If DC does a company-wide Hard Reboot in the future ...

[mikelmcknight72]

First, it would be a mistake to do a hard reboot. I know they don't want to be accused of imitating their Marvelous competition, but Marvel's approach to time passage/continuity is the only one that works for the DC/Marvel style comics universes. Soft, floating time is best. Try to avoid any well defined time skips. Everything happened, less popular incidents get either not referenced ever again or retconned. That being said, a the New 52 approach would have been the way to go if they'd had their act together. Sadly, they didn't.

- They had no plan. Everything regarding what did and didn't happen should have been mapped out before. They previous iterations of Titans happened, then didn't. And so on, and so forth.
- Making Cyborg a founding JLA member. Making him a present-day member who more or less graduated from the Titans would have been far better.
- They tried to bring back the GA characterization of Superman, in spite of the fact that the characterization didn't stick around all that long and was ultimately unsustainable. They made Superman, the most iconic if not best-selling character in their stable, much less likable. They ditched the Lois relationship.
- They made fundamental changes to characters to the point that they were only that character in name. Tim Drake, Kid Flash, Wally West, arguably Martian Manhunter.
- They leaned into a lot of the more XTREME, unpopular 90's elements. A lot of stuff intended to be shocking.
- Very good costume changes, a lot that were ok, and some that were terrible. Part of the whole change for the sake of change, really.
- What they did to the JSA and how they handled Earth 2.
- Leaning too hard into Darkseid and is crew. Darkseid is too awesome to use constantly. Unless you are going to have a Fourth World line, which I would favor, it should always be noteworthy when his crew comes calling on Earth.

[TheRay]

If they did, it would be stupid.

Maybe, maybe not. There are probably tons of fanfics that use this idea/concept.

[SiegePerilous02]

At this stage, a hard reboot is looking more and more appealing.

Everyone in the cast is either directionless or horribly annoying (or both). This includes Bruce, the actual main character who should probably be a likable hero if this whole thing is to be worth a damn. With both the recent events and some of the pre-Flashpoint baggage like Murderer/Fugitive, War Games and OMAC, the modern Batman is beyond tainted at this point.

Put him out of his misery and put a better version in his place. It wouldn't be ideal for many, but nobody would claim being Robin again would be worse for Dick Grayson at this point than Ric. At least not with a straight face. And Batman and the Joker wouldn't be flanderized anymore and could actually be worth reading about again.

Very unlikely to happen, I know. Or if it does, it likely won't be executed well. But I can dream. Otherwise, the only upcoming Batman related things to look forward to are the new DCAU comic and The Batman.

[Gotham citizen]

At this stage, a hard reboot is looking more and more appealing.
[…]

I think it wouldn't solve nothing: if there are problems in the continuity, in the Bat-franchise, in the entire DC universe, is because the editors and the writers took the wrong decisions and then they tried to solve those problems adopting solutions worst than the problems themselves. In my humble opinion the only hard reboot DC really needs is the reboot of the staff, then it will be possible start to solve the problems they created.

[SiegePerilous02]

I think it wouldn't solve nothing: if there are problems in the continuity, in the Bat-franchise, in the entire DC universe, is because the editors and the writers took the wrong decisions and then they tried to solve those problems adopting solutions worst than the problems themselves. In my humble opinion the only hard reboot DC really needs is the reboot of the staff, then it will be possible start to solve the problems they created.

I think Batman is so tainted at this point due to things off and on from the 80s before the current management was in charge.

But I do 100% agree that if/when we ever get another reboot, we need new people behind it to give it a chance. One who preferably took notes from before Batman got Miller'd

[Gotham citizen]

I agree: Miller (but also Moore) started that process which turned the superhero in supervigilantes, betraying the original concept of the hero: a man able to breathing hope into the hopeless even if he fails.
What I would love? To see the Bat-franchise in the hand of the Batman TAS series staff.

[Jackalope89]

I agree: Miller (but also Moore) started that process which turned the superhero in supervigilantes, betraying the original concept of the hero: a man able to breathing hope into the hopeless even if he fails.
What I would love? To see the Bat-franchise in the hand of the Batman TAS series staff.

Eh, I would put a short leash on Bruce Timm in such a case, for good reason (looks at Killing Joke, Batman and Harley Quinn, and BrucexBabs from Batman Beyond). Otherwise, it would be interesting to see what they would do.

[SiegePerilous02]

I agree: Miller (but also Moore) started that process which turned the superhero in supervigilantes, betraying the original concept of the hero: a man able to breathing hope into the hopeless even if he fails.
What I would love? To see the Bat-franchise in the hand of the Batman TAS series staff.

What's weird is that Moore actually writers one of the better Batmans. In TJK, Swamp Thing and that story with Clayface III, he's dark and brooding but considerably nicer and more compassionate than he is in recent years. He's a version I'd love to read about more consistently.

Dini at least having a hand in re-shaping the Bat-franchise would be good. We need some fresh voices and new ideas, but if we had to back to a prior creator he'd be one of the better ones. At the very least, Batman and the Joker would be written well for a change.

[Gotham citizen]

What's weird is that Moore actually writers one of the better Batmans. In TJK, Swamp Thing and that story with Clayface III, he's dark and brooding but considerably nicer and more compassionate than he is in recent years. He's a version I'd love to read about more consistently.

It isn't weird at all: Moore and Miller are two of the greatest writer of the last decades and their work inspired a lot of new writers, who did the mistake of not to understand the long term consequences of write heroes more and more shady, grim, violent and inconsiderate.

Dini at least having a hand in re-shaping the Bat-franchise would be good. We need some fresh voices and new ideas, but if we had to back to a prior creator he'd be one of the better ones. At the very least, Batman and the Joker would be written well for a change.

I think we need someone who do what Kurt Busiek suggested in his preface to Astro City vol. 1: stop the deconstruction of the heroes, reassemble them and leave them work.

[TheRay]

they could imo not even have the Justice League book in the beginning.

Of course it wouldn’t be needed, but you could really add it in whenever you wanted.
You’d also have the JSA going for you too.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

If you wanted you could have Dick be the POV character in the first issue. POV or point of view characters are an easy way to have exposition and not drag things down.

[Restingvoice]

Forgot to mention, if there's a hard reboot then I don't want any Robin death. Any other character can die but if Robin die that closes the door on a non-powered sidekick to me. You're going too far with realism in a story meant to be a heroic fantasy enjoyable for all... well, many ages.

Red Hood can still be born from Jason's dissatisfaction with Batman's method. He doesn't need to be tortured either. He just needs to see enough that Batman's method isn't working, especially against Joker, and use the identity as a means of independence or breaking ties. A change of ideology doesn't need death and torture when many Batman readers also side with Jason.

[TheRay]

It depends on the story they wanna tell.

If that were true you could just do as an Elseworld or one shot.

[Gotham citizen]

I did it! In the end I was able to write a first draft of my reboot. It is still a work in progress, because there are various idea I kept for my self: they aren't ready to be published, like my idea of the geography of the Country of Gotham, but I wanted know your opinion about how I think the titles of the franchise should be.
Anyway you must know this isn't the "reboot of my dreams", because I tried to think like I were an editor whit the task to maximize the worldwide sales of the franchise, so you will find some unconventional ideas (for the American standards), but those ideas are thought for the foreign markets, where the US comics books don't have good sales.

BATMAN
In my opinion in the last three decades the character Batman was heavily damaged by writers who wrote him like a man perpetually traumatized by the loss of his parents, in costant need of a parental figures (Alfred) and unable to establish any emotional connection with the people who are close to him. This is deeply wrong because it created in someones the idea he is some sort of sociopath, more similar to the criminals he fight than to the true hero he was meant to be and in order to correct that I think it is necessary erase every uncaring, disrespectful (both toward the law than the others), sociopath or antisocial behaviors from the character giving more emphasis on his social life, on the fact he cooperates with the law, putting again the Robins to his side and removing Alfred from the role of his parental figure. In short I'm suggesting the title Batman should be more similar to the animated series of the nineties than to the contemporary comics.

BRUCE WAYNE
If I think both the title than the character Batman should be more similar to the ones of Batman TAS, I also think Bruce Wayne should be more similar to the one played by Adam West because he was caring, respectful and very relaxed (in the animated series there wasn’t much room for Bruce’s life and for his relationship with his pupils), moreover I suggest to describe him more like a reluctant socialite chased by a lot of young women (like it was hinted in the video “Catwoman: chase me”), than like a billionaire wannabe playboy, like instead he acted in too many stories of the past; I think this behavior is more fit to him.

THE ROLE OF THE SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
In my opinion the supporting characters play a fundamental role in the title because they help to explore the Bruce Wayne personality playing with their different personalities, they are useful to put some humor in the title, to avoid to describe him like he were almost omnipotent and/or like a sociopath. So the title can’t be focused only on Batman’s crusade against the crime, but it is necessary left some room for Bruce’s life and his supporting characters.

ALFRED PENNYWORTH
In parallel to what happened to Batman, also the character of Alfred was more and more "swallowed up" by Batman's crusade and in this way he acquired an entire set of skills a butler can never have; in some stories he was even able to darn the bulletproof vest, which aren't repairable! In my opinion this is another thing that must be corrected, writing Alfred like he was in the TV show of the sixties, because that Alfred was helpful and accomplice, but nevertheless his identity like character was perfectly definite and totally distinct from the Bruce's crusade. Again the clever use of the supporting characters can help the writer to achieve this goal: Alfred can’t be a surgeon, but he might help the Doctor Kingsolving to heal Bruce’s wounds.

UNCLE PHILIP
I always had difficult to reconcile the fact that Bruce is the son of a surgeon, whit the fact he was the heir with the Wayne Enterprises: why did Bruce's father become a surgeon, if he already had and entire financial empire to run? Because I don't remember if some writer already answered to this question, I invented this answer: Bruce belongs to a cadet branch of the Wayne family, so the Wayne Enterprises didn't belong to Bruce's father but to his cousin: the "uncle" Philip, who adopted Bruce after his parents' dead.

VINCE WAYNE
Vince Wayne is the spoiled son of uncle Philip, who hates Bruce because uncle Philip has decided to disinherit him, making Bruce his only own heir and because of that Vince will become a thorn in Bruce’s side; I still don't know what kind of thorn.

NOCTURNA
Nocturna will become uncle Philip’s wife and in this reality she is a witch obsessed by the luxury, by the beautiful and the eternal youth, able to steal the soul of other people, turning them in her faithful slaves; her power deprives her slaves of their will, but it doesn’t deprive them of their self-awareness, so they act like they were perfectly normal.

ZATARA, ZATANNA & DEADMAN
In this reality Zatara and his daughter Zatanna are two magicians who works for the night clubs and for the casinò of Gotham, but thank to their magical powers and their knowledge of the occult forces, they also help the Bat-family to fight the various supernatural creatures who secretly live in Gotham. In this reality Zatanna feels secretly an unrequited love for Bruce Wayne, who instead sees her like a younger sister: Zatanna has about the same age of Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon; also Deadman can be used in this kind of stories.

BATMAN AND THE OTHER VIGILANTES
Batman has a very strictly attitude toward the others vigilantes: he doesn’t tollerate the ones who are too violent or who doesn’t respect the law, because he know very well they can be seen like models by the Gotham citizens and he can work without problems only if they cooperate with the Police, so they must be good models and they can't act like they took the place of the Police.

BATMAN’S KNIGHTS
This title should be focused on the adventures of the various Robins: the sixteen years old boy (and girls) Tim Drake (Red Robin), Cassandra Cain (Green Robin), Stephanie Brown (Purple Robin) and the thirteen years old boy Damian Wayne (Blue Robin). Always to avoid to give the idea that Bruce Wayne is an abusive character, I think it is necessary describe the relationship among Bruce and the Robins similar to the one we saw in the ’66 TV show and it could be also useful to make very clear that it wasn't Bruce who recruited the Robins, but instead they decided to become vigilantes and so he started to train them to protect them by their inexperience and impulsiveness.

BIRDS OF PREY
Title focused on the adventures of the all female vigilantes team composed by: Katherine Kane (Batwoman), Mary Elisabeth Kane (Batgirl), Dinah Laurel Lance (Black Canary) and Helena Bertinelli (Huntress) who share the same vocation to fight the crime, but they also have very different attitudes: Kate puts more emphasis on the investigations and the preparation of the mission, while Dinah is more inclined to the action and both of them think they should be the team leader, because they are the most experienced team members, a leadership that Helena bring often into question with her tendency to be insubordinate and with her inclination to the violence; inclination that both Kate and Dinah tend to blame and contrast.
In this reality Batgirl is the Kate’s young sister and she plays the role of the most inexperienced members of the team; she became Batgirl to follow the footsteps of her beloved sister.

GOTHAM’S OUTLAWS
This title is focused on the adventures of a team of "bad vigilantes" formed by Red Hood (I would love change his name in Night Scourge: it is more threatening), Tarantula and Azrael. One of the most recurring antagonist of this title should be the special anti-vigilante unit of the Gotham Police, lead by the Detective Maxwell Cort (who in this reality will not become Night Scourge) and supported by the Professor Strange.

End of the part 1

[Gotham citizen]

[…]
Part 1

GREEN ARROW & THE OUTSIDERS
I don’t know very well Green Arrow, but it seems to me he is some sort of opposite of Batman: he is more reckless, more inclined to the action and more sensible to the social justice, so I thought: why not to move Green Arrow to Gotham, give him a team of characters took both from the Batman than the Green Arrow franchises, take advantage of the Bat-franchise to try to create a successful title with Green Arrow?
The idea is to use a strategy similar to the one adopted with Birds of Pray: to write a series of stories where Batman and Green Arrow work together, making evident their differences and their similarities, to introduce the character in the franchise, but instead to create a title Batman / Green Arrow, the purpose is to build around Green Arrow a team with people who aren’t members of the Bat-family. I think to create a little of rivalry between the Bat-family and the Outsiders, can be useful to make the title more interesting.

HARLEY QUINN
I’m wondering if Harley should be part of this team or of the Gotham’s Outlaws, because it seems to me the fans see her more like an anti-hero than a villain; or maybe I'm wrong and it is the DC that want she became a good-guy.

ORACLE
Because the idea to create a team with a field leader more inclined to the action and a remote leader more inclined to the preparation was good the Birds of Prey, I’m thinking to create something similar for Green Arrow & the Outsiders putting an Oracle at the side of Green Arrow, but because I think it is never a good idea to told an old story changing the protagonist, I want do something different: in this reality Julia Pennyworth (who doesn’t need a wheelchair) has made Green Arrow acquaintance and because she is an investigative journalist, she started to help him with his fight against the crime doing a great part of the investigative work he needs and eventually she adopted the secret identity of Oracle, becoming in this way the remote leader of the Outsiders.

LEGENDS OF GOTHAM
The purpose of this title is to tell all the origins of every characters (it doesn’t matter if they are heroes, villains or supporting characters), all the prior events that made this reality different from the pre-reboot universe.

KNIGHTS OF GOTHAM
Anthological low price book for newsstands and supermarkets, in order to reach the highest number possible of occasional readers, giving them all titles of the franchise in a single book. In order to contain the price, the book will be printed in black and white on newsprint.

DETECTIVE COMICS
Another low price anthological book whit a format similar to the one used for Knights of Gotham, but destined to hold detective stories instead of the ones of superheroes; it is foreseen the possibility to print also a collectible edition on high quality paper and with colored stories.
This book has the dual purpose to improve the DC’s sales outside the USA (where the superheroes aren’t very loved) and allow to the foreign authors to gain confidence with the DC’s characters, because they can bring new (hopefully good) ideas.
Some example of titles that the book can hold are: “Vicky Vale”, “Montoya & Bullock”, “Grayson”, “G.C.P.D. Chronicles” e “Jason Bard”.

VICKY VALE
The Vicky Vale’s adventures are mainly focused on her reports about the corruption and the criminality of the entire Country of Gotham (the Vicky Vale’s motto is: «A journalist tells what the others want keep secret, not what the others want make know») and these reports will often put Vicky in trouble so Bruce Wayne (owner of the journal in which Vicky works) to give her a bodyguard: Sasha Bordeaux, though both Vicky than Sasha in the beginning will not appreciate that because Vicky fears it is a limitation to her leeway and Sasha thinks it is degrading be the bodyguard of a journalist; both will have to change their opinion about that. So the focus of the Vicky Vale's adventures is the plot of illicit affairs among the high society, the criminality and the politicians of Gotham and those affairs are faced from the point of view of the indignant ordinary citizen who want know the truth.

G.C.P.D. CHRONICLES
“G.C.P.D. Chronicles” tells the stories of the entire Gotham City Police Department, so the main characters will change with the focus of the stories, even if there will be a recurrent cast (like it happened in the TV show “N.Y.P.D. Blue”) and also the genre will change from story to story varying from the realism of NYPD Blue, to the action of NCIS, without forgot the focus on procedural forensics investigations of “CSI Crime Scene”. Unlike “Vicky Vale”, where the focus is the corrupted relationship among the criminals, the politicians and the high society of the entire Country of Gotham, in this title the focus is how that corrupted relationship influences the work of the Gotham Police and how much the corruption was able to infiltrate itself the in the Police.
Some of the main characters of the title will be the Commissioner Gordon, his deputy Commissioner Sara Essen-Gordon, the Captain William Pettit (commander of the Gotham SWAT) and the Mayor of Gotham Roman Sionis; for now no one knows he is Black Mask and (always for now) his face isn’t disfigured.

MONTOYA & BULLOCK
The adventured of “M. & B.” are detective stories of hard-boiled genre, where the two detectives face various cases of common crime, which usually become investigations against the Gotham criminality. In this reality both of them left the G.C.P.D. because Bullock was fired for political reasons and Montoya decided to resign for protest, so they have became private investigators and the contrast among the good relationship they have with the police, the bad relationship they have with the politician and their different feelings toward the masked vigilantes (Montoya thinks they are helpful but Bullock hates them) will play an important role in their stories.
I took away them from the G.C.P.D. in order to differenziate their title from G.C.P.D. Chronicles.

BLÜDHAVEN COPS
This title should merge the tone of Miami Vice, Starsky & Hutch and Donnie Brasco together and is focused on the adventures of Dick Grayson and his partner, who are detectives for the Blüdhaven Police Department and often they go undercover, to infiltrate themselves in the Blüdhaven criminality.
I would love use Barbara Gordon like his team mate, because I think there is a great chemistry between them (under all points of view) and I think the readers will love that: the unresolved love affairs help always the sales.

JASON BARD
I don’t know enough this character to have a clear idea of how utilize him, but I think he may be used in two different ways: he can be a supporting character for Vicky Vale or he can have his own title; he can do both the things: sometime he can help Vicky Vale in her investigations and some other times he can have his own adventures.

GRAPHIC NOVELS
The graphic novels should not be in continuity, not to mess the storyline of the regular titles, in this way they can be used to experiment new thematics, which can be add in the regular titles later, after having understood if, how and when and insert them in the continuity.

OTHER CHARACTERS

DUKE THOMAS & LUKE FOX
These are other two character I don’t know very well so I may be wrong, but I think the best use of these characters could be put them in the Teen Titans (Duke Thomas) and in the Young Justice (Luke Fox). I would love also to change their nicknames, because Signal seems to me banal and I think Batwing is more adapt to a vehicle than a Batman’s ally, so I suggest Midnight-sun (or the shorter Nightsun) for Duke Thomas (thank to Lemonpeace for the involuntary suggestion) and Steelwing for Luke, but this isn’t a really important matter; the name Steelwing is an homage to the very first Italian Batman edition, where Batman was called Ala d'Acciaio, which are just the Italians words for Steelwing.

FERONIA
Because I think Poison Ivy is a very interesting both when she is an ecoterrorist than when she is some sort of Goddess of the Plants, but the two roles are incompatible, I decided to split the two concept in two different character: Poison Ivy is the ecoterrorist and Feronia (the Ancient Roman Goddess of wildlife, fertility and civilian rights) is the Goddess who rules the Robinson Park in the centre of Gotham (Poison Ivy did during "No men's land”) and who gave to Poison Ivy her powers. So in this reality the Robinson Park is become an inhospitable place for the citizens of Gotham, except for a group of orphans called “The Children of the Park”, who choose to live with her and according to her rule: to refuse the civilization; also this is a concept took from "No men's land”.

POISON IVY
In this reality Poison Ivy is an ecoterrorist who finances herself committing robberies and other crimes. She is still related to the nature and the plants, so she conserves her powers (in this reality they were obtained by Feronia), but she isn’t the plant goddess she was in some stories, because that role now is filled by Feronia herself.

THE LAZARUS PIT
In this reality only a Lazarus Pit exists, it is located in the dungeon of Ra’s al Ghoul base and it can’t resurrect the deads or heal the dyings. It can only restore a corpse and instill in it a semblance of life, turning it on a being without will and self-awareness, able only to obey blindly to his owner: Ra’s al Ghoul.

End of part 2