DC Comics Reboots All Titles

[Talisen]

Couldn't they just launch an Ultimates style offshoot as Marvel did and please everybody though?

Wasn't that the "All Star" line?

I read comics steadily through the late 80's and early 90's, It took me a while to get into DC due to the over saturation of knock off characters, multi universes and generally poorer stories. Of course it took things like the Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns and Man of Steel to get me really interested.

But then college happened and I couldn't afford the $50 a week to feed that habit so I stopped cold turkey. That lasted about 7 or 8 years before i started picking up the occasional book, but even now I only collect 4-5 titles, by the occasional TPB, read a few online and some from a friend.

 

[Solo4114]

Wow. That's just stupid re: Superman. But I suspect that whatever "reality shattering" event occurs will itself be retconned by a retcon of a retcon in a retcon brought to you by retcons.

Thing is, when DC did the first Crisis back in '86, it was supposed to sort all this stuff out. I think the problem is twofold:

1.) You have to find a balance between switching things up and keeping true to what everyone knows/understands about the title. That's why I think the "Supes + WW" thing is going to end up reverting back to "Supes + Lois" eventually.

2.) You can't just substitute an "event" for good storytelling. Often, the event ITSELF is written reasonably well, but you end up with each individual title having to stand on its own AFTER that, and that's where the rubber meets the road. I guess that often doesn't work out, and so you end up with things reverting after a while.

 

[Jack T Chance]

Someone's gotta say it, and it might as well be me...

"Wonder Twin Powers activate!"

No?

Hmm...

howsabout...

"By your powers combined, I am... CAPTAIN FIRESTORM!!!" :lol

 

[Larry Young]

Wow. That's just stupid re: Superman.

There's a lot of fun reading to be had about work-for-hire and reversion there, for a guy with your interests.

This is a good place to start off to get all the players to google when you can't sleep at night:

Superman co-creator's family given rights - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

"This means the Siegels -- repped by Marc Toberoff of Toberoff & Associates -- now control depictions of Superman's origins from the planet Krypton, his parents Jor-El and Lora, Superman as the infant Kal-El, the launching of the infant Superman into space by his parents as Krypton explodes and his landing on Earth in a fiery crash... In 2008, the same court order ruled on summary judgment that the Siegels had successfully recaptured (as of 1999) Siegel's copyright in Action Comics No. 1, giving them rights to the Superman character, including his costume, his alter-ego as reporter Clark Kent, the feisty reporter Lois Lane, their jobs at the Daily Planet newspaper working for a gruff editor, and the love triangle among Clark/Superman and Lois."

and

"DC owns other elements like Superman's ability to fly, the term kryptonite, the Lex Luthor and Jimmy Olsen characters, Superman's powers and expanded origins."

 

[terryr]

• A young Superman whose relationship is with Wonder Woman, rather than Lois Lane.

• 
  
  They did that in Red Son and The Dark Knight Returns.

 

[Larry Young]

They did that in Red Son and The Dark Knight Returns.

Not really. The point isn't a Supes/WW pair-up; it's young Superman (not Superboy) not getting with Lois. Dark Knight Returns is in the future, even; Lois is probably dead of old age. Of course Supes is going to gravitate towards an immortal.

 

[Westies14]

Exactly. I haven't read Red Son, but that's an alternate universe story by its nature, isn't it? Crashed in Russia or something? The Dark Knight Returns and Kingdom Come are both post-Lois. Superman should be all about Lois until she's no longer with him.

- Douglas

 

[Wes R]

This feels a lot like Crisis on infinite Earths where they cleaned things up and gave a few characters a new beginning. I've noticed the local comic shops and stores that have comics carry more smaller labels like Antarctic Press and Dark Horses' stuff more than marvel and DC. I think part of it is Marvel and DC just have too many titles.

 

[kamandi]

Wonder Woman reached sexual maturity while living on an island populated exclusively with women. It makes no sense for her to be anything other than a lesbian.

 

[Larry Young]

Wonder Woman reached sexual maturity while living on an island populated exclusively with women. It makes no sense for her to be anything other than a lesbian.

Wonder Woman was formed out of clay by the Queen of the Amazons and was imbued with the attributes of the Greek and Roman gods by Athena. So, basically, she was made however Athena wanted. Your Man's World predjudices notwithstanding. :lol

 

[kamandi]

Until the Steve Trevor was shot down and rescued by Diana she had never seen a man, nor did she have any expectations that she ever would. Only later after she won the contest to become the amazon's Champion did she live among men.

So who would she be saving herself for prior to all this?

 

[Larry Young]

I dunno, man; I'm more of a black-and-white indie guy. I could tell you more about the love lives of Luba in Love and Rockets and Jaka in Cerebus than I could about Wonder Woman.

 

[kamandi]

I like quite a few of the titles from Avatar Press. Warren Ellis is a writing machine.

 

[Larry Young]

Yeah, I know:

Switchblade Honey

Available Light

Come In Alone

Won awards, and everything. :lol

 

[Wes R]

Larry when are you going to reboot Astronauts in trouble to fit with the reboot craze? lol

 

[Larry Young]

Thanks for the idea! I'll start work on COSMONAUTS IN JEOPARDY any second now.

 

[Wes R]

lol. Actually that would be entertaining to see the Russians having the same issues.

 

[Larry Young]

Well, you read SPACE: 1959, right? Commies are the bad guys. You can tell, because the only people who have thought balloons in my comics are bad guys. That's because good guys talk and take action! Thinkin's for college boys and Commies!

 

[dreaminspired]

comic book companies are continually missing the mark with doing this every few years.
keep it simple.
i get marvel previews every few months and the reason i don't buy comics anymore other than the price is that it's way too over thought and over complicated.
i want to buy a comic and read a story. i don't want to have to buy ten comics to read one story or ten titles to read one story.
keep it simple.

 

[Solo4114]

There's a lot of fun reading to be had about work-for-hire and reversion there, for a guy with your interests.

This is a good place to start off to get all the players to google when you can't sleep at night:

Superman co-creator's family given rights - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

"This means the Siegels -- repped by Marc Toberoff of Toberoff & Associates -- now control depictions of Superman's origins from the planet Krypton, his parents Jor-El and Lora, Superman as the infant Kal-El, the launching of the infant Superman into space by his parents as Krypton explodes and his landing on Earth in a fiery crash... In 2008, the same court order ruled on summary judgment that the Siegels had successfully recaptured (as of 1999) Siegel's copyright in Action Comics No. 1, giving them rights to the Superman character, including his costume, his alter-ego as reporter Clark Kent, the feisty reporter Lois Lane, their jobs at the Daily Planet newspaper working for a gruff editor, and the love triangle among Clark/Superman and Lois."

and

"DC owns other elements like Superman's ability to fly, the term kryptonite, the Lex Luthor and Jimmy Olsen characters, Superman's powers and expanded origins."

That is indeed interesting stuff, especially for an IP-law-geek like myself.

That said, DC's business decision to just say "Oh yeah? Well SCREW YOU! I'm taking my toys and going home!" instead of ponying up for the rights is just....stupid, in my opinion. I'd figure people will keep wondering when the REAL Superman is coming back.

One thing, though. Does this mean the mullet is coming back?

Wonder Woman reached sexual maturity while living on an island populated exclusively with women. It makes no sense for her to be anything other than a lesbian.

...but...she's from Themyscira...not Lesbos!

Until the Steve Trevor was shot down and rescued by Diana she had never seen a man, nor did she have any expectations that she ever would. Only later after she won the contest to become the amazon's Champion did she live among men.

So who would she be saving herself for prior to all this?

Maybe she was just bi until graduation. Just did a little experimenting in her college years and such.

comic book companies are continually missing the mark with doing this every few years.
keep it simple.
i get marvel previews every few months and the reason i don't buy comics anymore other than the price is that it's way too over thought and over complicated.
i want to buy a comic and read a story. i don't want to have to buy ten comics to read one story or ten titles to read one story.
keep it simple.

I agree.

But we're in the minority. I don't think they'd keep doing these things if they didn't see actual sales boosts, followed by drops in sales after the event is over. There could also be a cash-flow incentive to do these kinds of events even when you know it'll be followed by sales dropoff. If you can keep sales from dropping too low, you'll be sitting on a bigger warchest with some revenue still coming in, and the end result is you make more money than if you'd kept things level. In otherwords, the height of the high outperforms the depths of the low and you net more.