{"id":888,"date":"2016-06-24T23:30:23","date_gmt":"2016-06-25T03:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/?p=888"},"modified":"2016-06-24T10:37:51","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T14:37:51","slug":"yars-revenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/?p=888","title":{"rendered":"YAR’s Revenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Please, dear reader, have no worries.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t co-opted this column to provide a review of videogames; not even for that really fun old Atari game Yar\u2019s Revenge<\/a>. No, in this case, YAR is an acronym standing for \u2018Yet Another Reboot\u2019 and it applies to the big new re-alignment and retconning effort that is coming out of DC comics.<\/p>\n

According to DC Comics Previews, this effort, known as Rebirth<\/em>, promises to evolve the original universe into something that mixes traditional values with a modern aesthetic.<\/p>\n

\"DC<\/a><\/p>\n

The central figure of the DC Comics Previews is not Batman, or Superman, nor is it the Flash or Green Lantern, or any other from their stable of mythical figures.\u00a0 Rather it is DC\u2019s Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Johns.\u00a0 Johns has been involved in many of the \u2018adjustments\u2019 and isolated \u2018rebirths\u2019 that DC has carried out in recent memory and he seems to be the central force in this particular one.<\/p>\n

\"DC<\/a><\/p>\n

Johns is quoted in both an open letter, printed on page 1, and in the feature article talking about Rebirth<\/em> on page 3.<\/p>\n

In his open letter, Johns says<\/p>\n

\n“Rebirth” has come to mean something very important to me.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a brand or a marketing tool; it never has been.\u00a0 To me “Rebirth” is about how to approach mythology \u2013 about how to honor and celebrate the characters and their respective universes and embrace the values they embody.\u00a0 It\u2019s about the past, the present, and most importantly, the future.
\n
\nGREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH wasn\u2019t only about the return of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps.\u00a0 It was building on a great foundation with tales like “Sinestro Corps War” and “Blackest Night” \u2013 stories that challenged out heroes, redefined their villains and introduced new threats and adventures built on the core essence of the Green Lantern myth.
\n
\nAnd if we were going to do a “Rebirth” across the DC Universe, we needed to take a hard look at where is was now.\u00a0 And a “Rebirth” starts with bringing something back that\u2019s been missing\u2026<\/p>\n
– Geoff Johns <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

and<\/p>\n

\n[I]t\u2019s about more than just heroes and villains we might not have seen in a while; it\u2019s about the intrinsic values of what DC Comics and its universe stands for.
\n
\nThat\u2019s epic storytelling.
\n
\nThat\u2019s legacy and honoring the past, while moving it all to the future.
\n
\nThat\u2019s hope.<\/p>\n
– Geoff Johns <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\"DC<\/a><\/p>\n

That all sounds fine but before taking it at face value it is reasonable to spend some effort putting Rebirth<\/em> in context.<\/p>\n

There are two aspects to the context that are worth considering.\u00a0 The first is the storytelling aspect that Johns mentions, including that piece of the DCU that was\/is missing.\u00a0 The second is the business aspect that Johns dismisses with his comments about branding or marketing but which are, nonetheless, important.<\/p>\n

The first front \u2013 the storytelling aspect \u2013 needs to be placed within the real world timeline of the various soft and hard reboots and retcons that DC Comics has published in the last 30 or so years.\u00a0 During this 30 year period, the DCU has been significantly modified 7 times (counting Rebirth<\/em>).\u00a0 That is approximately once every 4.5 years.<\/p>\n

The first, and arguably the best, reboot was the Crisis on Infinite Earths (CoIE)<\/em>.\u00a0 This storyline grew out of a desire to clean up many of the continuity issues that had collected in the DCU for the prior 50 years. And although it was a laudable it didn\u2019t quite accomplish this goal.<\/p>\n

Since CoIE<\/em>, DC has revisited that event, tweaking and re-tweaking the continuity.\u00a0 The following table summarizes the various efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Series Name<\/em><\/strong><\/th>\nYears<\/em><\/strong><\/th>\nSynopsis<\/em><\/strong><\/th>\nImpact<\/em><\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n1985-1986<\/td>\nKrona of Maltus<\/a>, peers back in time and somehow splits the universe into a multiverse spawning the Monitor and Anti-Monitor.\u00a0 The latter then kills off most of the doppelganger universes before being stopped.<\/td>\nSimplified DC\u2019s 50 year continuity; ended the multiverse; fixed continuity issues.<\/p>\n

Violates causality and reason (how can time travel from a future-time multiverse be the cause of the splintering of a the universe in the past?)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n1994<\/td>\nAn insane Hal Jordan, no longer a Green Lantern but now the villain Parallax<\/a>.\u00a0 He tries to undo the destruction of his home of Coast City by tampering with time.\u00a0 Stopped by the collective heroes of the DC Universe resulting in a new timeline.<\/td>\nFollow-up to Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/em><\/p>\n

Cleaned up inconsistent future timelines such as the Legion of Superheroes<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Infinite Crisis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n2005-2006<\/td>\nA group of \u2018lost characters\u2019 eliminated in the Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/em> return from a pocket universe into which they had been squirreled away after the simplification.<\/p>\n

The Multiverse (original 52 universes) is respawned via the machinations of Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime.<\/td>\n

Rebuild of the multiverse; prelude to changing\/eliminating series;<\/p>\n

Lead in to Final Crisis<\/em>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Final Crisis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n2008<\/td>\nConflict amongst the New Gods<\/a>, causes damage to the DC Universe.\u00a0 Darkseid<\/a> manipulates the DC Universe into essentially being destroyed with a Deus Ex Machina\/Superman restoring everything.<\/td>\nA softer reboot which tells the story of the final saga of the multiverse<\/a>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Flash Point<\/a>\/New 52<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n2011<\/td>\nBarry Allen<\/a> is the central character here. He awakes to find the DCU similar but clearly different from what he remembers.\u00a0 He finally sets things right but in the process merges the DCU with the Vertigo<\/a> and WildStorm Universes creating the new 52 parallel universes.<\/td>\nYet another change in the DC Universe.\u00a0 Launched the New 52.<\/p>\n

WildStorm<\/a>, which had separated from Image is one of the 52 new parallel universes.<\/p>\n

New 52 also started with a renumbering of all the titles.\u00a0 Considered a \u2018soft reboot\u2019.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Convergence<\/a> <\/em><\/td>\n2015<\/td>\nBraniac gains access to all past\/future timelines and alternate realities.\u00a0 He then experiments on the moribund ones for his own ends.<\/td>\nUndoes some of what happens in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ends the New 52<\/em> branding but keeps the New 52<\/em> continuity.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Rebirth<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n2016<\/td>\nRemains to be seen.<\/td>\nTinkers with Flashpoint<\/em> and maybe unites Watchmen<\/em> universe with the DCU,<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In addition to the links contained in the table above, the interested reader may find the overview of the \u2018Crisis Trilogy\u2019<\/em> by Dan DiDio<\/a>, the succinct summary of the retconning that is found in the overview\/background to Convergence<\/a>, and James Whitbrook\u2019s post entitled How to Keep Track of All the Insane Changes DC Comics Has Been Going Through<\/a> to be helpful.<\/p>\n

So what to make of DC\u2019s 30-year evolution?\u00a0 Well, the simplest and least cynical viewpoint seems to be that the original mess of untangling the continuity was a lot harder than anticipated.\u00a0 This conjecture is reasonable since the DCU was strewn with numerous examples of the three best ways to screw up comics<\/a>.\u00a0 For instance, what to make of Earth-2 and all the other Earth copies?\u00a0 Should the reader really care about these doppelgangers?\u00a0 How can Superboy go forward in time to help the Legion of Superheroes in the 31st<\/sup> century without violating the 20th<\/sup>?\u00a0 And so on it goes.\u00a0 These storytelling devices were (and still remain) quite charming and maybe if continuity didn\u2019t matter (different versions of the story of Oedipus didn\u2019t matter to the Greeks) then it all could have been tolerated.\u00a0 But the insistence on logical consistency that lead to the CoIE<\/em> demands a high cost. \u00a0\u00a0Each of the subsequent tweaks is needed to fix some problem in an earlier one and, in turn, each one spawns additional problems.<\/p>\n

However, there is a more cynical explanation that deserves some discussion as well.\u00a0 DC is a for-profit company and they need to sell product.\u00a0 Nothing wrong here \u2013 capitalism is the backbone of the American way of life. But there is often a pattern in the entertainment industry of eschewing originality and to continue going to the well until it runs dry.\u00a0 Without much in the way of marketing support<\/a>, CoEI<\/em> did extremely well and it was both a commercial and a critical success \u2013 it became the proverbial well.\u00a0 This was during a time period when DC ruled the movie circuit (Superman<\/em> franchise, 1978-1987) but was struggling with it comics arm despite some notable exceptions including Swamp Thing<\/em> (1982) and Watchmen<\/em> (1986-1987) under Alan Moore and Batman: The Dark Knight<\/em> (1986) under Frank Miller.\u00a0 CoEI<\/em> provided a much needed boost to sales and the DCU, along with the companion Vertigo imprint, soon had DC running high.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed the run of almost all their books from CoEI<\/em> until Zero Hour<\/em>.\u00a0 This next tweak was the second trip to the well and the waters were nowhere near as refreshing.\u00a0 Like any stimulus based on solely on an emotional high and adrenaline, the thrills had be more shocking and the scope bigger in order keep the same level of excitement. \u00a0Each of the following crises continued the escalation leading to the need to retcon more frequently.<\/p>\n

Rebirth<\/em> is just the last in a long line of \u2018wash, rinse, repeat\u2019 reboots designed to attract attention \u2013 this time by bringing in the one truly critically acclaimed work from DC in recent memory, The Watchmen<\/em>.\u00a0 However, I am not sanguine for its chances of success.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the mythic content of Superman and Batman has gotten stale nor do I think that comics can only succeed through escalating novelty<\/a>.\u00a0 Rather I think that there is combination of unimaginative management and uninspired writing that drives this cycle.\u00a0 Meaningful stories that could be told are dropped by the wayside because building a solid narrative requires time and skill.\u00a0 Fortunately, this downward cycle has to stop soon.\u00a0 Ultimately, there won\u2019t be enough time to publish comics with the new status quo before rebooting to the next one.\u00a0 Hopefully, once the dust clears, DC will give up on the reboot gimmick and actually realize the gold mine they have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please, dear reader, have no worries.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t co-opted this column to provide a review of videogames; not even for that really fun old Atari game Yar\u2019s Revenge. No, in… Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":904,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}