52 Number Ones... With A Bullet

Between the initial article in USA Today, the letter from Bob Wayne, and the follow-up information also on Comic Book Resources, the internet is abuzz with the news of DC Comic's impending massive reboot of, apparently, 52 titles.  From Superman to Wonder Woman to Teen Titans, it appears nearly every corner of the DCU is going to be affected by this Flashpoint-induced change. 

With only a few details leaking out, it looks like Grant Morrison will helm a Superman book, Birds of Prey will go on without Gail Simone, Geoff Johns will still own the Green Lanter-verse while simultaneously helming a JLA book with Jim Lee on art, while Hawkman & Aquaman will get their own titles once again.  And that's not even all of the details out at this moment...Teen Titans, JSA, & Wonder Woman were all also on the list for new #1's. 

Never before has something on this scale been attempted by either of The Big Two.  Once upon a time, following the 13-issue "Heroes Reborn" maxi-series, Marvel, under the "Heroes Return" banner, started Captain America, Thor, The Fanatastic Four, Iron Man, and The Avengers back at issue #1 with resounding success sales-wise (at least for the first issue).  They did the same with Marvel Knights titles like Punisher & Daredevil, with Amazing Spider-Man, and are also slated to do it once again with Captain America, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, & Punisher in the next couple months.  A brand new Moon Knight started with #1 once again just recently which marks perhaps the 6th volume of a series bearing his name.  The new Punisher series might just be the 7th or 8th volume of a book bearing that name...quite ridiculous considering it has essentially been one on-going series since 1987.

Now in the case of ASM, Daredevil, and the Heroes Return comics, all of them eventually resumed their original numbering (usually as they approached a milestone issue) after several months, if not years, of using BOTH numbers on the front cover.  Talk about confusing when you're reading issue 30 of Daredevil and it also has a 410 in the corner box. 

I recall lots of outcry at the time to resume the original numbering, which is what led to Marvel first double numbering and eventually just going back to the original numbers.  I can easily see the exact same thing happening after a few years of a new DD comic, especially considering DD morphed into Black Panther: Man Without Fear in Matt Murdock's absence.  Why not give Panther the new #1 (it would have been his 5th volume) and move DD back into his proper book?  Why restart Moon Knight or Punisher or Ghost Rider? 

The argument would probably be that it's a new status quo to go along with the new number one but really that can be done within the context of an exisiting numbering sequence.  It's a sales thing, plain and simple...nothing to do with status quo or reboots or whatever label gets attached to it.  It is proven to make money, and ultimately, comic book fandom be damned, Marvel & DC & every other company is looking to make money.  Especially in a market that has drastically fallen when comparing sales figures from just a few years ago to today.

I can't fault the companies for finding ways to make money, especially if they can find ways to make it work within the context of whatever story arc is going on.  What better way to push reset on the entire DC Universe than as a results of a story that is dealing with time travel &  its effects?  So my issue isn't so much with the renumbering, although it would be heartbreaking to see Detective Comics & Action Comics get reset, it is with the following quote from DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio...

"This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today's audience."

...and these from DC's Senior Vice President-Sales Bob Wayne explaining that the new No. 1 issues "will introduce readers to a more modern, diverse DC Universe, with some character variations in appearance, origin and age. All stories will be grounded in each character's legend -- but will relate to real world situations, interactions, tragedy and triumph...Some of the characters will have new origins, while others will undergo minor changes," he wrote. "Our characters are always being updated; however, this is the first time all of our characters will be presented in a new way all at once."

So now I'm scared....and the image at the top of this little rant plays directly into those fears.  I know I'm being presumptious and guessing at what the future will entail (as I'm sure most of the internet is doing as well), but those are two of DC's top guys essentially saying that things like age will change, and that new origins may emerge! Buzz words like modern & diverse, catch phrases like "real world situations", these all make my brain scream of the marketing for Marvel's Ultimate line all those years ago.

The main difference being that Ultimate was, from day one, a totally seperate Universe in which younger, hipper, less continuity laden, blah blah blah....versions of our Marvel faves got to play.  In theory they didn't come with all the baggage of the 616-Marvel proper version and thus could come off more like the movie versions without pissing off the core fanbase; you know the ones that buy the books through thick & thin.  Great in theory, and Bendis put out great material with Ultimate Spidey, especially compared to Ultimate X-Men, but it all degenerated into "I wonder what Ultimate (insert name here) looks like" stories.  Hell, the Ultimate Universe required a story like "Ultimatum" (as awful as it was) to try and bring the concept back to what it was intended to be.  So now I don't read a single Ultimate book....

Now, what does any of that have to do with DC's new initiative?  My fear is that the outcome of "Flashpoint" that leads into this #1-Fest is essentially an "Ultimatum", or to keep it company consistent, another "Crisis on Infinite Earths".  Has DC reached a point once again where they've decided that all the rich history that has made Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc. cultural icons is in fact baggage?  Is their too much backstory for your average reader? 

Honestly, I'm probably not the best person to judge that because I've been reading Batman for 15 years and have 20 years worth of back isssues.  It's impossible for me to pick up a book and NOT know what the backstory is.  I know the nuances of every character, of their relationships with Batman, and I know why they are they way they are.  I can see how someone would pick up an issue of R.I.P and wonder why the Joker is slitting his tongue in two, why he doesn't seem like the Jack Nicholson, Mark Hammil, or Heath Ledger takes on the character. 




Instead of the layers of story wrapped up in this one scene, it appears (based on the image above), that we will be greeted in September with a gaggle of characters who are younger than their pre-Flashpoint iterations.  In particular the Superman, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman in that Jim Lee piece look young to mine eye by comparison to their current depictions.  So it leaves me to wonder several things:

1) Is this a short term story line point where the characters have to correct the ramifications of Flashpoint & return the world to status quo? (All signs point to no)

2) Are we going to get retold origin tales a la Frank Miller's Batman: Year One or John Byrne's Superman: Man of Steel? (Could be interesting)

3) Will Action Comics & Detective Comics get the #1 treatment? (I hope not)

4) Can Grant Morrison write if he can't dredge up ancient continuity points? (I kid, I kid)

I know I need to take a wait & see approach with this whole situation, but I figured I may as well get my initial gut reaction down on e-paper while it was still fresh in my head.  As a long-term fan of Batman, I am a bit scared of the idea of restarting the world & how it will impact Bruce and family.   And as a fan of everything Geoff Johns has done with GL in recent years, I really hope that the majority of that sticks (I'm hopeful since Johns seems to be the architect of this endeavor).  I don't want to see, and this is my fanboy nature at its most paranoid, Tim Drake & Stephanie Brown disappear from continuity in favor of bringing back Dick as Robin & Barb as Batgirl. 

I don't want to see a Lois & Clark who aren't married (had enough of that with Brand New Day) or a cocky, arrogant Hal Jordan circa Emerald Dawn.  I appreciate that characters have grown, matured, and evolved over the course of my readership.  I mean it's not as if anyone of my generation started following Batman with 'Tec #27 or Superman with Action Comics #1, but we have managed just fine.

So, I will head into this new endeavor with those fears, but also with hopes.  Hopes for something great from the Johns/Lee collaboration on JLA, for a return to greatness for the JSA & Wonder Woman, and definitely high hopes for the Morrison Superman project (maybe he'll get to do something like Superman 2000 finally....oh wait Spider-Man ripped it off already, and All Star Supes was kind of that anyway).  I am intrigued to see what other news will come on this subject in the ensuing weeks...it's only June after all and this party doesn't start until September!

Please DC Comics, Dan DiDio, Geoff Johns, and whomever else is spearheading this....please prove me wrong.  And be prepared for the deluge of letters, e-mails, tweets, and what not pestering you with questions about what is still considered continuity if this things goes all Crisis-like.  And be prepared for Grant Morrison to ignore all of it as he dredges up some random incident from 53 years ago and turns it into a key ingredient in the life of Superman....

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Death In Comics - SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FF# 587 SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN!!!!

Now that that's out of the way....

Above are a trio of images that have stuck with me throughout my comic book reading life.  Three images that coincide with death and sadness: two from the early 90's, one from this last year.  One of those images is definitely iconic and forever memorable to readers, while the other two are probably less so, but for me are much more powerful in the response they generated. 

Why? 

I think I know why but let's explore death throughout my own personal comic book history and see what pops up.

I think the first time I was faced with the death of a prominent comic character within my world would have been in 1989 when Madelyne Pryor died, willing herself to die, in an attempt to kill Jean Grey as well.  The effect on 10-year old me...sadness.  This was a character I had been reading for the last two years, one I had gotten attached to as she sacrificed herself alongside the X-Men during "Fall of the Mutants", as she became the eyes & ears of the team in Australia, and slowly became seduced by the "dark side" during the build towards "Inferno".  There was a bond, not terribly strong, but a bond to that character that made it rough to see her die, especially as part of a spectacular fall from grace.

As I moved forward in my X-reading years, I also backtracked into the "Classic X-Men" world which...although I already knew the outcome...brought about a great sadness as well by the time I read the historic "Dark Phoenix Saga".  The death of Jean Grey was so powerful that I can only imagine how it felt to those fans reading it as it happened.  This was the ultimate good guy, the heart of the X-Men, being corrupted by absolute power, and finding her only salvation (as well as that of the universe) in her death.  And with it coming only one or two issues after the proposal moment between Jean and Cyclops, it made it all the more heart-wrenching reading it for the first time several years after the fact.

The same was the case for Jason Todd and "A Death In The Family".  By the time I read that landmark story, the "Knights Trilogy" had occured, Dick Grayson had completed his 1st stint as Batman in "Prodigal", & Tim Drake had been established as Robin and was rocking it in his own regular series.  So why, before I even read the story, did I have an emotional connection to Jason Todd?  Because the Bat-Writers of the time (Chuck Dixon & Doug Moench among others) made sure that the readers knew of the impact JT's death had on Bruce.  It was included in flashbacks throughout "Knightfall", the presence of his costume in the cave, his "Zero Hour" appearance in "Robin", the memory of Jason Todd was ever-present to the point that he may as well have been an existing character in each issue.  So by the time I read his death, I felt like I was connected to JT and to this day, Bruce Jones run aside and thanks to Judd Winick, he remains one of my favorite characters.  I don't know how I would have voted though....

Sometimes, no matter how high profile the character, the death can hit you with all the impact of a feather.  "Superman 75" in all its media hyped, death armband packed, black polybagged glory was an amazing hit and sold some 6 MILLION copies (between the original run and reprint), only topped by "X-Men #1 (Vol.2)" (8 Million or so) and that had 5 different covers!!!

Yet, for me, that death was not so impactful.  It was crazy that DC Comics would kill off Superman, and I wasn't a cynical enough reader yet at 13 years of age to dismiss it all just because you knew he'd get brought back sooner rather than later.  I think it's the simple fact that I was not a reader of Superman comics, thusly I had no emotional investment in Clark Kent, Lois Lane, or any of the supporting cast.  Add that into the fact that it wasn't a surprise moment (the internet didn't own the world yet but the news did manage to become public in September in Newsday and other newspapers), but it was a comic that...while holding no emotional value for me...was something historic that EVERYBODY had to read.  Now that I think about it, I actually didn't even buy the issue, a good example of how little it meant to me, just read through it and bought the trade when it came out.  At least that way I had a record of this historic moment.  This was a huge moment in comics, but for me it wasn't even worth dropping a couple bucks to buy the book.

One year later (give or take) it was time for "Uncanny X-Men #303" and the death of Illyana Rasputin...a character that was, quite honestly by that point, window dressing in the larger character arc of her brother Colossus.  As a matter of fact, "UXM 304" came out before #303 so the whole damn story was ruined but that didn't take away from the emotional impact of watching the former Magik succumb to the Legacy Virus.  Here was a little girl who had been force-aged, now with an opportunity to live her life again after returning to her proper age, but fresh off having her parents slaughtered.  Now she's diagnosed with a virus designed to exterminate mutants, and she hadn't even developed powers yet.  The story was tragic as it was, but what really broke my heart reading the story was the character interaction.  The current youth of the X-Team, Jubilee, playing the hard-ass while Shadowcat, the once best-friend of teenage Illyana, cares for the youngster version as if nothing has changed.  The bedtime story reading, the shock as her body fails, and the page where they have to tell Peter what happened all led up to leaving me with tears in my eyes.  This probably would have been the most heartbreaking death in comics for me if it wasn't for "Identity Crisis".

See while "Identity Crisis" does get some critical panning for reasons I will never understand, I find it to be utterly heartwrenching.  It's a story of loss and pain, of betrayal and lies, and ultimately death.  The sad death of Sue Dibny and the utterly painful, shocking, tragic death of Jack Drake (Robin's father).  The build to Jack's death, given the relationship building in Robin's own comic, was probably the most painful thing I have ever experienced in comics. 

Maybe it comes from being someone who almost lost their father at a young age, but even as I write this and look at that panel, I find myself with tears in my eyes.  No bullshit, that's how hard this death hit me.  Not only was I connected with these characters from years of reading them, but the personal element of the way it happened made it so much more painful.  No one dies from battling a raging alien super-villain or being shot by lasers on the Moon, but people die everyday from gunshots.  And the utter despair from Tim, his right foot in the blood, Bruce so uncharacteristically holding him...all those little touches add up to the most painful moment of my life as a comic book reader.  I didn't read this, I experienced this.

The next time I felt that, though definitely not with the same level of intensity, was during "Second Coming" when Nightcrawler sacrificed himself to save the life of the mutant messiah Hope.  Here was a character that I had read since the very beginning of my career as a comic book reader, and now he was dead.  Noble and heroic as it was, he was dead.  And I cried, not hard, not like I did with "Identity Crisis" but certainly more than I expected to as it became increasingly obvious that Elf was soon to be shuffling the mortal coil.  This was a character I suffered through a crisis of faith alongside (his not mine, no worries there), went through devastating injuries with, saw the evolution of the character from supporting cast to team leader to bedrock of the team.  His trials and tribulations have been been a big part of my interest in X-Men & Excalibur (although let's forget the whole Azazel demon daddy thing...why "X-Men: First Class: The Movie" is using that character is beyond me and a story for another time), and his friendship with Wolverine is something I have cherished.  Yet it was the type of death perfect for 'Crawler's character as it represented the culmination of his faith in what Hope represented, and as it appears now, his faith was well placed.  Do I think 'Crawler will be back?  Probably in some fashion, but that doesn't make the storyline impact of his sacrifice any less spectacular nor does it take away from the impact his death had on me as a fan.  He is already missed...

Now, this brings me to the whole SPOILER ALERT that kicked off this little piece: "Fantastic Four #587" and the death of Johnny Storm.  This, for me, was like the death of Superman but even more so.  Superman is, at the very least, a character deeply entrenched in our cultural lexicon.  He is Americana in so many ways and as such, the impact of his death was a little more...felt....than that of Johnny Storm.  If I was disconnected from Superman, than I am light years removed from the world of the Fantastic Four.  In fact, the only FF issues I ever bought were the "Heroes Reborn" issues as well as the first 3 "Heroes Return" issues that followed.  I did purchase "Books of Doom", but that's a Dr. Doom story and even that was only on persistent recommendation.  But despite this total disconnect, I read the most recent FF issue to see just who died (managing to avoid spoilers in the process), and when it was done I said to myself, "Okay that's done".  I may as well have read the phone book for all the emotional impact it had on me.  Not because it was badly written, but because I have no context and no ties to these people.  In fact, the most intriguing thing in the book for me was Leech because I've been wondering what happened to him for quite some time.  I dig Jonathan Hickman's writing for the most part, and I do find myself interested in perusing his entire FF run to see what brought it to this point, so I suppose that's the best case scenario for a series I didn't have interest in.  Perhaps that will generate the emotional investment, but it won't be like the decades of connection I had with Nightcrawler.  But then again, I could find the same love for the characters that I found for Jean Grey & 'Crawler in reading "Classic X-Men".

So there's a little run through my life of....errrrr....death in comics.  And what's the one thing that connects the big moments: the connection.  I doubt that's something ground-breaking, a huge revelation, or a "holy shit" moment but that's my big idea.  The history between the reader and the subject creates one bond, if a story has an emotional resonance that's another bond, and if the writer can hit a truly personal connection that's the strongest bond I believe.  That's the "Jack Drake" moment so to speak, and that's the moment that can elevate a comic book death from "just another one" to "a historical one".

Before I go, let me quickly mention two seperate things that can ruin deaths: retconning and the internet!  With the first I'll just use Magneto as an example.  He had to two great deaths that I can think of; the first being "X-Men #3 Vol. 2" and the second being "New X-Men 150".  Each one was a great, appropriate death in my opinion, yet rendered pointless by retconning.  Resurrection isn't bad, but when it's done in such crappy fashion, it ruins the whole thing.

The second ruiner, the internet, is the place for everyone to find out anything sometimes before it even happens.  Look at the last FF issue where Marvel put it out early to try and counteract internet spoilers, but the internet just jumped it up a day anyway.  So here I am avoiding the internet in order for the purpose of avoiding spoilers, and Howard Stern spills the beans in such an off-handed fashion I didn't even realize he said it at first.  It's damn near impossible to avoid spoilers in this day & age, and that sort of thing can certainly ruin the impact of death in comics.

Neither of those things are something that are going to change anytime...well ever really...so we must suck it up and deal.  It amazes me though how strong an impact something like a comic can have on the reader.  Like a novel, a movie, or a TV show, comic books can linger just the same.