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 I realized that the book is now outdated with DC's "New 52" reboot/revamp.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

[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?