DC Rebooting Universe

It brought in a short-term sales bump, yes. I wonder if sales figures are taking into account digital sales?

The same people responsible for DC's previous decline and poor sales are still in charge. I remember the pre-reboot era, too. I also remember that fans loathed some of the storylines/concepts that the DC brass were crowing about (i.e., Countdown to Final Crisis, the trashing of Arsenal's character). IMO, there really is little difference, quality-wise, between the pre-reboot and post-reboot eras. The same problems of poor pacing, ridiculously decompressed stories, and near-constant grimdarkness are still there.

The grimdarkness, by the way, is a mandate from on high. A co-publisher specifically stated that heroes should not have happy personal lives and was very clear that this was DC's official policy going forward. (Yes, I've heard about Batgirl's new direction as of next month. I still do not trust DC's management not to screw it up.)

And the characters just aren't engaging anymore. If the creative and editorial teams were allowed to create good stories with well-defined characters they could root for, the new 52 wouldn't be so controversial. But almost everyone is locked into specific editorial mandates.

It's not just the previous universe people are talking about but the way it depicted—I'd say that they're mostly nostalgic for the pre-Identity Crisis era...or at least an era when heroes were allowed to smile every now and then.

edited 26th Sep '14 6:15:19 AM by PennyDreadful

Poor fictional characters! Why do they want to turn them all into grimdark woobies?!

Because...that's what management wants.

Why does management want that? Does drama sell? I'd be more likely to buy something happy and goofy than depressing.

Probably the "darkness/cynicism = mature/adult" idea.

Eeeeeeee-yup. You got it.

Case in point: Roy Harper's daughter was killed off in the Cry For Justice mini. Fans protested the move, and the editors replied, "If we made you feel something, we did our jobs."

I'd rather have funny, heartwarming, and awesome moments than have tearjerker/ nightmare fuel moments...

I've always felt that deep down it's a sense of insecurity since superheroes have a reputation for being thought of as childish. So guys like Didio want to make their hobby seem more legitimate by saying "Childish?! Did you read the comic where Elastic Man's wife gets raped? Or where Green Arrow's granddaughter gets crushed to death by a falling building?"

That can be childish in its own adolescent way. Grimdark for the sake of grimdark can be just as immature as sill for the sake of silly.

Meanwhile, at Marvel.

"Hey, we got talking raccoons and trees! We got a big ol' marshmallow robot! We're also drowning in money."

Have a Flying Brick accidentally injure a Badass Normal!!

I think Anteres is right. I think the current people in charge of DC want to avoid the "comics are silly stuff for kids" stereotype, but the only way they know to do that is to go for death, darkness, violence and sex. I've often thought that they're a bit embarrassed by the industry they work in.

Comics should be enjoyable, not depressing. A healthy does of fun doesn't hurt either. And if they were actually written with kids in mind, maybe they'd sell more. Who knows?

edited 26th Sep '14 10:37:32 AM by andersonh1

I'm not sure they're outright embarrassed, I just think they believe happy characters don't make for good storytelling and took it too far.

"We are also revealing that all of our major characters are complete pieces of shit with no redeemable qualities!"

Funny how that works.

edited 26th Sep '14 10:58:35 AM by SiennaCiShan

Wait, what? This isn't about Axis, is it?

To be fair, it's not like Current DC has much of a right to point that out themselves.

edited 26th Sep '14 11:03:15 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

I believe he's referring to the Original Sin event, which focused on dark secrets from the characters' pasts.

Dammit, Marvel, that's what you have the Ultimate Universe for.

Oh, wait, you already killed like 85% of your recognizable characters there. Never mind then.

From what I understand nobody thinks it did any permanent damage and it wasn't very good, so whatever. It ended up being pretty much an excuse to put Nick Fury Sr. on a bus IIRC.

edited 26th Sep '14 11:10:25 AM by HamburgerTime

Yeah Original Sin basically amounted to a whole bunch of nothing. Most of the supposed dark, earth-shattering secrets ended up having some sort of convenient out.

The Daredevil OS tie-in was pretty good.

It was excellent, but it also illustrates my point. The supposed EARTH SHATTERING MEGA DARK SECRET turned out to be a misunderstanding since Matt was too young to remember what actually happened.

well it was still a pretty dark secret.

back to dc, i have to say i love how dc is leading up to whatevers next year.

In an effort to bring the conversation to something DC comics related, this might have people raising eyebrows and either getting some tickets for the hype train or have them say some very unpleasant things in the divine language known as Angrish.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/09/25/superman-doomed-2-teases-big-changes-for-the-dc-universe

Newsarama has some theories about the upcoming event.