They Didn’t Go With What Worked
A hard relaunch would have been so much better if the new books took a page out of what was critically acclaimed over the last ten years instead of throwing ideas into a pot and serving it underdone and unseasoned. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but if something is broken, wouldn’t you want to fix it AND make it that much better?
Deep down, hardcore fans are fine with the idea of a relaunch, but those same fans wanted to be able to pick up 52 brand new extremely well-crafted books. Those same fans are now buying a small handful of books that they like (just like before the relaunch when DC was in a creative slump).
So, until Alex Luthor shows up and smashes everything together we’re going to have to hope for the best. Again, there is nothing wrong about relaunching a company- but as a fan we don’t want weird loose ends, this many cancellations, and so many creative faux pas.
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Rich Stambolian (@BTCRich) can be found in his native habitat of Flushing, Queens. When he’s not in the wild he enjoys a good comic book, a good rasslin’ match, a video game or two, and maybe an ice cold sud.
I dunno I happen to like the relaunch
Its a great jumping on point to new readers, lost readers, and casual readers who want to become regular readers
The updates fixes some logic holes and makes the sucktastic DC characters as moderns as possible
DC Stays losing in comparison to Marvel but they did the relaunch right IMO
I read
JL
JLA
Catwoman
Teen Titans
Wonder Woman
Birds of Prey
Green Arrow
Flash
and I’m enjoying them … I never cared for reading Batman so his 74,230 different books dont bother me.
I tend to point the finger at Lee, Liefield, and Lobdell. They were a big part of what screwed up the investment boom (Image just imploded before everything else), demolished Marvel (Onslaught and Heroes Reborn) and they pretty much get handed this? I just don’t get why Leifeild and Lobdell are still working in comics, Liefield keeps coming back but fades just as fast, Lobdell has written some of the worst stuff I have ever read (his Alpha Flight was wretched, His work on DC feels the same, pale imitations of what has been done before). Lee at least can draw so I get where he comes in, but he still has been tied to the same messes the other two have been, then again I guess he brought them into the fold. Still someone should have went “Hey, ain’t these the guys who screwed up *Insert anything here*”
it’s hard to say what went down. But, as a fan speculating it seems that the powers that be would rather have guys that have “played ball” in the past crank out fast work for them as a known name. The 52 brand relaunch in and of itself scream quantity as opposed to quality.
Sometimes speculation is all you have. It does fit though, along with Lee who had done a couple of runs for DC just prior to this (Batman and Superman) and he also had a working relationship with DC through his Wildstorm stuff (which is all over the place in this relaunch). Hard not to ignore the “image” feel of all this, which goes back to quantity over quality.
I loved Firestorm in the 80s so I decided to check it out the 52 version and it just didn’t feel right. I know they’re going to make some changes but I dropped it after two issues.
I was afraid to see what they were going to to with Blue Devil but that felt right to me, they kept the spirit of the character. Be nice if he gets his own series.
Good points throughout. I think the thing that bothered me most was how clear it was which books they thought were working fine pre-reboot and which weren’t. IN the new52 Batman and Green Lantern pretty much carried on as they were, providing no better jump on point than any other before the reboot. Superman, on the other hand was treated as a complete reboot. I get why they pulled the trigger on the company wide reboot, but functionally they’d have been better off just rebooting a few books and keeping the ones that worked. And I hated to see Action Comics go back to zero, but I’m sure we’ll get an “Issue #1000” down the road anyway, like Marvel did with Wolverine
There are a ton of ways this could be fixed. Relaunching a whole company is fine and it became a widely polarizing topic but what the reader lacks is that sense of permanence. Once the glitz wears off we will probably see a soft relaunch going back to the old numbering system.
Right at the beginning of the NU52, I asked a bunch of people what were the odds of what titles would get cancelled first. I’m kinda surprised some have lasted this long..
I can’t really argue with any of these points. WEll done
How many relaunches are we gonna have though? It seems like everytime DC sees sales sagging, they hit the reset button. At least Marvel kept continuity going with Marvel NOW! even though many thought they were going the DC “Crisis” route. If any Universe needs an “Ultimate” style line, it’s DC. They should port most of the junior superheroes like Teen Titans and such over there and tell new stories that way while maintaining flagship and older characters in the main imprint, but that’s probably over-thinking it.
Ooh I like the idea of an “Ultimate style” DC universe