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In September, DC Comics restarts 52 of their books (including Action and Detective) at #1.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=32566
As far as I can tell it's a soft reboot, not a total restart, with an excuse to de-age some characters. All I'm hoping is this doesn't affect what Morrison is doing with Batman, but otherwise I'm dulled to the constant gimmicks.
Stupid idea.
Stupid idea.
Do the big two have any other kind with their comics these days?
I could roll my eyes, but when I see the words "A new title starring Superman written by Grant Morrison" it's hard not to get at least a little bit curious.
And this may work for them, especially if it coincides with them starting to sell everything online. It might be a good way to bring in new readers to their material on a new format. From a business standpoint, it might pay off.
The problem with a line-wide reboot, even a "soft reboot", is that they fuck up the individual comics, hurting the smaller books and preventing them from getting any momentum. If they're carefully planned and agreed on, that's one thing, but it sounds like almost every time there's some book that gets the shaft on this stuff.
They need to stop making a big deal about ditching continuity and crossovers and just, y'know, ditch continuity and crossovers.
The problem with a line-wide reboot, even a "soft reboot", is that they fuck up the individual comics, hurting the smaller books and preventing them from getting any momentum. If they're carefully planned and agreed on, that's one thing, but it sounds like almost every time there's some book that gets the shaft on this stuff.
They need to stop making a big deal about ditching continuity and crossovers and just, y'know, ditch continuity and crossovers.
Just the latest symptom of the "have your cake and eat it too" approach of Marvel/DC to continuity. Either you have continuity, in which case people die and age and eventually get replaced by new characters, or you don't, in which case you pull an Ultimates or a MAX and start fresh with a new take on the character. Instead they try to have this meaningful history that needs constant purging because Bruce Wayne creeping up on 100 doesn't make any fucking sense. As you said though, the worst part is that the meaningful stuff that happens in smaller titles often gets swept away because the latest company-wide event needs a bunch of resurrected Z-List characters or whatever.
And yes, I know, a good story stands on its own and blah blah blah. The adult part of my brain knows its true (hello fictional universe!) but there's still that little bit of irrational, immature inner child that dies a little inside every time I see the original Star Wars films because I know, I know those stupid prequels exist.
What are these 'prequels' of which you speak - I have no idea what you're talking about*
* thank you Lacuna Inc.
Tom Spurgeon of the Comics Reporter: "I've thought in recent years that publishing entity companies like Marvel and DC should be concentrating on core readerships rather than mass ones, that growing their existing audience by 200 percent was a lot more reasonable a goal than somehow matching the heat and flash and cultural buzz that comes with something like that last Batman movie."
Tom Spurgeon of the Comics Reporter: "I've thought in recent years that publishing entity companies like Marvel and DC should be concentrating on core readerships rather than mass ones, that growing their existing audience by 200 percent was a lot more reasonable a goal than somehow matching the heat and flash and cultural buzz that comes with something like that last Batman movie."
That strikes me as a kind of silly statement. The companies have been "concentrating on their core readership" for the better part of twenty years now, and it keeps dwindling. The monthly print comic book is a dying niche market and has been since the early-mid 90's when comics stopped being "kid stuff" and suddenly were "collectors items" to only be doled out by Diamond Distributors to comic shops staffed by and catering to anal-retentive man-children with personal hygiene problems and social disorders (Yes, I realize that's a huge stereotype, but for God's sake this stereotype has a hell of a lot of basis in truth). The Simpson's "Comic Book Guy" didn't spring out of nowhere.
In other words, the comic shops became places that "normal folks" and people that weren't already part of the "club" had no desire to go to, so the opportunity to grow the market dwindled. It's improved somewhat with comics and trade paperbacks being decently stocked by some of the big-box bookstores, but even then, compared to the days when you could find a spinner rack in virtually every drug, convenience, and grocery store in America, the opportunity for random kids to pick up a random comic book and get into it are virtually nil (and that's not even getting into price).
This DC reboot looks to me like it's being directed by Time-Warner, and I don't think it's any coincidence that it comes what...about a year after they had a big "creative shakeup" that placed a Time-Warner exec in charge of the DC properties, as a reaction to the Marvel/Disney merger? Time-Warner wants a universe that's more "cross media friendly" so that someone that goes and sees The Dark Knight Rises or Green Lantern can come and buy (or more importantly now download, cutting out the problem of going to a comic shop) a Batman comic and not feel utterly lost.
That's actually the real news behind this. It's not the reboot that's important. DC's done that three or four times now. It's the same-day digital publishing that should be the bigger deal. It's likely the future of the monthly comic book if it wants to survive past the next 10-20 years. DC's trying to get ahead of the ball-game with this one, and doing it with a new-reader-friendly universe (or at least more new-reader friendly than what they had). Makes sense from a business perspective...downloadable comics have the opportunity to reach a lot more folks than the comic shops. Will it work? Only time will tell.
That's actually the real news behind this. It's not the reboot that's important. DC's done that three or four times now. It's the same-day digital publishing that should be the bigger deal. It's likely the future of the monthly comic book if it wants to survive past the next 10-20 years. DC's trying to get ahead of the ball-game with this one, and doing it with a new-reader-friendly universe (or at least more new-reader friendly than what they had). Makes sense from a business perspective...downloadable comics have the opportunity to reach a lot more folks than the comic shops. Will it work? Only time will tell.
And to this I say "Yay!". Comics are too damn expensive: that's why you no longer see them in every Drug Store and 711. But a comic on a PC or a Kindle or iPad that costs 35 cents? Sign me up baby!
And to this I say "Yay!". Comics are too damn expensive: that's why you no longer see them in every Drug Store and 711. But a comic on a PC or a Kindle or iPad that costs 35 cents? Sign me up baby!
Yeah, except they're going to run you $2.99 for the foreseeable future.
Did I miss something in the article about online distribution? Where has this been bandied about? I would consider getting into the tablet market for that.
Also, as to continuity and issue number changing, I agree continuity adherence needs to slacken up a bit. What would be interesting to see is a complete elimination of issue numbers and just identifying issues by the month and year they were published. If you coupled this with a continuity purge that set the big heroes at a "prime age" and then just began writing stories that had no temporal relationship except for the artwork style then perhaps you could bring in more readers and then not have to deal with the "real" age of fictional characters.
Stunted man-children everywhere would collectively implode if their precious heroes were removed from the grim and gritty realism and returned to fun, fictional storytelling that was captivating and worth the investment in money and time.
If the digital comics are being distributed through iTunes, then Apple just replaces Diamond as the monopolist who really controls the business. Reducing the costs of printing might reduce the cost of creation, but there's no reason to assume prices will drop for the customers.
What's boneheaded about all this, as Comics Alliance points out, is that Warner Brothers is making this move with so little notice. They could have hyped this to the public for a year before going digital, if they were serious about expanding their market to today's iPad and iPhone wielding youngsters. Instead it's going to happen with two month's notice, and the only mainstream press so far has been a full page ad in USA Today. Because the kids read the shit out of that, right? They just eat up the newspaper.
The day and date digital thing is going to crash and burn since digital copies are going to cost the same as physical.
And according to this, the reboot is NOT a Time-Warner mandate, but something that Johns and DiDio have been wanting to do for a while (my suspicion is that it's more Johns than DiDio, since he seems so obsessive about telling origin stories).
Yeah, except they're going to run you $2.99 for the foreseeable future.
Well that sucks! Also, what becomes of the beloved Comic Shop now?
If the digital comics are being distributed through iTunes, then Apple just replaces Diamond as the monopolist who really controls the business. Reducing the costs of printing might reduce the cost of creation, but there's no reason to assume prices will drop for the customers.
Yeah, this. As I understand it, savings on printing costs are not really passed on to the consumer. Hardcover books cost more to print, but not as much as their cover prices would suggest.
Quote:
I dunno, killed off by people who want to pay 35 cents for a comic?
Yeah, this. As I understand it, savings on printing costs are not really passed on to the consumer. Hardcover books cost more to print, but not as much as their cover prices would suggest.
Quote:
I dunno, killed off by people who want to pay 35 cents for a comic?
..which is what comics actually used to cost, you know, "back in the day"
"Back in the day" being circa 1973? Sure, and I'd like to pay $1 for a gallon of milk too, but building a time machine to facilitate that would probably not be very cost effective.
Solicitations for September describe Superman as "the first superhero", seemingly in-story. Provocative, could that mean the World War II era JSA never existed?
I'm excited that Grant Morrison is, at the very least, being left to his own devices (Batman seems completely unchanged, whereas Superman is getting a complete makeover). However, I can't help but wonder why DC can't settle on a backstory and move on to focus on good stories.
Marvel is, for all intents and purposes, the same continuity that has existed since 1940. They manage to work within that framework, why can't DC?
I gotta thank DC for this. My comic buying has dwindled greatly in the past year. Lack of funds. Lack of interest. Owning an iPad2. I was down to only 7 titles a month and they were all DC. Come September I wont be buying any comic books for the first time in more than 20 years.
They are mostly doing it in hopes of getting new fans, who don't know what issue they should jump onto, and get big retailer order numbers.
I guess I'm the only one that is curious about this. I walk into a comic book store now and I have no idea what on earth to pick up...I hate that feeling.
like the ultimates line it will quickly be mired in it's own shit continuity.
like the new universe, launching that many stories at once means that many will fail.
like heroes reborn it'll be style over content and will quickly revert back to the shit that came before.
Fucking Bob Harras.
What does continuity matter? Some of DC's best stories (Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, JSA: The Golden Age, Superman: Red Son, All-Star Superman) have been out of continuity. Like Alan Moore said, they're all imaginary stories.
If anything, this allows for the one thing that monthly comics are incapable of: endings. Just as the Silver Age Superman got an ending in "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?", Infinite Crisis works as an ending for John Byrne's Modern Superman, and "Grounded" is an ending for Johns' New Earth Superman. They're all "Superman", but each version gets a definitive beginning and ending.
I just want to know what this means for Power Girl.
Meanwhile, love this (although it's only tangentially related):
If DC had any sense, they would take this opportunity to give Supergirl Powergirl's personality and move on from there. Any attempt to explain Power Girl's origin is a stonewall for new readers.
I doubt Supes will be less super considering Morrison's take in All-Star. I bet the armor either absorbs and stores sunlight or helps him resist Kryptonite and/or red sunlight.
Kind of looks like a throwback to the 90s, but instead of lots of pouches they have lots of lines in their costumes
The 'winged sandal' motif on Flash's boots is pretty nifty.
All I can think about when I see those downward-angled belt buckles is they've got to be uncomfortable to sit down in.
So I just re-read Blackest Night for the first time since last year, and I have to say it's good ol' fashioned superhero storytelling. Not only does it channel Chris Claremont, but it has a nice bit of post-modern ruminations on death, mourning, and what it means for people in a world where resurrections are commonplace. With that said, and this also applies to The Return of Bruce Wayne, it's a nice ending.
What I mean is, this iteration of the DCU is running out of steam. Check out this essay from one of my favorite blogs:
http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.com/2010/03/happy-endings-super-hero-comic-books.html
There comes a time for these never-ending serial characters when an appropriate ending just...happens, often by chance. I'm not saying the characters shouldn't exist at all (that would never happen), but every twenty years or so they need a restart. It happened back in 1986 (and less cleanly back in 1956-1960). The same way that "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" was a denouement to the Silver Age, I'll consider Batman, Inc., "Grounded", and "The War of the Green Lanterns" (with *SPOILERS* Hal Jordan fired from being a GL */SPOILERS*) to be a denouement to the...Modern Age?
I love King Arthur, Robin Hood, Conan, and Harry Potter. What they all have in common is a beginning, middle, and end. Alan Moore discussed this in his foreward to The Dark Knight Returns, and it's spot on. There may have been some fudging with the timeline (Zero Hour, the Spectre erasing Wally West's secret identity from public knowledge, Infinite Crisis, JMS's Wonder Woman), but there was a relatively continuous storyline from 1986 to 2011.
If you consider the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity to retain the Silver Age (with sprinkles of the Golden Age), relatively, then there's been a continuous storyline since 1956.
My point is, in terms of selective continuity, this reboot allows for an artificial ending, and that pleases me.
I checked out a digital copy of Justice League today. I was curious about the story, and how it would look digitally. I'm not Jim Lee's biggest fan, but his art was unoffensive to me here, but the colors looked absolutely gorgeous and bold, with some really cool effects applied to GL in some places. Storywise, it was about what you'd expect from something like this. It felt like a beginning, and for some reason it felt refreshing to have these characters feel young again, if that makes any sense. It did have that "written for the trade" feel, though. Still, I look forward to seeing where some of this goes, in particular the Morrison/Morales Action Comics.
Going to wait for the trades, but I'm excited about this reboot. There's a real sense that what has been kept from before will be treated as "history" rather than continuity (for instance, The Killing Joke being tackled head-on in the first issue of Batgirl).
At the very least I hope we're treated to 15+ years of consistent shared universe. That's about how long each Age (Golden, Silver, Bronze, Prismatic) lasts, and how long it takes for a comic to need a fresh start. It was apparent around 2003, when DC soft rebooted The Doom Patrol, kept Birthright in continuity in order to reintroduce Supergirl, and published Trinity (which depicted Wonder Woman's arrival into Man's World before the formation of the Justice League, contrary to post-Crisis continuity) that an initiative was being spearheaded to restore the majority of the Silver Age. It's been so awkward ever since, as DC has stumbled from retcon to retcon attempting to define its history when it should have been worrying about its future.
What I like about this reboot is that each title feels distinct and stand-alone, not just in story but in tone, art, and genre.
I also see Kingdom Come as a clean ending to the 1986-2011 DCU, and I'm happy about that closure. The slate is clean, now...go!
Which is ironic, given that one of the aspects of this reboot that I was most intrigued by (other than the digital thing) was the promise of greater editorial emphasis on stories that played out to more organic lengths.
Justice League #1 wasn't terrible, but it suffered from what I call "Yellow spandex syndrome", where the characters are always calling attention to and mocking various bits of perceived silliness simply to make it clear that the writers are aware of how silly it is. It's hanging a lampshade, but for coolness instead of plot issues. "You're a guy dressed as a bat?!? Seriously?!?" Which is weird, since from everything I've read about Geoff Johns he doesn't usually flinch from superhero tropes. Anyway, it's really obnoxious, and I've yet to see anything interesting coming out of "the heroes meet for the first time in a world that doesn't yet trust them" concept.
I'm confused at this statement. You mean from comics in the past or about this one in particular? If you are just talking about JL, you need to give it more time than just one issue.
As for me, I thought there was not enough here. My problem with the dialogue was not the jokeyness at the expense of the past but about the way it seems to be written as DC for Dummies. I know they are trying to bring in new readers and need to explain what is going on but, for example, the Green Lantern dialogue explaining what the Green Lantern Corps were was just Exposition and seemed to talk down to longtime readers. I prefer to show and not just tell.
However, I loved the fact that we are getting Cyborg while he is still a teenager in high school and will get to see his transformation. I also like the Superman reveal at the end because he has an edginess in his attitude I have not seen in a long time.
Interested to see the second week's output to see how everything starts to work out.
"You're a guy dressed as a bat?!? Seriously?!?" Which is weird, since from everything I've read about Geoff Johns he doesn't usually flinch from superhero tropes.
That line is conveying Green Lantern's incredulity that Batman has no powers; it isn't a comment on Bat's costume.
I'll hazard a guess at the decompression of the first issue: Johns, and DC as a whole, is probably being encouraged by WB to play up the brand. That is, Batman and Green Lantern are the heroes with the most popular and recent movies. The novelty of this comic for the non-comic reader is seeing two (what they view as) movie characters meeting for the "first time".
Align that with how close all their costumes look to their movie counter-parts, along with pics of the Man of Steel outfit leaking showing a suit reasonably close to the Reboot design, and you've got brand cohesion. This reminds me of circa 2003-2004 when Wolverine had the same look line wide: in the regular Marvel U, Ultimate, and the X-Men: Evolution cartoon, he wore a black leather outfit (and had a silly goatee) and was drawn to resemble Hugh Jackman.
I'll hazard a guess at the decompression of the first issue: Johns, and DC as a whole, is probably being encouraged by WB to play up the brand. That is, Batman and Green Lantern are the heroes with the most popular and recent movies. The novelty of this comic for the non-comic reader is seeing two (what they view as) movie characters meeting for the "first time".
I see what you did there. Martin Campbell raped my childhood!
That line is conveying Green Lantern's incredulity that Batman has no powers; it isn't a comment on Bat's costume.
I know that. It's still a lampshade-hanging, "Hey, I know this is kinda dumb too, but just go with it!" moment. GL is calling attention to the silliness of the Batman concept (hopefully intentionally, but if it's unintentional that's even worse).
I've gotta say that I'm really amped for Action Comics on Wednesday, especially after reading certain parts of Morrison's "Supergods". There's a preview up on Newsarama that contains more story than all of JL #1. This is definitely a different Supes than the one we've had since Mort Weisinger, but I think the idea is that he'll get to that point by the end of Morrison and Morales' first story. For now, though, it'll be nice to have the socialist scrapper back. It's always good to have new stuff from Morales, too. Been a fan of the guy since I was a kid reading Turok.
But mostly I just wanted to bump this ahead of that damn humpty dumpty thread.
EDIT: I kind of can't wait to hear people talk about how that isn't "their" Superman. While there's some edge there, that's most definitely Superman. He doesn't hurt anyone, for one. He just scares the crap out of a white collar criminal. A touch I liked with the colors was everything was a bit grayish... except for Superman. He's this smiling blur of color, and that's great.
I've been out of reading comics for approximately 15 years, but have been thinking about jumping back in lately, so I really appreciate the idea behind the reboot. Part of the main reason that I stayed away for so long is the massive continuity and the feeling that I'd be completely lost.
So I jumped in the other day and picked up the Justice League book. It felt a bit slight (were books always this short? or did it just take me longer to read them when I was in middle school?), but I really enjoyed it overall. I'm looking forward to going back to the shop this week to pick up some of the new releases. Anyone have any thoughts on books/creative teams to look out for? I'm thinking of going with the heavy hitters (Superman, Batman, Lantern), but don't want to miss some potentially cool other titles.
Check out Hawk and Dove. Sterling Gates is an amazing writer and Rob Liefeld is drawing it.
I've been out of reading comics for approximately 15 years, but have been thinking about jumping back in lately, so I really appreciate the idea behind the reboot. Part of the main reason that I stayed away for so long is the massive continuity and the feeling that I'd be completely lost.
So I jumped in the other day and picked up the Justice League book. It felt a bit slight (were books always this short? or did it just take me longer to read them when I was in middle school?), but I really enjoyed it overall. I'm looking forward to going back to the shop this week to pick up some of the new releases. Anyone have any thoughts on books/creative teams to look out for? I'm thinking of going with the heavy hitters (Superman, Batman, Lantern), but don't want to miss some potentially cool other titles.
The whole "were books always this short?" feeling you got was due to the decompressed storytelling that has become the norm in mainstream superhero comics over the last 10 years or so. Ironically, part of the promise of the DC reboot was that editorial would try to reverse that trend in their books. Justice League #1 is too small a sample size to properly judge whether this will actually happen or not, but it doesn't look promising so far.
As for suggestions, try Batman #1. Writer Scott Snyder is moving onto that book after a stellar and all-too-brief run on Detective Comics in which he made it into a truly chilling horror comic that just happened to star Batman. I'm not a fan of the new artist he'll be teamed with on Batman (Greg Capullo, who was drawing Spawn), but some preview pages I've seen are making the art more palatable. I'm also gonna check out Wonder Woman #1, but that's because I'm Cliff Chiang's bitch.
My reaction on reading Action Comics #1: More like this please. Two bucks less than JL and it feels like twice the story. I seen some people saying that this Superman is a lot different from what we're used to, but I don't really see that. Different elements are played up here, but it still feels authentically like Superman. The issue itself packs in a lot of story while not feeling too packed. It was interesting reading this in light of Morrison's analysis of the original Action Comics #1 (as seen in Supergods). It seems that he set out to make this issue a mirror of that one, putting the Action front and center. Worth checking out!
EDIT: Animal Man was pretty good, too. Nice balance between superhero and horror. Detective Comics was pretty standard for what Batman's been since the 80s. Most of the time, anyway. Still haven't read Swamp Thing yet, but I've heard good things.
I loved the art work in Animal Man
Yeah, Animal Man looks great. Looking forward to seeing where this one goes.
Swamp Thing doesn't quite have anything to really hook you in so far, but some interesting seeds are planted for the future of the storyline. Some cool horror flourishes here and there, but at this point it could go either way still. Seeing the art by Paquette reminded me that there was a huge missed opportunity in not trying to roll out a Buletteer ongoing during this whole thing, but I guess she's sort of built upon the old continuity. Still, I miss that character.
Got Action Comics, Animal Man, Stormwatch and Swamp Thing today.
Action Comics was everything it's been hyped up to be. It's economic and efficient, conveying a lot of information in a short amount of time, while being exciting and building anticipation for what's to come. Who were the three that came by Clark's place? What's the thing by Neptune getting closer? I love Luthor as a consultant, I hope he stays a threat but not a "villain" to the public. Aside from Superman as a Socialist/Anarchist I'm excited the most by what appears to be a relatable version of Clark Kent. For too long I haven't been able to buy Clark being accepted as an aggressive investigative journalist, but this is a Clark that can be assertive without being a yuppie football player.
Animal Man was my favorite of the bunch. The interview establishes very quickly that this is classic Grant Morrison Animal Man (stuntman, family man, vegan, activist), but now indie actor and pop culture icon has been added to the mix. I love that him being a family man and public hero has been kept, that makes him unique among the bunch. Provocative hints of what's to come, nice bit of empathetic superhero action, and creepy horror movie vibe at the end there.
Stormwatch was a bit too brisk and bizarre for bizarre's sake. It's great that these characters (Apollo, Midnighter, Hawksmoor) appear to maintain their essential essence from the Wildstorm days while meeting for the first time, but this issue felt like a big fight with jump cuts to random events lacking context. Still, it caught my attention, and the little nods to other titles give it a feeling of fun shared universe without relying on outside knowledge. This is the first time I've been convinced of a competent, engaging Martian Manhunter (his redesign is nice too, the ridges on the head are just alien enough and the costume is suitably streamlined), and I admit to a thrill of cognitive dissonance at seeing all of these characters together again/for the first time.
Swamp Thing is a character I've long had an affinity for and that's a pro and con of this issue. First off, having Alec Holland restored and human is a nice touch and way to differentiate itself from the past while keeping the history intact. The problem is this is a talking heads issue. We're told that Alec Holland used to be dead and now has Swamp Thing's memories and is alive again, but Swamp Thing only shows up at the very end. Far too much exposition, too much telling and not showing, and the blatant Superman (and Batman, and Aquaman) appearance reeks of a lack of confidence. Shaky start, but it's clear Snyder has a clear voice for Holland and a clear direction for this comic, as the threat presented is suitably creepy and the cliffhanger has my attention.
This is the first time I've bought floppies in over four years. I may not be collecting on a monthly basis, but I'm glad to have dipped my toe in the water again. There's an energy, even with the few missteps, to these comics I haven't felt since the early days of Ultimate Spider-Man and Morrison's New X-Men.
