DC to "Reboot Everything"

[HaemishM]

Universe reboots can't be half-assed. This sounds half-assed and has been the problem with every reboot DC has done since Crisis. Either have the guts to start all the way over and keep piling on continuity problems. Ultimates worked because it was a real reboot even if it was a parallel reboot.

[Velorath]

The problem with Ultimates is that continuity can build up again quickly and shitty creative teams can fuck things up even further.  Look at shit like Ultimatum.

[Fordel]

Which is why comic spanning continuity is silly and stupid and 

[Khaldun]

What's especially annoying is that it IS going to fuck with several ongoings where they were actually telling great stories (including the current run of Detective which, yes, features Dick Grayson as Batman). There is no way in hell that they can find 52 books worth of good writers and artists that can tell stories that aren't continuity porn. Another sign of the stupidity of this is that Geoff Johns is clearly going to be one of the primary architects, and he pretty much exemplifies everything that's wrong and limiting about the current inbred state of most superhero comics: he uses gore just to communicate that he's "sophisticated", he is in love with the most inbred continuity elements imaginable, and he compulsively retells and retools the origins of characters every few years since he can't think of any other kind of story to tell.

[koro]

There are a few interesting books and creative teams coming out of this, but by and large it's a bunch of Do Not Want. Batman himself is looking to be DC's Wolverine: he's the headlining star of four titles (Batman, Batman & Robin, Detective, and Dark Knight; the latter two, maybe three apparently having their own individual continuities, which I'm sure is just fantastic for the new comics fan DC is looking to snare), is a lead character in two major supergroups (both JLA and JLI), and will likely be a major character in more individual books (Nightwing, Batgirl, Batwoman).

There's also a couple of interesting little editorial edicts which drive a lot of the new character designs as well: the first is the removal of all "outside underwear", mainly affecting Superman and Batman and Aquaman and all women are to wear pants (or things approximating pants). The latter has led to some unfortunate costume designs, like Black Canary's hideous green spandex leggings with fishnets over them, but has shifted artist focus upwards, so now anyone who can has a shitload of cleavage.

[UnSub]

I got a good chuckle out of Jim Lee's costume redesigns: everyone gets a bit more armoured, except SHOW US YOUR NORKS WONDER WOMAN.

[Tebonas]

Is that a green energy gatling gun? How far the Green Lanterns have fallen from days of yore.

[HaemishM]

Wonder Woman's costume looks like shit. 

[Merusk]

Is that a green energy gatling gun? How far the Green Lanterns have fallen from days of yore.

They felt the need for a movie tie-in where GL does indeed use a green energy machine gun.

I don't follow GL and never have, but even to me that seemed incredibly stupid.  Doesn't his ring do anything his mind can concieve?  Why would a projectile weapon be necessary at all?  Does everything have to originate with the ring or can it be free-floating?  If it can't be free-floating, how the fuck do green-energy bullets work? My mind was boggled.

[koro]

Wonder Woman's costume looks like shit.  

It looks slightly better on the cover of her solo book where it's someone other than Jim Fucking Lee drawing it, but yeah.

And now that DC is folding the Wildstorm characters into the DCU proper, everyone's got 90's fever again. So we get shit like this for the "new" Teen Titans:

[HaemishM]

Oh dear fucking God, the return of Scott Lobdell, unnecessary wings and shiney shiney costumes. And what the fuck is Superboy wearing on his back, a taped on Superman symbol? 

[Ingmar]

Wonder Woman's costume looks like shit.  

I think the real problem is whoever drew Wonder Woman herself has only a vague idea of what human anatomy actually looks like.

[MuffinMan]

They felt the need for a movie tie-in where GL does indeed use a green energy machine gun.

I don't follow GL and never have, but even to me that seemed incredibly stupid.  Doesn't his ring do anything his mind can concieve?  Why would a projectile weapon be necessary at all?  Does everything have to originate with the ring or can it be free-floating?  If it can't be free-floating, how the fuck do green-energy bullets work? My mind was boggled.

Heh, I was just ranting about the machine gun last night. Sure, my mind can conceive what a machine gun looks like but I sure as fuck don't know how one works or how to put it together.

[Fordel]

I have no idea who any of those characters are supposed to be in the Teen Titans picture.



Also, how is Cyborg chilling out with the rest of the justice league? The iconic super heroes, superman, batman, flash, greenlantern and wonderwoman... then Cyborg! 

[Mazakiel]

Cyborg will also be part of the team, with Johns calling him, "the modern-day, 21st-century superhero".

"He represents all of us in a lot of ways. If we have a cellphone and we're texting on it, we are a cyborg — that's what a cyborg is, using technology as an extension of ourselves."

And

Diversity will be a key theme, with what's called "recent emphasis" on diverse characters such as the lesbian Batwoman and the Hispanic Blue Beetle (along with the African-American Cyborg) continuing.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/DC-Universe-Reboot-Announcement-110531.html



It all seems rather forced and silly to me, but that can be said about the whole reboot thing in general as far as I'm concerned.  When I first heard the news, I was hoping it'd at least get some of the recent Batman stuff thrown out, but apparently that's not the case either. 

[stu]

haha jim lee still doesn't know how to draw feet

[koro]

And what the fuck is Superboy wearing on his back, a taped on Superman symbol? 

Oh my fucking god, I never noticed that until just now.

Cannot unsee.

[Sir T]

Wonder Woman's costume looks like shit.  

That's more or less her costume in the forthcoming TV series...


... where it still looks like shit. (Edit: Forgot to add image tags. Fixed)

And what the fuck is Superboy wearing on his back, a taped on Superman symbol?  

But you see, its only taped on the top, so it can still flap like a very small cape. Its a really clever homage to adult Supie. [/management meeting]

[MuffinMan]

That's more or less her costume in the forthcoming TV series...

Show has been axed before the pilot even aired.

[Tannhauser]

So they're going with the costume of a pilot that will never air?  How do their giant brains not burst from their brilliance?

Oh and the TT looks like a juvenile version of JLA.  And Cyborg's in JLA?  What, did the JLA's HR dept. issue a memo to Superman?

[Lakov_Sanite]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyGx3m1gPZI

[UnSub]

Okay, Teen Titans: I'm guessing Superboy, Donna Troy, Impluse and OMG IS THAT THE RED ROBIN COSTUME???

I don't know who Spider-Gal or TarWoman are.

WW's costume changed last year and now it is being changed again. The idea is to give female characters pants, rather than, "I'm off to fight crime - now where did I put my fishnets and g-string?".

[Lantyssa]

I liked the recent Wonder Woman redesign though.  Shame they're going with that travesty.

[Sir T]

Yep, that design was the right side of good.

[Samprimary]

the same inbred, stifling continuity porn that condemns most comics to a small group of insiders.

It sure as hell chased me away.

[Khaldun]

In almost all the announced books, I see zero streamlining of story and continuity issues. These are even busier, messier books at the conceptual level. The costume redesigns are mostly equally fussy, coming off roughly as "Hey, we thought the visual look of 90s superhero comics was great!"

I think the basic take that I've seen elsewhere that DC has decided to just get it over with and commit suicide, while Marvel is sticking with wasting away and dying slowly, is about right. When the dust settles in about five to ten years, there aren't going to be monthly superhero comic books, basically.

[Khaldun]

Speaking of slow-fading-away, Marvel's summer event comic is just stunning crap, and from a writer whose work I've otherwise liked a lot (Matt Fraction). Three issues in and it's not clear what's going on, why anyone should care, or anything else. Once again the entire world is getting the shit pounded out of it--how many times is that going to happen? And again, a "death" to make it seem like it has gravitas, with Bucky-Captain America getting killed, which makes three years of interesting storytelling by Ed Brubaker utterly pointless.

Somebody really needs to take away the intellectual property from both publishing houses, shut them down for six months, and come back with a lean, spare set of interesting titles with tight, effective storytelling and no continuity obsessions. Dump 75% of the characters into limbo for now: most of them have no consistent personalities, no interesting storytelling hooks, no unique conceptual ideas behind them. Crowded superhero universes are only interesting if the crowdedness itself becomes a compelling idea of ongoing writing, as in Alan Moore's Top Ten series or Busiek's Astro City.

[Sir T]

And again, a "death" to make it seem like it has gravitas, with Bucky-Captain America getting killed, which makes three years of interesting storytelling by Ed Brubaker utterly pointless.

Well, don't worry, he could have been shot with time bullets. 

[Khaldun]

The DC titles are all being announced. 52 titles. I think they've got to have a plan for cancelling half or more of them within five issues. The market is simply not going to support anything like that. Many of the creative teams are quality choices, mind you, but there's no way anybody is buying more than a fraction of those.

Lots of them are very oddball, niche, continuity-driven, titles that will grab no one who is not already a comics reader unless they really open up the creative range so far that creators can do pretty much whatever the fuck they want with little editorial control. Dan Didio is not known for leaving his creators to do whatever they want, so I don't think that's happening.

[Fordel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyGx3m1gPZI

Evil Beware, we have waffles. 

[Velorath]

Newsarama has compiled descriptions of all the new books here.  There are a few interesting books (Morrison on Action Comics, Milligan doing a supernatural Justice League with John Constantine on the team, a Frankenstein book, and a few others).  And then you've got stuff like Batwing, where the book's description is essentially "here's a black guy wearing a Batman suit, written by Judd Winick".  Or the Stormwatch book, where they shoehorn some characters from the old Stormwatch/Authority into the DCU (where obviously their body counts are going to have to be toned down a bit), and then throw Martian Manhunter on the team.

[Fordel]

Wait, Starfire is a antihero? 

[Sir T]

I actually quite like Supergirls new costume.

[spoiler][/spolier]

[caladein]

That's quite good actually, especially the cloak.  Not sure what's going on with the boots though...

[Fordel]

I like the BlackHawks idea, but I doubt the execution will live up to anything I am envisioning in my brain.