Biggest missed opportunity of the last few years in your opinion?

[Buried Alien]

I'd say moving Barry past the "dead mother, imprisoned father" characterization was a big missed opportunity.

DC can still do this any time it wants, but it seems married to the idea.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Frontier]

DC can still do this any time it wants, but it seems married to the idea.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Which makes it a missed opportunity .

[Nick Miller]

I cant believe people want or wanted a hard reboot.

Not a missed opportunity, but a story point that ruined a large part of Bat mythos, ending Oracle and making babs Batgirl.

[scary harpy]

When DC first brought back the multiverse, there were 52 Earths formed from Clutter Earth. These Earths were each beginning to vary slowly because of their different vibrations. I thought that was a fascinating idea.

It would have been neat to compare and contrast the Earth’s and see their variances. This is what I really want to see: varieties of Bat-villains, Wonder Women, Justice Societies and Titans. The nuances would make for interesting stories. There might have been an Earth for everyone. (Maybe the Clutter Earth would have become less cluttered over time?)

Instead, Mister Mind became a Moth/Butterfly and destroyed the worlds. I was so disgusted. I have no interest in reading about the Post-Apocalypse worlds or Marvel parodies. The current 52 Earths have no appeal to me.

Gee. Where do I begin... or end?
Not actually rebooting everything with New 52 and end up with a half and a half universe with messy continuity and 5 years timeline that doesn't make sense.
Creating a young Superman but instead of seeing his development from young and brash version to older wiser one he's only given angsty story where he's get possessed, brainwashed or sad before finally mercy killing him.
Death of The Family separating the family with very thin reason and overshadowed by Damian's death in Batman Incorporated immediately.
Canceling the idea that Nightwing will be leading surviving heroes in Forever Evil
Not following up on Owlman's obsession with Dick Grayson... that is probably the most interesting part of Crime Syndicate... and then he died, but at least he's back now....
Killing off Crime Syndicate in general, but at least they're back...
Replacing Nightwing's funeral issue with a prolonged beat down in the batcave to set up Spyral which they can just explain in Grayson
Dick Grayson became a secret agent just as the family gather for the first time for Batman anniversary
Batman and Robin Eternal being used as a Harper Row showcase instead of a Robins celebration
The Trinity of Sin peters out after being set up so mysteriously
King and Seeley leaving Grayson early in preparation for Rebirth
Didn't naturally end Superman and Wonder Woman relationship and develop the relationship with Lois Lane and instead just transplant the old version.
Not completely creating new continuity that can fix everything and instead make a slow burn transitional continuity that ends up taking too long
Didn't continue post-crisis universe in post-crisis books and see which one sell better
Never actually plan the New 52 to be a proper reboot instead of making stuff up as they go along
Not doing anything with Wally even though he's set up to be Rebirth main character
The Wedding being replaced by psychological Knightfall
The Dark Web story of Nightwing being replaced by Rick Grayson. Puke.
Aging up Damian to be a teenager just so he can be a Titans even though he can be the same as age as Jon
Aging up Jon even though they have Super Sons
The Rise of The Seven Seas still hasn't happened yet

I guess the biggest overall missed opportunity for me is every time they relaunch but not actually cleaning up their continuity or by not starting from the beginning

Agreed.

By the by, when did the Crime Syndicate return?

[scary harpy]

I cant believe people want or wanted a hard reboot.

I can believe it. I’m one of them.

We have a lot of clutter and legacy characters (and I like many of them. Don’t misunderstand me). When a hard reboot erases them, I will miss them… but I also miss some fun and simplicity in comics.

Sometimes I just want to read about Batgirl & Batman & Robin patrolling Gotham City. I’d like to see Superman pestered by Mr. Mxyzptlk and Wonder Woman deal with Greek Mythology.

I guess I’ve grown tired of the Cosmic Calamities. I can’t really blame the other planets joining forces to destroy Earth because it generates endless Crises and chaos. I too am really tired of DC Earth’s grimdark destructive nonsense.

Yes, DC, please issue all your ‘mature’ titles under the Black Label…and leave them there. Barbara didn’t need to be crippled. Jason didn’t need to die…neither did Barry, Kara, Kal-El or the dozens of others that were resurrected. Hal didn’t need to go insane. All that accomplished were creating legacy characters…new Green Lanterns, Batgirls and Supergirls…that DC has no clue what to do with now. It also created a lot of awful stories.

While you’re at it DC bring back some fun into comics. I have a few suggestions if you're bankrupt of ideas.

[superduperman]

I cant believe people want or wanted a hard reboot.

Not a missed opportunity, but a story point that ruined a large part of Bat mythos, ending Oracle and making babs Batgirl.

To be honest, there have been too many reboots. That's the problem. Maybe this is just because I'm a Superman fan but there have been too many false starts. The whole "He still died but we don't know if half the events in the books themselves even took place" thing gets old. And that's where we were before the reboot. Nobody knew what "counts" and what doesn't. At least with a hard reboot you know for sure none of it does. The entire 2000s were a continuity train wreck. I saw New 52 as a chance at a real clean slate.

[Vordan]

Morrison's New 52 Superman was a chance to bring all the past incarnations of Superman into the modern day like what Batman has, instead of just the Silver Age and Johns. That obviously flopped terribly due to what happened after Morrison left.
Dick Grayson Batman was one of the most enjoyable transitions since Wally took over for Barry so of course DC cut it short.
Earth 3 being completely destroyed sucks.
White Lantern Kyle Raynor being undone sucked.
Grayson going back to being Nightwing.

[Vakanai]

Is that really viable though? If you go back to day 1, you lose out on so many popular characters and character-defining moments.

Is it worth losing out on Nightwing, Jason, Damian, Tim, Cassie Sandsmark, etc? Is it worth losing the impact of Superman's death or Dick's time in the Batsuit? DC has a lot of viable properties that can't really exist in the early days of the DCU without major adjustment to the chain of events. And if you're going to change things enough to keep some things, then why bother going back to a "year one" that isn't even like year one?

Besides, Clark's death and marriage, Dick's graduation to Nightwing, the introduction of new characters (who have themselves been around for decades). I've already read and seen that. I'm not inclined to pay to see it done again, and likely done worse.

And I'm okay with that. Sure, starting over it might be a few years or so before we get Dick back when he joins Batman as Robin, and years more before he becomes Nightwing, same for other heroes belonging to later generations, but it gives new generations of fans a chance to experience the journey and connect with the character like the old timers first did once upon a time. And frankly, if it is a hard reboot, why couldn't major adjustments be made to the early days of the DCU? Why can't Batman have two Robins? Imagine how the dynamic would play out if young Dick and Jason were by Bruce's side at the same time? Might need to come up with different codenames or identities, but so what? Why rehash Clark's death? Hell, in a hard reboot, he might not even marry Lois until decades have passed (how many years between his first published appearance was it until they got married in the 90s?) so you'll probably be dead by then. Again, a very hard reboot where like the early days of the DCU, anything is possible once again. And some characters are probably only popular to a small group anyways. New stories, new characters, and when there seems to be an absolute need to repeat something from the old continuity why do you assume it would be worse?

Besides, you can always do stories with those characters in an elseworlds or something. Have the current DCU transition over to being the new Earth 2.

Actually, the way I'd personally handle a reboot is kind of like Ultimate Marvel, only instead the plan would be the Ultimate version of DC will replace the current one in like 10 years. That way writers could actually finish the stories of the current versions of characters, with a mandate that it'd be an ending that fans will be satisfied with. Batman largely wins his war on crime in Gotham, marries Selena, settles down, has kids. Because crime isn't an issue Dick doesn't replace him as Batman because there's no need for a Batman and gets a regular job and settles down with either Babs or Starfire. Superman gets to hang up his cape and grow old with Lois while waiting for Jon to give them grandkids. Just a slow, 10 year long story granting everyone their happy ending until the post-Crisis DCU is a boring happy place. And while that goes on the new DCU adds more title and takes up more slack. Best way to get fans to drop the drug of "muh continuity!" is to transition them slowly so they don't go through withdrawals.

[byrd156]

I cant believe people want or wanted a hard reboot.

Not a missed opportunity, but a story point that ruined a large part of Bat mythos, ending Oracle and making babs Batgirl.

I'd rather have a hard reboot rather than what we got with the New 52.

[j9ac9k]

Regarding the "hard reboot" thing, my thought is that they should do an "Ultimate Universe" thing where they just invest in a whole separate universe and give creators a chance to really reboot/totally reinvent the properties from scratch and take some things in directions you can't in the main DCU. (and you don't have the backlash of fans feeling like their favorites are being stepped on) It'd also offer the chance for more diversity from the get-go instead of it happening with secondary or legacy characters, etc. Start with only a couple of titles and grow from there.

[SiegePerilous02]

In light of where he's ended up, Dick Grayson should have remained Agent 37. Or at least gone back to Nightwing while having Agent 37-style adventures instead of being shackled to shitty ass Bludhaven.

Barry's resurrection and a big Flash family with the full history. Wally should have, at worst, just been semi-retired with Linda and the kids. Instead we got what we got.

They had two reboots and two chances to sort out Donna Troy, and somehow made her worse

The BatCat lack of wedding, if it hasn't been moved to the actual end of King's run

The continued lack of any big push for Wonder Woman on the comics front despite her movie being (up until AQ) the only unanimous saving grace of the DCEU. Lack of any animated projects, video games, etc. sucks as well.

[Vakanai]

The best way to do the "hard reboot" is to just make the old continuity a new Earth in the multiverse. Like they made the old WW2 comics a Earth 2 in the Silver Age.

You restart the main characters with new #1's from scratch while keeping a few of your popular books that rely on legacy heroes to continue under a new imprint.

Fans of the old continuity don't get the shaft and the fans that want to read Superman, Batman, et al from the very beginning get what they want.

It's not that hard to make it work.

I should have kept reading. Yes, this is the way to do a hard reboot, keep the old continuity going under a new label and restart with a new universe. That way old fans can continue watching the story their used to (still think eventually working to a happy ending for that universe would be cool though) while people can check out the new universe.

[QUOTE=ArsonoptiX;4143234Putting heroes back in the trunks. Even with 30+ years in comics...I still find trunks stupid. I was elated that the New 52 did away with them and gave Batman a more armored suit...which makes sense. I think we've gone backwards putting them back in trunks[/QUOTE]

This. So much this. Batman's costume was great, and people seemed to love Superman's Rebirth costume without the trunks. Why bring them back?

I cant believe people want or wanted a hard reboot.

What's so hard to believe? Part of many people's apprehension about jumping into comic books these days is the decades and decades of continuity, the fear of jumping into the stories being told and feeling lost because you didn't read an issue from the writer's childhood *cough*Morrison*cough*. At some point continuity becomes too big and feels like excess baggage.

To be honest, there have been too many reboots. That's the problem. Maybe this is just because I'm a Superman fan but there have been too many false starts. The whole "He still died but we don't know if half the events in the books themselves even took place" thing gets old. And that's where we were before the reboot. Nobody knew what "counts" and what doesn't. At least with a hard reboot you know for sure none of it does. The entire 2000s were a continuity train wreck. I saw New 52 as a chance at a real clean slate.

Also this. Too many soft reboots clutter things up and breeds confusion. What stories count, which don't count? And for some fans stories don't matter unless their in continuity (seriously, I've read some people feel like non-continuity stories aren't worth reading because they "don't count", imagine what stress they must go through figuring out which parts of their collection have suddenly become wasted time and money when every reboot comes around). And we know DC will continue to do reboots forever, mostly soft. The occasional hard reboot thrown in will at least give us a few simple, not confusing eras going forward.

Of course a hard reboot will only work if there's a mandate that no Crisis, event, or writer's whim will bring back portions of the old continuity. No converging the realities or timelines to make old stories count again.

[Vakanai]

The continued lack of any big push for Wonder Woman on the comics front despite her movie being (up until AQ) the only unanimous saving grace of the DCEU. Lack of any animated projects, video games, etc. sucks as well.

She's getting an animated movie this year.

I mean it feels kind of late to the party, but it is coming.

[Thor2014]

Regarding the "hard reboot" thing, my thought is that they should do an "Ultimate Universe" thing where they just invest in a whole separate universe and give creators a chance to really reboot/totally reinvent the properties from scratch and take some things in directions you can't in the main DCU. (and you don't have the backlash of fans feeling like their favorites are being stepped on) It'd also offer the chance for more diversity from the get-go instead of it happening with secondary or legacy characters, etc. Start with only a couple of titles and grow from there.

Such an 'Ultimate' universe will always be treated secondary to the 'main' one and deemed not as important. Just look at the Earth One line. That's what eventually did in the Ultimate Universe, even though it had a decent run.

[Thor2014]

Bringing back Justice League International in Rebirth, or a Justice League team including many of the JLI big guns.