http://www.newsarama.com/comics/DC-Universe-Reboot-Announcement-110531.html


http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dc-comics-revamp-retailer-letter-110531.html

52 Number Ones? That takes some serious onions.

The good news? Day-and-date digital. It's about time one of the Big Two joined us here in the 21st century. This should have happened industry-wide at least a decade ago, but at least DC is making a respectable effort to catch up to the modern market.

The bad news? This is going to be a Crisis On Infinite Earths-style half-assed partial reboot that desperately tries to cling to the most popular (or at least the most editorially mandated) aspects of the current continuity, while at the same time regressing the characters into more junior players, even though a great deal of the current DC continuity draws its greatest storytelling strengths from the age and experience that the characters have been allowed to gain (see also: Batman turning his brand into a franchise and the Green Lanterns being joined by an entire rainbow spectrum of equal peer corps). As much as I harbor mixed feelings about many of those new elements, they're topping the sales charts right now, and the simple fact of the matter is that you can't have Bruce Wayne as a biological and adoptive father to an entire Bat-family, or Hal Jordan as a seasoned veteran who's regarded as a god even among Green Lanterns, if you're dragging them back to their rookie status.

The REALLY bad news? Jim Lee is an indefensibly shitty artist, and he always has been, so the fact that he's being allowed to redesign all these characters, when his art skills are even worse now than they were in the 1990s, is OBJECTIVELY terrible. Hey, let's give EVERY character the EXACT SAME plunging V-neckline, and stylize Superman's S-symbol with EXTREME ATTITUDE that would have been embarrassing even coming from the old-school Image crew, AND genericize the holy living fuck out of every other feature of their outfits. Jim Lee's costume design skills make even Bryan Hitch's blandly crap ripoffs of The Matrix in The Ultimates seem appealing and unpredictable by comparison.

As I've said elsewhere;
I really think it’s just a stunt. I mean 52 new books? Why not 43 or 29 or 56? Why the exact number for alternate universe at DC? I think it’s a fake reboot tied into a Crisis story. They’ll bring it all back.

The best possible outcome of this is that DC finally coordinates their comics with the far more successful adaptations in other media, so people who like Batman elsewhere can find a Batman comic that's straightforward and enjoyable without a thousand tie-ins or a convoluted dimension-spanning narrative (and I say this as a fan of Grant Morrison's Batman). The fact that Jim Lee is doing the design work is a good sign, as it gives the books a similar aesthetic to the DC Online game that's so popular (or was, before the PSN got thrashed).

The probably outcome is that this is just another Crisis situation, where by trying to straighten out continuity they just make it more complicated. The fact that all the creators have been doing DC work for the past few years means this isn't much of a change. And the fact that Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis are doing an Aquaman series (despite the fact that nothing with the character has really clicked since Peter David's run) is a bad sign.

I sometimes wonder if DC is run by the Patriots from Metal Gear Solid, as their marketing strategy involves repeating the same themes again and again, regardless of the diminishing returns. Except instead of the military-industrial complex, they're into crossovers and Silver Age regression.

Except that I'd fear the writers that I disliked would have too great a hand in redefining who the characters were at heart. As it stands now, a bad portrayal is offset by the history of the character... if the new history starts out badly, that would really suck.

There were a few books I was interested in (Batgirl, Catwoman, and Superman) until I saw that they were being written by Gail Simone, Judd Winck, and George Perez respectively. I may still pick up Supes (Perez is doing the art too, and his Wonder Woman run was ok) but as of right now the only title I'm definitely picking up is Animal Man.

I'm still holding out hope there will be a Metamorpho ongoing.