Next month – August 31st, to be precise – will mark the 15th anniversary of The New 52!
The 2011 attempt by DC Comics to reboot their entire universe, kicked off by the five-issue event comic Flashpoint – which would be used as the basis for the Ezra Miller Flash movie that James Gunn declared “the greatest superhero film ever made” or something – which was done in a rush and without any prior warning ahead of time to give creators time to flesh out their plans, save for a select few involved who got to keep their continuities going despite the whole thing being a “clean slate” for all.
Five years later, the New 52 would slowly be phased in favor of a “Rebirth” that restored elements of pre-New 52 continuity.
There are a lot of pieces and articles out there that can dive into the whole history of The New 52 – here’s one example here – but this commentary is less about how the world viewed The New 52, but rather my own reaction to the whole deal… or perhaps a lack thereof.
If you were to go through the blog archives – and good luck with that, by the way – you’ll see very few mentions of the New 52 initiative other than the fact that Superman is still single, Flashpoint (the event, not the unrelated television program) came to an end and it’s all Barry Allen’s fault (bring back Wally West, you fucks – which they eventually did and look how they massacred that boy), and some quip about CM Punk still being WWE Champion in The New 52. The only other time I mentioned anything involving New 52 is during that whole Superman: Truth gimmick, where they stripped away Superman’s secret ID and brought him “down to basics.” Whatever that actually meant.
It was no secret that 2011 was a period where my interest in comics had largely waned. DC’s need for continuous status quo-changing event comics twice a year became somewhat tiresome and this seemed like another one in a long line of them. Marvel pretty much killed my interest in their material with that atrocious Civil War garbage and the subsequent One More Day stain that killed the Spider-Man/Peter Parker character and replaced him with whatever goober they have assuming the name and filling the suit. At that point, my only interest lied in whatever nuggets I could get from licensed comics fare like TMNT and the occasional Star Trek comic. While people can talk about how the things they loved as a kid are no longer the thing they loved lately, I was already feeling that with comics fifteen years ago.
Here’s the thing with The New 52 that I don’t believe I ever shared on here before, but I’m going to now because I feel like I can say this openly without concern… the idea of rebooting the whole DC universe and starting afresh… yeah, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea. Especially considering that DC reintroduced multiple Earths into the mix and you could have just made this initiative another Earth – which they kinda, sorta did with the later Convergence, which is another mess altogether – this could have been the equivalent of Marvel’s Ultimate line. Something of a new beginning for DC while also not erasing what came before, which is what I grew up on.
And that’s the key thing to remember. There were a bunch of people that grew up during the years when Green Lantern was Hal Jordan and a whole bunch of other people, Barry Allen was the Flash, and there were a whole bunch of Super people and pets and whatever. But then came the generation who grew up with Wally West as their Flash, Kyle Rayner was their Green Lantern, Superman was the Last Son Of Krypton and Supergirl was a metamorphic being from another reality. Sure, the 90s had that edge that seems silly in retrospect, but there were a lot of great characters, some solid stories, and just some wonderful moments etched in memory.
Crisis On Infinite Earth was a thing that came about to fix all the so-called continuity problems by doing something of a reset… but some people got reset while others only mildly got reset. And then when later creators decided that they wanted to bring back Silver Age stuff at the expense of stuff that the previous generation grew up with, that introduced us to another set of Crisis stories to fix continuity or whatever the case may be and that became a clusterfuck. It probably didn’t help matters that some of these beloved characters that we enjoyed turned into less likeable people because that’s all these so-called “creators” were capable of crafting.
So yeah, looking at all those self-inflicted errors brought about by either incredible stupid people or somewhat intelligent people who should have known better, I could understand the need for a fresh new restart.
And you know what? I would have been fine with the reboot if there was a reason to get excited about this. If it had been properly planned, well executed, and crafted some truly solid stories, I probably would have been all gung ho on the whole deal. Fresh new start and all that jazz.
There were nuggets here and there that showed some promise. The New 52 gave us two Superman comics; one that focused on present days that opened with the old Daily Planet building getting demolished in favor of a new, more high tech one… would have been more emotional had I not seen the same thing years ago in the 700th issue of Action Comics.
Anyway, that Superman didn’t interest me much. We saw the new suit, which was… a thing that happened. No matter how much they tried to design a Superman suit without the trunks, it always looks like shit. Either it’s too overdesigned or he looks like a blue dildo. Oh, and Lois has a new boyfriend named Jonathan… because don’t forget, in THE NEW 52, Clark and Lois are not married and their relationship has even gotten a bit frosty.
Before Spidey fans were complaining about some doofus named Paul, Superman fans had this Jon bloke.
But then there was Grant Morrison’s Action Comics, which focused on Superman’s early years. And this was the more intriguing comic book because the only image to be found was Superman in a cape, blue tee, and jeans. Hardly the most heroic look for a hero, but one that I actually dug since it fit the premise; the beginning of the hero’s career when he was just starting to make rounds. In a sense, Morrison purposely crafted this to mirror the Man of Steel’s earliest Action Comics appearances, where he just leapt tall buildings in a single bound and was more brutish in how he handles thugs. This was a solid example of a story that brought Superman down to basics, but in a more graceful way than the later Truth would attempt.
Oh right, I forgot. There was also Bendis’ Truth story that came out years after THE NEW 52 ended. Good fucking lord, this comic stuff sucks.
The other thing I enjoyed for a bit was the Justice League comic (at first, anyway). The whole story of them coming together and all that. I thought was fine. I can recall enjoying quite a good chunk of the early Batman stuff, especially with the Court Of Owls. Part of that owing to the fact that it was a partial continuation of sorts to the Batman Incorporated stuff that was sort of hand-waved off… but hey, I’ll take what I can get and Scott Snyder would prove to be one of the more prolific Batman writers of the past decade. (I would recommend his Absolute Batman series if you haven’t had the chance to check it out; quite a fun read.)
There might have been a couple others… but the rest was a blur. After a while, though, the stories would get progressively worse and I’d eventually lose interest again. In hindsight, I’d imagine this would have been the case regardless of a reboot or otherwise, but that certainly didn’t help much. Even when you had the big event comics, it all started to become a bit of a blur and they all looked the same. I’d catch what I can here and there, but nothing that really sold me. Again, it’s not like Marvel had anything of interest outside of their movie output, which would prompt a response from the distinguished competitor to churn out their own cinematic universe… and that’s another story entirely.
After a few years, DC would retire The New 52 and replace it with Rebirth. And that would eventually morph into whatever they’re calling it now. That has its own issues, but again, another story for another time. While I won’t call The New 52 something that I’ll look back on fondly because I probably won’t, I can’t call it a disaster or anything. Sure, only a handful of those initial fifty-two comics lasted the entire run and there were a lot of forgettable shit there, but it had its moments too. For my part, it was largely disinterest, but to say that I absolutely despised the whole idea… I don’t know. Maybe that’s how I might have felt to a point… but not for long. Not when there was a bunch of other stuff for me to be irritated about.
And so if you ever enjoyed a New 52 comic in your life, whether you were there from its inception or you’re discovering it for the first time via trades and back issues, tip a glass to this somewhat controversial yet vital era in DC comics history… and then be glad that DC is no longer obsessing over #52.
Oh wait…
Later.
