A few days ago I did a decently large post in my blog about the DCnU. You can go to the page here to read it, btu I also think I’ll just copy & paste the whole thing for ya’ll.
“Getting Worn Down in the DCnU”
The majority of people I talk to about DC Comics’ recent reboot of their entire universe proclaim their excitement readily. They tell me how much they’ve always been into comics but were always daunted by the characters’ massive backstories and decades of inter-character history. Even after being urged that everything will be alright if they just jump in at the beginning of a new story arc or if they just try a trade paperback here or there, they remain frightened and intimidated. Somehow, though, resetting all issues to number one solves all of these problems. Never mind that origins will be left untold, and the mechanics of an entire galaxy will need to be re-explained yet again. I’m happy that the comic book industry will gain new readers; everybody interested in comics knows how much the industry is hurting, despite huge box office movies.
A minority of those I speak with about comics are in an uproar over the reboot. They’re destroying well-established relationships, eliminating characters, eradicating entire timelines and histories. Barbara Gordon? She never got shot, she never became oracle, and she never transformed into an astoundingly poignant portrayal of disability in superhero comics. Dick Grayson? The man was never robin, but somehow still became Nightwing. Powergirl? Well, that one never existed at all. All of the characters have huge fan bases. I fall quite squarely into the camp who should be upset over PG. Much of the storytelling power comes from the rich well of stories already told in DC’s universe. An extra panel portraying a longing look between two characters can be full of emotion and lay the groundwork for undertones to be expounded upon years into the future. All of this, thrown away.
But, I don’t fall into either of these camps. I’m just tired. I’m only in my mid-20’s, and I still fall below the average reader age for comic books, but I’m already exhausted. DC has worn me down. I’ve last track of the number of times the universe was restructured, rebooted, or significantly altered since I was born. It all started with Crisis on Infinite Earths, and since then DC has rarely been able to get it right and let it stick. Zero Hour started out well enough, but revealed itself as the ultimate Deus ex Machina, taking not just a god out of the machine, but an entire new universe. In the 2000’s, DC got frank about its propensity to restructure, labeling its events Countdown, Infinite Crisis, and Final Crisis, a pattern first launched with Identity Crisis. Event comics boost sales, sure, but there’s a cost. They wear down readership.
DC’s rebooting their universe and the only thing I can say is that I don’t care. I know — it’s easy to say “meh” and put an air of superiority, but that’s not it, either. I’m excited for a new Justice League International with Booster Gold front and center. I’m upset that Power Girl is going away. But the major event titles? They’re rarely good stories, and they don’t really need to be. Writers for those titles get handed plots from editors and creative direction people. They have specific problems to solve and they need to do it with big explosions and “Power Level 9,000″ fights. Earth Prime Superboy doesn’t sustain an ounce of character because he’s littler more than a multiverse hammer, punching new characters into re-existence from the folds of a crystal between universes. That’s been the problem all along: in trying to streamline and simplify their universe(s), DC instead complicates their world and confuses new readers (”What? Multiverse? Earth Primer Superboy? Is that different?”).
The latest reboot admits defeat. They’re not going to try to use an event to fix their problems. They’re just going to throw all the bath water out the window, Kryptonian baby and all. And you know, they may just get it right this time. Without a big event, and without any convoluted need for explanation, DC may be getting to the core what an effective reboot should be: putting good writers and artists on the titles they want to produce, and just letting them tell the story they want. For some of their readers, however, it may be too late. There are decades of good stories already written, and I don’t need to roll the dice on them by picking them up week to week. I can buy the trade, and I think from now on, that may just be all I ever buy.
