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

[scary harpy]

If you want new stories, then you're in the wrong place.

Superhero stories follow a pattern: the good versus the bad of the story arc...with a subplot or two. This is true for Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and etcetera. (This is true for Miraculous and P J Masks. )

The only newness is new villains; they keep the story interesting with a fresh challenge. This has been true for over 80 years so I don't think it will change anytime soon.

If you accept this, then you can enjoy the stories. If you don't, then you become frustrated with the stories.

When the next Batman cartoon is made, I fully expect it to follow this pattern.

[Gotham citizen]

The problem is there already was the best possible way to restart Batman and it could not have been more perfect. Year One... Dini's TEC at the same time as Morrison Batman. Just go from there to any Batman story

I agree: Batman doesn't need a hard reboot, because his continuity isn't messed up. He might benefit from a soft reboot (I prefer the world restart), which give us an origin of Batman and his world revisited an corrected, like it happened for Jason Todd: if I remember well in his first origin he was adopted by Bruce Wayne after his' parents (a couple of a circus acrobats) were killed by a criminal (where did I already read this story?), but after Crisis on the Infinite Earths he became a little delinquent who lived in the streets and thank to this new origins Jason became a more interesting character, not a simply Dick's clone; at least for me.

This is what I think DC should have done with New 52 and Rebirth: if New 52 was meant to be a new starting point for the DC Universe, which didn't erase the old status quo of the various titles, Rebirth should have been the origins of this new universe, where the story of the various characters was modernized (like it happened with Batman Year One or with the miniseries Catwoman of 1989), corrected (like it happened with Jason Todd) and/or simplified (if certain origins were too convolute). But like I wrote, this operation had to be done thinking to what, how, why change something and above all if there was something that needed to be changed and DC didn't do that; at least this is my opinion.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

And they literally start the main Batman comic from the beginning ...

1.) How should/would they start BATMAN (next volume) #1?

2.) How long should/would they go on before introducing Richard Grayson pre-Robin?

I'd start in the middle of a case and set the status quo up in the background.

That depends on which Batman im doing. A young Batman i would hold off on it. I'd even throw in a red herring or two just to tease the fans. I always wanted to do a story where Anarky was the proto-Robin.

An older Batman id probably throw in a reference to his solo if he has one. I'd skip him as Robin and head straight to him as Nightwing or whatever Identity he has.

[ngroove]

The problem is there already was the best possible way to restart Batman and it could not have been more perfect. Year One... Dini's TEC at the same time as Morrison Batman. Just go from there to any Batman story

I honestly could go for a total hard reboot, that erases Year One, as well as others that I find either highly boring or highly overrated, such as Killing Joke, and Death In the Family.

[ngroove]

New Teen Titans, Green Lantern, Justice League Detroit, Flash, Batman and the Outsiders, etc, were not rebooted after Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986.

My point, was Superman was totally rebooted. If he can rebooted, his 1938-1985 slate mostly wiped clean, then Batman can too.

[superduperman]

I'd like to see a different take on his origin. Have most of the book about his training overseas. A part of his history we never get to see. The last page would be him coming back to Gotham. As far as Robin goes, I'd have the main books take place a year after his origin. He's been Batman for little over a year. It's implied that Year One is still canon but not directly stated. The story starts with the death of the Graysons. Bruce takes Dick in. The first story arc ends with him becoming Robin.

[Restingvoice]

See, I've always had an issue with this. This is not how you move stories and characters forward. This is how you keep them stagnant and static (which is pretty much the same reason I'm not really a fan of Geoff Johns. The guy basically just rewrites his favorite stories from his childhood only sucking all the life and wonder from them. This isn't creativity, it's counterfeiting).

That said, I'm well aware that most comic fans really aren't interested in character or story progression in the least. They want what guys like Geoff Johns puts out: the same stories over and over and over again, each time just a little more diluted.

That's not even remotely what I meant

I said I wanted to read the old stories with new art because I hadn't read the old stories

Not that I want current stories to be replaced by old ones.

The current story can go forward as much as they like, I just want a Remastered High Definition version of old stories for the current generation on the side as a quick catch up.

[Korath]

If a hard reboot had to happen... ditch the previous characters. Because there is no point in retelling (and retooling) the origins of Dick, Jason, Tim, Barbara, etc. If you want to make use of those characters, don't reboot. If you reboot, make new ones and a brand new Gotham, with a brand new Batman to deal with. Perhaps not even a Bruce Wayne or if he's a Wayne, perhaps not from old money or with the fortune he currently have.

[TheRay]

Oh if we're doing that
#1 Bruce Wayne

Is this who each issue would introduce or something else?

[scary harpy]

If a hard reboot had to happen... ditch the previous characters. Because there is no point in retelling (and retooling) the origins of Dick, Jason, Tim, Barbara, etc. If you want to make use of those characters, don't reboot. If you reboot, make new ones and a brand new Gotham, with a brand new Batman to deal with. Perhaps not even a Bruce Wayne or if he's a Wayne, perhaps not from old money or with the fortune he currently have.

That would be an elseworlds not a reboot.

Comic books are about telling the same story over and over again...with slight alterations over time.

The closest thing your going to get to that is Batman Beyond.

[phonogram12]

If you want new stories, then you're in the wrong place.

Superhero stories follow a pattern: the good versus the bad of the story arc...with a subplot or two. This is true for Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and etcetera. (This is true for Miraculous and P J Masks. )

The only newness is new villains; they keep the story interesting with a fresh challenge. This has been true for over 80 years so I don't think it will change anytime soon.

If you accept this, then you can enjoy the stories. If you don't, then you become frustrated with the stories.

When the next Batman cartoon is made, I fully expect it to follow this pattern.

Again, this is the same kind of mindset that enables TPTB to retell Superman's origin every few years even though it's probably the most widely known superhero origin next to Batman. Retelling of either at this point is simply unnecessary.

[phonogram12]

That's not even remotely what I meant

I said I wanted to read the old stories with new art because I hadn't read the old stories

Not that I want current stories to be replaced by old ones.

The current story can go forward as much as they like, I just want a Remastered High Definition version of old stories for the current generation on the side as a quick catch up.

New art as in an entirely new artist or a sharpening up of the original? If it's the latter, then I apologize for the confusion.

In any event, I've read at least five versions of Dick Grayson's origin and none of them beat the first (it literally has everything you need), which can be found in the Batman Golden Age collections that have been published the last few years or so. I imagine those are about as high def as currently technology provides these days.

[phonogram12]

Now I understand what you mean: I never considered Officer Down like a new story, because it was deeply rooted in the usual Batman scenario: the fight against Gotham criminality. Instead about Flashpoint Batman I can't say I like that kind of stories, because they are stories about alternative realities and I don't think they fit to Batman, on the contrary I think they betray the identity of the title. Like I wrote the kind of stories which are good for the X-men doesn't are good for Batman and vice versa and in my opinion the stories about alternative realities are exactly that kind of stories: they are perfect for the X-men (if only Marvel put some order in the mess they have become: they really need a hard reboot), but they don't work for Batman.

See, I considered Officer Down new because there's never really been any published Batman story where both the Bat Family and the GCPD worked together to find the man who shot Jim Gordon. What made it even more unique was that the culprit wasn't even a super villain. It was just an ex-con with a grudge who somehow managed to slip through the cracks while the GCPD were hiring new officers in the wake of NML. Sure it's another Batman crime story, but just because it's another crime story doesn't mean it's not a new take on one.

In re to the original Flashpoint Batman story, I completely understand your personal preference, but they did manage to weave that story into regular continuity very successfully, IMHO.

[scary harpy]

Again, this is the same kind of mindset that enables TPTB to retell Superman's origin every few years even though it's probably the most widely known superhero origin next to Batman. Retelling of either at this point is simply unnecessary.

I disagree.

Nowhere in my post do I mention retelling origin stories. If you read the second post in this thread you'd have seen I am against that.

They should start with Alfred, Batman, Batgirl and Robin in issue #1.

We don't need another origin story. We don't need to be reintroduced to the classic supporting characters or the classic villains.

We want to read our heroes versus the (new & old) villains.

Comic books are serial storytelling. There is a certain amount of status quo.

[Steven Caldwell]

I am not sure, but it will be a great jumping off point for me as I go to collecting old comic books full time.