DC is Retconning!! (Part One)

So, DC announced last week (in the oh-so-relevant USA Today) that they will be setting all comics back to issue #1. This was a huge thing for me for several reasons. 1) Detective Comics and Batman were set to hit #1000 in the not-so-distant future. 2) Issue number ones do nothing to attract new readers. I'm sorry, but they don't. And 3) along with the article there was a picture of the new Justice League, with their "fresh and young" (why oh why, DC?!) costumes, and Wonder Woman looks sixteen.

And then I heard about the retconning.

And my blood boiled.

First off, the Teen Titans. I was never a particular fan of Superboy, so I could care less about his role, and I'm relatively sure that the girls at bottom left and far right are new characters. But from the solicitation I read that Tim Drake was never Robin (so goodness knows what happened to Damian--my prediction is that he'll have never existed) and that that lineage ends with Jason Todd (who I will get to in a moment). Aside from the stupid costume, where would a teenage hacker get field training? Second, Wonder Girl. In the quest for young and the ever-wanted "edgy" DC has made her a teenage thief. I'm going to assume she's the Donna Troy version, because a cleaned-up origin would help that character out in current continuity. Again, who knows what will happen to Cassie Sandsmark, or if she'll even exist now.

Then there's Batgirl. I won't post a picture of this one (go to dccomics.com if you really want to see it) but it's basically Stephanie's costume...with Barbara in it.

THEY NULLIFIED THE KILLING JOKE!!! Besides the fact of yet more heroes apparently vanishing (Cassandra Cain, fan favorite, and Stephanie Brown), this--if it is changing continuity and not Barbara somehow healing herself--means no Oracle, no Barbara-as-leader-of-Birds-of-Prey, and none of the later Dick/Barbara interesting relationship dynamics. More importantly, Oracle represented a maturity in the character, and now DC is sending her back to her teenage years.

I also don't know why everyone is suddenly wearing armor. Even Superman seems to have armored boots and gauntlets, though why an invulnerable alien would need them is beyond me. The best--and one of the only good--of the new character designs is Supergirl, whose costume now has a majesty that her old upskirt-shot one didn't.

Even after all this, I took a deep breath and decided that DC had done well so far. They'd made The Return of Bruce Wayne a reasonably good miniseries and the dual-Batman thing work. I even enjoyed the Green Lantern movie (with some reservations, but it didn't deserve the flogging the critics are giving it). So I almost--almost--said oh well, I'll trust them on this one.

And then  saw the one thing that could have possibly made angry enough to consider boycotting the whole enterprise.

Remember when they cancelled the Wildstorm imprint, with it's wonderful Warren Ellis titles like my favorites, Authority (which, in all honesty, wasn't much good after Ellis) and Planetary?

Well, they did THIS:

Ignoring Midnighter's (idiotic) new costume, and ignoring Apollo's ridiculous shaven head (you would remember that he was the gentle one, DC, if you cared about your characters as much as your sales graphs), even ignoring the fact that both of these universes have rich backstories that have nothing to do with the other, this is still a godawful idea.

In order to shoehorn the Wildstorm characters into the DC Universe, you have to destroy them. The Authority--indeed, even Midnighter--cannot exist in the DCU, except, perhaps, as villains. The way the universes work are just too different. The Authority could never do what they do in the DCU because the DCU's idea of morality is that the ends do not justify the means. In the Wildstorm universe, they can, and do.

This Midnighter and Apollo will be a weak imitation of the former iterations (I would be surprised if DC even kept the same relationship between the characters). There is no way the ones I knew and loved can function in the DCU. It simply isn't possible--Superman won't let it happen.

Part Two to follow soon.

Update on RSS Feeds

For some reason, this feed does not seem to be working. The subscribe button will still send post to your dashboard, but feedreaders aren't picking it up. I'll fool around with it some more this weekend and try to get it to work right.

Upcoming: a series of 10 video (not of me/us but of clips) reviews of fanfilms and  fan trailers. The video quality should be better since it won't actually be of us reviewer(s).

WE'RE MOVING!!

Attention readers: On July 15th, 2010, The Batman World Blog will be changing names and URL's. The new name is Real Men Wear Tights (yes, you got that right) and the URL will be realmenweartights.blogspot.com (note--URL will not work until 7/15/10). All posts and comments will stay on the new blog.

The reason for the switch? Basically, I'm going to be covering the wider DCU and comics in general, though I'll still be all over anything Batman. Starting July 15, I'll hopefully be posting much more frequently and on a greater range of comics topics including a multitude of graphic novel reviews, upcoming movie news, and of course rants about DC (have you seen Wonder Woman's new costume? I don't care if it is Jim Lee, I give it two years, max).

Young Justice Cartoon!

It was announced a few weeks ago that a new cartoon will be coming to Cartoon Network this fall--Young Justice!

There's no word on whether this is in DCAU continuity, but the animation looks a lot similar to the DCAU style than the debated "Teen Titans Go!" series did. Personally, I didn't like the TTG style, but some people who are larger manga fans than I will ever be liked it.

The Young Justice lineup is Superboy, Miss Martian, Artemis (Arrowette), Aqualad, Kid Flash, and of course our favorite Robin (Tim Drake, by the looks of it).

What little is known about the series seems pretty good. I like the designs of the characters, and I'm glad that the producers decided to go with the more modern Robin rather than the green panties version. However, Bruce Timm isn't going to be producing it (gasp!) and I'm not sure about the attempt to shoehorn in diversity by making Aqualad African-American. I would have rather had them change Artemis' race, since she's a lesser-known character and provides more of a clean slate for them to play with continuity. I just can't see a race of underwater people being dark-skinned since there's little uV radiation down there, but heck, I'm proabably overthinking this.

Here's the art that's been released:

The Return of Bruce Wayne

Well, its finally happened. A new miniseries, called Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne will chronicle Bruce Wayne's journey through time and space in order to get home. There's two drawings, one of which is a caveman Batman and the other is a pirate Batman (who looks remarkably like Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean).

And the best part? The wonderful genius Grant Morrison is writing it! Yeah!

Yup, the guy who completely screwed up the universe is now going to put it back together. Why should we even let this guy near a book having anything to do with space and odd physics? Wasn't Final Crisis enough?

Also, a caveman Batman? Dear God.

Apparently this isn't going to be a short book, either. There are six issues, with the first being 38 pages and the rest being 30. Grant also says he's trying to do some "big ideas" in this book. Wonderful.

Don't get me wrong, I respect the guy. All-Star Superman was very good and won some awards. Batman and Robin has been enjoyable. But whenever he seems to get within a football field of something "groundbreaking" "new" or "experimental" all of that flies out the window, and we're left with some sort of crazy stuff that destroys the universe.

I'm still going to pick this book up, of course. I just don't have high hopes.

You can read USA Today's interview with Morrison here.

The two images are from the article.

The Renaissance of the DCU

Several things have happened in the past month that impact the new things coming out of DC. One of these is a new divison called DC Entertainment, basically to make new DC products and promote the DCU. Also, DC has announced some upcoming projects, including a series of short animated films, a Nightwing project of some sort, and a Jonah Hex movie.

I am thrilled.

I think that DC is finally taking things other than comics seriously. Sure, they had the (fabulous) series of cartoon shows, but then there was "The Batman Strikes" which I think we all can agree was a disgrace. But there's been very little other things to draw in non-comic readers, whereas Marvel has always pumped out as much stuff as they can (sometimes at the expense of quality).

For Batman fans, I don't think these new projects mean much. Most of the point, I think, is to promote lesser known superheroes (I mean, come on. Jonah Hex?). But this will probably become, if succesful, a much larger enterprise. Personally, I am hoping for another Bruce Timm-ruin cartoon series (Batman: The Animated series part II, anyone?)

Hello Mickey, Meet Peter Parker

Disney just bought Marvel Comics for 4 billion dollars.

If you're wondering why I'm talking about Marvel on a Batman blog, it is because I am jumping up and down with glee. Marvel is now seriously handicapped.

Think about it. DC was bought by Time Warner in '69. Try to name one character/person you associate with the company other than Superman or Batman in thirty seconds.

Now try to do the same with Disney.

Disney already has Mickey Mouse, Donald, Toy Story, Wall-E, and Monsters Inc. Meanwhile, Time Warner does movies, sure, and a stupid cartoon about mice, but the big things are Batman: the Animated Series, the Justice League cartoons, and the Nolan movies.

Time Warner's big thing is DC. That is their main cash cow. But when Disney says "should we make another Cars movie, or Hulk?" the answer will be Cars, because that's where all the little kids beg parents to spend their money. Also, have talking automobiles ever come under fire for being too violent/sexified/generally unagreeable? No.

The comic book market won't change--the two companies will still be deadlocked there. Comic readers don't change that much, and Disney will definitely keep publishing them. But as for other media--movies, cartoons, merchandise--DC will get an edge, because Disney's immense marketing power won't be focused on creating an X-Men cartoon.

It'll be focused on the talking mouse.


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