QUOTE: If you're somewhere around 35 years old or younger, that's what superhero comics have always been!

That is just sad.

Batwing - DC trumpets this character as the first African American to wear the Bat-mantle. While he is certainly  Black, but he's really not Batman. Just as Steel was really not Superman. Somehow comic book companies perceive "not really and could never be" status is an immense honor to bestow, worthy of immediate interest. There's virtually nothing on this cover that makes me think this character or book is interesting.   

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The character is not an African-American and nothing I've seen from DC is promoting him as such. From what I've read he's an African (From the Congo, IIRC) and he said to be the first Black character take a Batman inspired identity. Which isnt quite true, either. There was a character called "Blackwing"  ( who was an African-American) who appeared in the Huntress back up strip in the Wonder Woman comic back in the 70s and 80s. He was inspired by Batman ( Earth-2 version) Created by Paul Levitz.

Joe Hollon "Yep!  Pick any well-known character and think about their history since about, say, 1985 or so.  How much stability has there been?  I bet not much!"

You pick any 25 year period in the history of any continuously published character, esp. since 1955, and you can play the same game.  Admittedly, changes in the 50s tended to more about types of stories that were told than significant character changes per se (can you imagine the Batman of "The Origin of Batman" (Batman #47) hanging out with a sycophantic imp?), but still...

It's true things were a little more stable back in the Golden Age (after an initial refinement period and depending on what character you're talking about), but then again they were also more prepared to ditch characters back then rather than revamping to sustain or increase interest. 

Mike, thanks for making the point about Blackwing! DC is advertising their new character as the first ever, but he isn't. There's also a momentary appearance of a black Batman in the Denny O'Neil story told from the point of view of kids around a campfire, speculating on who or what Batman is. One describes a mysterious, spooky being who oozes under doorways like smoke. Another, a black kid, is convinced Batman has to be a brother with high-tech weaponry and cool rocket wings.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/06/03/friday-f rom-the-cheap-seats/

Nice little article laying out salient points, though nothing that hasn't been said ad nauseum on this forum for over a decade.

I think if DC was to really change everything about the way their comics are distributed to the story content, they'd simply do away with continuity altogether. Yet they are going to cling to "Blackest Night" and whatever Morrison has done as a core. Which stinks, but whatever.

What I mean is, get rid of continuity. I mean all of it. Don't worry about it any longer, more accurately. If the focus is to turn away from the core fan, then the core motivations behind the characters is purified. If you don't have to worry, in Batman comics, about anything other than Batman's parents being murdered and a long-standing rivalry with the Joker, then you've purified the character.

But DC isn't even doing that, unless as someone suggested they keep Dick Grayson as Batman II, with all these Robins as some kind of farm system for Batmen of the future. Which f*cks up any kind of purity of content in the Batman universe. And it all makes Batman creepy as sh*t, if he's been sneaking boys into his twisted Batworld as partners for decades. I mean, really.

If you have to keep "former Robins", I'd have them operate under assumed codenames that are not Robin, having been influenced by some connection to Batman over their lives. Kind of like how the Legion of Superheroes was influenced by tales of Superboy. But don't have a direct connection to Bruce Wayne. At this point in modern continuity, who doesn't or cannot figure that Bruce is Batman? Here's an idea: how about nobody know Bruce is Batman? Like, NOBODY. Except Alfred, natch. Not even Robin knows. Not Superman. Not the JLA. Not any of Bruce's bedmates. Did the Shadow's most trusted agents know his identity? Did they need to?

Joe, offhand it starts with the introduction Superman's sole living relative (we'll ignore that Superboy story... :-) ); a general change in the stories where Superman is truly Kal-El (originally the Kryptonian connection was just there to explain what he's doing lifting cars over his head and he didn't know about it until 1949); the introduction of more varieties of Kryptonite, esp. red, which led to a whole sub genre of Superman stories; all Kryptonite is destroyed; Clark Kent becomes a television reporter; Superman and Lois start dating for real; Superman and Lois break up due to The Job; Kandor gets restored, meaning there's basically a Krypton again; Clark Kent starts dating Lana; Luthor and Brainiac get revamped; and when we hit 1984, we're two years away from the whole saga starting over from scratch. 

Since 1985, aside from his origin getting adjusted everytime the wind changes, "big picture" changes haven't occured all THAT often.  Lois Lane finds out his id and they later got married, but the rest of the stories just come and go. 

The main difference between now and then is that current writers take more time to tell their stories.  In the Julius Schwartz period they did a "Superman (or maybe Clark Kent) No More"ish kind of story (#296-299), but it was four issues in one title rather than an 8 month event, you know?  Instead of putting the toys back in the box to start the next story after 8 pages, they take 8 issues.