What DCU tweaks are you hoping Rebirth brings about?

[Kevin Street]

Earth-2 also needs a reboot. Were it me, the Rebirth-era Earth-2 would feature a modern JSA that was founded during WWII and time-jumped to the recent past some time after the war ended. My preferred approach would be to say that Keystone City was shoved into the Speed Force by some villainous meddling, and that early in Barry Allen's career he found the city and helped return it to Earth-Two; this pays homage to “the Flash of Two Worlds”, and provides a single event that can be used to bring an assortment of Earth-2's WWII-era heroes to the present by having them, and possibly their families, be visiting Keystone when the meddling occurs...

I like pretty much everything you said in your post, but I really like this. The restoration of an interesting Earth 2! A new world with lots of obscure characters, but also a world full of legacy. Very nice!

[Prisoner 6655321]

* I wouldn't mind seeing the DCU aged along a scale something like this (using Batman and Robins as a sorta measuring stick for the rest of where the rest of the universe should be age wise); I'd like to see something like Bruce: 44, Dick: 34, Jason: 28, Tim: 20, Damian: 13. Those aren't specific numbers but it gives some idea of how widely spread out I'd like to see ages in the DCU and personally I'd like to see the spectrum even wider than that with some characters like, potentially the West twins being less than 10 and maybe someone like Wesley Dodds being exceptionally elderly (maybe even over 100, obvious this sorta age would be a rare exception).

* For characters headlining more than one book (i.e. Superman / AC, Batman / DC) I'd like to see one of those books focus more on supporting cast members without their own book… Detective comics may have a story about ___(Dr.Leslie Thompkins, Steph Brown, Jim Gordon, whoever else)___ and Batman while the Batman title is mostly focused almost exclusively on Batman / Robin. IMO DC needs to do a lot of universe (re)building. Even if Rebirth is nothing like a reboot, the current state of things is such as the DCU has the potential to be bigger and richer than ever before but in practice it is not.


*Eventually, I'd like to see a more robust lineup. If this means some of the twice a month books being published only once per month, so be it. The “New” DCU could potentially and (imo) totally should be, more than the sum of its parts. I want a JSA book, LoSH, R.E.B.E.L.S. the Authority, I want Booster Gold and Books of Magic. I'm loving Wierdworld over at Marvel, I'd love that team on a Dreaming book even more than that, I'd go for a Justice Incarnate book. I don't know the ownership status of it but if they own it I think there's a place in the DCU for (Welcome To) Tranquility (and if Gail owns it she she needs to get to making more Tranquility books!)... In short, I want all kindsa crazy stuff covering all kindsa genres and feels.

* I think it'd be a good idea idea to run a cycle of well thought out weeklies for the next few years (instead of events) bringing in various disparate elements that might not merit their own books but are still worth introducing to the universe, exploring, and possibly expanding upon if response is good. The first of such weeklies would ideally run with something like 80% of each issue for the main story and 20% or so per issue for “a secret history of the DCU” type back up story.

[Aahz]

* I wouldn't mind seeing the DCU aged along a scale something like this (using Batman and Robins as a sorta measuring stick for the rest of where the rest of the universe should be age wise); I'd like to see something like Bruce: 44, Dick: 34, Jason: 28, Tim: 20, Damian: 13. Those aren't specific numbers but it gives some idea of how widely spread out I'd like to see ages in the DCU and personally I'd like to see the spectrum even wider than that with some characters like, potentially the West twins being less than 10 and maybe someone like Wesley Dodds being exceptionally elderly (maybe even over 100, obvious this sorta age would be a rare exception).

it is hardly possible to make Jason that much older than Tim. And since Jason is one of the few heros that is in between the generations, you would have giant age gap between Dick and Tims generation.

[Prisoner 6655321]

it is hardly possible to make Jason that much older than Tim. And since Jason is one of the few heros that is in between the generations, you would have giant age gap between Dick and Tims generation.

I'm not married to that exact scale but the way I tend to see it is Bruce became Batman in his early 20's, after a year or so as bats Dick became Robin at somewhere between 13-16, started working as Nightwing in his early 20's. Jason was a year or two after Dick but didn't serve as robin nearly as long and at a later age (I tend to figure 2-3 years as robin and starting at around 16) after his "death" Bruce waited a few (2-5) years before accepting Tim (who was about 13-14) as Robin who continued to do so till about college age when Damian showed up.

[Aahz]

I'm not married to that exact scale but the way I tend to see it is Bruce became Batman in his early 20's, after a year or so as bats Dick became Robin at somewhere between 13-16, started working as Nightwing in his early 20's. Jason was a year or two after Dick but didn't serve as robin nearly as long and at a later age (I tend to figure 2-3 years as robin and starting at around 16) after his "death" Bruce waited a few (2-5) years before accepting Tim (who was about 13-14) as Robin who continued to do so till about college age when Damian showed up.

If you make Jason to old you as Robin, you reduce the impact of his death alot. (If you would for example take out the sences with Jason as cute little kid from the "Under the Red Hood" movie, it would have much less emotional impact.)

And Tim became Robin to help Bruce to cope with Jasons death, which you also take away if that happened several years later (in the orginal comics Tim comes in only a few month after Jasons death), and him beeing at haley circus when Dick parents died is also problematic (if you don't let Dick become Robin at a quite high age), and making a 13 year old Robin after an much older kid died is also a kind of strange.

[M@Bowers2014]

All I want is for them to fix what current Batgirl team did to her with their whole burnside nonsense. I don't want Barabara being Oracle again but the way she was at the start of NU52 was fine. Only difference now should be that she got pass the whole PTS thing she was going through. That new ugly outfit needs to go too. Nothings beats the classic. I'm tired of writers coming out with gimmicks to try to put their own stamps on charactes instead of just coming up with honest to good stories.

I totally disagree with this one. BATGIRL'S current costume is her best yet and I hope it sticks around. They can have her ditch Burnside and move her back to Gotham but keep the costume.

[Alex_Jamieson]

On the Superman origin front, Birthright is my favourite, but the Morrison one works for me. I like that the 5th dimensional imp messing with reality gives an 'in-story' reason for the changes that work (to my mind) better than Flashpoint did.

[Prisoner 6655321]

If you make Jason to old you as Robin, you reduce the impact of his death alot. (If you would for example take out the sences with Jason as cute little kid from the "Under the Red Hood" movie, it would have much less emotional impact.)

And Tim became Robin to help Bruce to cope with Jasons death, which you also take away if that happened several years later (in the orginal comics Tim comes in only a few month after Jasons death), and him beeing at haley circus when Dick parents died is also problematic (if you don't let Dick become Robin at a quite high age), and making a 13 year old Robin after an much older kid died is also a kind of strange.

I could see Dick being a little younger on this scale and Jason a little younger but only a few years either way but I don't give any credence to animated films (I can stand very little animation), I base judgement solely on comics. As for Tim, even if he did come a bit sooner after Jason's death he was a good bit younger if I recall correctly the young Justice crew were a bit younger than when the Titans when they started and Bruce was hesitant to take Tim on as Robin (if I recall correctly this only really happened after a young Tim figured out Batman's secret identity on his own) because of Jason's death.

[ImprobableQuestion]

Like Sacred Knight said, I'm more concerned they'll tweak too much.

I don't see Lincoln March getting erased, but it's somewhat likely that Secret City could be chopped in favor of restoring Miller's origin. I wouldn't be a fan of that.

If you need to do something about the Amazons, make the raids less of a unanimously favored practice, so that Diana isnt the only one. The other stuff like her supporting cast is all really enriching for the character.

[superduperman]

Superman: Secret Origin is not only vastly inferior to Morrison's New 52 origin, its the worst of the dump truck of Post-Crisis origins. It served absolutely no purpose other than to be a prologue for New Krypton, a storyline which was abandoned halfway through Secret Origin in the first place, necessitating generic rewrites.

This. I don't know why anyone wants to go back to that. It was unnecessarily complicated and didn't really add anything to the mythos other than saying that now his history is even more of a hodge podge of pre-and post-Crisis history. It served no functional purpose whatsoever.

The whole reason why the current origin works is because it's just an update of the GA version. Adding a bunch of extras just makes things more confusing for no reason. Does he REALLY need to be a member of the Legion? Does he REALLY need to be flying around as Superboy or having adventures pre-Metropolis? The comics kind of hint that he helped people in secret around Smallville as a kid. That's good enough for me. When it doubt, always follow the KISS rule: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

[BatGlamorous]

For the DCU as a whole, I just want it to feel "big" again. Doom Patrol, JSA, Checkmate, LoSH etc. Basically anything that gives the universe character outside of the big three and/or Justice League. Ever since the New 52, it's felt like you need to be either a Batman or Superman fan to get much enjoyment out of the monthlies.

[Alex_Jamieson]

For the DCU as a whole, I just want it to feel "big" again. Doom Patrol, JSA, Checkmate, LoSH etc. Basically anything that gives the universe character outside of the big three and/or Justice League. Ever since the New 52, it's felt like you need to be either a Batman or Superman fan to get much enjoyment out of the monthlies.

Yep. It has felt gutted of a lot of it's depth of content since 2011.

I agree with that metaphor that Grant Morrison uses about the DCU being a living organism...I've never felt that previous reboots have done quite such widespread harm to it (if anything, they've often added a weird sort of texture) and I would like some repair done!

[beetee]

This. I don't know why anyone wants to go back to that. It was unnecessarily complicated and didn't really add anything to the mythos other than saying that now his history is even more of a hodge podge of pre-and post-Crisis history. It served no functional purpose whatsoever.

The whole reason why the current origin works is because it's just an update of the GA version. Adding a bunch of extras just makes things more confusing for no reason. Does he REALLY need to be a member of the Legion? Does he REALLY need to be flying around as Superboy or having adventures pre-Metropolis? The comics kind of hint that he helped people in secret around Smallville as a kid. That's good enough for me. When it doubt, always follow the KISS rule: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

I consider the Legion to be one of "The Essentials" to be clearly restored (and better utilized). If I can't get the trunks or the marriage, Make Mine Legion (And reestablish The Great Darkness Saga as Canon).

[M@Bowers2014]

I consider the Legion to be one of "The Essentials" to be clearly restored (and better utilized). If I can't get the trunks or the marriage, Make Mine Legion (And reestablish The Great Darkness Saga as Canon).

I agree 100%!

[Prisoner 6655321]

I also kinda liked SO for Superman. It doesn't need to be that for Superman to work for me though. I know I'm in a minority here but I kinda loved the New Krypton era (still think it's the best Superman era in the last 20 years at least)... Also, I would also say... Yes, I 100% believe that the LoSH is vital to Superman's being Superman.