amputation come 2013?

 

[The Mike]

If Marvel keeps Joe Q and all of his ____ ideas, Didio will be around no problem. The Superman movie in theaters will help the lawsuit since one of the lynchpins of the suit is that there be a film in theaters and if they do actually lose it to the point where the family won't sign this reboot/relaunch makes it easier to ditch the old. The costuming is already different radically but recognizable, the symbology is the only thing left.

 

[Batty]

Awful suit design. Rebooting a title is one thing, I even understand changing the colors a bit, but adding all those lines to an iconic costume like this is ridiculous.

Poor Harley Quinn. This is just pandering to readers who are more interested in boobs. Why not just put little Xs made from electrical tape over her nipples?

I have to admit, I do like this cover.

 

[Jair]

A siv is a siv. Tme Warner can still own the IPs whether or not DC's publishing anything. Makes me wonder how they're gonna deal with the Superman amputation come 2013?

DC comics still makes money, it's been said time and time again the suits are happy with Didio, if they weren't he would have been fired during the reformat of DC.

I really don't think DC is going to lose a thing with Superman honestly, I've been following the lawsuit for a few years now and it's all grandstanding. I think they courts will end up forcing some kind of settlement and it won't effect Warner's ability to publish Superman in the least.


Evan

 

[fanger54]

DC comics still makes money, it's been said time and time again the suits are happy with Didio, if they weren't he would have been fired during the reformat of DC.

I really don't think DC is going to lose a thing with Superman honestly, I've been following the lawsuit for a few years now and it's all grandstanding. I think they courts will end up forcing some kind of settlement and it won't effect Warner's ability to publish Superman in the least.


Evan

Worst case scenario at the moment for the lawsuit is that we will end up with 2 superman, one the original version and the current revamp.
also DC has the rights to the S shields, they made it what it is in terms of design, the original shield was much more different in shape, so DC does not have to redesign the S shield at all , probably why its being used still even after the reboot

 

[thenammagazine]

If Marvel keeps Joe Q and all of his ____ ideas, Didio will be around no problem. The Superman movie in theaters will help the lawsuit since one of the lynchpins of the suit is that there be a film in theaters and if they do actually lose it to the point where the family won't sign this reboot/relaunch makes it easier to ditch the old. The costuming is already different radically but recognizable, the symbology is the only thing left.

Worst case scenario at the moment for the lawsuit is that we will end up with 2 superman, one the original version and the current revamp.
also DC has the rights to the S shields, they made it what it is in terms of design, the original shield was much more different in shape, so DC does not have to redesign the S shield at all , probably why its being used still even after the reboot

I thought post 2012, DC only owns the rights to the boots, his ability to fly, villains, etc. The blue suit, red cape, S-shield, the name (Superman, Kal-El, Clark) and origin all go back to the Siegel and Shuster estates?