The DC Reboot

By not checking any comic book sites last night I missed the breaking news entirely, but it seems the rest of the internet was in a dangerously high state of excitement for several hours.

This was caused by the official announcement that DC is rebooting their line, starting with the Justice League. Now, I've seen reboots, and reimaginings, and retcons, so this didn't seem to be as big as people were making it. (It's possible I'm slow on the uptake because I'm not reading Flashpoint.) However, it seems this is no minor creative tweaking. After Flashpoint ends, every title (52, a number DC is fond of) is being restarted at number one, redesigned and with new origins.

From what I can tell there will be new costumes, new origin stories, possibly entirely new characters, certainly new relationships (the biggest fear among fans appears to be Superman and Lois Lane are not together, and he's dating Wonder Woman instead.) It also looks like a lot of these characters' ages are being reduced. Very strange.

In general, change frightens me, but I'll admit it can often be exciting. When things I love get changed, however, I feel rage bubbling. For some reason this announced has induced neither anger nor hope, only a dull lack of surprise.

Flashpoint didn't interest me when it was announced (knowing alternate universe/histories rarely effect the characters I've followed) and now when it's over it will in fact change everything. I don't know if that's enough incentive for me to pick it up. Mostly I want to know what the reboot means for the Bat-family, specifically Tim Drake. Is Damien gone? Is Stephanie Brown still Batgirl? (She better be, or they'll be killing one of their best titles.) Is Grant Morrison supporting all this?

The architects are not Morrison but Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. Here's a look at Lee's first released art of the new Justice League.

While I want a JLA that has the big guys on the team, changing Clark's costume and making them younger seems completely stupid. They've tried it before and it didn't last. I have a bad feeling this will be re-rebooted train wreck by 2012.

Remember how much this sucked?