Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Weighing in on the Upcoming New 52

The New 52's ACTION COMICS #1
Art: Rags Morales
There has been much speculation about what's happening in the DC Universe as a result of the big 52 Reboot taking place in September. It's a bold move the publisher has taken: effectively cancelling all of their titles and restarting the entire continuity over with 52 #1 issues. Yet, as big as a lot of these changes are, I also view them as cyclical. And I also speculate a lot of this started in a boardroom, with laywers and executives and editors gathered to discuss the fate of their cornerstone character: Superman.

When John Byrne and Marv Wolfman took over the writing reins of the SUPERMAN books in '86, that represented an enormous change for the characters' history. Byrne often stated that his goal at the time was to make Superman more like what he originally was. I chaffed at the notion then, but in time came to appreciate this choice, and many of the directions the writers went in.