DC Rebooting Universe

Aaron Diaz is a self-obsessed wanker

edited 18th Aug '14 4:16:03 PM by NotGrantMorrison

I'm totally not Grant Morrison

Well, he's certainly allowed to have his fan-fantasies, just like all the rest of us. I think it's wrong-headed to add too much filagree to everyone's origins, though. Origin stories, in my opinion, should be kept as simple as possible.

edited 18th Aug '14 4:55:04 PM by Robbery

My general view on those redesigns is generally I like the actual look of the costume, but hate the concept behind them. I absolutely love the look of the costume he gives Superman, but it plays quite heavily to the Clark as a guise for Superman which I hate.

I like the design and concept for his version of Martian Manhunter, and just the designs for some of the others. He kind of misses the point for some of them, though, and tends to try to make up for these perceived shortcomings by replacing them with his own enthusiastic transhumanism on the assumption that hewing to his own philosophy will make them better for everyone. (Case in point: Wonder Woman. No. Just... No.)

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

I actually like the redesigned concept for Wonder Woman. That is, if the concept was used for an entirely new character, and not Wonder Woman, since the concept is not Wonder Woman. On it's own, though, I think it's pretty good.

Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around

Okay, that's fair.

For that matter, the armour design wouldn't be bad for Wonder Woman, either, I guess. It's the "icon of humanity but perfected is literally a blank white walking statue" part that makes me headdesk.

edited 20th Aug '14 8:34:41 AM by Noaqiyeum

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

In his defense, I think he was trying to play off Wondy's origin that she was a clay baby blessed by gifts from each of the gods.

My various fanfics.

Same here. But some people are already iffy at Wondy having been born from clay in the first place, saying that it makes her 'not real' somehow. I disagree, but I can sort of see their point, and it becomes all the more apparent with this particular version of her, which would turn her into a living statue made from clay altogether.

Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around

You know, I had this whole big post planned for my own take on a reboot/redesign of the Justice League and the DC universe at large, but then I realized it'd be a lot of work for something not all that tethered to the general conversation.

Long story short: would anyone be interested in a general "Comic Rebooting Brainstorming" thread, where we share ideas of how we'd reboot various franchises and entities?

My various fanfics.

Nope. I wouldn't post in such a thread.

Might be interesting to see what people perceive as the 'core' concepts or ideas of a character are; the things you need to maintain in order for that character to be them, and what can be changed.

Oh, I'm aware. But in Greek mythology (and a number of others), all humans were originally formed from clay before experiencing some form of fall from grace (opening a box, eating a fruit, etc). For Wonder Woman to have been created that way is meant as a mythological and metaphorical touchstone of commonality - it makes her a symbol of humanity as it was meant to be, which is perhaps the most central element of her character.

Diaz's interpretation basically flips that backwards and uses it as a tool to make her seem less human, instead. I don't begrudge him thinking that magical sentient robots are cool story material, but it's kind of a stellar example of not bothering to find out why something is broken before you try to fix it.

Possible, but flaws of transhumanism is a conversation for another thread.

edited 20th Aug '14 5:32:27 PM by Noaqiyeum

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

From what I've seen, that's a view a lot of Transhumanists take, preferring to do whatever they can to change ordinary humans into some "higher" state without thinking of the consequences.

I think he just misunderstood the story of Pygmalion and Galatea, not realizing that Galatea was completely defined by Pygmalion before Venus turned her into a real person.

edited 20th Aug '14 5:04:57 PM by maxwellelvis

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

I have ideas about how I'd reboot the DC Universe, too, but I don't know that I'd post to a thread on the subject. Who knows? Any one of us might one day get the chance to implement our ideas, and then we'd have tipped our hand.

I agree that a lot of Diaz's ideas seem to fix things that aren't broken or throw the baby out with the bathwater. That Superman looks entirely human is hardly the most unbelievable thing about him (hell, you'd have to chuck most of Star Trek if you couldn't suspend your disbelief humanoid aliens), and I don't care for essentially merging him with Martian Manhunter. Still, he's allowed to play all he wants, on his own time.

Welp, [[tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=14085838900A64170000]] I made the thread. But I can't get the link to work.

edited 20th Aug '14 10:17:23 PM by SonOfSharknado

My various fanfics.

I'm not interested in rebooting a whole universe, but I have paid some thought to revamping a few particular characters along with their supporting cast. I also work in some setting/genre transplant, so mine is along the line of "ideas that would make for some interesting Elseworld miniseries" than anything else. Would it look out of place in your thread?

I respected Diaz as a designer and a concept artist, but I can't tell a good story for shit. Plus, from what I've gathered, he's kind of a self-conceited douche. A shame, because I tend to agree with his philosophies for the most part, and without the baggage, I love his style and some of his ideas. They do have a lot of potentials, IMO. Just make it your own damn characters.

edited 20th Aug '14 10:37:01 PM by Nightwire

Bite my shiny metal ass.

Nah. Like In said in the opening post, as tiny details or as broad strokes as you want.

My various fanfics.

So The Multiversity here. Just as bobammin as expected.

I'm totally not Grant Morrison

It was very meta.

Dressed to Kill.

huh they changed what happens to jonah hex. turns out that wasnt him who died and he gets a happy end

edited 1st Sep '14 8:52:24 PM by deadpoolrocks

So, I'm coming out of nowhere, I pretty much read no mainstream comic books prior to one month ago save for Watchmen and The Killing Joke (I got an excuse, I'm French, I had a lot of awesome stuff to chose from), but I decided that the New 52 was a good opportunity to read some serialized ones (plus I really loved the Justice League animated show).

Now I have tried quite a few, which rank as follow :

• Don't like : Worlds' Finest, Green Arrow
• Moderately enjoy : Batman Detective Comics, Birds of Prey, Batwoman
• Enjoy : Harley Quinn, Suicide Squad
• Reaaaaally enjoy : Earth-2, Batgirl

Considering those tastes, do you have any advice to make on other series to try out ? I have been told that Swamp Thing and Animal Man were good, but aside from that, I have a lot to pick from. By the way, I hate the new Joker, so anything featuring him automatically loses some points.

edited 2nd Sep '14 3:45:54 AM by Julep

If there's one thing that I really don't like about Nu-52, it's how they handled the whole "Alan Scott is gay" thing. By making him young, it squanders a lot of potential storylines that could have been told with that. Like, him coming to grips with this after decades in the closet, or just realizing this only recently, or go back in time to the Golden Age if you wanna have a young Golden Age Green Lantern, have him deal with being homosexual in an age where that was still a crime in much of the Western world. It just reeks of wasted potential, tokenism for tokenism's sake, and like they're trying to have their cake and eat it too after having to get rid of Obsidian.

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

And, of course, everything about him is motivated by a dead boyfriend.

My various fanfics.

...isn't it positive to see a character whose sexuality/gender is just a part of, instead of defining him entirely? Like Bab's roommate being transgender & lesbian, but more importantly an activist?

Not when the character wasn't gay in the first place. He was straight for decades; it's only recently that they both de-aged him from an old man to a young one, and made him gay. I think fans were expecting more from a change that otherwise was wholly unnecessary. If they wanted a gay superhero, they might as well have just made a new one.

Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around