It's been ten years since New 52. What went wrong?

[Stanlos]

N52 destroyed DC continuity for good.

I feel like this is very true. Sadly, the mainstream moviemaking audience is getting pretty much only N52 stuff for some characters

[TheBatman]

Having read DC for 11 years at that point, and knowing the history of the company, New 52 was felt like DC fundamentally making the same kind of mistakes it has been making since COIE.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

In terms of fixing the new 52, I'd probably go all in the reboot and really rebuilding the DCU. Most legacy characters are benched till we can reevaluate them as a whole. I wanna avoid the whole 4 robins in 5 years debacle. It helps with PR and avoids accusations of favoritism.

Option B would be something like Future State. A 10 year timeskip with new people in the mantles. Continuity isn't changed or lost but it's more a backseat to figuring out how we got here.

I don't know how viable those are.

The safest option would be retooling Earth One as an Ultimate Universe style deal and dumping everything there. But the novelty of seeing the Big 7 as 20-somethings would wear off so I'd mix in the Future State idea here. New people would be in the mantles etc. Not sure about the timeskip.

[The Darknight Detective]

IT'S BEEN TEN YEARS SINCE NEW 52. WHAT WENT WRONG?

Convergence would be my answer.

[Pinsir]

IT'S BEEN TEN YEARS SINCE NEW 52. WHAT WENT WRONG?

Convergence would be my answer.

True, convergence was bad

[Primal Slayer]

The New52 wanted to be anything and everything. It tried to have its cake and eat it to. They tried to cram so much history into such a short window of time and that's just not how it works. You want everyone to be young but you want Batman to have a Nightwing and all of his Batfam, it just doesnt work. Diana as usual is also young but somehow there is Donna Troy and Cassie who are tied to her even though DC tries to ignore that connection.

They should've been ballsy and truly started over w/say Year 2 or 3 so they can include the Titans.

[The Darknight Detective]

True, convergence was bad

It's also what derailed DC sales-wise. Up to that point, the New 52 was doing okay.

[lordozone]

Bad editorial.

Personally, I never read as much dc as during New 52. Wonder Woman, Superman, Swamp thing, Animal Man, I Vampire, Demon's knights... at that time my pull list was only composed of dc comics.

But at some point (quite quickly) nothing made sense anymore, the universe was no longer coherent, dc fired its best writers, and it seemed like there was an internal battle between those who wanted to keep the old stories and those who wanted to change everything.
When you compare with Marvel, DC has the worst editorial department (if you forgot the Marvel now period). They sabotage themselves every time and depending on the author's fame they are either too intrusive in his work and disrespectful, or they let him do anything he wants. Since the new 52 I have absolutely no confidence in DC, I know that in the long run they are unable to stick to a direction.

[HsssH]

It's also what derailed DC sales-wise. Up to that point, the New 52 was doing okay.

And right after Convergence we got DCYou that wasn't as bad but didn't connect with the audience at all.

[charliehustle415]

N52 destroyed DC continuity for good.

Yup, this stopped me from caring about the Universe and only care about writers I like

[John Venus]

It's also what derailed DC sales-wise. Up to that point, the New 52 was doing okay.

Doing okay? IIRC, they were in a nose dive.

This was the Number One complaint about the Post-Crisis reboot in 1986 as well. If you're going to reboot, then reboot. Don't vaguely say this happened but that didn't or have origins followed by a gap of several years so you can insert vague and sometimes inconsistent events into those years. Start on Day One and tell the whole story.

It seems like DC learned nothing from the Post-Crisis mistakes and made them all again in 2011.

COIE had the excuse of being the first of it's kind. By 2011 and 3 reboots in, they should have known what pitfalls to avoid.

And yeah, I agree. It should have been a cold boot from the start if they are going that route.

With COIE, the problem was mainly when they decided to set Hawkworld and Wonder Woman in the present day. The latter of which fucked over Donna Troy. Superman and Batman were able to remain stable because they tell their origin stories as flashbacks while also continuing to tell stories in the present day.

In terms of fixing the new 52, I'd probably go all in the reboot and really rebuilding the DCU. Most legacy characters are benched till we can reevaluate them as a whole. I wanna avoid the whole 4 robins in 5 years debacle. It helps with PR and avoids accusations of favoritism.

Option B would be something like Future State. A 10 year timeskip with new people in the mantles. Continuity isn't changed or lost but it's more a backseat to figuring out how we got here.

I don't know how viable those are.

The safest option would be retooling Earth One as an Ultimate Universe style deal and dumping everything there. But the novelty of seeing the Big 7 as 20-somethings would wear off so I'd mix in the Future State idea here. New people would be in the mantles etc. Not sure about the timeskip.

That would just be repeating the same mistakes though.

Keep the legacy heroes. Either start at Year Five; Dick is with the Titans and on the cusp of being Nightwing. Jason and Tim are with the 'We Are Robin' group.

Or do two worlds; one where the main JL generation are young and hip and one where the Titans generations are old and in charge now.

[John Venus]

Most of the JSA are legacy characters nowadays so don't need longevity explanations. Jay's longevity explanation is the Speed Force - frankly at this point they should use that to have him skip over the 1960s to the 2000s, not unlike Max Mercury. Wildcat's is a magical nine lives, which he can replenish if he doesn't lose them all in quick succession. But how does that explain why he doesn't age? He doesn't get younger when he dies, he's just permanently stuck in his 60s. Pat Dugan, STRIPE, is also from World War II, but was time displaced, then of course became Stargirl's stepfather. Ma Hunkel, the original Red Tornado and grandma to Cyclone, doesn't have any explanation at all and probably should be dead by now, as she wasn't even young in the 1940s. They need to either explain how she can still be alive, or kill her off and retcon Cyclone to be her great-granddaughter.

I meant prior to Nu52 hitting though. Jay, Ted Knight and a lot of JSA's longevity was explained as them being exposed to the energy created by Ian Karkull. Even by 1999 that was straining credibility. The other thing is they never really explore what it means to have lived so long, especially since they would have lived to see people they know and love grow old and die while they remained young. Not just the heroes but their love interests as well. With Captain America, you get the whole 'man out of time' aspect. The closest I recall the JSA coming to that was Sylvester Pemberton in the Pre Crisis DCU. In JSA Classified, the writers seem to struggle to tell stories with Ted Grant because logically everyone he knew from the 40's would be dead at this point in the time line. He had no colleagues beyond the JSA, Batman and Catwoman.

[Lightning63]

Linkara sums up the problems with the new 52 well

[HsssH]

Doing okay? IIRC, they were in a nose dive.

Nose dive started after Convergence.

[Jekyll]

I meant prior to Nu52 hitting though. Jay, Ted Knight and a lot of JSA's longevity was explained as them being exposed to the energy created by Ian Karkull. Even by 1999 that was straining credibility. The other thing is they never really explore what it means to have lived so long, especially since they would have lived to see people they know and love grow old and die while they remained young. Not just the heroes but their love interests as well. With Captain America, you get the whole 'man out of time' aspect. The closest I recall the JSA coming to that was Sylvester Pemberton in the Pre Crisis DCU. In JSA Classified, the writers seem to struggle to tell stories with Ted Grant because logically everyone he knew from the 40's would be dead at this point in the time line. He had no colleagues beyond the JSA, Batman and Catwoman.

It's fiction. It really doesn't matter how old they are. This applies to the JSA and this applies to Billy Batson.