Lorendiac
03-28-2006, 06:57 PM
A few weeks ago I wrote a post in which I listed a few of the Reboots DC has done of characters and teams in the twenty years since COIE, and then I begged for helpful feedback from my readers to help me add anything I had missed. Got an awful lot of feedback! (Thanks, everybody who contributed!)
So now I've written a more complete list of all the people and teams DC has Rebooted at one time or another since COIE.
Before I offer my current list of DC Reboots, I want to talk a bit about what I mean or don't mean when I use that word "Reboot." This caused a bit of confusion the last time I talked about DC's Reboots. Different fans had different definitions in their heads when they saw and used that same word in their responses. Let's see if I can explain myself clearly this time.
What is a Reboot?
Reboot = Everything from before gets thrown away!
All -- or very nearly all -- of a character's previously published stories, that had him at the center of the action, get erased from continuity, leaving a clean slate for a fresh start. In the new continuity, they never happened and the other superheroes in that same comics universe don't remember anything about them. Now a writer is "starting all over from scratch" with the essential character concept, That is a Reboot.
If some bits and pieces of a character's history get changed on the spur of the moment, that is a Retcon. But if a lot of his old adventures are still supposed to be valid, allowing for some changes to various details, then he has not been Rebooted.
Things that aren't Reboots
1. The character's origin story gets retold with some new twists, but all of his subsequent adventures are still supposed to have happened, just about the way his veteran fans remember them.
For instance, Mark Waid recently wrote "Birthright," which is apparently supposed to retcon and replace the version of Superman's origin story that was offered to us twenty years ago in John Byrne's "Man of Steel" miniseries. But that does not mean Superman is getting Rebooted all over again, because just about everything else that's happened to him in his comics in the last twenty years is still in continuity.
2. The old character dies or retires and someone else puts on a costume and starts calling himself the successor with the same name.
For instance, Barry Allen (the Silver Age Flash) died in COIE. Wally West took over the role of being the Flash. That was a big change, but not a Reboot, because most of Barry's old Pre-Crisis stories were still in continuity. People in the DCU still remembered that those things had happened.
3. A new writer comes along and makes some changes, giving the hero a new supporting cast, giving him a different attitude, telling his stories with a whole different style.
This happens all the time in the comic book industry. It isn't a Reboot; it just means different writers will have different stories they want to tell.
4. The hero's old series got cancelled; he gets a new series with a new #1.
That isn't a Reboot unless all the hero's past adventures from the old series have just been erased from continuity, the way Wonder Woman's were twenty years ago when her old series got cancelled and then a new one started up later. Most of the time, this is simply a Relaunch.
5. Changing the exact roster of the "Founding Members" of a team, but saying that the team actually still had most of the same adventures from its old series, is not a Reboot.
For instance, in the Post-Crisis continuity regarding the original JLA, the official version said that Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman had not been Founding Members of the League. The second Black Canary had been, however, "replacing" Wonder Woman. Superman and Batman were apparently admitted to have lent a helping hand to the old JLA on various occasions if opportunity permitted. That was a major retcon to JLA continuity, but we weren't being told that all those stories from the JLA title of the 60s, 70s, and early-to-mid 80s had "never happened at all." They had just happened with a somewhat different set of members than we previously thought. That was not the same thing as tossing out the old JLA series and saying, "All that stuff never happened at all!" (It was a rather obnoxious thing to do to veteran JLA fans, however.)
The DC Reboots of the Past Twenty Years, after COIE
Superman. Rebooted in 1986 after COIE. All previous Superman-related stories (Earth-2, Earth-1, or any other version) effectively got thrown away and forgotten.
Wonder Woman. Rebooted at about the same time as Superman, around early 1987, shortly after COIE.
The Legion of Super-Heroes. Rebooted in 1994 after Zero Hour. Rebooted again in 2004.
The Doom Patrol. Rebooted in 2004. One rumor says that John Byrne did not ask DC for permission to reboot the Doom Patrol from scratch, but, on the contrary, was told that this was the way DC had already decided it wanted the DP handled by anyone who did a new series about them. Take it or leave it. I'm told that the Reboot has already been thoroughly Un-Rebooted, and I'm also told that Dan DiDio has allegedly said that this was the Master Plan for the Doom Patrol all along.
The Warlord. Rebooted in 2006. His previous regular series had lasted 132 issues back in the 1970s and 80s (and I have all those stories in my collection), plus a bunch of annuals, a six-issue miniseries, and all sorts of guest appearances in other people's titles over the years. All of that is now gone with the wind.
At least some of the Charlton Comics characters were "rebooted" when they were integrated into the post-Crisis DCU.
For instance, Captain Atom started over from scratch in a series written by Cary Bates, in which he was becoming the superhero Captain Atom "for the very first time" and none of his old Charlton adventures had ever happened. I believe the same thing happened to Peacemaker.
I am told, on the other hand, that the Blue Beetle and the Question kept a fair piece of their pre-DC continuity (allowing for the fact that it had now happened to them as part of their retconned participation in the mainstream DCU instead of some other parallel world).
I believe that all of DC's Impact line in the early 90s constituted "Reboots" of characters owned by Archie, since these heroes were generally being presented as people just now getting their special powers, etc., instead of seasoned veterans who had survived all the stories previously published about them by another company or companies. That would include the following characters: The Shield, The Fly, The Comet, The Black Hood, The Jaguar, The Web.
Captain Marvel -- meaning the guy in the red bodysuit with a big yellow thunderbolt on his chest who keeps yelling Shazam!; not any of the heroes Marvel Comics has published using that same alias -- got Rebooted in the miniseries Shazam! A New Beginning in 1987 (written by Roy Thomas). Six years later, in 1993, Captain Marvel got his Second Post-Crisis Reboot in the graphic novel The Power of Shazam! by Jerry Ordway.
So now I've written a more complete list of all the people and teams DC has Rebooted at one time or another since COIE.
Before I offer my current list of DC Reboots, I want to talk a bit about what I mean or don't mean when I use that word "Reboot." This caused a bit of confusion the last time I talked about DC's Reboots. Different fans had different definitions in their heads when they saw and used that same word in their responses. Let's see if I can explain myself clearly this time.
What is a Reboot?
Reboot = Everything from before gets thrown away!
All -- or very nearly all -- of a character's previously published stories, that had him at the center of the action, get erased from continuity, leaving a clean slate for a fresh start. In the new continuity, they never happened and the other superheroes in that same comics universe don't remember anything about them. Now a writer is "starting all over from scratch" with the essential character concept, That is a Reboot.
If some bits and pieces of a character's history get changed on the spur of the moment, that is a Retcon. But if a lot of his old adventures are still supposed to be valid, allowing for some changes to various details, then he has not been Rebooted.
Things that aren't Reboots
1. The character's origin story gets retold with some new twists, but all of his subsequent adventures are still supposed to have happened, just about the way his veteran fans remember them.
For instance, Mark Waid recently wrote "Birthright," which is apparently supposed to retcon and replace the version of Superman's origin story that was offered to us twenty years ago in John Byrne's "Man of Steel" miniseries. But that does not mean Superman is getting Rebooted all over again, because just about everything else that's happened to him in his comics in the last twenty years is still in continuity.
2. The old character dies or retires and someone else puts on a costume and starts calling himself the successor with the same name.
For instance, Barry Allen (the Silver Age Flash) died in COIE. Wally West took over the role of being the Flash. That was a big change, but not a Reboot, because most of Barry's old Pre-Crisis stories were still in continuity. People in the DCU still remembered that those things had happened.
3. A new writer comes along and makes some changes, giving the hero a new supporting cast, giving him a different attitude, telling his stories with a whole different style.
This happens all the time in the comic book industry. It isn't a Reboot; it just means different writers will have different stories they want to tell.
4. The hero's old series got cancelled; he gets a new series with a new #1.
That isn't a Reboot unless all the hero's past adventures from the old series have just been erased from continuity, the way Wonder Woman's were twenty years ago when her old series got cancelled and then a new one started up later. Most of the time, this is simply a Relaunch.
5. Changing the exact roster of the "Founding Members" of a team, but saying that the team actually still had most of the same adventures from its old series, is not a Reboot.
For instance, in the Post-Crisis continuity regarding the original JLA, the official version said that Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman had not been Founding Members of the League. The second Black Canary had been, however, "replacing" Wonder Woman. Superman and Batman were apparently admitted to have lent a helping hand to the old JLA on various occasions if opportunity permitted. That was a major retcon to JLA continuity, but we weren't being told that all those stories from the JLA title of the 60s, 70s, and early-to-mid 80s had "never happened at all." They had just happened with a somewhat different set of members than we previously thought. That was not the same thing as tossing out the old JLA series and saying, "All that stuff never happened at all!" (It was a rather obnoxious thing to do to veteran JLA fans, however.)
The DC Reboots of the Past Twenty Years, after COIE
Superman. Rebooted in 1986 after COIE. All previous Superman-related stories (Earth-2, Earth-1, or any other version) effectively got thrown away and forgotten.
Wonder Woman. Rebooted at about the same time as Superman, around early 1987, shortly after COIE.
The Legion of Super-Heroes. Rebooted in 1994 after Zero Hour. Rebooted again in 2004.
The Doom Patrol. Rebooted in 2004. One rumor says that John Byrne did not ask DC for permission to reboot the Doom Patrol from scratch, but, on the contrary, was told that this was the way DC had already decided it wanted the DP handled by anyone who did a new series about them. Take it or leave it. I'm told that the Reboot has already been thoroughly Un-Rebooted, and I'm also told that Dan DiDio has allegedly said that this was the Master Plan for the Doom Patrol all along.
The Warlord. Rebooted in 2006. His previous regular series had lasted 132 issues back in the 1970s and 80s (and I have all those stories in my collection), plus a bunch of annuals, a six-issue miniseries, and all sorts of guest appearances in other people's titles over the years. All of that is now gone with the wind.
At least some of the Charlton Comics characters were "rebooted" when they were integrated into the post-Crisis DCU.
For instance, Captain Atom started over from scratch in a series written by Cary Bates, in which he was becoming the superhero Captain Atom "for the very first time" and none of his old Charlton adventures had ever happened. I believe the same thing happened to Peacemaker.
I am told, on the other hand, that the Blue Beetle and the Question kept a fair piece of their pre-DC continuity (allowing for the fact that it had now happened to them as part of their retconned participation in the mainstream DCU instead of some other parallel world).
I believe that all of DC's Impact line in the early 90s constituted "Reboots" of characters owned by Archie, since these heroes were generally being presented as people just now getting their special powers, etc., instead of seasoned veterans who had survived all the stories previously published about them by another company or companies. That would include the following characters: The Shield, The Fly, The Comet, The Black Hood, The Jaguar, The Web.
Captain Marvel -- meaning the guy in the red bodysuit with a big yellow thunderbolt on his chest who keeps yelling Shazam!; not any of the heroes Marvel Comics has published using that same alias -- got Rebooted in the miniseries Shazam! A New Beginning in 1987 (written by Roy Thomas). Six years later, in 1993, Captain Marvel got his Second Post-Crisis Reboot in the graphic novel The Power of Shazam! by Jerry Ordway.