Multiversity 101: From DCU to DCnU

The comics internet has had a singular focus lately – the DC Reboot heard round the world. DC’s plans were to find something that would make them a hot topic again, something that could make them surpass Marvel in market share and make them a viable option for a new generation of readers. The former item was definitely accomplished, the second item will assuredly be accomplished at least for a few months (more on this later), and the last item? Well, that is completely uncertain, but at least DC is really making an attempt at something different to achieve this goal.

The more I thought of it, though, the more questions about what led to this point and where DC was going to go from here started to brew in my head.

Some of the the answers I come up with are conspiratorial in nature. They’re not factual by any means, just things that I have wondered about based off of surrounding information. They are wholly reflecting my point of view and not MC or any of the other writers. Share your thoughts on the DC reboot in the comments, and let me know what you think of these different moves and what they mean for both DC today and tomorrow.

Why have DC’s comics suffered a downturn in quality from both a written and editorial standpoint in the past 6 months to a year?

Around the Multiversity offices, we’ve been going on and on about the apparent dip in quality across DC titles over the past year or so. While some titles have not suffered or lost their focus (namely anything with the words “Grant” and “Morrison” on them), from a written and editorial standpoint there has been a disturbing trend of either massive gaffes or negatively trending quality.

In particular, the Geoff Johns books have suffered.

The Flash has been all over the place in terms of hitting release dates and has had a litany of lettering and editorial errors that have caused our reviewers to dock it points (not to mention some rather uninspired plot points). The Green Lantern universe (in particular the main title Johns writes) has been treading water badly, culminating in the mediocre to outright bad “War of the Green Lanterns” crossover (note: I have not read this arc yet, this is based off our other writers beliefs). And then, the cherry on the top is Brightest Day, a bi-weekly series that came out with a lot of hype (Johns! Tomasi! Reis! Deadman!). The title occasionally delivered, but for the most part was an audacious failure from the writing perspective — and all over the place from a storytelling one.

This easily could be chalked up to the fact that Johns’ has spread himself so thin that he just could not handle it. Brightest Day, The Flash, Green Lantern, sculpting the future of the DC Universe, Smallville, the DC movie universe, and assuredly a slew of other projects we don’t even know about have been on his plate, and that is a lot for one person to handle.

This is where the outlandish conspiracy theories kick in.

Both Tom Brevoort (via Twitter) and Bleeding Cool have given DC shout outs for their usage of Johns’ team of editors in writing a lot of the Flashpoint tie-ins, with varying degrees of sarcasm involved (the former with lots, the latter only a little).

Could Johns and DC have been leaning on editorial before even Flashpoint for writing assists on even bigger titles in an unannounced capacity?

To me, this would be a logical explanation for why the quality suffered from both a written and editorial standpoint.

Is it unlikely?

Yes.

But does it make a bit of sense given the history of Johns and his work on those titles, as well as the previous quality of DC Editorial?

You’re damn right it does.

But that is the less likely explanation. What is more likely is also tied to a Brevoort tweet.

You know what this means? There’s no point buying any DC Comics until September, since none of them will “count” anymore. #moreroomforMarvel

With Flashpoint effectively pressing the reset button on the DCU come September, it seems entirely plausible that many writers could have coasted their way to the end of their current run or have been perfectly satisfied by members of editorial writing their character du jour in Flashpoint tie-ins (see more about this on the next question).

Interestingly enough, the titles that we haven’t seen a major dip in quality at all fall in to a few classes that exempt them from the rule.

1) Grant Morrison: Because he is Grant Morrison and Grant Morrison doesn’t sit plays out

2) Books that have passionate fan bases that were ending with the reboot: Secret Six (Gail Simone also doesn’t sit plays out), Doom Patrol (just to make sure our writer Josh Mocle doesn’t cry too much), Power Girl, Batgirl

3) Relative DC Neophytes: Nick Spencer (THUNDER Agents), Scott Snyder (Detective Comics)

Outside of those books, it has been a turbulent and inconsistent world of quality in DC Comics lately. I was the staunchest supporter of DC when we did our Best of Decade voting at the end of 2009, but I have culled my list to the bare bones of DC books because of so many titles and creative teams phoning it in lately.

Granted, it could easily be a cold streak, but it seems too coincidental that the regression in quality and reboot are not somehow connected.

I doubt we’ll ever really know.

Why did JMS really leave Superman and Wonder Woman and what does that really mean for DC?

JMS leaving his much hyped runs on Superman and Wonder Woman very early on was a major news story, fueling speculation as to why. However, the ultimate answer given was a combination of waning health and a newfound focus on graphic novels.

Then the reboot was announced and he came out with a statement about it that included the following ditty:

So I felt confident that (the reboot) was coming soon (which is one reason why I felt there wouldn’t be a problem in the long run leaving the monthly books, since most of the things done in Superman and Wonder Woman would be erased by the reboot anyway, so ultimately it didn’t matter whether I stayed or left).

Not to beat on a horse that may have never really alive to begin with, but if a megastar like JMS could completely ditch two high profile titles without feeling bad at all (all because of the reboot), is it really that hard to believe that Joe Q. DCWriter could have phoned in the last few issues they had on a book?

Why did DC hire Bob Harras as their first EIC since Jenette Kahn left?

When DC announced that Bob Harras would become their first Editor-in-Chief since Jenette Kahn left in 2002, the industry as a whole was surprised. Having been Marvel’s EIC during perhaps the most creatively bankrupt period in comics history (1995 to 2000), some were left scratching their head, especially given the fact that he was previously the head of DC’s collected editions department (which is a major promotion, no matter how well DC is doing in the world of collected editions).

But many forget his varied history as a writer and editor. This is one that included being the editor on the highest selling book of all-time in Chris Claremont and Jim Lee’s X-Men #1.

So not only is he a qualified candidate, he also happens to have previously worked closely with DC’s co-publisher.

Even though those are logical ideas and this promotion happened in September, I’d wager DC promoted Harras with eyes on the reboot. After all, Harras may not have been one of the main creative minds on the project but he was the EIC at Marvel during the highly successful launch of the Ultimate Universe. Given that the most obvious analogue to this reboot is the Ultimate Universe, it stands to reason that DC would look to utilize an in-house employee who was an architect of that previous venture.

Why did Ron Perazza really leave?

Casual comic fans probably do not know Ron Perazza, but from what I know about him (and from speaking with him for various MC projects), the guy is one of the most savvy and forward thinking people in the world of comics today. He was the guy who ran Zuda and really helped the whole thing become such a remarkable and interesting (if flawed) venture. After Zuda wrapped, DC tapped him to run their west coast based digital ventures, one of the most integral roles in this new era, especially considering the announcement of DC going day-and-date digital across the board.

Not only that, but the guy has familial ties at DC. His brother-in-law is none other than Jim Lee, Co-Publisher of DC as well as the artist of the flagship DC book – Justice League.

So when he announced that he was leaving DC, many were left scratching their heads. It’s not that he won’t have other options (after all, he is remarkably talented and a great guy to boot ). It’s that he left his job with a company that he was linked to so intensely with no other jobs lined up (unless he really will be going to Marvel).

Then, just a few weeks later, the announcement comes out that DC is rebooting everything and going across the board day-and-date digital.

Given the history of talented people dropping out of high profile projects before their launch or release or even creation, and making the assumption that Perazza was to be a key factor of the day-and-date roll-out, it seems a bit scary to me that this major digital player at DC makes his exit before the project’s announcement. Could this be interpreted as a vote of no confidence in it?

We shall see. It seems to me that it was a pretty coincidental time to step out of this particular role, especially with nothing else concrete for him to move to immediately afterwards.

As an iPad user and someone who is appreciating digital comics more with each passing day, I hope it works. The day-and-date digital announcement was in a lot of ways the most bold and underrated aspect of the whole venture, and something that puts DC at the forefront of a movement that seems most likely to succeed at pulling in new readers.

But with Perazza leaving as he did, I find myself more than a little suspicious about that aspect of the reboot.

What piece of comic history does this most recall?

People love to say the Ultimate Universe here, but I have another idea: the Image Universe launch.

While the Ultimate Universe is the most similar on the surface, it was also on an extremely small scale. The Image Universe launch had a ton of talent behind it on a lot of books that were aimed at new readers that were, for the most part, inspired by existing Marvel and DC books. It was creating an entirely new universe for today – like the DC reboot – not just adding an additional universe on to the side of the one fans know and love.

And then you think of how many members of the DC reboot creative teams come from the Image school.

Obviously, Jim Lee is the Co-Publisher at DC as well as the man in charge with the redesigns, and his WildCATs was, along with Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, one of the hottest books at the time of Image’s launch.

Then you have Rob Liefeld (another Image founder) working on Hawk and Dove, Brett Booth (co-created Backlash with Lee) on Teen Titans, Francis Manapul (former Top Cow artist) on Flash, Greg Capullo (made his name on Spawn) on Batman, Tony Daniel (started out on a slew of Image books) on Detective Comics, Philip Tan (Spawn) on Hawkman, David Finch (started on Cyberforce) on Batman: The Dark Knight, Kenneth Rocafort (former Top Cow artist) on Red Hood and the Outlaws, and Tyler Kirkham (former Top Cow artist) on GL: The New Guardians.

And there are a bunch of others connected as well.

With that said, many creators jump from company to company on jobs. It’s just the way the industry works.

But with Lee at the head and so many former Image creators, it all makes this reboot feel a little on the familiar side, especially given that former Image characters like Grifter, Voodoo and the Stormwatch crew will be making their way to the DCnU as well.

Let’s just hope Holofoil covers are not part of DC’s reboot plan.

Is the new DC really friendly to a wider net of people?

Much has been made in recent years of DC killing of minority characters. It all crescendoed in Ryan Choi’s completely unnecessary and grisly murder, but the point was this: fans were not down.

And in the first wave of books we saw it was completely obvious that they were making attempts to dispatch this idea that DC is racist in any way. We saw a book starring Mr. Terrific for god’s sakes – no one was clamoring for a Mr. Terrific book, but by god we got one.

But when you look a bit deeper, it seems as if it isn’t all hunky dory.

Sure, there is more racial diversity than ever, as characters of Latino (Blue Beetle) and African American (Mr. Terrific, Static Shock, The Fury of Firestorm, Green Lantern Corps) descent are well covered, and a more international market of heroes is opened up (Batwing, JLI). We even have two books starring homosexual characters (Batwoman, Stormwatch).

But now it seems like there has been a dip in the amount of books that primarily feature women, with even the critically adored Power Girl losing her book with the relaunch. Of the 52 books, only 8 feature women as their primary leads (that number is higher if you include Wonder Woman as a primary lead on Justice League and Saturn Girl as a lead on whatever Legion book she is in), which seems a bit lower than you’d hope for if DC is really going for a new audience.

That isn’t even considering the fact that there is only one book written by a woman (Gail Simone is co-writing The Fury of Firestorm) and one illustrated by a woman (with Amy Reeder co-illustrating Batwoman) – although Kelly Sue DeConnick does say she was approached about the reboot.

Then you have the Jill Pantozzi led uproar about Barbara Gordon leaving her wheelchair behind to become Batgirl once again, which is completely understandable and frankly shocking that DC did not predict it.

Besides that, I have to point out another group being left behind: the older characters.

I won’t go as far to say it is agist to not include the JSA as a book in this initial 52 title line-up, but it is really, really weird.

While they are going for only new, young readers, they completely leave behind the foundation of the DC Universe in the process, with a list of characters within them that are as beloved as any of the non primary characters. I know people who only read JSA books – ONLY – and they are now completely left in the dust, likely because DC finds it hard to imagine that a book starring an old boxer in cat suit and a speedster wearing what appears to be a strainer on his head would be relatable to the audience they are looking for.

That, and the fact that having these legacy characters in the mix muddy the character waters for new fans even more, so that move is explainable from a logic standpoint.

All of these moves are looking at everything in a vacuum of course, without looking at everything in the current state as well. Either way, the diversity is not exactly awe inspiring whatever the previous state of the DCU was.

Is DC choosing new fans over old fans?

Much has been made about the fact that DC is essentially “choosing” the possibility of new fans over respecting the wishes of the very sensitive current fan base that they have – you know, the ones who believe Clark and Lois belong together, that Mary Jane and Peter should never have broken up, and that Arsenal needs two arms and zero drugs (or cats).

My take? DC is choosing having a future over slowly dying. The latter fan base is finite and minuscule in comparison to comparable genre fiction readership, and it is slowly dwindling away with each passing month. They are choosing to believe that the latter group will stick around and maybe – just maybe – that this could lead to the advent of a new generation of readers.

Because let’s face it, DC is a business. They can’t exist in service to solely a passionate but ultimately small group of people, otherwise they will be a failed business.

Will this accomplish what DC wants it to?

Personally, it is still cloudy to me as to what DC’s projections for this venture are. Are they expecting it to level the playing field between DC and Marvel? Are they expecting a slew of new readers to push them to number one with a bullet? What are they expecting?

No matter what, I can share what I think will happen in terms of DC in the scope of the industry and their acquisition of new readers.

DC will assuredly take number one at least for a few months. Releasing 52 number one issues in one month with the level of interest they have developed and the creative teams they have put out there will definitely give them a pretty substantial boost for a period of time.

But as The Beat loves to point out in their excellent sales analysis comments, comics always find their true home at a level far below their launch numbers.

Let’s take this for what it is: temporary sales inflation.

Month one sales will be enormous and DC will likely dominate the charts. Month two the gap will tighten but DC will be substantially ahead. Month three the margin between them and number two will be smaller yet. And month four through six? DC will probably be back to square one.

The reason why is two fold. First off, people who do not read comics today likely will not read comics tomorrow, and it isn’t because they cannot work through the continuity. It’s because they simply don’t read comics.

The younger audiences who DC could build with still are priced out and it still is not that much easier for them to get the comics themselves (although hopefully the day-and-date digital initiative resolves that problem), so they will difficult to count on as a driving factor for growth, putting all of the weight on the self sustaining adult portion of the world. These are the people who already have their interests cultivated. As a site, we informally polled these types that we know, and the results were not exactly positive. Even the most interested indicated that this is likely not enough to bring them in as readers.

The second reason is something I like to call the Wonder Woman Corollary. DC loves rebooting Wonder Woman. They do it over and over. They reboot her, they see a temporary boost, and then it goes back to normal. They renumber her to her original numbering. Temporary boost…goes back to normal. So on, so forth. But they cannot ever achieve more than what she normally gets consistently.

To me, the answer is simple: people who read Wonder Woman today will read Wonder Woman a year from now as long as the product is decent. Jacket, no jacket. Red, white and blue…purple, orange and green. Azzarello, Jodi Picoult, JMS, Allan Heinberg…whatever, whoever. Wonder Woman fans will still be Wonder Woman fans, and those who glance through it and/or buy a few issues will still be outsiders who will likely revert back to their ways of not buying Wonder Woman.

There are really two ways to get around this issue: sell comics for less (which we obviously are not getting, because we now have Justice League holding the line at $3.99) or tell better stories. The former isn’t going to happen because of rising paper and production costs (this is something I thought digital should resolve), while the latter seems unlikely due to the less than all-star creator line-ups they have assigned to their books. Here is hoping I am wrong on the latter regard.

If this isn’t going to bring a lot of new readers, why do it?

That last question led to a bit of a pessimistic answer, but I am not totally against DC on this idea. Actually, I’ve become very supportive after I sat and thought of it for a while. Why?

Because when nothing else is working, you have to try something wildly different.

As it currently stands, DC and the industry as a whole are bleeding readership with no clear way to get it back. Some would just continue riding the existing formula until they die a slow and quiet death, but DC is going for it. They are blowing up the whole thing for the purposes of hopefully acquiring the next generation of comic fans as well as making previously unattractive characters exciting for new and existing fans.

While I stand by my statement that I am skeptical of this working, you have to applaud DC for doing it. They are going for broke, throwing the Hail Mary, and any number of other cliched statements that indicate that they are giving it the ol’ college try. They are doing what you have to do when you’re backed up against the wall as a business…anything to remain viable.

No matter what happens after the relaunch, this is a bold move that DC had to make. For the whole of the industry, I hope it works and drives DC to higher heights and pushes the rest of the comic realm to work harder to tell better stories in ways that are more readily accessible.

After all, I may be a skeptic, but I am a cautiously optimistic one.