DC and the New 52

I confess I am a DC fan! I prefer Superman over Spider-Man, Justice League over the Avengers, Batman over Iron Man!  As much as I love DC though I have always been very frustrated with the writers frequent disregard to continuity in the comics.  DC's Multiverse Mess is well known in the comics community. Power Girl was Supergirl (Kara) from Earth 2 but after the Crisis it was revealed that she had an Atlantean heritage.  Donna Troy and Hawkman's origins kept changing.  Heck even Superman's origins would seem to be changed every ten years or so.  Sometimes DC explained these changes other times they did not.

So when they decided to do another reboot again with the launch of the New 52 I was again frustrated and decided I would no longer buy anymore DC Comics. (I have since changed my mind)  Originally from what I saw of this New 52 I was not impressed.  Superman looked more like Superboy and was wearing body armor.  Teen Titans and Firestorm's origins were changed and Wally the third Flash seemed to not exist at all.

Over a year has gone by and DC has released additional titles as well as the Zero Issues in their reboot.  While their are changes I do not like and would sooner ignore there is much that I am starting to be interested in.  When I first got into comics DC had just finished Crisis on Infinite Earths.  I was a fan of Superman and enjoyed reading the John Byrne Superman series that portrayed Superman in his first year as a Superhero. Reading Crisis gave me an overall view of the DC Multiverse in both different time era's and different parallel earths.

 

Crisis On Infinite Earths #7

With a "Multiverse" that has been around since the 30's its not surprising all the confusion.   DC has purchased many comic companies and over the years added them to their Multiverse merging the characters from Fawcette (Captain Marvel Family), Charleston (Blue Beetle, Question), Image (WildC.A.T.s, Stormwatch) and Milestone (Static Shock) into their main titles universe.  Every generation see's its own interpretation of the character so its not surprising they are given a modern spin every ten years or so which is something we see in other properties.  Even Star Trek has been rebooted these days.

Now recent reports suggest that Green Arrow is getting a reboot in The New 52 in February so asking the question of what is canon and what is not is an endless task with no real "official" answer.  How can you trust an official answer when in a few years they will change their mind anyway.

Despite the challenge of continuity there is some great things happening in the New 52 that has given me enough reason to check out the comics.  I really enjoy that we get to see different time periods of DC with titles such as Demon Knights during the Middle Ages and All Star Western.  Characters I saw in the Crisis like Jonah Hex, and Amethyst have returned to the spotlight and the range of books they are publishing really gives us a sense of the many corners of the DC multiverse.

Despite the many problems with DC I still have a love for the characters and stories of the DC Multiverse.  In running my tabletop RPG using the DC Multiverse I have had to figure out what I want to use from the comics and what I did not. In future posts I will be sharing more on that and my own theories of the DC Multiverse.