On the Reboot

[Sigh.]

OK, after my rant about the possibility that Marvel killed off Bucky-Cap in "Fear Itself" #3, I'm going to try to keep myself calm here.  For those of you just joining us, DC announced that it is rebooting all its series in September at the conclusion of "Flashpoint."  You can find the announcement at the first link and a handy list of the new titles prepared by iFanboy at the second:

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/05/31/dc-comics-announces-historic-renumbering-of-all-superhero-titles-and-landmark-day-and-date-digital-distribution/

http://www.ifanboy.com/content/articles/The_Definitive_Guide_To_The_DC_Comics_Reboot

At this point, I'm trying to keep an open mind.  On a positive side, the reboot means I'll be subscribing to "Superboy" and "Teen Titans" again, because the stultifying plots that led me to abandon those two books will be a thing of the past.  Plus, I like Scott Lobdell, so I think it's going to be a good ride.  (Also, Conner looks SMOKIN' in the cover for "Teen Titans" #1.  I'm just sayin'.)  See, look, I said some positive things.

On the negative side, I'm disappointed by what they're doing with Batman.  Dick Grayson, to my mind, was a more interesting and compelling Batman than Bruce Wayne.  I said it.  Deal.  Scott Snyder's "Detective Comics" is the best series on the shelves, and I'm disappointed that DC would decide to discard that.  Even if continuity stays in place (the jury still seems to be out on whether or not DC is wiping aside continuity or if it's just tweaking some aspects of it), we're still not going to see Dick behind the cowl.  I was pretty sure that would happen at some point, but I figured we'd have a few years left, since writers like Snyder and Tomasi were doing a great job telling Dick-as-Batman stories that were different from Bruce-as-Batman stories.

I'm on the fence about how I feel about Barbara Gordon walking again.  I'm going to reserve all judgment until I see how they do it.  I'm similarly cautious about how exactly Jason Todd is going to become the leader of the Outsiders.  Are we ever going to discover what demons haunt him, demons Bruce revealed existed in his holographic message to Jason after his death?  Are we going to wipe away the stories of the last few years of his switching between anti-hero and downright villain?  Truthfully, Jason could use a reboot since so much of his history and personality (and hair color) over these past few years have changed depending on the author.  But, I'd like to see some sense that Jason has struggled and overcome instead of us just being presented with a fully functional Jason Todd.

The most disappointing news seems to be that "Batman Beyond" and "Red Robin" are going to be canceled.  I think that revelation is what really fuels my anger.  On some level, we just went through a reboot of Batman with the whole Bruce-getting-lost-in-time bit.  Just as everyone's settling into their new roles, we're going to reboot AGAIN?

I am, however, going to admit that I was wrong about "Brand New Day."  Although everything wasn't handled perfectly, the Spider-Man we have now is a lot more fun and interesting than the one we had before the reboot, who carried with him years of badly-designed and poorly-implemented plot gimmicks.  If DC can manage what Marvel managed, then maybe it won't be so bad.  Maybe.