Today we discuss the "n" of DCnU fame.
I've read a month worth of the DC"n"U comics. Not all of them, but enough. I probably hovered around half.
<UPDATE: I counted, it is precisely 26>
Some of the comics seem like reboots (Action Comics, Frankenstein), a
lot seem like relaunches (Swamp Thing, Animal Man), and the rest just
seem like new arcs for existing stories (Green Lantern, Batman).
So where does that leave us with this reboot? It's bullshit, but a brand of bullshit that makes a lot of sense.
Batman #1 provided my tipping point last week:
 |
| Can a ginge get some diversity? |
Really? Thanks for the labels to indicate
which Robin is which, but how the hell am I supposed to know what these
characters mean? Wouldn't a reboot mean I'd meet each Robin in turn?
This single panel hints at quite a lot of back story. Certainly more
than five years, the time period DC claims this new U has existed.
I
know a little bit about these Robins, but this panel screams bloated
canon, the very thing I thought this reboot was supposed to deliver me
from.
So while I do think that DC has in some sense
lied or BSed us about where these new 52 books fall as reboots, maybe
I'm not really angry about it.
As I read through these
books, I did become frustrated at times when they presented characters
with backgrounds obviously not rebooted. After all, I started reading
comics this month because I thought I could get into these stories with
the slight-more-than-cursory knowledge I possessed. This was to be a
starting point for me.
Green Lantern and Legion Lost
are great examples of characters that seem to have just had a #1 slapped
on their new adventure. These stories mean nothing on their own without
each story's continuity.
Green Lantern succeeds as an
introduction because it provides enough reference to fill in back story
for a new reader. I don't know a lot about Green Lantern, but I know
the basics. This story is a new arc, not a reboot, but it was written as
a point of introduction.
Legion Lost, however, fails
at introducing me to the Legion Lost's universe. Admittedly, I bring
zero knowledge of these characters to my first read, so perhaps the book
isn't as opaque as it seems to me, but the book also doesn't even try
to help me catch up with the world. From Legion Lost #1:
Red
Robot Guy: Tyroc, I told you the longer we waited following Alastor's
wake, the harder it would be to pierce the Flashpoint Breakwall!
Dude
with Goggles and White Vest, probably Tyroc: People needed our help in
the 31st Century First, Wildfire. We came after him as soon as we could.
That
is some excellent exposition. Just exquisite. I appreciate it trying
but Legion Lost fails as a new arc / relaunch because without
prerequisite knowledge this makes no goddamn sense at all.
The
conclusion that I have come to about all of this DC reboot hand-waving,
is that it is not so much a relaunch as a collective effort to make the
continuities across the board more accessible.There are quibbles about
what is still continuity, and what isn't. There are people that just
want DC to lay out what has happened in the universe and what hasn't,
what they are keeping as canon.
But, this is the wrong
approach. DCnU is DC's attempt to let people in. We aren't starting each
character over from scratch, but asking us as readers to let them
recreate canon.
So, the reason DC can't give a straight
answer about what has happened and what hasn't happened in this new DCU
is that they plainly don't know. Canon is gone. Some characters are in
similar places as they were before, some characters are now different,
and there are some new additions to the DCU, but what has happened
before the #1s is something that DC will create. Canon will be what the
writers of the new 52 comics and the other comics to follow construct.
And ultimately, what the eventual audience of this DCnU decide is canon.
Asking
DC what is canon is like asking DC from 10 years ago what canon would
be now. DC may have some preliminary plans and courses for this new
launch, but from their comments online, their plans seem more than a
little bit hazy. Whether DC has everything planned out already, or
whether they have no idea, as an audience, I'm curious why some believe
DC owes us an explanation of this nU's canon at all. How I see it now,
DC's story and characters haven't been rebooted per say, rather the
history of these characters.
Batman does have a
bajillion different Robins still, just like he had before the reboot,
but now maybe he has them for different reasons. Their back stories
might be similar, but we can't necessarily assume that. They all might
be his clones for all we know. God sakes, they look the same after all.
After
a month I now think that the DCU isn't new, it just having it's history
reworked. This reworking might be for narrative reasons, but more
likely, is is a way to expand DC's readership. DC may seem to be running
around like a crazed chicken, but maybe that's because they are trying
to figure this thing out just like everyone else.
As a
creative process, I respect that DC might not have a master plan, that
they are trying to refocus the collaborative Universe of stories and
character to make their product more accessible. As a purely financial
decision, I respect that decision. At the present moment it might seem
like DC has taken a step out onto the tightrope without ever thinking
about training, but I am willing to let them try and figure it out.
That's storytelling.
If they actually do fall and go splats, I stand to save a nice wad of money on comics every month. Win, win.
