This may be the most over-analyzed move by a comic book company...
EVER!
So, I may as well contribute my thoughts as well.
PART 1 of this blog series contained a legal research article I wrote back in 2000 when the Siegel Estate's lawsuit against DC Comics to recover partial ownership of the Superman copyright was just beginning. Ultimately, the issue at hand at that time was whether the Siegel Estate had successfully terminated Jerry Siegel's earlier "transfer of copyright" to DC Comics and my conclusion, based on the facts available and the law at that time was, yes, they had successfully done so.
PART 3 will move on from the legal and corporate shenanigans and focus on a fan's perspective and thoughts concerning the announced reboot of the entire DC Universe line of comics and flooding the market with 52 first issues of new ongoing series.
My initial thoughts are more concerned with what was NOT included in this initial offering more than what IS included. I find it quite odd that there is not a JUSTICE SOCIETY or SHAZAM! series on the September launching pad but garbage like GRIFTER and HAWK & DOVE made the cut. It makes me seriously wonder just what is really going on in the editorial offices. We can figure out the seed-reason for the changes. That boils down to a corporate decision to shore up the Superman ownership issue and let Dan Didio make his mark and legacy. And I will give Dan a couple of props. First of all, he is a brilliant carnival barker (second to Stan Lee) in that I have never in my life seen someone shmooze and work the cons and the fans the way Dan does. He is always fun, funny, and charming. I've never seen him with anything other than a smile on his face and a willing handshake. He also gets props for actually following through on this idea that he's had in his head for years. I may not agree with it and I may not like how the details all fall out, but he doggone did it and that's a substantive achievement.
On the downside, I think his decision is driven by ego more than anything truly creative. And that, in the long run, will be the undoing on this whole REBOOT nonsense. We've seen some of his "relaunches" already, such as the horrible Bruce Jones written WARLORD and DEADMAN redos as well as the obscenely awful BATMAN: ODYSSEY by Neal Adams that was supposed to give us a peak at the early years of Batman. But instead all we got was monumental suck. These were under Dan's regime and stunk up the comic stands.I would love to have seen a METAL MEN, METAMORPHO, and KAMANDI series in the bunch rather than kindling like GRIFTER, STORMWATCH, 2 LEGION series, 4 JL series, etc. Spreading out all these new series out over a few months would have been preferred and, absolutely, NO character or team should be starting over in a reboot with multiple titles all at once. Build up interest and enthusiasm and desire to see more of the characters first and then follow up with the new series later. By dumping all of this all at once, the "reboot" winds up coming with it's very own continuity weight from the get-go.
The biggest problem I am seeing in this crazy venture is that they aren't really "rebooting" (other than Superman) and are just rearranging the same incredients, wrapping them in different flavored tortillas, and declaring that it's a "brand-new" menu when it's really just the same old Taco Bell. When the first appearance of these characters brings with it a world in which there are still 4 human Green Lanterns and 4 current or former Robins running around, then really, what ultimately was the point of this other than one more false sense of change for short-term profit and long-term suck? They could've done all this kind of house-cleaning just like they did the "One-Year Later" gimmick a few years ago and just kicked off the "New" DC and these new titles and status quo changes without the fiction of a "reboot." It's not really a "reboot". It's not starting from scratch and going forward. Some characters are starting fresh but it really looks like most of them will still be retaining at least the broad points, if not the specifics, of the past continuity.
Which makes the DC Reboot nothing more than one more sales gimmick in a line of sales gimmicks. And that wears me down as a reader. It's why I barely buy any comics from DC and Marvel at this point anyway.
But I want to reinforce one thing that I think is getting buried in my cynicism. I see a spirit of excitement and creativity coming from the creative artists and writers working on this relaunch. That is infectious and makes me interested in a lot of it, even if I don't break down and buy the new series.
If it took something this bold to re-inspire the creative talent and/or empower the editorial staff to let the creative talent break boundaries and do something truly new and fresh, then I applaud the decision.
However, I think that philosophy could've taken creative root without the need for the bread and circuses stunt I've been watching unfold over the past couple of weeks and on into September. I'm sure there will be huge bursts of interest initially, but the telling point will be one-year after the event and looking at the numbers to see where they stabilized at or sank.
So, here I go diving into the first 52 of the "new" DC Universe with the official solicitation info and then my reactions:
