Can we improve on that? Id been talking with editors for a while, but wasnt being too assertive because I already had a full-time job working in publishing at Top Shelf Productions, plus Id just relaunched X-O Manowar for the newly returned Valiant Entertainment. Within the first two years of the New 52, 27 series were canceled, many within their first year of publication. Thats the dead zone, where once you fall into that mud, youre trying to dig yourself out, but youre just sinking quicker and quicker. Our numbers were off by double digits I want to say 30 to 40 percent, some big number from what it was from the previous year and trade sales were slowing down, and periodical sales were slowing down. We had a lot of questions for Mark and then-Batgirl editor Katie Kubert about the status quo of Batgirl before we cracked into our pitch, chief among them was the canon age of the character in this New 52 continuity. The best way to figure it out is events and crossovers between the books. Superman (stylized as Superman: The Movie) is a 1978 superhero film based on the character by DC Comics.An international co-production between the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Panama and the United States, it was supervised by Alexander and Ilya Salkind, produced by their partner Pierre Spengler and written by Mario Puzo from a story by Puzo, and is the first installment in the Superman film . There are a lot of really valid complaints, but not the ones you think. The initiative, launching throughout September 2011, was called The New 52, and it marked the companys first attempt in more than two decades to hit the reset button on its sprawling continuity. When Jor-El discovers that the planet is go. It may be easier to explain which oneshaven't, sinceAction Comics follows Superman essentially double-checking his new memory of life so far with Kelex's own archives in the Fortress of Solitude. We were also new to the positions. I was just like, I have no idea how to do this.. That sort of fluidity, that lack of rules, of blueprints, led to issues, because between different groups there were different ideas of what was DC history. Not one to let a good outfit go to waste, Superman brought back his black suit in Action Comics #729 during a period where he temporarily lost his ability to draw on the suns energy. Its one thing to make poor creative choices, but the dysfunction involved in making the comics is something that remains a difficult topic for many to fully address. The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans. The release of Justice League #1 wouldnt just relaunch the premier superteam of DC Comics with a new origin story, but be the first of 52 new comic book series that would establish a fresh incarnation of the main DC universe. cbr.com - To appease an alien threat, Batman receives the superpowers of a core Justice League member, giving the Dark Knight a new mission and suit. It was doing so well initially that there wasnt a desire to rein it in and put rules on how things worked. So in that, it was challenging, and frustrating for a lot of people. Subsequently, Superman's alien companion used her telekinetic abilities to make the traditional black dress. Allowing the pre-New 52 version of Superman's life story to be "fit" into the New 52 continuity means large chunks of the universe must be rewritten. Unfortunately for . And then half an hour later, he got his books and he tweets out, Its a goddamn misprint on issue #5! [laughs] He called me up, and hes like, This is even better than I thought; its even more discombobulating. From that point forward we really became close creative partners. The initial announcement of the New 52 was followed by subsequent announcements of the titles that would make up the line. She put a new executive team in place and there was that pressure to deliver to show that she made the right choices bringing us in. Of the many prominent participants Polygon contacted for this piece, many declined to speak on the subject, preferring to put a stressful period behind them. Later, I was like, You know what? There was a level of inconsistency in the storytelling as I explained, we did a lot of planning up-front to get to the New 52 launch. Were going to do something called the New 52. Abbie Chatfield is sick of people talking about her body.. Some poeple seem to hate on it, but, though I am an avid Superman enthusiest and obssessionist lol, this is bar far the best adaptation of it in my opinion. Thats comics a lot of the time, honestly, but here, it was like comics on Red Bull. We were trying to have our cake and eat it too, as the old expression goes. The New 52 is the 2011 revamp and relaunch by DC Comics of its entire line of ongoing monthly superhero comic books.Following the conclusion of the "Flashpoint" crossover storyline, DC canceled all its existing titles and debuted 52 new series in September 2011.Among the renumbered series were Action Comics and Detective Comics, which had retained their original numbering since the 1930s. Eventually, we needed something like Rebirth to come in and set rules, rebuild an uber-story. Conner Kent's Comic History Explained. I managed to make it work, but definitely, Paul was totally right. It goes without saying that the pair soon discoverFlashpoint didn't erase or replace anything. Of all the main characters of the newly revamped DC Universe, I actually find Wonder Woman's redesign maybe the least offensive, especially compared to the look she was wearing in the old continuity just prior to the whole reboot. Daniel Wilson Writer on the New 52 titles Earth 2: Worlds End, Earth 2: Society. When I asked him, why 52? He goes, You had a lot of success with that weekly series 52. That plan has apparently led to this week's revelations offered inAction Comics #978,The Flash #21, and even a tease of more returning pre-New 52 heroes elsewhere. So I kind of want to do it this way. [Im] happy to see all of this happening in the current line of DC Comics. Henry Cavill'sblack-suited superhero has been commemorated on an exclusive tee in the DC Shop. Making the characters younger, their histories malleable, and because it was all so raw and unformed, so new and exciting to everyone, there wasnt really a chance to build an uber-story yet we were making it up every day and then tearing it apart and then making it up all over again. I remember being right around issue #5 [of Batman] I was writing way ahead, because I was so nervous, and it was right around when issue #2 or #1 was coming out and it was the issue where Batman is trapped in this labyrinth beneath Gotham. Notably, the DCYOU titles employed younger creators than the New 52 titles, with the titles having a more contemporary feel. From just a design standpoint, the new Jim Lee-created look is fairly lovely, it evokes the classic silhouette and adds nice new details, like the stars alongside . Early plans for the line included throwbacks to DCs Westerns, war stories, and even a romance title. I was already on an exclusive [contract] at DC, and first heard rumblings when it became clear it would impact my Action Comics run. Dan Jurgens, one of the architects behind the Death of Superman saga, was blown away by seeing Cavill in the suit, which brings things full circle. When Action Comics was rebooted for the New 52 in 2011, All-Star Superman writer Grant Morrison took the reins for the first 19 issues (#1-18 and the prequel issue #0). (Dont judge him, it was the 1990s and he was going through a phase.). In New 52, Batman begins wearing a costume as early as his adult years after . And if youre worried about the character color, because in your mind thats the only way you can see him, then youre probably not getting where he should be. This all came about because Mark Doyle, whod come from Vertigo, had taken over the Bat Group and was looking to shake things up in that nebulous time period before the company moved out west from New York to Burbank. New 52 Superman's a late bloomer, but it paid off for him in spades. Superman ACTION COMICS 9 8.5 CGC RARE VARIANT origin & 1st full Cal Ellis. It has no value, and readers can sense that it has no value. To some degree, lessons have been learned from what came before but are they the right lessons? In January 2013, DC announced Aprils New 52 titles would be WTF Certified, with each issue featuring a shocking plot twist; the WTF branding didnt survive by the time April rolled around, although the thematic plot twist month did. Nightwing was one of the best launches! I mean, everybody was so worried about [offering digital releases on the same sale date as physical for the first time] and it didnt make any dent into the physical sales at all. Headed up by editor Marie Javins who would, five years later, become editor-in-chief of DC the event also coincided with DCs relocation from New York City, where it had been based since its 1930s origins, to Burbank, California, to be closer to its Warner Bros. parent. Note: This item is New. It was also seen in adaptations of the Death of Superman story, like 2007s Superman: Doomsday and 2019s Reign of the Supermen. For one reason or another, the following storylines are tougher to comprehend than most. This would have been boring compared to what theyve handed in. Thats the shit that gets me excited, because you really want to see people push themselves. Ex-DC publisher Dan Didio, Batman writers Judd Winick and Scott . And the simple fact that the three were longtime friends and allies by the time Clark and Lois had their son, Jonathan, it places their time together at well over a decade - largely breaking the premise of the New 52 in one detail. It was one of those classic things where I kind of found out I wasnt doing it because I saw a different persons name on it [in the solicitations]. It replaces the cycling gear, i kinda stole the idea from Owenwilson2 (Btw you da man!). It was rumored that she would have a significant role to play in DCs mythology moving forward but, outside of playing a role in a Justice League crossover in 2013, that never happened. By the last month of the New 52, DCs share of the comic book direct market had fallen to 26.34 percent down from its 34.76 percent share the month before the New 52 had launched in 2011 while the rest of the direct market had grown significantly in the interim. They're moments taken straight from the classic version of the League's formation, including Barry Allen's death in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. Free shipping for many products! One other other possibility lies in DC's New 52 revamp - in 2011, the comic . That consolidation . At the time, Clark was trying to cut himself off from humanity and embrace his Kryptonian heritage. You get so focused on the churn of the bottom, youre not focused on maintaining the success at the top. You can buy them in ebooks. then flamed out. With his extra, super gooey . We had some old concepts that we were freshening up, and we wanted to have confidence in recreating that material, and then bring new new material and new characters into the mix. No, Im looking at the characters. And yeah, I think we know the answer. Thats why we went away from doing crossovers for quite a while, because we wanted to let every book get its grounding. I had a lot of characters to deal with, so I put together a big spreadsheet. The point is, each version of Superman had their own reason for donning black and were curious to see what drives Henry Cavill to switch his color scheme. Thats when the DC Ink and DC Zoom books wound up being created, where we knew, This is the right direction, we know theres a market for this, but the periodical might not be the best way to deliver it. Not a gimmick, but the passing of the mantle in a new chapter of an ongoing saga. We used to see that all the time: If you did an event, and it was successful, the next event would have to be even more successful. Readers learned that the suit was designed to help the weakened Superman absorb more solar energy. To maintain interest in the line as a whole, on every anniversary of the New 52s launch, the entire line would feature a month of stunt programming replacing the regular series with flashback material or a collection of villain-themed one-shots. Im just lucky along with Babs, Cameron, Becky and Karl to have been the one pitching these stories when there was finally someone in the Captains chair to give them the green light. Thank You. The extent of his powers peaked during the 1960s and - albeit to a lesser extent - the 1970s and 1980s, to the point where it became difficult to create suitable challenges for . How we got to 52 was an interesting thing, because originally it was 40. Along the way, some new characters were created, but the truth be told is, sometimes its hard to get people to commit tnew characters into the series and storylines. DC Rebirth Finally Erasing The New 52 Changes? At the time, Clark was trying to cut himself off from humanity and embrace his Kryptonian heritage. In the end, the industry didnt change forever as a result of the New 52 and, in fact, neither did the DC universe. They really wanted everyone to sort of look at the characters and come up with, not necessarily a completely new take, but something that felt a little more present, or something that hadnt been seen in a while. Part two was the market was extraordinarily soft. That was a lot of the motivation behind Vertigo the DC universe was very successful, so it allowed Vertigo to be much more experimental and take more chances, because financially the company was meeting their numbers with the success of the superheroes. It takes dream interpretation onto a whole new level. Henry Cavill has finally reprised his role as Superman with a cameo in "Black Adam." The star recently explained that he got to pick which costume to wear for his return. A lot of that had also to do with our interest in getting the young adult marketplace. I think at that point in my career Id written less than 12 superhero comic books, so it was definitely a trial by fire. This could probably get me in trouble. Catequesis That includes Superman, Lois Lane, their son Jonathan, Doomsday and why not Wonder Woman, Batman, and even the Justice League - who get glimpses of the pre-New 52 heroes they used to be, as well. So when theres nothing to lose, they can do whatever they want. 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