DCnU’s 5 Year Continuity Doesn’t Work!
The biggest thing to happen to comics in a very long time may be standing on some shaky ground. Many writers and fans find that DC Comic’s continuity is what prevents many of the characters from moving forward or their books harder to jump into. Writers on the other hand have proven otherwise that the rich history can be utilized to not hinder the characters but propel them forward or even reintroduce them to a new audience.
So why is DC Comics attempting to reboot their entire line? I believe it’s for the two following reasons: money and creativity. The money aspect does sound like they are being a greedy typical money grubbing corporation but the facts are facts. DC Comics is a business and in order to continue to operate they must worry about their bottom line. Being second to Marvel in overall sales since the late 60’s is something DC will probably want to turn around. Creating a new line that will cater to not only superhero genre fans but also fans of horror, westerns, and war comics seems like a smart way to go. The new line may work in terms of purpose and may very well work for their goal to create a stronger brand that flows across various media forms. So why am I saying DCnU’s reboot might not work?The reboot works from every other point except the one aspect they are trying to clean up: story continuity. Yes, they are removing decades worth of cluttering history that will piss off fanboys to no end but I’m not talking about that story continuity. I am referring to the new continuity that already has 5 years of pre-set stories told with various popular tales from the old continuity still being upheld. Blackest Night, Identity Crisis, and Brightest Day will all be considered canon. Not only that but Batman and Green Lantern’s sometimes convoluted continuity will remain untouched due to their high profile success.
Apparently in a five year span of operation Batman is on his fourth Robin, the Justice League got tired of villains targeting loved ones and lobotomized them, many of the dead friends that may not have died in the new continuity returned to kill them as ring bearing cosmic zombies, Hal Jordan died and came back to life with Earth earning 3 other Green Lanterns within the 5-year time span, the JSA never existed, while the Teen Titans never met until the books release, Superman has just appeared 5-years ago, is not married to Lois Lane, and possibly never was Superboy. That still does not address any of the Crisis events that may or may not have happened. At least the heroes aren’t wearing shorts on the outside right?
Understandably, DC Comics can do whatever the hell they want in order to drive sales and open their universe to new audiences but they need to make sure that their new initiative has a cohesive story continuity to stand on. In a 5-year time span, many of the fan favorite stories logically cannot take place as they are set up by various events or plots that are being wiped out of continuity. DCnU is both exciting and scary for fans and the comic industry as decades worth of art and writing are being re-interpreted to capture a new audience in an age where print is struggling.
Blackest Night #1 is an odd beast. Usually with reviews and most certainly with crossover epics, writers who review these things feel compelled to give a lengthy explanation of what exactly this story is about. Who the main characters are, why the story exists, and most importantly, what the hell is going on.
This can prove frustrating perhaps to older readers of DC Comics, but I also found it refreshing to see how well this writer knows the universe he is writing in. Nothing feels forced, no one acts out of characters. In fact, thats one of the many complaints of characters IN epics, is that they seemed shoehorned into the story. One of the main complaints in Civil War was of supposed character derailment of a variety of Marvel characters. Not so in Blackest Night, in fact I would say the characters are distilled into their purest iteration to make each character viable to new and old readers alike. The artist too managed to make each character look their iconic best, and used expressions and little artistic flourishes to really immerse you into the world. Look on The Atoms desk after his talk with Hawkman, feel the anguish that Barry Allen feels after receiving a bit of news.
The other major factor is the idea of resurrection. Be it Hawkman and Hawkgirls constant reincarnation, to the Death of Superman, to the return of Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, the comic doesn’t shy away from the idea of people coming back from the dead. It fully explores the idea, and probably will continue to do so. This along with death and the very emotions of the characters will be a major theme in the event. Emotion, this is the third and most important theme to the book. You wouldn’t expect emotion to so highly influence an action adventure superhero comic that is about death and zombies. It does, and does so so effectively you will wonder why events don’t play on emotions moreso than they normally do.
The comic was by far the best start to a summer event I have seen in awhile. The fact that it has been building steadily for almost 4 years definitely helps that perception, but there is a feeling it has been starting for far longer than that for the steady DC fan, even the casual comic fan. Blackest Night is confronting head on the idea of how ethereal death is in the various comic book universes, and how bringing people back from the dead seems to have pissed off somebody. Make no mistake, people will always come back from the dead in comics, its the nature of the beast. It is refreshing to see the topic explored along witht he fact that the story seems to have been progressing for so long.
