Apparently, I’m one of the very few people who are actually enthusiastic about the DC Reboot. And I can totally see why comic book companies never change anything. Because if you have to deal with comic book readers who get upset about everything – and I do mean, everything – that requires some change, why should you bother? And with all the blahblah surrounding the reboot, here’s what I think about some of the most heard quotes.

“This will suck!”

Simple statement, simple answer: How do you know? All we have so far are about three lines of blurb, one image and a title for each book. There is absolutely no way you can know how good or how bad each book will be. Mind you, I am fully entertaining the possibility that some of the books will suck. Even the Teen Titans book, which I’m looking forward to a lot because it is so radically different, might as well be a horribly bad read. I don’t think it will be as bad as Felicia D. Henderson’s run on the book, because being that bad takes some effort, but still, it could be bad. And Felicia D. Henderson is also the exact reason why I’m looking forward to the reboot. Felicia D. Henderson broke the Titans beyond salvation. J.T. Krul made valiant effort since he’s otherwise a good writer, but even he failed. The rest of the DC Universe is in similar shape. While the 2000s began quite well, Geoff Johns re-invented the Teen Titans for example. Or Judd Winick on the Outsiders. All those ideas were good. They worked. But as the 2000s went on, DC had this brilliant trend to do everything like they did in the Silver Age. Why? You can’t go forward by going back. And to be honest, DC has waited too long with the reboot. So here’s a chance at a fresh set of characters written by people who get to re-invent these characters.

Blake Northcott (aka. ComicBookGrrrl): “The DC Comics reboot is a desperation move, and people can already sense it. You don’t win new readers with one big, overblown marketing gimmick – you win them with compelling storylines that are worth sharing and discussing.”

While I’m fully willing to accept that DC is desperate – in fact, I’m very comfortable with the thought that they’re desperate – I don’t see how a desperate move is a bad thing. Because it means that DC has realized that they have a problem. Compared to how they’ve been fuddling about in the past couple of years, I would say that this is actually a very good thing. It shows that DC has seen that they’ve written them into places where they just can’t go on.

As for compelling stories: Was ripping Arsenal’s arm off compelling? Was killing his daughter a story worth telling? Did we have anything to discuss after they made him a junkie again? And Arsenal is just one of the characters that had crap happening to him that can’t easily be reversed and did accomplish absolutely nothing. Other examples would be the killing of just about every Titan but maybe a handful. Sure, we did discuss all these instances, but not once did I hear something along the lines of “Man, this story was awesome!” or “Rest in Peace, Kid Devil, you had a good death”.

So if this desperation move enables writers to tell compelling storylines that are worth sharing and discussing again, then they’re on the right path. Besides, it takes a lot of courage on a company’s end to admit that they’ve been totally wrong and that they need to do something drastic.

PS: Blake Northcott is actually awesome. You should totally read her blog.

“The re-design of my favourite character sucks!”

Yeah, that one I have to actually agree with to an extent, since we’re all individuals. And individuals have individual tastes. Personally, I like most of the redesigns I’ve seen. Harley Quinn’s is spectacular, Superboy’s is very interesting. However, I’m not too fond of Kid Flash’s as he looks like he’s wearing a crown. And for some odd reason, I miss Superman’s briefs. So yeah, that’s a perfectly valid complaint.
 
Yes, I did just admit that I'm in favour of Superman wearing his underwear outside his pants. I never thought I'd say this.