Right off the bat, I'm going to admit that I was one of the many who was downright lambasting DC for their decision to do a relaunch of their entire line. I complained because though I knew quite a bit, I didn't read much DC. Most of their heroes didn't ever interest me, except for Batman who I believe to be the best hero hands down. I had always liked Batman, but the complaints I always had for any super-hero was that there was never any fascinating changes. It's why I devoured the entire Ultimate line when it first premiered; it was such a fresh, interesting take on things. Before it went off the rails, of course. Now, I'm not a huge Green Lantern fan, but I know Johns has done exceptional work on the character. In the past few years, those two franchises had changed things up substantially, to the point that I actually started reading again. I always wanted to see Dick take over the mantle and I got my wish. So many things had changed, but it had been for the best. Other than Batman and Green Lantern, it seemed more or less people started to feel the way I did toward the other heroes. That they had gone stale and for the longest time I couldn't stand Superman, who was DC's flagship character.

The reason for all the uproar over the relaunch, other than twenty some-odd years of retconning is no picnic, was that it seemed they were trying to fix the entire universe including two characters who hadn't been so enthralling and were able to pull you into their adventures in years. The Batgirl thing could get it's own argument going as well, I'm sure. I could also go into a full on rage how I still feel that Tim Drake got the most intense shaft out of everyone. However, with the entire line relaunch and us now going into the second month, I have to say I am very happy that I was wrong. Sure, not every book is gold (not every character or team deserves their own book), and the Superman books all having different time lines is a little jarring at first, but some have been a blast to read. Batman is still the best, especially when written by Snyder. I'm really enjoying Action Comics. Nightwing looks like it's going to be good. Swamp Thing has not been this engrossing in I don't know how long. The happiest of surprises is that I had no idea Animal Man was such a terrific character. For me, the line has done more good than bad. No way to tell how successful for their real goal until a year from now, but for the moment things look promising.

I know I've taken forever to get to my point, but I've read a few places suggesting whether or not Marvel should do the same thing. I grew up on Marvel, and though I hate retconning, what I hate more are creators going back, realizing they "killed" a character just for sales and then bringing them back for the most arbitrary reasons. That idea alone has been butchered to the max over the past ten years. I mean, how many Ragnarok's have there been lately? And when someone died, that was a big deal sometime ago. Now they do it once or twice per event, and there are at least 2-3 events a year! That's a lot of deaths to characters you're not sure whether to invest in anymore. I think Marvel could actually use it now that I've thought about it because, the whole universe has really gone over to this dark and gritty edge that's become downright predictable. Other than Amazing Spider-Man, FF and Uncanny X-Force, I've found the entire line to be a real bummer lately.

There are now four Avengers teams, around 8 or so X-men teams, there are going to be two Fantastic-whatevers and Wolverine and Spider-Man are somehow entwined in ALL of those teams. This latest event titled "Fear Itself" has shown that they lost sight of things. That the end can't just come around every four months. That's not scary, probably just a new form of insurance. I'm surprised with all the practice Reed Richards hasn't invented an anti-doom machine by now that he could flip on anytime something got near. I haven't noticed any new form of fear that is unlike any other that's come about in recent years either. I liked Dark Reign, but sort of don't like that now Norman Osborn is every single hero's enemy and not just Spider-Man's. They're already getting ready to put him in the front of a new problem. Remember when an enemy would cause a big commotion for a while, then when defeated they would sort of disappear for quite sometime? Marvel just keeps trying to milk everything all the time now, because they realized Norman Osborn was a very rare sort of evil that got killed before they could use him to the fullest. Which depreciates the effect of his death issue from years upon years ago.

Look at the state of things; The Avengers constantly have their teams sharing and switching members to the point it would have to be confusing. They also apparently have so many disgruntled ex-employees over how the team has sort of taken a 'we are the law' approach in terms of how the Scarlet Witch was handled. The X-Men are at an interesting place, but it won't last for longer than a year, as it never does. I mean, Cable died a year ago and is already coming back. But now the golden child is a militaristic figurehead on a now defunct Asteroid M and everyone's favorite mass murderer has become a headmaster for mutants. And somehow every other character in the Marvel universe just somehow fits into the fold of Avenger or X-men. Even the FF can be considered as such since Spider-Man and the Thing are on Avengers teams as well.

They don't even have a Young Avengers book anymore which was always a fun read to me. And yes, Heroes Reborn was sort of a universe reboot, but that too got fixed a year later anyways, so it barely counts. If anyone could use a bit of a re-haul, as much as it pains me to say, it's Marvel. The Scarlet Witch could do it in a second anyway with her reality altering powers, wishing for the X-men to not be at each others throats anymore and the Avengers to just be one unit and not some huge multi-corporation for heroes everywhere (that somehow is mainly just New York anyway). Maybe Jean Grey could even come back on a semi-logical level even. I just hope they would avoid the one thing that DC seems to be doing non-stop right now, and it's just giving nods every which way that someone is going to become somebody if you'd read the books before. Action Comics has been chock full of them. And I have to say, I'm a little letdown that the Justice League's first enemy has to be Darkseid. He's such a big gun and they're pulling him out already.

So, that's my very long take on things. All things are my opinions and would love to hear anyone else's!