Okay, so by now anyone that's read this Journal knows I'm into comics. If you're also into them, then you've (hopefully) heard about DC's line-wide reboot that's happening in September. If not, then here's a short synopsis:
DC is giving the keys to the kingdom to a guy who's heroes never left the 70s (Geoff Johns), and a guy who's art style never left the 90s (Jim Lee); they have carte blanche to lead the company into the future.
In case you're curious, I'm still a bit bitter. Anyway, I can't fault DC for wanting to do something for themselves, because readership is falling drastically. DC (and the industry in general) is becoming increasingly dependent on a small group of repeat buyers that are slowly aging, to purchase products that are almost purely located in specialty shops.
DC's solution to this is basically two-fold: a launch of day-and-date digital comic purchasing in conjunction with their paper brethren (with a dollar price drop a month later), and a "reset" to every comic under the umbrella. The entire line has been reset to #1 (including the long-running Detective Comics and Action Comics) and slimmed down to 52 comics that are supposed to cover "everything". The latter of the two ideas are eye-narrowing, but I can see why they're doing it, and can largely support it. I love the digital idea too.
Where I start being unhappy is what's actually being reset. Nothing that Geoff Johns has had a hand in writing looks to be changed, but nearly everything else is. Batman is now (only) Bruce Wayne, tossing out a good piece of the work that Grant Morrison has put into the character since 2006. Batgirl is now Barbara Gordon, the second BG that had lost the use of her legs in the 1980s and had forged a new identity as Oracle (even earning a spot in the JLA) and led a team of agents called the Birds of Prey. The marriage of Clark Kent and Lois Lane is now non-existent as well, because Jim and Geoff had an idea for Clark and Diana (Wonder Woman) to date. There's also other things that will change (this is a reboot after all) or have changed in preparation, and as a long-time DC fanboy, I'm... not very happy. In the slightest.
Anyway, the title of this entry is "Making Peace With the Inner Fanboy", so here's where I actually do that.
-While continuity-wise not all the stories that have happened will continue to have happened... they still "happened". I own the comics that prove it. I can always go back and read those older stories at my leisure and enjoy them all over again.
-This reboot gives my Degeneracy a hard-line stopping point. Since "none of the stories matter" after August, I don't need to worry about any comic that comes out after that. This is a rather convenient way to stop moving goalposts so that I never really catch up. Since everything starts over in September, it's a fresh start TPB-wise.
-It relieves me from caring about DC anymore. I'd (largely) stopped paying attention to comics industry news, but this reboot was too large to ignore. It's turned into the nuke that's cleared everything out as far as wanting to keep up. I still want to purchase the comics I've missed out on, and see half-assed attempts at branching into movies/shows, but if I never hear from CBR, Newsarama, S_D, or Didio himself, I'll be okay.
I really hope this idea works for DC, since like I said before, they have to do something to start generating new readers. The up side to all this though, is that even if it is a total failure, DC is owned by Time Warner... they won't go bankrupt, and TW will definitely not need to worry about selling them off. Would you sell off the publishing/merch/broadcast rights to Superman and Batman just because their comics were crappy? Didn't think so.
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I got rebooted.