If you run in comic book circles, this was the big news of the last year and a half or so. I'll spare the gory details but essentially DC started every book over at issue number 1 and rebooted their universe. It was a big deal at the time and it sold really well. I checked out a number of the 1st issues at the time. Some were good, some were bad, a lot were mediocre.
It's a year later, the dust has settled to a degree, so what's my ultimate take on DC's New 52 a year into it? Well, frankly, it's mostly a mess. I would say that overall, that I'm less interested in the current DC than I was the pre-52 books. Here's the list of what I'm reading on a monthly basis:
Batman
Batman and Robin
Nightwing
Green Lantern
Flash
Earth Two
Justice League Dark
Justice League
Frankenstein
Swamp Thing
Animal Man
11 titles for me. Now here's where it gets interesting. Of these 11 books, 4 of them could have existed in the pre-52 universe. The Bat-books and Green Lantern weren't really rebooted, they kind of just picked up where the pre-52 books left off. Past those 4, Flash and Justice League are always a read for me. The Flash has been okay and Justice League has been bad. The horror/magic books have been a real revelation though. Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Frankenstein and Justice League Dark all fall into that category. I really enjoy those titles on a monthly basis. Side note to that, Swamp Thing and Animal Man build on their Vertigo titles so are more of a soft reboot.
11 titles seems like a good deal. But before the reboot I was also reading Teen Titans, Red Robin, Batgirl, Detective Comics, JSA, Green Lantern Corps and a few other titles. Overall, I've slimmed the list down a few books and it's going to get even slimmer when Frankenstein gets cancelled in a few months.
So, what are my issues with the New 52 after a year?
Muddy Continuity Waters:
There are previous events that still happened in this Universe. Barbara Gordon still got shot by the Joker but got better for example. So you're always a little confused on what counts and what doesn't. Certain events carried over and others didn't and they don't really bother to tell you what they're working with. Which leads me to the next point...
There's a lot of baggage for a new universe:
It wasn't a hard reset and that caused issues. The universe feels a little lighter overall but there's still a lot of baggage hanging around. Characters like Hawkman don't make sense again. The Bat-Family has a ton of baggage as there's all this unstated history that you aren't 100% sure about.
Inconsistent between books:
This is where I rip on Justice League a lot. If you read Justice League, Green Lantern and Aquaman in particular are nothing like the characters in their solo titles. This is even more confusing when you realize that Geoff Johns writes all three titles. Green Lantern in particular is glaring. He's this immature, pig headed, idiot in Justice League and this mature, seasoned veteran in his own title. I know it's hard to keep a character spot on between books... but it's the same writer!!!
Lack of new creative voices:
Welcome to the New 52 same as the old DCU. This was actually a complaint before the first book even landed. You screwed up your old universe to the point that you felt the only way out was to throw it all out the window. Okay, fair enough. Wait, what? Those guys that ruined the old universe are writing the new universe? But, but, but... nevermind... it hurts my brain too much to think about. Anyways, a few new talents came aboard but the writing roster stayed virtually the same. This New 52 is being written by the people that screwed up the old universe. Seems like a bad idea to me.
Those are the bigger problems that I see with the New 52. Generally, I have liked it a little less with each passing month. Here's hoping things get a little better with some more time.
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