In a lot of ways, the holidays are about tradition. Everyone’s got ’em. It might be a family latke recipe, or getting together to watch Die Hard, or arranging the Christmas tree ornaments so the cats don’t knock them off the lowest branches. Here at Multiversity, we have an annual tradition of looking at shared comic book universes and politely ask them to do something differently. It’s one part new years resolution, one part gift giving- to us, every one!
Today, we are taking a look at DC Comics. We’ve been pretty excited about a lot of DC books this year, and we have a lot of suggestions of how they can continue to capitalize on their success. Let’s take a look!
Don’t Forget Space
For a period of years in the mid-aughts, it seemed like every DC book, save for the Batman, was taking place in space, or at least dealing with a ton of alien characters. There were multiple space-set Green Lantern books, the ongoing Rann-Thanagar war, and New Krpyton over in the Super books, just to name a few. But now? We barely get anything off-planet. The DC Universe has so many interesting settings that can be used, and many of those are in space. Let’s space it up, Jim Lee. – Brian Salvatore
Fix Your Damn DC Infinite Organization
For the love of all that is comics, DC, you need to allow users to sort within series. I do not want to have to scroll past 150 issues of “Batman” (2016) in order to read the newest issue. Let me change the sort order! Or, better yet, let me filter by issue # or year released or, hell, read or unread.
While we’re at it, could I get a feature where series in my library/favorites get a “new” icon when an issue I have not read is released? Or, you know, a “read list” that actually updates properly? Thank you.– Elias Rosner
Keep up the Expansion of the Super-Family
Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a number of Superman family characters either get some new shine on them (Power Girl, Jon Kent, Natasha Irons) or emerge from the minds of various writers (Dreamer, Otho and Osul-Ra). For the first time since the ‘triangle numbering’ era or, perhaps, New Krypton, the Metropolis-based stories feel as rich and populated as the Gotham-set stories.
Don’t stop this. This is good! Even when the stories haven’t been great (I’m looking at you, Connor), the focus on the characters and the further refining of Metropolis and the Super Family – which finally feels like a family – has been fantastic. – Brian Salvatore
Fix Your Damn DC Infinite App’s Downloads
This KILLED me. I was away from reliable internet for a couple weeks this summer. I wanted to read some comics. So I downloaded them, thinking it’d be easy and fine. I was wrong. So very wrong.
DC. Fix your app. I’m tired of having a worse download experience than modern ComiXology. It shouldn’t be hard to download two 22-page issues at the same time and have all the pages load properly! – Elias Rosner
Magic? Magic!
I keep beating this drum, but I won’t stop: DC needs to do more with its magical character. Especially with magic ‘breaking’ during “Lazarus Planet,” there is such an opportunity for a team of magic users to investigate and ‘heal’ the magic within the DCU. C’mon now. – Brian Salvatore
Keep Letting Titles Be Weird
While I’m definitely behind on many of the Dawn of DC books, what I’ve read has been a wonderful mix of different tones and stories. “Tec” is gothic and dark, “Shazam” is a ton of fun, “Harley Quinn” is bonkers, “Batman” Now if only the Milestone books were better promoted. – Elias Rosner
Don’t sideline the Titans
Right now in the pages of “Beast World,” the Titans are the front-line, A-team, with everyone from Superman to Batman following their lead. I know this can’t last, despite my great desires that it could, but even after the Justice League returns, keep the Titans as an integral part of the DC Universe. Marvel has the Avengers and the X-Men, two almost co-equal teams in terms of import, so there is absolutely a space for both of these units. The way to differentiate them is key, though.
Continued belowDC has four major teams in the ‘present’ day: the Justice League, the Justice Society, the Titans, and the Teen Titans. I’d love to see things shaken up a bit, and pairing the JSA with the Teen Titans – the legacy and the youth – and the Justice League with the Titan. But the way to keep the Titans as not just the Jr. Justice League is to give them each a separate mandate. What is that? I’m not a writer, don’t ask me. But if the Justice League was dealing with protecting Earth from outisde threat and the Titans from Earth-based ones, that could be a start. Especially with Beast Boy’s connection to the Red and new member Swamp Thing’s connection to the Green. – Brian Salvatore
More Ongoing Anthologies
I’ve found that the 100-page anthologies DC puts out every so often are less my jam than the “Urban Legends”/“Brave and the Bold” style ones. The serialized nature of the stories and eclectic mix of talents is a great draw and I know that I’ll at least get a few long stories instead of a few 5-6 pagers. “Action Comics” becoming a three to four story title is awesome. Keep it up!
Oh, and on that note, keep up the backups. They’re a much better way of testing new creators than a mini-series, I think. – Elias Rosner
Continue the Kingdom
In case you can’t tell, I love team books. In a recent “Beast World” crossover, we saw the re-emergence of an idea from “Batwing” of the Kingdom, a team of African superheroes. The idea has been expanded by Chuck Brown to be a team made of up Black and Brown heroes, and it rocks. Give this book a shot. Give this team a shot. – Brian Salvatore
