I gave him an A because of the New 52. His only flaw is that he allowed Rebirth to happen.
A - It was the best period of the company!
B -They weren't all hits but it was mostly good!
C - It was generally average...
D - There were a few gems mixed in but mostly it was mediocre.
F - It was the worst time to be a DC fan!
I gave him an A because of the New 52. His only flaw is that he allowed Rebirth to happen.
Last edited by Pinsir; 02-25-2020 at 11:26 AM.
#InGunnITrust, #ZackSnyderistheBlueprint, #ReleasetheAyerCut
New 52 got me to drop DC comics altogether so I'd have to give it an F.
It occured to me that I regard about 90% of the Didio era as basically two thirty-somethings playing in their mom's basement with their DC action figures, bashing them together and snarling at each other and then calling it a story. I'm thinking mostly they just did that, wrote down everything they said, (well, except maybe that bit about needing Hot Pockets).
Probably the editorial meetings too.
The New 52 was a rushed, controversial, and messy reboot that seriously hurt DC's reputation and viability. I was instantly derided by fans and critics alike and rightly so. It was just objectively not a good move, even if a small sliver of the fanbase liked it. Whoever was behind the New 52 should have lost their job just for that alone.
Last edited by Green Goblin of Sector 2814; 02-29-2020 at 09:51 AM.
#InGunnITrust, #ZackSnyderistheBlueprint, #ReleasetheAyerCut
Hmm, there was definitely a boost for some characters, but also some serious harm for many. Or at the very least, very divisive changes.
Batman and GL were largely unaffected.
Superman's Action run was celebrated.
Grayson was new and innovative.
Aquaman was reestablished.
JL by Johns was decent if hampered in a few areas.
But..The Flash Family was eviscerated and Barry's origin darkened beyond belief.
Wonder Woman's retconned origin created a divide that still lingers.
The JSA was erased, as was the YJ generation.
That's more than continuity, that's actual story and character.
There are plenty more examples in each category but too many major characters took major hits to call the quality of the books generally better.
You're joking, right? Aside from the continuity shift, a LOT of fans were displeased with the directions they took and the decisions they made with so many characters. Let's make a list of all the bad things about the New 52, shall we:
- Flash family eviscerated and Wally West and Jay Garrick erased from existence
- The Amazons turned from a flawed, yet benevolent society into murderous pirates
- The erasure of Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain all so Barbara Gordon could be Batgirl, even though many fans looked at Oracle as a positive thing
- Almost all important marriages erased (Clark and Lois; Aquaman and Mera; Barry and Iris) and the general rule that "no heroes could be married"
- The further degradation of the Titans and that entire generation of heroes, including erasing the NTT from continuity and putting Cyborg on the League instead
- The treatment of Cyborg in general: the character essentially did nothing but sit in the Watchtower for years
- The lack of Martian Manhunter from the League
- The 5-year-window that made everything so f-ing confusing
- The overhyped and often underwhelming events
- The seeming indecision of DC editorial about what directions they even wanted to take
- The constant stories of behind-the-scenes squabbles and hostile work environments that led to so many writers and artists leaving DC
And that's not even mentioning that a lot of the comics of the New 52 were just BAD. For every gem, there were 2-3 stinkers. So, yeah, NONE OF THAT did any favors for DC's reputation and if anything it created a stain on the company's legacy that will require years to recover from.
Last edited by Green Goblin of Sector 2814; 02-29-2020 at 02:34 PM.
Your assessing the New 52 on topics that I would consider to be 'continuity' though. Continuity consists the previous stories that are treated as canon and this includes characters, backgrounds, pretty much everything. Yeah, sure, the Flash family was gutted, but is it fair to say Francis Manupul's Flash was bad because of the Wally West stuff? No, of course not, but a lot of anti-New 52 people do get pretty close to saying that.
I'm more interested in the quality of the comics and I think if you compare the New 52 to the last years of Post-Crisis DC (c. 2005-2011) and Rebirth (2016-2020), the New 52 has better comics, no competition.
#InGunnITrust, #ZackSnyderistheBlueprint, #ReleasetheAyerCut
Rebirth was much better planned, but fizzled out eventually. the New 52 was a mess.
Both had some great books mixed in regardless of whatever larger nonsense was going on with the continuity. But they, and the pre-Flashpoint DCU, were too much of a clusterfuck for the shared universe as a whole.
Overall I liked the mindset behind the New 52 better than Rebirth too but I wouldn't agree with giving him an A because of it. It wasn't planned well so even the good ideas, like rebooting Superman, didn't flow freely. And while the planning aspect might not have been entirely their fault because of the on-high decree, their reluctance to reboot everything and start right off the bat with inconsistency very much was. And within it were just plain bad ideas planning and consistency aside (Mr. Freeze, The Question's origin, Teen Titans, just to name a few). So it was far from perfect. Appealed to me more than the paint-by-numbers Rebirth though. And its supposed toxic legacy is incredibly exaggerated today by purists.
All that said, overall I'd probably give Didio's overall tenure a C-. It was a giant mixed bag overall.
Last edited by Sacred Knight; 02-29-2020 at 03:30 PM.
"They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son." - Jor-El
What continuity errors did Stephanie Brown, Static, Jaime Reyes, Jason Rusch, Tim Drake, Conner, Bart, Young Justice and so many others cause for them all to be trashed by New 52 in some form?
Explain how New 52 Static Shock was a BETTER book than a 4 year run of his original series?
Explain how New 52 Firestorm was a BETTER book than the 134 combined solo issues of Jason & Ronnie? Mind you neither Gail Simone nor Ethan Van Siever wanted to do the book. I will give them credit for trying.
Explain how New 52 Supergirl was a BETTER book than Peter David's or Sterling Gates's Supergirl runs?
Explain removing Wally West and giving us a racist black stereotype named Wallace?
How did the teen population of DC benefit?
How did Green Lantern benefit? We now have 10 human lanterns and a bigger fan war.
What issues did JSA cause?
Folks from fans and store owners were calling for Dan, Jim & John's HEADS for how bad it got.
They say that because if you wanted Barry as the Flash-do that but you didn't have to get rid of Wally to do so.is it fair to say Francis Manupul's Flash was bad because of the Wally West stuff? No, of course not, but a lot of anti-New 52 people do get pretty close to saying that.
The POINT is a LOT of issues at DC should not have green lighted a butchering of so many characters.
Why alienate Cassandra Cain & Stephanie Brown fans for Bab's Batgirl book?
There definitely were surprisingly good amount of decent/good New 52 titles.
But Supergirl, Static Shock, Firestorm, Blue Beetle weren't one of them....you can tell DC didn't give a damn about them and they just looked like crap right from the start.
This New 52 was it 52 done right?
The Gypsies had no home. The Doors had no bass.
Does our reality determine our fiction or does our fiction determine our reality?
Whenever the question comes up about who some mysterious person is or who is behind something the answer will always be Frank Stallone.
"This isn't a locking the barn doors after the horses ran way situation this is a burn the barn down after the horses ran away situation."