What would you want to see in a reboot?

[Sacred Knight]

They'll never seem to learn the lesson that if you want to do it, you don't half-ass it. You can't. You go full out or you don't do it at all. That simple. Now does that mean tough decisions? Yeah. Mainly the necessity to get rid of all the previous generations Even with the promise that with new growth it will eventually come back in some form or another, its a risk because you know it won't happen for a good long while outside of Dick Grayson and some select others of whom it makes sense to be able to show up somewhat early on. But only under that kind of commitment to see it through fully do you ever entertain it again. If that's just not in the cards, then throw the idea away. Period.

Since they've displayed time and again they can't do any of that, then there is pretty much no fixing their timeline. You just roll forward with what you've got. Because any other attempts will only mess things up even more. History's proven that. If you can't reboot the main line, keep it the way it is, go forward, and if there is a market for starting over (which I very much believe there still is), you do it in another line. But these wishy washy attempts to clean up the main line never, ever work. And both times they tried the full reboot, it ended up half-assed because they couldn't make the tough decisions in doing it.

[MajorHoy]

What would you want to see in a reboot?

More cowbell.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Reset to Pre-Flashpoint. Only character introduced post-2011 worth hanging onto is Jon Kent.

[king81992]

I'd make every book take place in its own universe. No bringing up stuff from past runs(unless the current writer wants to). Gives the story a definitive beginning, middle and end. When the next writer takes over, they get to tell their own story with the character.

[lemonpeace]

reboot everything but this time it's just the Flashpoint universe. no pre-New 52 or New 52/rebirth, just Flashpoint universe.

actually roll everything back to the original incarnations of all the characters. I mean like 30s/40s versions before all their development and before the cultural zeitgeist was diverse, inclusive and/or mindful of iconography.

/s

[Flash Gordon]

Considering that I love everything I'm currently reading...no thanks on a reboot.

[SecretWarrior]

From the John Stewart Thread:

Both DC and Marvel should take notes from this article, but DC even moreso: https://www.newsarama.com/22552-10-t...el-comics.html

Basically:

Things We'd Keep from ULTIMATE UNIVERSE at Marvel Comics

-Smaller Teams and Bigger Stakes



"We don't need Ultimate Darkhawk! The Ultimate Universe showed that sometimes smaller teams are better, giving writers more opportunities to show characterization and draw out action beats. What matters more than big team rosters is big stakes - something the Ultimate Universe did with aplomb, treating Hulk rampages and Magneto attacks on the same scale as 9/11, transforming the superhero skirmishes we're accustomed to into truly game-changing events."

-Distill, Distill, Distill

"What launched the Ultimate Universe wasn't just the strong artwork or the real-world plots - what made the Ultimate Universe work was the creators boiled down characters to their essence. With the Ultimate Universe potentially signaling a line-wide relaunch, this is an opportunity to jettison continuity minutiae and even all the random supervillains. The Ultimates's streamlined take clearly influenced Joss Whedon's super-popular Avengers movie (and the MCU at large), and we want to see that trend continue - just take each character and strip them down to their most essential moments and points of view."

-A-List Artwork



"Hitch. Kubert. Bagley. Land. McNiven. These are some big names in comic book artwork, and all of them got bigger with the Ultimate Universe. These artists didn't just grow in stature along with their books, but they provided realistic, grounded redesigns that breathed new life into Marvel. And with book prices rising, we need better execution even more than high concept plots to make a book feel like an "event" - and the best way to do that is to give readers the same kinds of big-name artists that epitomized the early Ultimate Universe."

-Superhuman Arms Race



"It's nice to see that not everybody is comfortable with an "Avengers world." The Ultimate Universe never created its superheroes in a vacuum, but immediately had the all-too-human populace react. Some of the best villains of the Ultimate Universe came in reaction to our heroes, including the Weapon X project kidnapping and weaponizing mutants - which led to one of the most brutal and tense X-Men storylines in history - or superhumans being cooked up to combat U.S. foreign policy, such as when the Ultimates had to square off against the Liberators. It would be nice to see that carry over to the regular Marvel Universe – and maybe give the heroes someone else to fight besides each other."

I'm so tired of these "Crisis" stories and characters like the Anti-Monitor who have no real backstory or motivation other than destroying realities. The DCAU didn't do these for a reason. They're overly complicated in that they require significant understanding of backstory to care even a single iota about what happens.

[SecretWarrior]

Also:

[Ulysses]

From the John Stewart Thread:

"this is an opportunity to jettison continuity minutiae"

"the creators boiled down characters to their essence"

"just take each character and strip them down to their most essential moments and points of view."

So, tell archetypal stories. Everything else is ancillary at best.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I'd lean into the Multiverse aspect a little more by doing a new take on the whole Earth-1/Earth-2 thing, but this time you'd have an Earth-0 that includes the broad strokes of all prior history for those who want to see the next chapter of all their favorite characters while establishing a newly revamped Earth-1 that combines all the best parts of the previous Earth-One books, but ditches all the stuff that didn't work.

The comics line would be split somewhat evenly between the legacy books set on Earth-O, non-continuity stuff that can experiment however creators want (the best of which can be revisited as a part of the Multiverse), and the streamlined Earth One books featuring younger versions of Superman, Batman & Robin, and Wonder Woman in their early adventures, and expand from there.

I think Morrison's T-shirt & jeans Superman has a lot of untapped potential. Freed from the shackles of fitting the role of the traditional Superman, that incarnation of the character can thrive and grow in new directions. Johns & Frank's Batman from Earth One similarly has lots of juice left in him for different creators to explore, particularly if they introduce a young Dick Grayson into the mix. Morrison's Wonder Woman is a mixed bag, but he's come the closest to recapturing the crazy, kinky, radical ideas of the original version. I'd love to see what somebody else could do here. Or, start fresh with someone else.

Whichever books sell, make more of those, but DC doesn't need to waste any effort trying to shoehorn everything into one continuity set on one Earth. DC's strength is its diversity of styles and tones. Play that up and rebrand the whole shebang the DC Multiverse.

[hareluyafan1]

Hot take: Reboots are never necessary from a stroytelling standpoint. They are pure marketing.

I have to strongly disagree with that. Sometimes reboots can be necessary to bring back beloved characters and/or improve on them. For example I'm a huge fan of Dolphin. "Rebirth" not only brought her back into continuity but gave us a brand-new (and in my opinion even better) version of her with a completely different backstory (so new readers won't need to read tons of back issues to know who she is).

Just tell cool stories.

Stories are only as cool as the characters in them. If they don't include characters we love there's no point.

[Ulysses]

Rebirth was not necessary to bring back Dolphin. The writer, assuming editorial gives the ok, can just write a story about the return of Dolphin. And that writer can simply retell her origin story. Reboots are not necessary. Stories are. I think reboots are lazy gimmicks (broadly speaking),

[Aahz]

I think in some cases a reboot or a massive retcon can be necessary when they completely screwed up a character.