DC's "Band Aid": Pre-52 vs New 52 In 2015?

[Cameron Samurai]

No sooner was the New 52 Relaunch underway (and folks found out that it was a stealth reboot) than people have been asking “when can we get the old stuff back?”

Superman in his red trunks. Batgirl in her wheelchair. Amanda Waller in her size-plus clothing. Alan Scott in his heterosexuality.

Well, as part of the comics event that we have dubbed The Band Aid, currently being planned and created in advance to help DC Comics keep putting out books during the publisher’s move from New York to Burbank and masterminded by Dan DiDio and Marie Javins, I am told that it will include Pre-52 versions of various DC characters, face to face with their New 52 counterparts.

So… who do you want to see return?

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/06/...ck-the-pre-52/

Figured this would happen. DC never had a clue what to do with the relaunch, never figuring out whether or not everything happened in five years or if there was wiggle room for new takes on canon.

[Optimus Prime]

Never liked the New 52 series, I want all the old characters back. I really only read the Green Lantern books and spin offs, and thought it was kind of silly that they were really the only series that didn't reboot along with the rest, and I don't know how they justified it. I'm glad, of course, because I would have been highly irked if Kyle, John and Guy had been removed.

[BCI Guy]

I've lost interest in pretty much the entire Nu52 except for Wonder Woman and Green Arrow.

I think Azzarello's WW is actually the best the character has ever been, and is probably one of the 5 best comics going right now.

And I think Green Arrow has been terrific since Lemire took over and brought in aspects of the TV show - but a very "comic book based" version.

Otherwise, I've never read so few DC books in all my years.

[Phil.Pastel]

I don't get what the big deal is. They take somebody like Superman, change his outfit slightly, and then act like something drastic happened. And then everyone cries foul and we see all these hate threads.

Or, is there something more to it?

[BCI Guy]

I don't get what the big deal is. They take somebody like Superman, change his outfit slightly, and then act like something drastic happened. And then everyone cries foul and we see all these hate threads.

Or, is there something more to it?

Its more than costume changes, its pretty much full-on reboots. Throw out all the past history and start over.

And its pretty much what a bunch of 50 year old men think teenagers like.

[midor]

I saw that.

I got the impression everyone is stressed about the move and trying to caught up the two months while they move.

So instead of stressing and straining over their respective books doing the move they hire people to do a couple fill ins.

They know the previous incarnation is still liked. They are like we'll let's give it to them.

[wyldman11]

That's like saying it's still He-man when comparing minicomics, FILMation, MYP, current DC, and the live action movie.

[Phil.Pastel]

And its pretty much what a bunch of 50 year old men think teenagers like.

That sounds fascinating, actually..

[MegaGearMax]

I've lost interest in pretty much the entire Nu52 except for Wonder Woman and Green Arrow.

I think Azzarello's WW is actually the best the character has ever been, and is probably one of the 5 best comics going right now.

And I think Green Arrow has been terrific since Lemire took over and brought in aspects of the TV show - but a very "comic book based" version.

Otherwise, I've never read so few DC books in all my years.

The only books I collect now are Wonder Woman, MOTU, Superman/Wonder Woman, Superman Unchained and Superman (Lobdell WAS interesting at first, but got boring with this Lois lane arc. I want to try out Geoff Johns' arc though).

I never thought that there was anything wrong with DC before the reboot, besides a few missteps with a bunch of "LOOK AT ME!" storylines and killing off characters to renew interest in them.

If anything, I think MARVEL should have been rebooted.

[BCI Guy]

That sounds fascinating, actually..

Fascinating like watching a slow speed trainwreck...

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If anything, I think MARVEL should have been rebooted.

I think Marvel is doing quite well right now - as long as you avoid the main books.

THOR: GOD OF THUNDER and HAWKEYE are fantastic reads. And a lot of their new books are pretty terrific: MOON KNIGHT, MAGNETO, ELEKTRA (probably for the first time ever), SILVER SURFER to name a few.

What I find interesting is Marvel has been going hard after popular novelists to write for them instead of just continuing to recycle all the same tired comic writers.

[midor]

Marvel's epic stories lead to a reboot but that leads to fallout reboot only for that fallout reboot to lead to , yet, another reboot.

Fascinating like watching a slow speed trainwreck...

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I think Marvel is doing quite well right now - as long as you avoid the main books.

THOR: GOD OF THUNDER and HAWKEYE are fantastic reads. And a lot of their new books are pretty terrific: MOON KNIGHT, MAGNETO, ELEKTRA (probably for the first time ever), SILVER SURFER to name a few.

What I find interesting is Marvel has been going hard after popular novelists to write for them instead of just continuing to recycle all the same tired comic writers.

[phantom1592]

If anything, I think MARVEL should have been rebooted.

Marvel did Reboot. They just did it little by little and quietly enough nobody noticed


Every character I've read has had multiple "Everything you know is wrong... THIS is the REAL story" moments. Not to mention more then a few of "Oh those stories don't count any more..."


It's not even close to the same books I was reading in the 80's and 90's....

[Thatman]

Thank goodness - the sooner we can do away with DCnU, the better - preferably before major movie adaptations take the changes to heart. Some of the stuff has been readable (actually, I loved the Court of Owls storyline), but I just want the older continuity/characters back.

[Shredder]

And its pretty much what a bunch of 50 year old men think teenagers like.

But, we made green lantern gay! That's 'hip' with you teens now, isn't it?

We also made Wonder woman's universe cooler by making it darker where everyone dies. you game of throne fans love that, don't you?
(or so I remember hearing ;o)

And miss Barbra being in a wheel chair? Don't worry! Things will cycle around again in 5 years, and she'll be back in it again, only with a 5% slight shift in story to make it seem new and exciting! (After being retold for the 5th time!, newandexcitingnotgarunteed)

[Barbecue17]

I've only really read the bat centric titles and honestly, I think we've seen a few of the best Batman related stories we've ever had.

I definitely get that the timeline issues don't make any sense. I really think DC should have just left timeline issues out as much as possible. Defined timelines don't work in mainstream comics.

There's a lot of the New 52 stuff, though, that I guess I'm just not seeing the reason for the hate. Yeah, a few characters have had some fairly major changes, but most of them have really been pretty minimal. Honestly, other than some of the Superman issues that people miss, what was superior in the previous DC Universe that really made that much of a difference? Once again, I'm operating here from mostly a Bat-centric perspective, which is really just starting to see its first major changes to older stuff.

If DC decides they're going to go back to Post Crisis continuity, I'd love to see them spend a few more years really pushing the limits in the New 52 Universe and having some truly major changes that really shake things up. Make it almost a long Elseworlds type of experiment when all is said and done.

[krosfyah]

I've only really read the bat centric titles and honestly, I think we've seen a few of the best Batman related stories we've ever had.

I definitely get that the timeline issues don't make any sense. I really think DC should have just left timeline issues out as much as possible. Defined timelines don't work in mainstream comics.

There's a lot of the New 52 stuff, though, that I guess I'm just not seeing the reason for the hate. Yeah, a few characters have had some fairly major changes, but most of them have really been pretty minimal. Honestly, other than some of the Superman issues that people miss, what was superior in the previous DC Universe that really made that much of a difference? Once again, I'm operating here from mostly a Bat-centric perspective, which is really just starting to see its first major changes to older stuff.

If DC decides they're going to go back to Post Crisis continuity, I'd love to see them spend a few more years really pushing the limits in the New 52 Universe and having some truly major changes that really shake things up. Make it almost a long Elseworlds type of experiment when all is said and done.

I'm close to how you feel, mostly a bat-centric guy, i just dipped my toe in (no pun intended) the first aquaman ark and i thought it was pretty good. at the end of the day, these are comics and almost nothing in comics are ever written in stone. I'm surprised people want Barbara crippled again, oracle was awesome but this is one of those things where the bulk of the fans want what they are comfortable with. I'm sure when Babs was crippled the readers that loved her cried foul ina big way.

That said I do miss cassandra cain.

new 52 isn't perfect, but based on my readings it's not the cluster **** that a lot of fanboys make it out to be. Lately i've been annoyed at the fan base whining that prevents growth (specifically in the video game industry) there seems to be a BIG rebellion growing that want the (fill in the blank) of their youth to stay the same. "Reeves/donnerverse superman or nothing Keaton/Burtonverse or nothing Batman TAS or nothing, Tobey McGuire/Raimi FTW," and so forth. There isn't anything wrong with loving stuff of your youth, and honestly if you can't see the merits of new stuff over the old stuff, that's completely your prerogative, but when an industry/character/property can't grow because the bulk of the fan base refuses to let it (still mainly talking about video games though) then that really turns me off of being active with that property.

Talk with your wallets but I'm tired of anything new being labelled as garbage before it gets a chance to shine. I just finished watching Beware the Batman, and DAMMIT that was a WELL DONE series! but fans hated the designs, they didn't want a 3d batman, they didn't want a Jason statham Alfred, but it was such a refreshnig and well done take on the mythos, I like how they set up some great stuff in it too, it's a shame that one season is all we got.

not everything new is crap, not everything old is gold, and vice versa. I wish we didnt live in an age where people are so resistant to trying new things with what they love.

[Thatman]

You're not wrong - but change doesn't automatically equal 'good' either.

My issues with DCnU have been primarily that the whole thing felt half-assed, sloppy, disorganized, illogical, and done for the sake of an 'event' to make themselves more contemporary - or how they saw it as such - while really feeling more like a return to the stunts of the '90s.

Sometimes change is good, and necessary, but as a long, long-time DC reader, this just felt like a hatchet job. Continuities did/didn't change (GL stayed the same, Batman sort-of did, but more changes became obvious as time went on), they forced all DC history into a 5-year plot window that didn't make any kind of sense on most of the bigger characters, things were changed/jettisoned without a great deal of rhyme or reason, and the changes made were often illogical or disservices. (Such as the rampant and shameless sexism applied to most of the major female characters.)

Had they wrapped up the existing DCnU in a sound manner with Flashpoint (which was kind of a silly story in and of itself - Barry Allen's mommy issues cause reality-altering chaos), and then approached the DCnU with some kind of sense, editorial consistency, story purpose - SOMETHING - it probably would have been better. Yes, there will always be kvetching by the fans, and I'm the first to acknowledge when fans are being unreasonable, but I firmly feel that DCnU was a hackneyed mess from the get-go.

That's not to say that all the stories are bad - far from it; Aquaman alone has been fantastic, and as I mentioned I've liked a lot of the Bat-titles...many of them don't even really need to be pre- or post-Nu to work. And if they revert back to preNu, that won't automatically make all the stories better. But I think it will make them cleaner, at least.

I feel like DC's been a mess over the past two or three years, in most capacities...comics, TV, etc. They've had a few hits (Arkham City, Arrow), but a fair amount of pronounced mis-steps. I'm starting to get the sense that they're course-correcting now, which I hope - because I miss enjoying DC as an entity.

[Barbecue17]

Yeah, I'm not sure Aquaman has ever been a better book before. This new Aquaman series has been quite good from everything I've read.

Personally, I'll agree that if you read single DC titles or even families of books, things work pretty well. When you start getting into crossover and timelines issues between other titles, though, stuff does seem rather bizarre continuity wise. I get that the wanted to jump into the new 52 with the story and characters already in motion in most instances, but that definitely caused problems because with everyone starting somewhere different you inherently end up with back story problems.

[BCI Guy]

Personally, I'll agree that if you read single DC titles or even families of books, things work pretty well. When you start getting into crossover and timelines issues between other titles, though, stuff does seem rather bizarre continuity wise. I get that the wanted to jump into the new 52 with the story and characters already in motion in most instances, but that definitely caused problems because with everyone starting somewhere different you inherently end up with back story problems.

I think that's a reason why WONDER WOMAN and GREEN ARROW work so well. They feel completely self contained. I'm not sure if there has been a single guest star from the rest of the DC Universe in WW.

[Haephestus]

I'm enjoying New52 Wonder Woman, but that's about it.

And as others have said, the Wonder Woman solo-title basically exists in its own self-contained DC universe. I'm not even sure Superman has been mentioned in Wonder Woman's solo-title, yet alone any other confirmation of their relationship.

[Phil.Pastel]

not everything new is crap, not everything old is gold, and vice versa. I wish we didnt live in an age where people are so resistant to trying new things with what they love.

Speaking of which, I wonder what people on here are thinking of the new movie turtles. The TMNT toy thread is pretty quiet at the moment...

[diosoth]

When I hear about stuff like Joker cutting his face off only to reattach it later with string, I know I'm not reading a plot that I can take seriously.

[Dragon78]

I used to like DC comics but the new 52 killed it for me completely.

[Dave-Man]

I haven't read enough comics recently to care much about the New 52 reboots. I don't have any idea what direction they took the characters, except for the stuff that everybody howled about like Superman's red trunks and Alan Scott's orientation. All in all, I think comics are due for some kind of renaissance soon or the medium may die out for a while. That would be a tragedy, for sure, but I think it may happen.

[Shredder]

I haven't read enough comics recently to care much about the New 52 reboots. I don't have any idea what direction they took the characters, except for the stuff that everybody howled about like Superman's red trunks and Alan Scott's orientation. All in all, I think comics are due for some kind of renaissance soon or the medium may die out for a while. That would be a tragedy, for sure, but I think it may happen.

for me, comics go on so long, that the characters get convoluted and goofy. You can only reboot things and retell the same origin so many times before people get bored with it.

Take the new turtles show, for instance. They basically retold the 'meet casey jones' story from scratch just like the 2003 show did. Only the 2003 show was more enjoyable.

comics need to take a cute from Dragonball Z. Age the characters. that gives you new areas to explore like it did with Batman Beyond that made it exciting.

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you don't want to get me started ;o)