- As a member of the Big Four, a large comic book company encompassing many writers and 75 years of history filled with tons of stories featuring characters that all are meant to share a single contained universe, continuity errors begin to abound. Readers of comics tend to be sticklers for continuity. In order to free up some of the restrictions presented by having to constantly check back issues written by people forty years ago, a universal reboot allowed writers to create fresh ideas unfettered.
- The other reason was simply to make money. DC is business and their goal is to make some cash. For ten years, they had been the #2 comic book publisher behind their leading rival, Marvel. The New 52 was an unprecedented release of fifty-two new comics. It is a fact that #1 issues tend to sell better, a fact that Marvel exploited in the early nineties speculator boom. X-Men #1. Look it up.
Something that should be noted about the New 52's continuity reboot is that DC has done this before. Many times. DC typically labels these as Crises. Usually, some multiversal event forces the heroes to come together and vanquish some impossibly powerful foe that leaves the universe ravaged and battered in its wake. In 2005, for example, Superboy-Prime, a younger, evil, alternate version of Superman, punches the universe so hard, it cries new yesterdays. The end result has left the universe's past, present, and future irreparably changed. Every Crisis has been DC's way of making large scale continuity changes to fit with the changing times and allow writers to make stories without being moored to 75 years of company history.
The New 52, however, has been the first major universe overhaul since the very first Crisis, the Crisis on Infinite Earths. In fact, both events have had certain similar aspects to them. After the Crisis, various titles such as Superman and Wonder Woman rebooted with new #1 issues and both events allowed DC to merge into its main universe various properties that the company had acquired over the years (i.e. Fawcett Comics and Charlton Comics).
Of course, DC handled the latest merger with WildStorm so well that of the three titles part of the relaunch, only a single comic from the line still exists and it barely interacts with the rest of the world in any meaningful way. Any appearances of WildStorm characters into the New 52 besides this have since abruptly ceased. The Vertigo characters meant to be reintroduced into the world were originally part of the DCU and bringing them back into the fold didn't do much save make them a bit more kid-friendly. Constantine, I'm talking to you. In fact, the the reboot was unnecessary to bring the Vertigo characters back as they had been slowly cropping up prior to Flashpoint in the pages of "52" and Brightest Day.
One of the biggest problems many have had with the reboot is that a lot of history has been ditched. The entire line of Golden Age heroes and mystery men are gone and forgotten, which is a shame, but sadly understandable. If you want to make Superman's arrival in Metropolis the kick-off point to the age of heroes, a precedent for them as far back as World War II would not make much sense. Also, the series Earth-2 has been handled well enough, reviving the Golden Age characters for the modern era, that I have become okay with this, despite it meaning that various great series, such as James Robinson's Starman have been stricken from continuity altogether.
Other heroes, nonetheless, seem to have been deleted from the world for more baffling reasons. The Blue Beetle got the worst of it, in my opinion. After a fantastic pre-Flashpoint series that celebrated both Dan Garrett, the original Blue Beetle, a hero as old as Batman, and his successor Ted Kord as inspirations for the third Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes, the New 52 Blue Beetle was an utter mutilation to the rich history of the character. Both men were stricken from history and Jaime was left without a legacy to learn from, transforming him into an awkward shell of his character.
The other hero who got the worst of it was Wally West, the third Flash, who took up the reins from his mentor, Barry Allen after his death in Crisis on Infinite Earths. West was Flash from 1985 until Barry Allen's return in 2009's Final Crisis. This 25 year run encompasses virtually one third of the Flash's history. In fact, with Allen having been gone so long and West being Flash for an entire generation or two of comic readers, to erase his existence is almost like replacing Wally with a total stranger. Actually, I wonder if this is how readers felt when Wally took over for Allen in '85. But at least Allen wasn't completely erased from history. Time will tell what becomes of Wallace West. He has been perhaps the character fans have been most vocal about making a return, but with the altered history of his family, it seems he is gone for good.
One of DC's big to-dos in the New 52 was to condense their history. The present day stories all take place exactly five years after Superman's debut in Metropolis. This event sparked an age of superheroes and metahumans cropping up rapidly throughout the world. The reboot didn't exactly remove the entirety of DC's history, but it did remove various unknown chucks and shrunk the timescale of others. As such. there are also some issues with timing in this new world that I have not quite been able to figure out.
From what I understand, part of the reason for this is because it becomes increasingly difficult to explain the health and skill of Batman as he advances in age. To add some "realism" to the man, they needed to make Bruce Wayne around thirty years old. Pre-Flashpoint, Batman takes up his mantle in his early-to-mid-twenties and is joined by a twelve year-old Dick Grayson as Robin three years into his mission. Dick becomes Nightwing about seven years later and the mantle is passed to Jason Todd who is also around twelve at the time. Todd is probably Robin for about a year before his death, at which point Tim Drake becomes the third Robin. Tim must remain Robin for at least three years because Todd is clearly much older when he resurfaces as the Red Hood. Damian is Robin for a few months before Flashpoint. By the time of Flashpoint, Bruce has been Batman for at least somewhere between ten and fifteen years, putting him somewhere in his late thirties. In the new universe, somehow, in only five years time, Batman has still managed to partner with all four Robins with each probably only serving for about a year. Dick Grayson is aged to sixteen when he joins Batman, a move that could be considered a bit more realistic, and probably served as Robin for two years before moving onto being Nightwing. Todd still dies less than a year into his term and resurfaces later as the Red Hood. Drake has just left Batman's service. Damian is still ten years old.
Damian Wayne is the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al-Ghul. He is the creation of Grant Morrison and acts as Dick Grayson's sidekick after Bruce "temporarily dies" in Final Crisis. Damian could only have been conceived after Bruce Wayne became Batman as this was how he came to meet Talia and her father. While it was clear that Damian was a test tube baby, I had assumed that he aged naturally. With a Batman who has been masquerading for about fifteen years, there is really no issue. Was Damian's growth unnaturally accelerated? I've read both Batman Incorporated and Batman & Robin and I really don't know. A clone of Damian appears in Batman Inc and seems to have been aged to his mid-twenties, yet still has Damian's ten year-old face, leading me to wonder if he wasn't just enhanced in some way. If his and Damian's growth were sped up, why was Damian's maturation halted?
I have been rather hard on the reboot so far and I would like to say that there have been several good things to come out of it. Many of my complaints seem to be cosmetic, pertaining to a lack of oversight that could come with any written work in the comic book industry or otherwise, but just seem to be so much more blatantly obvious because of the scale. There are several series that a wholeheartedly recommend, namely Animal Man and Swamp Thing which have been consistently good since the beginning. Did either of them need a complete or partial company retcon to bring about these fantastic stories? No, not really. In fact, if I were to have any complaints about Swamp Thing, it would be that the creature has clearly never met John Constantine prior to the series, calling into question somewhat whether or not Alan Moore's absolutely excellent run on the series is still canon. Additionally, Batman: The Court of Owls has been lauded as an absolutely wonderful Batman story.
There's not really much else to say. I haven't been overly fond of this reboot and the stories that have come with it, but time will only tell if things begin to look up. In the meantime, I'm kind of sitting in the back issues, enjoying the days of Sandman and Starman, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Grant Morison's Animal Man, the Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. As for the here and now, I am ardently enjoying All-New Marvel NOW! Something "Amazing" is coming! *Thwip*
