DC NEW 52 Wrap Rap: Part 1

Ryan Haley: Hey.

Mike Gravagno: Hi!

RH: So, we’re done. PHEW! Right?

MG: I feel ten years older.

RH: We have both officially read all 52 number one issues in the DC “reboot”, which, for the purposes of this article, I will call reboot.

MG: We laughed, we cried, we came a little. I got physically ill at least twice.

RH: There were some highs, there were some lows, and there were some lows that were so low that midgets planking in hell couldn’t even see them.

MG: I would love to see midgets planking in hell…except that would mean I’m also in hell. Amongst the likes of Red Lanterns…

RH: OK, I guess we should get on with it. Let’s tackle some specific books, and then we’ll look at the line as a whole. What do you think was the single best issue you read?

MG: Hmm, that’s kind of hard to think of off the top of my head- there were some really good books that came out. I think it’s gonna have to be Animal Man.

RH: Why? Or should I just read your recap/review featured on yourpopfilter.com?

MG: Excellent plug. And yeah, if you haven’t read that yet- you’re a dick. But it just delivered in every way. The art was sweet, and the story was well paced and incredibly creepy. And I’m a sucker for books that can make me care about characters that have no right to be cool.

RH: As in 98% of the DC universe (basically everyone but  Batman)?

MG: Yeah, they’re all the worst. But come on- Animal Man? My 5 year old cousin could come up with a better super-hero. But they found a way to make him relevant.

RH: Animal Man was definitely a highlight, and one of my top five. If I had to pick five, and thank-you for asking, I would also pick Batman, Swamp Thing, The Flash, and Action Comics. These five weren’t just the best reads, but also, I think, were the perfect representations of what DC was trying to do with this reboot. Speaking of, what the fuck was DC trying to do with this reboot?

MG: Those were definitely the best of the bunch. I think DC’s goal was to do the same thing Marvel did a few years ago with the Ultimate Universe. They want to pull in new readers without requiring them to read seventy goddamn years of comics, most of which are convoluted and shitty. DC has the added fun of an insane amount of universes, which causes their continuities to be near impossible to keep track of. This was them trying to streamline and modernize.

RH: But did they succeed in their goal? In general, is this batch of comics as user-friendly as they need to be? Would they have been better off doing a total reboot/ultimization?

MG: I feel torn on that. On one hand, I’m sick to death of most origin stories. The entire world knows where Batman came from, we don’t need to see his parents get shot again. At the same time, it’s unclear what events they’ve decided to keep from the various pasts, or even how all of these new books line up with each other. You’d have to do side research to find out the Superman in Action Comics is years before Superman. Even when trying to make things simple, DC fucks it up.

RH: You read comics, so I assume you don’t have any friends, but let’s imagine that you did. And let’s pretend this “friend” had never read a comic. Would you feel comfortable handing him the majority of these issues and sending him on his way?

MG: I’d honestly barely feel comfortable talking to another human being. But after overcoming that hurdle, there’s about ten of these books I think would help lead a new comer into the comic world. And in just looking at those numbers, 10 out of 52 is kind of a failure. If he read the rest, I’m sure I’d have to answer a thousand questions about who is who and why he should care.

RH: Not to mention the fact that comic books have the same target audience as cigarette companies.

MG: Little kids with parental issues?

RH: Precisely. And I was shocked at how “rated T for Teen” they were. Some of the books were a little sexier than I thought they would be, but the violence was out of control. Much close to Marvel MAX than Marvel Adventures.

MG: I know! I was way thrown off guard by how violent the majority of the books were. There’s at least a panel covered in blood in almost every other issue. It was fucking sweet. I think they’re really trying to distance themselves from that little kid market, especially since comics haven’t really been for kids in years. Kids don’t really give a shit. 

RH: But it’s very hard to attract adults to a 3 dollar, 20 page magazine that’s filled with superpowers and magic. The vast majority of readers today are the kids who got started reading in the late 80’s/early 90’s. And those people are eventually going to quit or die, and they certainly aren’t going to breed and make new readers. I think that kids should be the goal, even if it means losing a little bit of violence. At this point, I’m less concerned with my enjoyment and more concerned with the health of the industry as a whole.

MG: Yeah, the price per page is hard to swallow- I can’t imagine someone telling me to spend a bunch of money on something that will take me 10-20 minutes to enjoy that isn’t porn. That’s why at some point they’ll have to sell the digital comics with much more ferocity than they are now. Kids are definitely easier to suck into a world of magic and super powered beings, and I think that’s why even with this new grittier outlook, they included books like “Static Shock”, “Legion of Super Heroes” and “Blue Beetle”. It’s just a shame that those were also on the shittier end of the spectrum. Violence  and sex aren’t necessary by any means to make a book good, they just need to figure out how to write those characters compellingly. “For Kids” doesn’t need to mean a drop in quality.

RH: That’s true. I just kind of think that they might have been better off using something like Pixar as a model, and making something everyone could enjoy. But asking someone to be  like Pixar isn’t the easiest thing in the world. We’ve basically concluded that the only people that are going to be buying these are people that already read comics. And the sales for the first month were very high, not 1992 high, but high. Do you think that will continue in October. What about October, 2012?

MG: The Pixar model would be perfect, but that’s hard to do no matter what; I think it’s even harder when you have dozens of project constantly, not just one a year. Maybe they’re hoping comic readers will tell their friends to hop on board? Or they’re trying to ride the wave of super hero movies, and that’s why there are so many Bat-family and Green Lantern books. I think we’re going to see a major drop in sales next month; the only reasons they’ve been as high as they were is because everyone wanted to consume every book to see what the whole shebang was going to be about. 52 titles is a job in itself to keep up with, and not sustainable. As to next year, maybe they’ll have figured out another reboot or gimmick to pull in the sales. That’s why both big companies have a giant EVENT every summer.