So yesterday DC Comics dropped a bomb that after the ending of their company wide crossover going on right now, Flash Point, they were going to be restarting all of their titles at #1. This included the possibility of new origins, younger versions and a plethora of other things that haven't even been considered by most fans.
There's outrage from one corner of the internet and there's jubilation from the other end.
The thing is...they've done this before.
The thing with DC Comics is that every ten years or so they have to go through this. I don't know why exactly but bear with me while I go through this with you.
Crisis on Infinite Earths (COIE) is considered the grand father of all company wide crossovers. It was done in the mid 80s as a twelve issue series. At the time DC comics had probably hundreds of different Earths running around. The thing is this: At the time when a new series started, they didn't always co-habituate with other characters. The thinking is that if a character was good enough to have its own title then it would be good enough to stand on its own. So you had Earth, Earth 2, Earth Snickers, Earth Candyland... All of these different creations were just running around on their own. The point of COIE was to trim that down and bring all of the different characters under one Earth...a New Earth. This concept stuck for over twenty years.
What DC did figure out at that time as well was that some of the origin stories appeared antiquated and they felt that perhaps readers would have a hard time identifying with the characters if they didn't update them. Plus they understood that if it was 1980 and the origin for Superman was still based in 1920, well then the suspension of disbelief wouldn't exist and readers just wouldn't care.
They started with Man of Steel a mini-series aimed at updating Superman their flagship character.
So with COIE they killed two birds with one stone. They brought all the characters together on one Earth and were able to update characters that needed to catch up. (like Batman and Wonder Woman, for example)
Ten years later DC comics did it again with Zero Hour. It was another company wide event. The basis of this one is that someone went to the beginning of time, mucked with everything and altered the course of history. This basically erased the entire backstory of DC. The heroes won the day and rewrote the history of DC as close as they could...making Batman younger, bringing a new version of Hawkman from the ashes...
Ten years after THAT they had Infinite Crisis which was billed as a direct sequel to COIE...again someone managed to gain fantastic powers that could alter the universe. In the tampering that happened New Earth was copied...51 times. This gave DC 52 Earths with 52 different possibilities living on them, with heroes who made different choices and gave other characters a second chance at life.
Now they do this.
From what I've read of Flashpoint so far it's the same kind of story. Someone has altered events in time. Things are different. If anyone knows Batman's origin it began with him having to watch his mother and father gunned down during a robbery. In this new crossover his father survives and Bruce and his mother die instead.
Little changes that are going to drive this mini series and make it readable. The thing is, they've mucked with characters again so when things get put right again, this will bring about the "Reboot" of DC comics.
A Gimmick? Yes more than likely. The question that all readers ask is this: Will the changes last? Will they only be superficial? Will they be written out within the year?
As much as any other reader I'm curious. But 52 new restarts and on going series is alot to ask of any reader. The possibility of this bombing is huge... I'm glad I don't write the checks.
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