A Brief History Of Time: Unpacking DC's Reboots, Relaunches & Retcons

[CBR News]

CBR's Tom Bondurant provides an overview of major changes to DC's shared universe, from the Golden Age through "Rebirth."


Full article here.

[invasionforce]

Admittedly, I am mainly a Marvel fan, but I have to say that DC has been remarkably successful in snookering their fanboys, and the comic book media with "Rebirth." The impetus behind "Rebirth" is clearly not to please the long time fans -- it's to set up the DC cinematic universe. I'm surprised that the social justice warriors out there haven't figured it out yet. DC brought back a white Wally West, a white Blue Beetle, a white Atom. Which version of these characters do you think are going to show up in the movies? Warner Bros. has decided that the white versions of these heroes are more marketable -- they will sell more movie tickets and more merchandise. The Superman who was Wonder Woman's lover is gone. Chris Pine did not sign up to play a character who is humiliated by having his girl stolen away by Superman. Time Warner has decided that the comic book division will have to serve the needs of the movie division, just as has been the case with Disney for some time.

[Xofer]

I should email my sister a link to the article, so that she'll see the banner image of two Supermen holding two dead super-heroines.

Sometimes it's fun to troll her.

[Lee Stone]

My favorite period: The Post-Crisis relaunches (1986-89 or actually- Man of Steel, Perez Wonder Woman, Batman: Year One, Green Lantern Corps, Legends and its crossovers and spin-offs) up to the "Disassembling of DC" that came right before Zero Hour (Death of Superman, Knightfall, JLI: Breakdowns, Flash: Year One, Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight, Titans: Total Chaos, end of Perez Wonder Woman).

My 2nd favorite period: 1976 (Gerry Conway takes over JLA, the JSA return with the Super-Squad in All-Star Comics and the DC Bullet logo debuts) up to the end of Crisis.

[AlexanderLuthor]

Admittedly, I am mainly a Marvel fan, but I have to say that DC has been remarkably successful in snookering their fanboys, and the comic book media with "Rebirth." The impetus behind "Rebirth" is clearly not to please the long time fans -- it's to set up the DC cinematic universe. I'm surprised that the social justice warriors out there haven't figured it out yet. DC brought back a white Wally West, a white Blue Beetle, a white Atom. Which version of these characters do you think are going to show up in the movies? Warner Bros. has decided that the white versions of these heroes are more marketable -- they will sell more movie tickets and more merchandise. The Superman who was Wonder Woman's lover is gone. Chris Pine did not sign up to play a character who is humiliated by having his girl stolen away by Superman. Time Warner has decided that the comic book division will have to serve the needs of the movie division, just as has been the case with Disney for some time.

You mean the Green Lanterns book featuring a Muslim and a Hispanic or the Chinese Superman or the Kid Flash still being black Wally West or Asian Ryan Choi or Batman's new sidekick who is black? DC will have more diversity with Rebirth than ever before. But I do agree that the comic book divisions will be more aligned with the movie universes - it makes sense when 1 mediocre movie makes more money than the comics division does in a few years

[Penance]

This is why i dont read dc anymore

[AlexanderLuthor]

When you publish a serial story for 75 years where the main protagonists really can't age much...well, this is what happens. DC can never do a clean reboot because many of their most popular B-list characters are legacies that wouldn't be introduced until Year 5 or later of the reboot (the Batman problem) and no one wants to read the origin stories for the 20th time. I like the Rebirth approach where it basically all happened and maybe it will be explained exactly how or maybe not. Just tell good stories going forward and let the fans debate the continuity. However, I really wish Johns would write a new History of the DC Universe in the next few years (not likely, I know)

[LGBoex]

- I got into DC comics post-COIW.
- I loved Zero Hour, it was just a big ball of spandex fun.
- The road to Infinite Crisis and Infinite Crisis itself were very dark but exciting.
After that, DC seemed to have lost the plot a bit, though.
They only seemed interested in telling the origin stories of their A and B list characters. Followed by a bunch of bad editorial choices. Followed by a new reboot, which allowed them to retell the origin stories all over again.

I hope one day DC will appreciate the importance of good writing, and supportive editorial rather than heavyhanded
If you put out good books, the fan boys are more than happy to keep buying.

[twincast]

Great overview.

Although there's been lots of good stuff before and after, my (Gotham-centric) DC era of choice is roughly the 1990s. If I had to nail it down further, definitely its later half, so "3.2" and "3.3". As Hypertime was more of a blimp that had no major effect on the DCU, I find it hard to distinguish between these two eras, but if I really have to, I'll take "3.3". I dislike some of the changes Zero Hour brought on that were later revoked (Joe Chill, JSA), but while I also like the preboot and deboot Legions, the reboot Legion is my favorite (specifically Lyle!♥ plus Bart's and Kon's connections to it), and it arguably had its best run in the later of the two. Similarly, Bart's, Kon's and the best years of Tim's solo ongoings largely coincide with these two eras, whereas Young Justice only does so with "3.3". More importantly, most of the awful mindless slaughterfests and character assassinations (among which all of those that affected my favs) came later, i.e. War Games/War Crimes, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis (plus its leadup and part of its fallout), Amazons Attack!, Countdown to Final Crisis/Countdown Arena, Cry for Justice,... and of course the whole New 52.

You mean the Green Lanterns book featuring a Muslim and a Hispanic or the Chinese Superman or the Kid Flash still being black Wally West or Asian Ryan Choi or Batman's new sidekick who is black? DC will have more diversity with Rebirth than ever before. But I do agree that the comic book divisions will be more aligned with the movie universes - it makes sense when 1 mediocre movie makes more money than the comics division does in a few years

Still only one active adolescent queer hero, though. And adult queer heroes are once again but slightly better off.

[AlexanderLuthor]

Still only one active adolescent queer hero, though. And adult queer heroes are once again but slightly better off.

While true, I think it is an odd complaint about Rebirth since it gave page space to bringing Jackson Hyde back

[superduperman]

I'm disappointed that Hypertime didn't work out. For one thing, it seemed to understand the concept of a multiverse better than the actual multiverse did. Every idea or concept that you can come up with exists somewhere. Make it a little easier to access and you have an infinite number of story potential. If you like the post-Crisis universe? It's still out there somewhere! Like the pre-Crisis universe? It's out there too! Every variation on every character, even ones we've never seen. DC burned a lot of good bridges when they got rid of it.

[codystarbuck]

- I got into DC comics post-COIW.
- I loved Zero Hour, it was just a big ball of spandex fun.
- The road to Infinite Crisis and Infinite Crisis itself were very dark but exciting.
After that, DC seemed to have lost the plot a bit, though.
They only seemed interested in telling the origin stories of their A and B list characters. Followed by a bunch of bad editorial choices. Followed by a new reboot, which allowed them to retell the origin stories all over again.

I hope one day DC will appreciate the importance of good writing, and supportive editorial rather than heavyhanded
If you put out good books, the fan boys are more than happy to keep buying.

I started well before Crisis. Quite frankly, it was the only hard reboot that worked, for me. For the most part, DC followed through with it and created a consistent continuity out of it. There were pockets of confusion (Power Girl and Hawkman); but, they were fairly isolated. Then, people got itchy fingers and kept tweaking and making confusions worse, or wanted to write something out of existence or back into existence and it just kept cycling faster and faster. Each subsequent one felt worse than the one before, for me. Hypertime never really took off because it felt like a cop out. "Well, it's not parallel worlds and a multiverse, but it acts just like it, but we don't want to dip our toes in the well that much." It just felt like a congressional spending bill, after 12 committees have torn it apart and added 52 riders. It's so compromised that no one is satisfied.

I preferred the soft reboots. It wasn't that big of a deal when they would tweak something from the past. A few fans would get their panties in a bunch and write letters to the editor; but, most people accepted the change and moved on, or dropped the book for something else. Audiences were more fluid and readers tended to grow away from most comics and younger readers, with no history, came in. They didn't have huge collections of reprints available, so a lot of readers didn't know about changes. Once you had trade collections and easier access to back issues and the market went from a mass audience to a niche market, continuity became a much bigger thing. The internet elevated the level of feedback, since writing a couple of lines on a message board took far less effort than typing a letter and mailing it off. Also, shrinking markets led to greater levels of desperation and writers and editors who came from the fan community were more invested in old stories. The whole industry just kind of morphed into the snake eating its tail.

One thing that isn't really illustrated in the article is that it wasn't so much Crisis rebooting things that made DC a success; it was the willingness to try new things. There was a lot of stuff created that had little to do with continuity, like the Vertigo titles and various other books. DC was willing to experiment and encouraged creativity, in an effort to draw a wider audience, rather than just focus on keeping a shrinking one happy. Where they started to lose their way was when they started focusing more and more on that shrinking superhero audience and catering to people speculating on comic book resale value, with gimmicks and stunts. They were also willing to give books some time to see if they could build an audience (much like tv networks used to, efore they started cancelling shows 3 episodes in). The New 52 had so much reversing of course that it seemed doomed to failure. Rebirth hasn't exactly announced much that sounds that new or different; time will tell how much chance they will give a title or creative team.

[Lee Stone]

I started well before Crisis. Quite frankly, it was the only hard reboot that worked, for me. For the most part, DC followed through with it and created a consistent continuity out of it. There were pockets of confusion (Power Girl and Hawkman); but, they were fairly isolated. Then, people got itchy fingers and kept tweaking and making confusions worse, or wanted to write something out of existence or back into existence and it just kept cycling faster and faster. Each subsequent one felt worse than the one before, for me. Hypertime never really took off because it felt like a cop out. "Well, it's not parallel worlds and a multiverse, but it acts just like it, but we don't want to dip our toes in the well that much." It just felt like a congressional spending bill, after 12 committees have torn it apart and added 52 riders. It's so compromised that no one is satisfied.

I preferred the soft reboots. It wasn't that big of a deal when they would tweak something from the past. A few fans would get their panties in a bunch and write letters to the editor; but, most people accepted the change and moved on, or dropped the book for something else. Audiences were more fluid and readers tended to grow away from most comics and younger readers, with no history, came in. They didn't have huge collections of reprints available, so a lot of readers didn't know about changes. Once you had trade collections and easier access to back issues and the market went from a mass audience to a niche market, continuity became a much bigger thing. The internet elevated the level of feedback, since writing a couple of lines on a message board took far less effort than typing a letter and mailing it off. Also, shrinking markets led to greater levels of desperation and writers and editors who came from the fan community were more invested in old stories. The whole industry just kind of morphed into the snake eating its tail.

One thing that isn't really illustrated in the article is that it wasn't so much Crisis rebooting things that made DC a success; it was the willingness to try new things. There was a lot of stuff created that had little to do with continuity, like the Vertigo titles and various other books. DC was willing to experiment and encouraged creativity, in an effort to draw a wider audience, rather than just focus on keeping a shrinking one happy. Where they started to lose their way was when they started focusing more and more on that shrinking superhero audience and catering to people speculating on comic book resale value, with gimmicks and stunts. They were also willing to give books some time to see if they could build an audience (much like tv networks used to, efore they started cancelling shows 3 episodes in). The New 52 had so much reversing of course that it seemed doomed to failure. Rebirth hasn't exactly announced much that sounds that new or different; time will tell how much chance they will give a title or creative team.

True.
It wasn't the effects of Crisis so much as scoring Frank Miller and John Byrne from Marvel that made DC successful in the late '80s.
The DCU could have kept the multiverse and just renumbered everything and would have probably been better off in the long run.
Crisis, itself, was a major factor with its epic story, great art and introduction of characters to readers. But I think it would have been just as good if they had kept the multiverse at the end.
At the very least, Earth-2 should have been spared (since DC had comics presently featured on it) with the Fawcett characters going there and the Charlton characters going to Earth-1.

[Icefalcon]

At the very least, Earth-2 should have been spared (since DC had comics presently featured on it) with the Fawcett characters going there and the Charlton characters going to Earth-1.

The problem with Earth 2, at the time and moreso now is that it is tied to World War II as a starting point. When Flash 123 was written that wasn't far in the past, many people still remembered the war and had fought in it. Now you've come to an age where people who are retired don't remember the war and even if you hand wave the heroes ageless the supporting cast are all in old folks homes or shuffling from the mortal coil.

I love Earth 2 but the only way to really have kept it post Crisis was to tell historical stories like All-Star Squadron and not enough people want to read them.

[Lee Stone]

The problem with Earth 2, at the time and moreso now is that it is tied to World War II as a starting point. When Flash 123 was written that wasn't far in the past, many people still remembered the war and had fought in it. Now you've come to an age where people who are retired don't remember the war and even if you hand wave the heroes ageless the supporting cast are all in old folks homes or shuffling from the mortal coil.

I love Earth 2 but the only way to really have kept it post Crisis was to tell historical stories like All-Star Squadron and not enough people want to read them.

True... but that could have been to their advantage.
Too many Batmans, Supermans, Wonder Womans, Flashes and Green Lanterns?
Just retire the old JSA and let Infinity, Inc. take over as the new JSA on Earth-2.

Now you have only one of each of the main heroes (the ones on Earth-1) to remove "possible confusion" and the JSA (formerly Infinity, Inc.) on Earth-2 as the legacy heroes. No retconning necessary.