Posts tagged New 52

DC Comics and The New 52

My friend Dave suggested a couple of months ago that I blog about DC Comics and their complete relaunch of their comics line with 52 new series and a rarely tried new strategy of making digital copies of a book available for purchase on the same day the physical copy is available in stores.

I kind of held off on writing anything. I’m not sure why - I think because I read a lot of comic websites and commentary and in my mind, had nothing new to offer a conversation that has been pretty well beat to death. But since most of my readers here (Hi, you two) aren’t that into comics, I suppose it’s safe to assume anything I have to say on the topic is new to them/you.

So, this’ll get kinda nerdy and a little inside baseball, so if that’s not your thing, feel free to move on to something else. It’s a big internet and I’m sure there’s something on it you’ll like (might I recommend this in particular).

So as I said above, DC is relaunching their entire line. That means they’re cancelling all of their books (in some cases, books that were closing in on 1000 issues of uninterupted publishing), and restarting with 52 individual series, some brand new titles and some relaunches of pre-existing books. Most of the existing characters have been redesigned (a lot of them by fan-favorite artist Jim Lee) and tinkered with to be more relevant - and hopefully attract new readers.

I’ve got a few thoughts about the above strategy:

1. I’m in favor of trying to attract new comic readers. Comics have been limping along for decades now, not quite dying, but definitely not healthy. There are lots of theories on why this is and how to fix it. It feels like a pretty insurmountable task. You’d think if blockbusters like Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man couldn’t bring attention and new readers to the hobby, nothing could.

2. While I’m in favor of trying to attract new readers, something about this particular attempt seems a little… off? Desperate? I think it’s the need to make the books feel relevant. The only thing worse than not being relevant is trying to appear relevant. Relevance, to me, seems like one of those things that is inherent in a character or the voices of creators or it’s not. You can’t really force it. And if you could force it, it wouldn’t be by getting a 50 year old artist to attach armor, collars, and flanges to pre-existing characters. I loved Jim Lee in the 90’s. He’s a talented artist, but his aesthetic feels overdone and uninspired. How many younger, more vital feeling artists are there out there that could have really brought something new to these designs?

That being said, not every redesign seems quite so cloying and cynical. Grant Morrison and Rags Morales take on the early career of Superman in Action Comics looks incredible. Morrison is harkening back to Superman’s early 30’s roots as a crime-buster and working man’s champion. And the costume? No armor. No flanges. No collars. Just a t-shirt, dirty jeans, and a little cape. It feels like a fresh take - like a re-imagining that acknowledges it’s past but strives to say something new.

3. Renumbering is probably a good thing. Maybe. There’s a tiny little part of me that hates to see Detective Comics (home to Batman) get relaunched with a new #1 when it’s only 120 or so issues away from 1000. That being said, that kind of milestone is special to long time comic fans and probably a little intimidating to new readers. The idea that you’ve missed that many issues of a book and might have to “catch up” in order to understand things is daunting to the say the least. So, a new number one provides a jumping on point that is possibly mentally easier to swallow. That being said, I kind of feel like books need to be written so that any issue is a decent jumping on point or at least catches you up enough so as not to be lost. Because, five years down the line, Dectective Comics will be up to 60 issues and to a new reader, trying to be convinced of the medium’s accessibility, that might as well be 1000.

4. Relaunching books and rebooting characters is fine - as long at the spirit of the character is maintained. I’m not a purist. Sure, I have my own little personal bugaboos, like the neckline of Superman’s costume for instance. It should look like this:

Never this:

But aside from that and a few other minor issues, I’m not against re-imagining characters and stories - even characters like Superman that have been around for over 70 years - as long as the spirit of the character is maintained. Want to mess around with Batman and say Robin is his son or something? Okay, fine. Go for it. But do something, say, like make Batman a cold blooded killer? That doesn’t work because it betrays the essence of the character. There are a lot of comic fans and professionals who don’t like the DC relaunch because they consider continuity to be sacrosanct. That’s fine. I’ve just never been that guy. Continuity is a good tool and a terrible master.

So there you go: four rambling, near-meaningless thoughts about the relaunch, which can be summed up, I suppose, as I’m not against it, I don’t love all the choices being made. But at the end of the day, who cares what I think if it brings in new readers. Because, ultimately, that’s what I want. I like the old DC characters that I grew up with, but I love comics. The medium is bigger than Superman and questions about his uniform or origin story - and while the paradigm will eventually change, for the time being a healthy DC means a healthy comic book industry (relatively speaking). So good luck DC. I hope it works.