Has A Reboot Ever Meant A Jumping Off Point For You?

[Rod G]

Yes. The New 52 gave me a good reason to stop buying all the D.C. titles because they all ended. If there had been a title that continued that I was reading, that might have kept me going back to the shop and then picking up other comics, as well. But because it was all over, there was no incentive to keep going to the not so local comic shop.

There have been other times before that where a few titles rebooted so I gave up on those. But Flashpoint was the biggest jumping off point. And I haven't really been able to get back into it since. I've tried, but they make you wait forever to reveal the continuity and then they decide, nah, we're not doing that. I would have kept buying WONDER WOMAN if Rucka had stuck around. I have no idea what the continuity is for W.W. anymore. Same goes for most of the other franchises.

You voted for Lex Luthor.

Your argument is invalid.

[JackDaw]

Back in 2010 was still buying around a dozen new comics every month, including for example Jeff Lemire Superboy. Then DC relaunched..Jeff L went to some other character, etc, etc.

For me it was the last straw, I’d been disenchanted with random writer changes for sometime...it just seemed to me buying comics as they came out was only okay if you primarily followed characters. I don’t...the writer/artist/ character combo all have to be right for me.

Decided then I would just read comics from then on years in arrears...if a writer and artist stay on a character I like for more than a dozen issues, I wait until run complete and buy then.

It’s kept me reading comics, for me it’s much more enjoyable than taking the pot luck of reading current comics...think for every good current comic there’s ten duds, and the one good one might see writer or artist disappear after 3 comics.

[blunt_eastwood]

Probably New 52 and now Infinite Frontier.

The last time I really cared was Rebirth because it seemed like there was a shift back to the Pre-New 52 era, but then with Heroes in Crisis, and Death Metal it was clear that not much was going to change.

[Rod G]

Probably New 52 and now Infinite Frontier.

The last time I really cared was Rebirth because it seemed like there was a shift back to the Pre-New 52 era, but then with Heroes in Crisis, and Death Metal it was clear that not much was going to change.

You voted for Lex Luthor.

[superduperman]

Rebirth. I liked, or at least thought, that Superman needed a hard reboot and New 52 gave him the clean slate he needed. And then Rebirth happened and they went back to the same convoluted mess they had before. That having been said, one of the things that I notice is that as I get older, I don't have the patience for permanent ongoing continuity that I used to. The obligation aspect of getting books bothers me. Which means that even if I was getting what I wanted from the comics, I don't know that I would keep getting ongoing series anyway. I mostly just get out of continuity stuff. I also have started questioning the idea that long term continuity is a workable idea. New fans shouldn't have to read 50+ years of backstory to understand what's going on. And a lot of stuff doesn't age well.

[Rod G]

Rebirth. I liked, or at least thought, that Superman needed a hard reboot and New 52 gave him the clean slate he needed. And then Rebirth happened and they went back to the same convoluted mess they had before. That having been said, one of the things that I notice is that as I get older, I don't have the patience for permanent ongoing continuity that I used to. The obligation aspect of getting books bothers me. Which means that even if I was getting what I wanted from the comics, I don't know that I would keep getting ongoing series anyway. I mostly just get out of continuity stuff. I also have started questioning the idea that long term continuity is a workable idea. New fans shouldn't have to read 50+ years of backstory to understand what's going on. And a lot of stuff doesn't age well.

I agree with you on that 100%.

[Sutekh]

I don't know. It seems like the current vogue in writing is to delay the audience satisfaction as long as possible--on the theory that this anticipation will keep the audience interested for more revelations down the road. So if I pick up a new book, I don't get any answers in the first issue. I'm expected to keep buying the book as it slowly drops bits of knowledge from an eye dropper. But you never find out what this is all really about until a year or two later or maybe even longer. And sometimes the book is cancelled before they get that far.

I would much rather get some answers at the start, so I know where I am in the story.

Yeah, this writing-for-the-trade thing has also been a problem, as it feels like stories are being written with the intent that a full arc is going to take at least six issue, and longer plot threads are intended to be resolved in a year or more, and, with the current setup, in a year or more, the writer could be on another title entirely and the current continuity have changed completely, so the information teased not only will never be revealed, but is no longer valid anyway.

I don't think that's deliberate on the part of the writers, for the most part. I don't think most of them are going into this job thinking, 'I don't even have to come up with an answer here, I can just string them along, like the audience of Lost, and then parachute off to the next gig and leave this mess for the next creative team to resolve, or, more likely, abandon and reboot!' But it definitely is happening.

(And, now that I type this out, I realize that's how half the tech startups I worked at died. They'd hire a new CEO, he'd gussy everything up to look good in the short term, while utterly gutting the company for the long-term (quick, fire all the engineers that actually make product! Wow the expense sheets look great now!), and cruise off with his short-term 'success' on his resume to an even better job, while the company foundered and sank behind him. But he was gone. So it totally wasn't *his* fault...)

I remember when a really amazing storyline, like the Great Darkness Saga or Eyes of Tara Markov could be told in *four issues,* not a minimum of six. A shocking reveal could happen in the *very first issue,* like with the Thunderbolts. And somehow they managed to have ten times as many word balloons, text boxes and thought bubbles, so there was more character development as well!

[John Venus]

The Nu52 was it for me but I was already frustrated by the direction DC was going thanks to events like 'Cry for Justice'. There were some solid titles like Paul Cornell's 'Demon Knights' but imo, it wasn't worth the trade off of years of history and investment. The great thing about the old continuity was that even if you didn't know all the history and minute details of the universe, it still felt like the universe had this grand sense of history and there was something new and cool to discover along the way.

I would peek at what DC was doing from time to time but nearly everything about the NU52 gave me a stroke. I only became interested in DC again thanks to a combination of Post Crisis Superman returning with Jon Kent, Rucka/Nicola Scott's Wonder Woman: Rebirth and Wally West coming back.

Rebirth. I liked, or at least thought, that Superman needed a hard reboot and New 52 gave him the clean slate he needed. And then Rebirth happened and they went back to the same convoluted mess they had before. That having been said, one of the things that I notice is that as I get older, I don't have the patience for permanent ongoing continuity that I used to. The obligation aspect of getting books bothers me. Which means that even if I was getting what I wanted from the comics, I don't know that I would keep getting ongoing series anyway. I mostly just get out of continuity stuff. I also have started questioning the idea that long term continuity is a workable idea. New fans shouldn't have to read 50+ years of backstory to understand what's going on. And a lot of stuff doesn't age well.

Did he? The main problem was their inability to decide which one was his origin and them slamming the reset button on any event that could have lead to interesting story telling possibilities be it Chris Kent or the World of New Krypton concept. There was JMS' awful Grounded arc but I don't think even that warranted a hard reset of his history.

[Lightning Rider]

The New 52. I tried with Flash, which was okay at first, but it felt so empty without the rest of the Flash family, and weird with the dead mom stuff, and then the writing just fell off for me, so I gave up.

I jumped back on with Rebirth, but that hasn't delivered and led to me falling behind on my monthlies. I'm trying to catch up on certain titles to jump back in, but I'm lagging.

[blunt_eastwood]

You voted for Lex Luthor.

Lol what? I don't get the joke. Is this a Trump reference?