| Posted: 01 February 2018 at 10:21am | IP Logged | 1
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Another god damned Superman reboot. Another Superman #1. Another restart for some characters, and continuing storylines for other characters who overlap. I feel true sympathy and sorrow for the poor bastard assigned to write the Justice League.
And look! Superman #1! Bet it'll be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in a year or two! I'm buying 50! </sarcasm off.>
The Superman character in Action #1 differed greatly from the one in Action #500, through a natural evolutionary, organic process. (I do not qualify "better" or "worse" - merely transformed. You could say "evolved" if you think the latter Man of Steel was better.) Stories slowly changed from Superman fighting normal villains perpetrating social crimes to super villains, super-natural threats*, and yes, even a fun story or two.
Thence the Crisis on Infinite Earths and "The Man of Steel." I am still not convinced that the Crisis was anything more than a huge publicity stunt, but anyone with half a brain would have sat down BEFORE this incredible, irrevocable (well, kinda) event and done the "What Ifs" BEFORE starting it. Maybe Jeanette Khan was in charge at the time? In any case, Crisis gave DC an opportunity to realign and jettison some of the characters'complicated backstory and continuity discrepancies - but they DIDN'T DO IT.
Mr. Byrne's story recreated Superman beautifully. And Superman was still the icon of Truth, Justice, and the American Way - but not literally. His greatest battles against social injustices were trying to stop the corruption of Metropolis as orchestrated by Luthor. He fought super villains, catastrophes, and didn't involve himself so much in social issues of the day.
Then how many times has Superman been recreated? At least the Pu52 reboot and the Dr. Manhattan reboot. How badly has the character been warped to try to get buyer (and media) interest? How far off the model has he been taken to try to be controversial and edgy and salable?
Now Bendis is getting to restart Superman. Personally, I don't like Bendis' work. Don't like his characterization, and more than a few of his heroes seem clayfooted to me. But I'm not the target audience... I'm the audience who would start buying "Superman" again if they printed some Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan and George Klein stories. (Which is inordinately unlikely.)
But now, with a reboot every three or four years, NO ONE'S continuity applies - and the current continuity will only last for that brief time before ANOTHER "crisis" recreates the DC Universe.
How the hell can they expect to keep a reader base in the third decade of the 21st century (pending)? That's a very particular customer set, and I think they're deliberately avoiding what the reader's want. How can Superman survive THIS enemy?
*Used in its literal sense, not in a mystical sense.
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