Two choices for Main Canon DC: Legacy-Only or Constant Reboot?]!

[Buried Alien]

For DC, I think continuity has been a ticking time bomb ever since Dick Grayson graduated to becoming Nightwing and Jason Todd became the second Robin.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Ascended]

Essentially, it would be a return to a Golden and Silver Age concept of continuity.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Sounds fine to me.

I like the richness of a tight, long running continuity and feel it can truly enrich a property but it's a doubled edged sword that's cut me often enough I'd have no problem putting it down.

[skyvolt2000]

honestly man no offense but threads like this make me sick to my stomach

there's no way you can say those are the only choices for the future of DC. you have no idea what they are planning or how the company works. threads like this are annoying because it just feeds the completely false narrative that DC has no idea what to do or where to go and wants to reboot again where all the same crap gets repeated over and over until someone makes another thread about it. just give it a rest

Well Dc has proven at times they have no direction.
And guys like John Stewart are FOREVER stuck with the same boring stories dumped on them-because nobody wants to do development.

How about this for a choice? Leave well enough ALONE.

No option is going work without ticking off folks and HURTING the bottom line.
NO one wants to see Dick Grayson as Robin again. That means Tim & Damian's generation is gone.
No one wants to see the origin of Green Lantern start with Jessica Cruz instead of Hal.

Stop hiring writers who want to rewrite everything.
Find some writers who can build up guys NOT named Batman.

[Colossus1980]

There's a third option here that probably wouldn't be very appealing but it might be the only one the Big Two have in the long run: Go the Archies route. Do stand along stories with very limited continuity. This can be made to work with a reboot but it doesn't necessarily have to. Superman can be married with a kid but as long nobody ever ages and we don't reference past stories, this works. It means you don't get to do year long arcs that change continuity forever and you can't reference something that happened in an issue two or three years ago but it avoids the problem of constant reboots. Each story can be something like three issues. But the days of stretching something out for years on end are over. Long term continuity just plain doesn't work. You can't compact 50+ years of stories into a decade without problems. We're long past the 1990s where you had never ending continuity stretching over multiple titles.

I think the big TWO would fold their comic division due to irate fans. Archie style doesn't work IMO.

[DragonPiece]

Option A would never happen and even if someone at DC decided on it, it wouldn't matter because new ideas happen each year.

[superduperman]

I think the big TWO would fold their comic division due to irate fans. Archie style doesn't work IMO.

I think in the long run they may not have a choice. I also think it can be made to work depending on the stories. Look at stuff like the Batman or Superman Adventures that were the spinoff comics from the cartoons of the nineties. They were some of the best stories ever published about those two heroes and most of the issues were single issue stories that didn't move the narrative forward very far. I have my issues with Superman TAS but the stories themselves were not one of them.

[PurpleGlovez]

The only correct answer is C, the Marvel approach where the entirety of the publishing history is canonical, with certain events on a sliding timeline. DC's reboots are destroying their universe. And worst of all, they're getting boring. Obviously the precise continuity mechanics of certain concepts such as the Justice Society need to be hammered out, but other than that, just say everything is canon and leave it the hell alone and start telling new stories.

[Slim Shady]

The only correct answer is C, the Marvel approach where the entirety of the publishing history is canonical, with certain events on a sliding timeline. DC's reboots are destroying their universe. And worst of all, they're getting boring. Obviously the precise continuity mechanics of certain concepts such as the Justice Society need to be hammered out, but other than that, just say everything is canon and leave it the hell alone and start telling new stories.

Pretty much this. Tell good stories, take care of your characters, move on to the next story.

I like Grant Morrison's approach when he took over Batman. Everything that's already happened, happened. All the stories, all the history, it happened, now here we are today, continue.

[Jon Clark]

I'd really prefer a variation on A over all. One where we go the Earth 1/ Earth 2 route. Set a line where the new continuity starts. Make enough visusal (if not other) differences to tell the Batmen/Supermen/Wonder Women apart and simply have the reboot take palce on a new world from day one. If you want to keep Titans (Crisis) or Green Lantern (New 52) running then make it clear it is set in the old continuity not the new.

But if that isn't an option- go with legacy. Can anyone really say that the 1939 Bat-Man, Adam West era Batman, and 1978 Batman really needed to be the same Batman (rich orphaned Bruce Wayne)? Or that it really makes much of a difference if Superman is the last child born on Krypton or the first human-Kryptonian hybrid in most stories. Based on the fact the writers and artist are probably going to redesign stuff over time to the point that Wonder Woman in 2041 is going to be as distinct from Gail Gadot as Gail is from Lynda Carter do we really need to keep the idea that there is only ONE distinct Wonder Woman? Would it really be that bad for a kid in 2028 to be reading the same Flash story - but to have the star be Wally's successor rather than a warmed over take on Barry Allen?

[Restingvoice]

Well, we know DC's never gonna do A because of Bruce at the very least, so I pick B with consistent continuity. They're already doing it, just in longer interval.

[friendly-fire-press]

Tough choice. Both options have pros and cons.

But I'll go with B

[Fairyprincess]

Why can't a big comic company have a range of comics tailored to different fan tastes.

Dc could have at least 2 earths on the go at the same time. One legacy, one "ultimate" for lack of a better term. .....

[deadboy80]

Don't need real time aging. That's fucking stupid. Self contained stories for our heroes with the only cross interaction being a team book. No more events. That solves lots of problems. Slow aging they did with Dick grayson, wally and the rest works well. It took Dick 40 yrs to age 8. Do this. It worked. Large scale epic events that hit every corner are what **** things up. Small self contained stories relevant to the individual charecter is what is needed.

[Vakanai]

My Batman is Bruce Wayne. Dick Grayson is fine for a run, but it should never be permanent. I hate legacy as a concept never mind as a story tool. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman shouldn't be titles that are passed down. I never understood the appeal of legacy.

[Sacred Knight]

Agreed mostly. I don't hate legacy altogether, I just hate it when its overdone. Right now its being overdone, and the A scenario would be going WAY too far. There's precedent for concepts like Flash and GL, I get that. But for example if you replace Kal-El and Diana, what do you get? Not-Superman and Not-Wonder Woman. And the only legacy within the Batman mythos should be the Robin and Batgirl identities.