It is hard to believe it has already been two years since DC decided to give its readers the finger...I mean reboot everything to reach out to a new audience. And to mark this anniversary in stupidity I will do my best to give an unbiased review of the past 2 years.
The New 52, seriously we're still calling it that? Was started as a reboot that would modernize the DC universe and allow for new readers to jump in without worrying about 70 years of backstory. At least that is how it was sold to us. In practice however their were some problems with this. When it all started our heroes were redesigned (in matching uniforms for some reason), made younger, and had their origins altered. It started with Justice League and our favorite heroes were brought together to stop an enemy too powerful for them individually. I was enjoyable enough, but then the individual titles started to come out, and they were all hit and miss (mostly miss). For the first moth I saved up and bought everything just to try it all out. The second moth I dropped about half of them, after the first arcs were done I dropped even more, and after about a year I made the difficult decision to drop all titles about my favorite DC hero, Superman.
As new titles were released I would try them out, usually hate them, and drop them. Currently I only read 6 monthly titles and 2 weekly digital ones. To put this into perspective I usually get more than that a week from Marvel. Of these 6 titles, 1 of them is set in a parallel earth, in fact my favorite stuff DC has done in the last few years are all outside their mainstream universe.
Now onto some of the problems of the New 52, first and foremost the timeline. DC promised a new timeline for new readers to not be confused by. This ended up failing because they set this new universe 5 years after the heroes started showing up, and those origins were not revealed for almost a year, and the villains had to wait even longer. So instead readers were dropped into a world where even long-time readers were lost on the timeline. Sure there were books set at different times, like Action Comics being set at the beginning of Superman's career, but this ended up doing more harm than good because the different timelines would contradict each other. Other times we are given multiple books set at the same time, but very different things are going on. Also we are forced to believe that in those 5 years there has been 4 different Robins raised in Wayne Manor.
The next problem is the reimagining of characters themselves, particularly the villains. For example Darkseid was always one of DC's biggest Baddies, born of a noble family he became a tyrant by right. In the New 52 Darkseid was a farmer who was given the powers of a god, got tired of his oppressors, and took power. A lot of the heroes were moved out of their iconic, albeit fake cities, and moved to one we would all know. The most notable being Green Arrow, who was moved to Seattle a town I know well. But Green Arrow's Seattle is more of a tourist destination rather than the hipster rich, rain plagued land I know. The Space Needle was always present in every issue I did read, which is impossible considering it's location and the fact you lose sight of it only a few blocks away. Then their is Nightwing, for those who wisely gave up DC before the reboot here is his new origin; Dick Grayson grew up in a circus (so far so good), but this circus was secretly used to recruit assassins for an Owl themed secret society (could be worse), and Dick's parents were killed because he was to be the next one recruited into the order (you're losing me), and did I mention the assassins are all undead zombies? (And I'm done). The last one I'm gonna talk about is the infamous living sex doll Starfire, way to reach out to female readers guys. Starfire was a fan favorite character for years, and her popularity skyrocketed with the Teen Titans cartoon. So why would anyone think it was a good idea to remove all aspects of her personality and make her a character who sleeps with any man she talks to...oh right, the ever elusive horny teenage boy demographic.
The costumes are also an issue with the universe, everyone seems to have the same tailor now. Either they have a full bodysuit with unnecessary lines and a v-shaped collar, or they have a Tron suit, which is especially weird when considering Tron is owned by Disney, and yet Marvel is staying away from the suits. There is a small handful of costumes however that I find well made, for example Animal Man, his suit is an updated version of what he used to wear and it manages to set him apart from everyone else. I also like the Earth-2 line of costumes, all of which are hilariously more eye-catching and original than anything the mainstream DC universe has.
Moving on we have the treatment of characters, I sort of went over this a little bit ago, but this is such a problem it needs be addressed twice. First are the relationships, in a rebooted universe I'm OK with nullifying some marriages, but don't tell me superheroes work better when they are single *cough* Didio *cough*, sorry I had something in my throaght. Clark Kent is no linger with Lois, and I can live with that for a while so long as they have some kind of dynamic. Barry is no longer married to Iris, this is a bit odd considering the whole reason behind Flashpoint was Barry wanted Iris back, but I can deal with it, again, so long as there is some dynamic. The real problems start when we get into characters like Animal Man, a large aspect of his character is his family but after Rotworld his son is dead, his wife left him and took his daughter, leaving him...single. Then there is Batwoman, her potentially groundbreaking marriage was called off recently in order to keep her free and available to fight crime, even though her partner was totally supportive and understanding. The relationship that really throws a wrench in DaDio's single=better theory is Aquaman and Mera, who officially are not married yet I don't think anyone told Johns because he's been writing them that way since issue 1. There relationship actually improves the narrative and makes me care about the characters more. So basically DiDio took the one Marvel decision fans are still angry about (ending Peter and Mary Jane's wedding), and thought; "yeah, that was a great move, let's do it to everyone".
Speaking of Marvel, they had a modern reboot as well roughly a decade ago, but they did it in a way that worked. Not everyone is a fan of the Marvel's Ultimate Universe (personally I am), but they still have the choice to read it, or the classic mainstream universe. DC didn't do this, they just made the Ultimate Universe the main and did away with the classic. This honestly makes the reboot universe all that much worse. Luckily DC does have it's share of "elseworlds" for fan to turn to, including my personal favorite the "Earth-One" line, which only releases a single volume every couple of years, but manages to reboot DC better than the actual reboot did. Or the Beyond series which comes out weekly and continues where the series "Batman Beyond" left off, only a little more mature to match the age of those who grew up with the cartoon (like me), so DC isn't failing, just the New 52.
The next large mistake made in the new 52 is not listening to the fans. Since the reboot started fans have asked about their favorite characters, such as Stephanie Brown, Wally West, and Cassandra Cain. And for years we have got the same answer; wait and see, they may return. I may not be in charge of a Major comic industry, but wouldn't you want to bring back characters fans enjoy so they buy more comics?
Lets move on to the Events, oh God the events. Night of the Owls was decent-ish, if you only read Batman's story. Then there was the train wreck "H'ell on Earth", then the mediocre "Trinity War", and the abomination that is "Forever Evil". However I am enjoying Zero Year, so that's what, 1 out of5? And people say Marvel is having problems. "Forever Evil" in particular is possibly the worst event I've read in a long time. It was transitioned into badly by simply tacking it onto the end of another event, the Earth-3 characters are borderline cartoonishly evil, and it was so badly written I stopped reading partway through.
Now lets talk Batman shall we? Batman is overused, I understand he's popular, especially after the Dark Knight trilogy, but DC is treating him like he is only hero, he and his Bat family take a majority of the DC monthly titles, 4 of which actually have the word "Batman" in the title. There was even a brief time when he led 2 different Justice Leagues, when honestly he isn't the kind of person people would rally behind. One thing the New 52 did get right is he cannot defeat Superman, every fight the outcome was Superman as the victor thus far. Which makes sense because Superman is the most powerful character in comic books, hell Screw Attack did a Death Battle where they determined just how powerful Superman truly is (Click HERE to watch). Batman is meant to be the dark brooding hero that invokes fear in others, not the shining beacon of hope everyone rallies behind.
The last thing I want to touch on is this, this isn't the first time DC has rebooted, it's the 1st major one they have done in a while, but every Crisis usually leads to alterations in the continuity, and those happen every couple of years. So if you're not a fan of the most recent reboot, just wait a little longer DC's track record has proven they don't like to commit. And even with the crap the reboot has given us, there is still a few titles that are well worth the read, my favorite of which being Earth-2, ironically another example of a reboot done right.
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