DC meets Heroes Reborn... Kinda

I completely understand DC feel the need to make a drastic move to boost sales - they've been trailing behind Marvel for several years now - but a company-wide reboot?

There are plenty of websites reporting on the recent developments at DC Comics - just do a google search if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Not that huge of a deal if they want to restart all (or most) of their series with brand new #1 issues - they can always make events out of legacy numbering - but that's not the extent of it. DC are actually going to reboot (scratch that, re-configure?) much of their continuity. This just smacks of Heroes Reborn or the Ultimate Universe done poorly. While it is not known how much of the DC Universe history is slated to change, it is known that much of it will along with the characters, costumes, origins, and settings of many if not most of the characters.

What does this mean for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash? Doubtless the heavy-hitters will mostly be the same - albeit younger, hipper, or more-modernized. It's the b-list and c-list characters that I'm more concerned about. What's going to happen to Black Canary, The Secret Six, The Question (Renee Montoya), Misfit, Damien Wayne, and that ilk? I suppose they could bring back Vic Sage - but it's not likely as he's a male and white (at least in appearance) and DC has said they want a more diverse cast. Nothing wrong with a diverse cast and if they aren't going to put talent behind Vic Sage he's not going to be any more popular than he was before they killed him off.

Another change I'm worried about is making Barbara Gordan Batgirl again. I love Stephanie Brown as Batgirl - her series with Wendy is fantastic and fun. I'd hate to see that go away. Though considering the current powers-that-be had a bit of a hand in bringing Stephanie Brown to the role - I gotta hope she's not going away entirely.

Supposedly the Green Lanterns and related Corps aren't slated for too much change as that franchise has been doing very well recently. I just hate to see that it appears the DC Comics comicdom is apparently chasing down the DC Comics moviedom. That seems backward. Ultimately it's a move that's designed to bring in new readers - I like that - I just don't see that this is going to drive folks into comic shops that don't already go into comic shops. Maybe I've just become the angry comic book guy. I do spend a lot of time in my basement so I guess that's evidence that maybe I'm out of touch with the rest of the world. At least it's not my parents' house.