Thoughts on DC's New 52

[kybearfuzz]

While I was working out Sunday, I looked over to my bookcase and saw my copy of "The DC Comics Encyclopedia". It was a Christmas gift a few years back from my sister. I realized that the book is now outdated with DC's "New 52" reboot/revamp. I think it was right then that I came to the conclusion of why I dislike the "New 52."

The history of DC Comics is gone.

Comparing the "New 52" to the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" or "Infinite Crisis" events is not correct. They are apples and an orange. When the first "Crisis" redid the DC Universe, the history was modified, but largely was left intact. All past events still happened, even with a few rebooted characters like Wonder Woman. When it was "undone" by the Infinite Crisis some years later, the history was still relatively the same. The Jay Garrick Flash was still around, along with most of the heroes that were made famous in the 1940's.

In the 1960's, when the new generation of heroes of "Earth 1" were created, the past heroes of the JSA still existed. The JLA heroes were just added to the universe and eventually interacted with them. Lately I've been re-reading the "Crisis on Multiple Earth" trades, which compiles the Justice League/Justice Society team-ups from my youth and before. I'm anxiously awaiting Volume 6 in June.

However, in the "New 52" universe, these heroes just don't exist anymore. It's that simple. In one moment, everything changed, all history was removed and the comic book company just started at time zero. The Justice Society of the 1940's and all incarnations forward were no more. No JLA/JSA team-ups ever occurred. The stories I read about in the trades are not in the continuity. While the new DC is re-creating the JSA, they're all new too.

For someone brand new to comics, this might seem like no big deal. To a collector of comics of 35 years like me, it's amazingly disappointing.

I suspect the number of "new" comics that's being discontinued shows that a lot of readers aren't overly impressed by the changes either. I wonder how long this experiment is going to last.

Comments

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

I thought it was terrible after the FIRST Crisis back in 1985 or so.

DC basically merged ALL Earths into one.

They said it was to avoid confusion.

The idea of multiple Earths and an infinite
number of possibilities never confused me.

I have lived with the concept of parallel universes since I was 4 or 5.

DC killed off Supergirl, which upset me greatly.

They changed too much.

One of my favorite books, ALL STAR SQUADRON
was badly damaged by the 1985 Crisis.

It was canceled because too many heroes from
the 1940's never existed after Crisis.

I quit ALL the comics I was reading by 1989, and Crisis was just one of the reasons.

A sharp decline in the quality of art & stories were other factors.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I never agreed with the given reasons for the First Crisis. I grew up reading about the parallel worlds idea and never got confused, like you.

I wasn't a big fan of the changes at first, but I grew to accept them. I admit, I LOVED the artwork in "Crisis" (George Perez).

And All-Star Squadron was probably the book hardest hit. I do love Jerry Ordway's artwork in that comic and it helped introduce me to lots of 1940's heroes I'd not heard of.

When "Infinite Crisis" popped up, I was pretty happy, especially for a chance to see the Golden Age Superman and Wonder Woman again.

The "New 52" does away with all that and I despise it.

[dendren.livejournal.com]

I am really having a hard time accepting the new 52 DCU. There are some books I'm enjoying but I still find myself longing for the pre-52. I loved the multiverse concept and hated to see it go in Crisis on Infinite Earths but I came out COIE still very happy with how things turned out. In fact... the whole post-crisis single history of the DCU really rocked my world, especially in later years where they really showed legacy heroes such as Wally West as Flash and the many legacies in JSA (yay Star Girl!). I was really happy after they restored the multiverse but kept the single earth with it's JSA to JLA to Legion history.

I suppose I could be happier with the new 52 if it was good. But it's missing something big, I can't just say it's the problem with missing history, though that's a big part of it. The only way I can describe it is that it is missing it's heart. There is no family (Jay Garrick to Barry Allen to Wally West to Bart Allen to little Iris Allen, Ma and Pa Kent dead), no love (Barry/Iris, Clark/Lois, Ollie/Dinah, Ralph/Sue), none of the great friendships or commeraderie (Barry/Hal, Clark/Bruce, Hal/Ollie, Carter/Ray), and overall very little fun (I miss Ollie's awful chili!). There were definitely mis-steps... Arsenal goes bad, the Ollie/Dinah marriage/divorce, most of the 90s... which could have used some good reboot cleanup. But throwing it all out good with bad, it's very sad to me. I'm a lifelong DC fan. I *am* enjoying some of the titles but every month I find myself missing the old DCU.

What is really annoying is that most the changes that have been made that I actually do like could have been done without wiping out the entire board they way they did. The current Wonder Woman book could easily have happened in the old DCU (in fact it seems to not fit in with the current new 52 Justice League). I can say the same for Aquaman, Dial H, the Green Lantern books and so many more, most those changes could have been made in the old DCU. Would the new Red Hood series have not worked with Jason, Kory and Roy without completely obiterating Kory's past? Or the return of Barry Allen, as much as I loved Wally West as Flash I was very much looking forward to new stories with Barry and his attempts at returning to life after being gone so long... not a complete reboot wiping them all out :P

and don't get me started on killing off Damien Wayne... one of the best new characters in years.

heh... I feel like a grumpy old man when it comes to this stuff... you, new Captain Atom, you Voodoo, you Team 7, yeah... all of you new kids, get off my lawn!!! LOL

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Of the "New 52" titles I was reading, I only liked Dial H, Legion of Super-Heroes, Earth 2, World's Finest, and Legion Lost (now canceled). I buy Justice League for the artwork only, but most of the "big 3" comics I don't bother with collecting. Like you, I like many of the books because they could have been done without this enormous reboot.

And do you see how DC is dredging up a lot of characters/titles from the past and pushing them out again? Like OMAC, Vibe, etc.? I'm not crazy about it because these characters were not really popular the first go around.

Yeah, I'm feeling old too.

[dendren.livejournal.com]

I skipped OMAC completely, but enjoyed the first issue of Vibe (who would have thought). I have a feeling that Vibe may end up being a pretty good surprise of a book, sort of how the latest run of Booster Gold was a couple years before the reboot.

I'm still reading a good chunk of DC books, definitely more than Marvel (tho they have been putting more enjoyable books of late). Worlds' Finest is definitely up there in my top list and Earth 2 has a nice start but again... I keep missing the old JSA every time I see the new younger ones. Can't we just have Jay Garrick's Mecury hat back???

At least they did bring back Krypto, that was the most painful loss of all for me LOL

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I am enjoying Earth 2, but I guess I'm looking at it like an "Earth 2B" situation. I wish they had just introduced an alternate universe JSA group with younger heroes, like they did to create the JLA.

[squirreltot.livejournal.com]

Final Crisis killed me...I got confused, couldn't keep up then launched into the first 52, then the count backward 52 and just gave up. OK, I'm lying, but I gave up on the print copies. Now I purchase willy nilly on my iPad...but I find the new timelines, etc., fairly unsatisfying.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I think with websites like "Wikipedia," there is less chances of getting confused with things, as there is an outlet for someone to explain.

That being said, why reboot?