The New 52: From The Outside Looking In
The New 52 has had the DC fan community up in arms since the moment it was announced, but how has this ground-breaking reboot effected us non-DCers?
I will be the first to admit it – I’m a Marvel girl. The first comic book I was ever introduced to was the X-Men when I was 6 years old, and it’s been my favorite ever since. Though I’ve dabbled in DC, it’s just never struck my fancy. DC is grandiose in many ways. The heroes are god-like and the morals are strict. DC has always carried an air of divinity that seemed a bit too stuffy to me. DC heroes don’t kill under any circumstance. There is a clear line between right and wrong and those rules are set in stone.
Meanwhile, over at Marvel, we see everyday people becoming superheroes, and some of our most beloved good guys may occasionally walk a line of moral ambiguity. Just because someone is a hero today doesn’t mean they won’t be a supervillain tomorrow. Characters’ names are dragged through the mud and back out again in a epic show of redemption on a regular basis.
Civil War is the one of the best examples of Marvel’s tendency to teeter between good and evil. When did we ever think we’d see a time where Captain America is on the side of the law breakers? Marvel turned every superhero in their universe against one another, and no matter whose side you were on (spoiler alert – you should’ve been on team Cap), you could see the righteousness of both beliefs. We even eventually get to see these polar opposite sides miraculously come back together.
On the other side of universes, we see Wonder Woman ostracized for killing Maxwell Lord by the very people his death was mean to protect. We see how seriously the DC heroes take this no-killing rule and, while this is no better or worse than Marvel’s moral uncertainty, it undoubtedly draws a different crowd. Now, I’m not saying you can’t love them both – in fact, I’m starting to be one of those fans that loves both – but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a comic book fan that doesn’t side with one over the other.
You’re either a Marvel or you’re a DC, and that’s how it’s always been.
As I said, I’m not a stranger to DC. I know enough about the characters on the surface, down to some of the more obscure rogues, but other than the classics, such as personal DC favorites Hush, and The Killing Joke, etc, I was not a DC reader. I knew the gist of what was happening in the universe – Blackest Night, Brightest Day and all that, but my money went to the X-Men, the Avengers or whatever epic arc Marvel was promising me that week. Part of this was because Marvel had always carried a bigger interest for me, but another big part was not knowing where to start with reading DC.
As you know, comic books will bring up history from 20 years ago and expect you to know what they’re talking about (with or without the ever-helpful editors note telling you which past issue you need in your life), and it’s intimidating to pick up a book of someone with as much history as say, Superman, and just expect to dive in mid-storyline. So, when word got out that DC was rebooting it’s entire mainstream line, I first thought, ‘man, if they did that to Marvel, I would be super pissed,’ and then I thought, ‘this might be a great time to get into DC.’
So get into, I did. I stayed mostly mainstream, but by the end of the #1s, I had Justice League, Action Comics, Batgirl, Detective Comics, Justice League International, Batwoman, Red Lanterns, Suicide Squad, Batman, Birds of Prey, Catwoman, Nightwing, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman: The Dark Knight, The Flash, Justice League Dark, *takes a breath* and The Savage Hawkman under my belt. While some titles may have left me underwhelmed, I can’t deny that DC achieved what it set out to do. I will now be a weekly DC reader. While some of the timelines seemed off (will Justice League at some point catch up to the timelines of it’s solo issue counterparts?), the introduction of characters was handled well. I didn’t feel lost in characters I was just being introduced to and I wasn’t bored learning about characters that I already knew a lot about. Aquaman was funny, Batwoman has some of the most beautiful art I’ve seen in a comic and for once I wasn’t bored to tears by Superman. While the new 52 certainly isn’t perfect, it satisfies a newcomer and leaves them coming back for more.
I can understand why lifelong DC fans would be angry about a universal reboot – I absolutely do. As comic book fans, we learn about these characters for years. We see their most personal thoughts and their most defining life moments. We feel like we know them and connect with them and, just like that, a publisher takes away their history – your history with that character.
However, I believe that DC may accomplish exactly what they set out to do – pull in new readers and create new loyal consumers. Now, the real question comes in of will it supplement the number of loyalists they stand to lose in this move? While odds are that most faithful Green Lantern fans will continue reading Green Lantern no matter what, there is also a good amount of fans swearing a boycott of this reboot. I hope I never have to feel the diehard DC fan’s pain *side eyes Marvel for good measure*, but in the wake of their anger, us DC newbies reap the benefits. So, if you’re a lukewarm DC fan that’s been waiting for an opportunity – you’ll never have a better chance to dive in.