Allow me to
begin this entry to explain my absence to those who want to know where I was
for the last ten weeks. I survived a plane crash in Tasmania where I lived with
a family of platypuses. They taught me their language and how to comb the
riverbed for invertebrates and lived like a monotreme for weeks until a pair of
Slovakian tourists found me. After a brief altercation where I tried to smite
the husband with my nonexistent spur we quickly made up and they took me back
civilization so here I am. Yeah, that was a bold-faced lie but it is a more
interesting account than the truth. Anyway, let us get to the main topic of
this entry.
I make my
disdain for the New 52 no secret. It was a horribly rushed and horribly
executed reboot for several reasons but my biggest problem is that the powers
that be left the Batman and Green Lantern franchise (relatively) untouched,
which opened some gaping plot holes. That is not to say I found some parts
enjoyable: Earth 2 by James Robinson and Nikola Scott grabbed my interest
because of my appreciation all things related to the multiverse and I genuinely
like these new takes on golden age stalwarts like Jay Garrick. Wally West fans
may eviscerate me for saying this but The Flash is much more enjoyable than it
has been since Infinite Crisis ended seven years ago. However, I believe that
the reboot was a complete waste because if the sales figuresfor March 2013 are any indication, DC is back to where they started
in July 2011. Only five of the twenty top selling books are DC titles and all
them are either a) written by Geoff Johns or b) part of the Batman franchise.
If the intent of the New 52 was to generate long-term interest in their
non-Batman titles, then it was a spectacular failure complete with
awe-inspiring fireball. Not only did the New 52 fail to attract a new audience,
it alienated many longtime readers of their books.
I came across an
interesting topic on Comic Bloc Forums where a member asked, “What if DC undidall the reboots and returned to the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths [multi]verse?”
“Let's
call a duck a duck. DC has pi$$ed off a whole lot of readers over the years,
and their endless reboots and retcons have chased away longtime readers...
myself included. My pull has gone from over 30 books a month (almost 100% DC)
up until post-Flashpoint, and I am now reading quite a few Marvel books again
after a loooooooong absence. For me, that spells things out plainly.
So, let's undo all the "fixes" they have attempted over the years. Put someone with some idea of how fans' brains operate in charge and have them helm the project. Make it a grand event. I would like to suggest creating a single title for just that purpose. If DC chooses to let fans in on the significance of the book or not, leave it up to them. They could just tease with something along the lines of "Read this series! It will have long lasting and grand implications in the end." You get where I'm going.
Also, so as not to cheese off readers post 1985, make it a universe/time-spanning epic. Pick out the characters that are proven winners/have a significant fan base. Get Booster Gold and Rip Hunter to gather up Batwoman, Blue Beetle (Jaime), Barry Allen, Bart Allen from pre-Flashpoint, Donna Troy, and whomever else is worth carrying over to the pre-COIE Universe, and have them journey to put things right. This way the readers can have their cake and eat it, too. We've got the multiverse back, we can bring in newer, fan loved characters, and spin the rest off on another Earth in the Multiverse.
I vote "Yes!"”
My answer an
empathic, “NO!” No, no, no, NO! Bringing the old Pre-Crisis continuity is an
incredibly terrible idea for several reasons, the biggest on being that
twenty-seven year passed since that Crisis ended. The world has seen five
American presidents during that time (Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., and
Obama) and so much has changed culturally since then. I doubt that DC could or
even wants to convince Roy Thomas to pick up where he left off on All-Star
Squadron and Infinite Inc. or bring Gerry Conway back on Fury of
Firestorm. Then there is the fact that DC
attracted a substantial fanbase during the post-Crisis era and that would be a
great betrayal to them and the removal of Donna Troy and the aforementioned
Wally West is still a sore spot for them. No, I do not believe that returning
to the pre-Crisis multiverse is a wise idea, neither is bringing back the
post-Crisis universe, and hell, I do not event want the pre-Flashpoint universe
to return. I simply want a blank slate and bring every character back to basics
without any of the continuity baggage DC wants to bring with every reboot.
Imagine the DC
universe as an old house with many good memories but the air tastes a little
stale after fifty years, the stairs creak whenever you walk on them, and the
plumbing and wiring need a little work. Crisis on Infinite Earths comes around and tears down the walls and removes
the furniture. The “builders” remove a few support columns (Wonder Woman’s
membership in the Justice League, the existence of Superboy as Superman when he
was a boy) and leave the plumbing and wiring untouched. They bring in some new
furniture and repaint the walls but problems begin to arise. The house is
structurally unsound, the plumbing is starting to leak, and the electricity
periodically shorts out. Zero Hour
and Infinite Crisis attempt
address these problems by plugging the leaks with duct tape and hastily solder
the wiring. The builders bring back some of the old furniture out of a
misplaced sense of nostalgia and assume everything will be fine. Years later,
the pipes begin to break and a week does not go by without a fuse getting
blown. The builder’s answer is to knock down all but two of the other supports
(Batman and Green Lantern) and replace the superficial damage, which leaves us
with a wreck of house that is one summer breeze from total collapse. Sometimes
the sensible thing to do is to demolish the house and rebuild from the
still-intact foundation.
We fans are an
anal-retentive bunch that giggle when a writer references an obscure story and
weaves into their narrative. We love the smallest mote of continuity because it
is somewhat similar to be in on a joke that only a small circle of people know.
Unfortunately, the downside to that is that it creates baggage that weighs down
a fictional universe and its characters. I recall that Crisis on Infinite
Earths writer, Marv Wolfman, intended for
the event to end with a blank slate for ALL the characters from an issue of
Wizard magazine back in 2005-6. Greg Weisman who helmed Gargoyles and Young Justice explained why this would not
work:
“I
was working on staff at DC Comics during the publication of the original Crisis
on Infinite Earths. In fact, during my very first editorial meeting, I raised
the question as to why we weren't starting ALL our books over (with the
numerical exceptions of Detective and Action Comics) with issue #1. I remember
very clearly a collective groan rising up from the conference room table. (They
had dealt with this question for months before my arrival.) On the one hand,
they wanted Crisis to be a real sea-change, a true reboot (before we knew that
term). On the other hand, if you truly reboot Batman, then Robin doesn't exist
yet. No Robin, no other sidekicks either. So no Teen Titans. And at the time,
the New Teen Titans was the company's best selling book. So the end result was
that some things got rebooted and some did not. This was complicated by the fact that certain creators came
late to the party, and certain characters got reboots too long AFTER Crisis.”
There was a financial
dimension to it as noted by the Teen Titan mention but I also believe that a
fair amount of writers and editors simply did not want to drop the storylines
in their respective titles and so they brought their baggage into the allegedly
simplified DC Universe. Hence some of the seminal stories of the Silver Age
like “Flash of Two Worlds” still “happened” but not in the way they were
written. Similarly, Wonder Woman debuted well after the Justice League in the
new continuity so Black Canary took her place as founding member so you those
of Justice League of America issues where Wonder Woman demonstrated her
superhuman strength or used her lasso? Surprise! That was Black Canary. Then we
get to the problem of Donna Troy
(AKA Wonder Girl), which evolved into a constant headache for the company
because of inconsistent writing and that was only the tip of the iceberg that
sank DC’s Titanic.
My feelings
mirror Mr. Weisman’s when he says, “So, personally, my feeling on reboots in
general is that you either do them or you don't. You've got to be thorough and
ruthless about it, or don't bother, because otherwise - long term - you're
creating more problems than you're solving.” We fans have grown so attached to our
continuity baggage that it becomes heresy to even suggest letting it go.
Reboots are an “all or nothing” enterprise and we occasionally need to discard
continuity to create a clear narrative. Young Justice was not an excellent program because of the
background history detailed in the series’ bible, it was an excellent program
because of Mr. Weisman and his staff’s use of motifs and characterization to
create an engaging story. DC’s single-minded focus on continuity and attracting
new readers proved too shortsighted plus the overbearing editorial direction
has only made the New 52 more of an unsightly mess.
We as fans need
to overcome this “separation anxiety” that keeps us chained to continuity and
limits our thinking. While I do not care for the emotional and creative baggage
that comes with continuity, I believe it is far better to distill it into
themes that talented writers can approach from a different perspective. Most
people could say that the Silver/Bronze Age Superman was stagnant by the early
1980s but Alan Moore proved that he still had some gas in the tank with “For
The Man That Has Everything” and gave him a stunning sendoff with “What
Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” Grant Morrison managed to distill the Man of
Steel to his core mythology in All-Star Superman and did not need to adhere to continuity to make it one of my absolute
favorite Superman stories all time and I only need to look at the oft-referenced page
featuring the suicidal girl as an example.
Superman is
supposed represent an ideal. He does not look down on humanity but aspires to
lift us up and represent the best in us. He genuinely cares for everyone and
image of him comforting the girl shows us that be believes that no individual
life is insignificant. Yes, as banal as it sounds, Superman is supposed to
represent idealism and bringing back the pre-Crisis continuity will add nothing
to it and alienate even more readers. DC ultimately needs to demolish the shaky
house that is the New 52 and rebuild from the foundation of themes that made
its characters great in the first place, hire the talent necessary, and
actually let them do their job. But do they have the courage and the will to make such an endeavor work? Recent events leave me with little optimism.
