DC reboots their comics...again

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Yep, it's another Zero Hour, Crisis, or whatever. So you know what that means: DC's rebooted again. I don't like this. Continuity is a necessary evil in comics. If they really want to keep us reading, they need to give us less crossovers. I think crossovers should really be rare.
Your thoughts?

Continuity is one of the many reasons I stopped reading comics. I like the Elseworlds stories, because you can do anything. If you want the Joker to die at the end, you can do that, but if someone dies in the main continuity, you know he’ll be resurrected three issues later. The shackles of continuity render all major events as meaningless, because everything has to be undone and the status quo returned to. I actually support a reboot, since it’ll clean up the giant goddamned mess that DC has been making of its continuity for decades, but it won’t matter in a year because they’ll just make a mess of it again. They won’t be able to resist the urge to indulge in huge events like Crisis and 52 that force readers to buy a ridiculous amount of issues just to know what the hell is going on in issue #23 of Batman, and you’ll keep seeing retcons that bend over backwards to make everything make sense but will only make things worse.

Last edited by Jory on 23 Jul 2011, 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

See that's why I gave up on comics. They think changing everything solves problems. It doesn't. It just makes everything worse.

It’s not that they think changing everything solves problems, it’s a calculated business decision. It works like this:

They market these huge events that will supposedly change everything. They promise that NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME AGAIN. So they publish this huge event, which is just a ploy to get you to buy issue #47 of Nightwing even though you don’t give a crap about Nightwing, and a bunch of other issues of other titles you don’t care about, because you need to read these issues to understand what’s going on in the crossover storyline. You can’t just buy issue #287 of Batman and then issue #288 of Batman, because #287 was Part 3 of the story and #288 was Part 17. You need to buy all this other crap for the story to make any sense.

And then something big will happen – say, a major character will die – because they need to deliver on their promise to make it all worthwhile. And then, about two months after the huge crossover event is over, the editors will tell the writer to pull a retcon out of his ass to resurrect the character and make everything else go back to the way it was. And at the end of this issue, there will be an advertisement for the next big crossover. It's an endless cycle of a sick dog eating its own excrement.

It's tactics like this that are driving the comic book industry into the ground. There's no longer such a thing as a "casual comic book" reader, because you have to invest 75% of your paycheck to buy all these issues just to understand the crossovers and continuity. They occasionally launch titles aimed at casual readers, like the Ultimate Marvel titles or All-Star Superman, but they just end up getting convoluted as well.

If I read any comics, it'll be Elseworlds or something similar. Something that exists in its own alternate continuity, where the writer is free to write whatever he wants and I don't have to buy issue #39 of Blue Beetle that I don't even want just to understand what the hell is going on. I don't have the time, money, or patience to put up with the cynical marketing BS of the regular titles.

Well, as far as anyone staying dead in comics; no stays dead except for Bucky Barnes - - oh, wait...

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Well, so far, Marvel has let Banshee stay dead - but the day isn't over yet...

DC's reboot seemed like a good idea at first glance. However, I have learned that two fairly major characters, Batman and Green Lantern, will not be included in this reboot. I smell another multi-title Crisis in the offing, as continuity problems start to crop up (both Bats and GL have been heavily involved with the other characters, right across DC's lines).

Although it could lead to some amusing moments...

"Hey, Clark, long time no see! How's the wife?"

"What wife? And how did you know my name?"

It is interesting what they are doing and it makes business sense and creatively it looks good.
The reboot is a soft reboot so basically superheroes will have been only publically known about for 5 years. Some characters will have some history in tact. Batman, Green Lantern but others will have major changes.

The books look pretty good. It will be interesting and I hope it brings in new readers. I know at my store we have already presume a bunch of the first issues. It really depends who continues to buy after the first month.