Best picture yet of what relaunch means?

[PA_Kid]

So with a few more interviews we seem to be getting much better info on what the relaunch means. Check these out:



Tim Drake is a perfect example. Yes, he figured out Bruce’s secret identity and yes he became Robin and yes things happened in his past that prompted him to move on from that role and become Red Robin. How long ago was that? What brought him from there to issue one of Teen Titans? I’d like to leave it vague enough that long time fans can take comfort in knowing a lot of the stories they loved still happened…and a lot of new readers (or fans who haven’t read the book in five or ten or twenty years) can sit down with issue one and feel they haven’t missed out on several decades of continuity with these characters and this world.

Similarly, Superboy comes to Teen Titans and his own series with a lot of his D.C.history in place. He still showed up shortly after the Death of Superman, he is still the clone of Superman and Lex Luthor. How we reconcile his past with the opening issues of Teen Titans and Superboy? That, I’m afraid, has to remain vague for now (it is bad enough if someone in the audience shouts out the ending of the movie — imagine how much more depressing it would be if the writer shouted out the end of the movie four months before the movie was released!).

Are there changes and trims and tweaks — in some cases total re-imagining of characters? Yes. But, you’ll find, even with those characters, 95% per cent of them are totally recognizable. (Bart isn’t a serial killer sentenced to the present from the 30th Century. Cassie is still the daughter of archeologist Helena Sandsmark.)




There's been a lot of discussion and worry about this, about what used to be as opposed to what is. I don't think I'm erasing much of anything. That said, Catwoman is still Selina Kyle and she still puts on this cat suit and she steals things. Beyond that, how she got here, what she's done before is less of a concern than the stories we are telling right now. But I don't think anyone is going to read, not just mine but any of the books, and truly feel like we're undoing everything. That's not what we are trying to do. We're trying to move forward and it isn't a reboot. It's a first take on everything. Some things have been rejiggered and some things have been re-clarified as we go through; some things will be eliminated, but for the most part I don't think anyone is going to come in and say, "Oh no, it's a whole different thing!" Selina is not 50 years old and blonde and living in Russia and an alien -- she's Selina Kyle. She's Catwoman, she's stealing things in Gotham City. Again, I don't think anyone will feel that we're taking a big departure from what was. And not just me, for any of the books.




It's not an origin story, but the approach is, as if we're meeting this guy for the first time. He's already Hawkman. He's already lost the love of his life. It took me several months to work through his initial arc. It was very, very hard work. He's setting up new roots in NYC. I'm establishing a supporting cast of characters. Some are human, some are more than human. Some friend, some foe. I didn't feel I had the luxury of a great rogues gallery, such as the likes of The Flash or Batman. I need to make challenges for Carter Hall/Hawkman from the ground up.

My first priority was to introduce a character who will eventually be his nemesis. His arch-enemy. I'm very excited about that.


Sounds to me like where ever possible they are trying to stay vague and let it be implied that the stories we've read in the old continuity are in play until something specifically rules them in or out.

I'm sure continuity nuts are still going to have a field day with it as specific participants in older events appear to never have been there - but personally as long at they keep it straight and the core character in question is keeping his or her life-changing events, I'm optimistic.

I guess some of it depends on what you view the significant events for the character. For Tim Drake I see discovering Bruce's ID, becoming Robin, his father's death, Bruce's death, and becoming Red Robin that most important pieces - Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, joining the Titans, trying to clone Conner, and Kissing Cassie are less so to me (though others may disagree).

[jade_nova]

This sounds confusing. They want to do new beginnings but they want to keep aspects from the older stories around even though they aren't in continuity anymore. It sounds like the post-Crisis debacle all over again.

[Belldeap]

I do not believe Batman is intended to be in his 20's. SUperman is the first hero, but those early stories of him are being written in flashback. What I mean is, he was the first hero, but its not like he is just starting now as the first hero. This doesnt eliminate the JSA because wasnt Superman an original member? Batman is said to be starting the JLA 5 years before current time, but that doesnt mean he wasnt a superhero before then. I think it is still a safe assumption that Batman is in his 30's and his timeline is mostly intact.

[PastePotPete]

What exactly was the "post-crisis debacle"? I got into comics in the 90s so I'm unfamiliar.

I understand that that said "debacle" arose from Crisis eliminating some character histories and not others. But how did this become a problem?

[Jody Garland]

For a good example, Hawkman appeared in Invasion!. But they later said, no, he hadn't came to Earth yet despite being somewhat important in Invasion.

Anyways, stuff like this makes me wonder if the reboot is tied to Flashpoint heavier than people think. I'm still thinking certain titles are set on another Earth.

[KevinTBrown]

What exactly was the "post-crisis debacle"? I got into comics in the 90s so I'm unfamiliar.

I understand that that said "debacle" arose from Crisis eliminating some character histories and not others. But how did this become a problem?

DC didn't reboot everything post-Crisis. They only rebooted certain characters (i.e. Superman and Wonder Woman). When they did that, it dominoed. Then it made, for an example, Legion of Super-Heroes a problem with its origin because Superboy was no longer in continuity. So now they needed to fix it. And then with JLA, WW was no longer a founding member, so now they needed to fix that.

Ad infinitum.

It really made things much more complicated than it needed to be.

[Superbeast]

My take so far: the last 5 years of Batman happened, but not exactly the same. The last 5 years of GL happened exactly the same. Everything else? Fair game.

[Nevets F]

DC didn't reboot everything post-Crisis. They only rebooted certain characters (i.e. Superman and Wonder Woman). When they did that, it dominoed. Then it made, for an example, Legion of Super-Heroes a problem with its origin because Superboy was no longer in continuity. So now they needed to fix it. And then with JLA, WW was no longer a founding member, so now they needed to fix that.

Ad infinitum.

It really made things much more complicated than it needed to be.

Poor Donna Troy and Power Girl.

[Just Endless]

My take so far: the last 5 years of Batman happened, but not exactly the same. The last 5 years of GL happened exactly the same. Everything else? Fair game.

What would you change, in those last 5 years of Batman? Just curious, it's one of my favorite runs, anywhere.

I think DC did a great job with titles, but this looks like it will trip over it's shoelaces RIGHT INTO ANOTHER CRISIS.

[Superbeast]

What would you change, in those last 5 years of Batman? Just curious, it's one of my favorite runs, anywhere.

I think DC did a great job with titles, but this looks like it will trip over it's shoelaces RIGHT INTO ANOTHER CRISIS.

Nothing really except the whole Spoiler/Steph fake death crap and Red Hood/Jason Todd deciding to dress up like the Punisher's albino cousin with a dildo for a head.

However it looks like Babs was never Oracle, the BoP never existed and Tim Drake may have been the Bat computer geek from all appearances. So obviously some retcons are going in there.

[Bamf25]

So this is what they are saying in breif. Nothing is being erased or reset, we will just not be referencing the past stories directly from this point forward. This way old reads can still love their old stories, and new readers will not be left out. All stories and origins going forward will superceed (read retcon) what happened before, but if things are not specifically spelled out, old readers can assume they are as before. If we do change something, that will be the new cannon. Old stories specifically referenced will therefor become official connon at that point.

Well that is how I read it.

[PastePotPete]

DC didn't reboot everything post-Crisis. They only rebooted certain characters (i.e. Superman and Wonder Woman). When they did that, it dominoed. Then it made, for an example, Legion of Super-Heroes a problem with its origin because Superboy was no longer in continuity. So now they needed to fix it. And then with JLA, WW was no longer a founding member, so now they needed to fix that.

Ad infinitum.

It really made things much more complicated than it needed to be.

Oh, so they felt they had to write stories with the sole purpose of explaining these inconsistencies?

That doesn't really seem like a debacle to me. I think they should have just ignored the inconsistencies where they could.

Why is it important whether or not Wonder Woman helped found the JLA?

And with the Legion, why not just change the team's inspiration from Superboy to Superman and call it a day?

This is a debacle?

[superchick]

Oh, so they felt they had to write stories with the sole purpose of explaining these inconsistencies?

That doesn't really seem like a debacle to me. I think they should have just ignored the inconsistencies where they could.

Why is it important whether or not Wonder Woman helped found the JLA?

And with the Legion, why not just change the team's inspiration from Superboy to Superman and call it a day?

This is a debacle?

Its important for Wonder Woman's status at the heart of the DCU.

Its not about inspiration. Superboy and Supergirl were members so all those stories had to go or change.

To fix those Legion stories we got Pocket Universe Superboy which also gave us the Matrix Supergirl who started the whole mess of continuity because Supergirl became a protoplasmic entity from sub universe that merged with Linda Danvers and made her an angel. WHAT? And to make matters worse kara then shows up. First as a fire entityguardian angel/imaginary friend/Linda's saviour and then as actual pre-crisis Supergirl before her debut in 1959

Its why the new reboot confuses me. The 00's DC is characterised by Geoff Johns fixing COIE.

[MTL76]

That doesn't really seem like a debacle to me. I think they should have just ignored the inconsistencies where they could.

...

This is a debacle?

I agree. Most casual readers wouldn't even have noticed them. Editorial is the party calling attention to them.

They've said the retcon is also to show the heroes as younger and elss experienced... but if they are keeping all of the back stories then how are they younger? All they have to do is ask the writers to write the heroes the way they want; every new writer on Batman puts his/her own stamp on the guy, how is this any different?

I understand what's also gained is a big spike in interest from shuffling up the titles and creative teams and putting out a ton of #1 issues, but this also could have been done without a "reboot"... in quotes because at this point it's anyone's guess what it means.

[PastePotPete]

I agree. Most casual readers wouldn't even have noticed them. Editorial is the party calling attention to them.

They've said the retcon is also to show the heroes as younger and elss experienced... but if they are keeping all of the back stories then how are they younger? All they have to do is ask the writers to write the heroes the way they want; every new writer on Batman puts his/her own stamp on the guy, how is this any different?

I understand what's also gained is a big spike in interest from shuffling up the titles and creative teams and putting out a ton of #1 issues, but this also could have been done without a "reboot"... in quotes because at this point it's anyone's guess what it means.

Yeah, I see what you're saying about calling attention to the inconsistencies.

It seems like the most confusing thing DC does is embrace continuity while simultaneously rejecting it. Pick a stance!

I prefer they just reject it because I hate boring stories written solely with the aim of justifying some tiny continuity inconsistency. Especially when they employ some vague cosmic time 'n space mumbo jumbo (i.e. deus ex machina).


They need to pick a stance and stick with it.

[jgiannantoni05]

I'm glad this thread started.

I'm reading all this stuff, and many still don't seem to see what's actually being said of the changes.

Only a "reboot" if you define COIE as a "reboot," and COIE didn't "reboot" everything. Lots of pre-COIE stories remained canon, for many characters.

Batman and GL, as far as their specific local continuities, are being changed so little here in this Relaunch it really seems.


From another board:

Comic book time allows them to compress or shift time pretty easily. Trying to tie that to real world time is where confusion occurs.
Basically everything that happened will have happened the exact same way w/ small alterations unless otherwise stated.
I agree. This is how to best approach the Relaunch continuity.

It all happened, until you find out otherwise. And even then, it must clearly completely rule out said story at issue, not just alter its apparent time frame or something minor like that.

[Mat001]

What exactly was the "post-crisis debacle"? I got into comics in the 90s so I'm unfamiliar.

I understand that that said "debacle" arose from Crisis eliminating some character histories and not others. But how did this become a problem?

Marv Wolfman pitched an idea to the DC higher ups about rebooting all of the characters and renumber all of the books. Sound familiar? But the problem is that only John Byrne and George Perez were willing to go that far. The other writers and editors didn't want to do that. They would only do a soft reboot and all numberings remained the same, except for the Superman titles. Or when a book was subsequently canceled and then relaunched with a new number one. The issues with continuity are as follows.

-Superman was now no longer Superboy growing up, as under Byrne, he developed his powers slowly and didn't make his public debut until he was twenty four. This messed up the Legion's origins as they relied on Superboy quite extensively. This resulted in Byrne and the Legion writers creating a solution that should've been the end of it, but additional issues regarding that retcon resulted in further retcons. All of which ran through "Legion Of 3 Worlds" where Johns created a middle ground so that all Post Crisis stories had happened at some point.

-Continuing with the Superman thread, his being the only living Kryptonian to leave Krypton messed up Supergirl's status with both the Legion and within the first Crisis. Along with issues of the JLA where Kara played a part. Superman and JLA editorial wound up agreeing to have Power Girl fill in those gaps instead.

-Speaking of her, Power Girl was one of the leftovers from the Multiverse. A new origin was needed and so she was retconned as thinking she was Kryptonian, but instead was from Atlantis and was related to Arion. That is until she was retconned back into her old origin going into "Infinite Crisis".

-Hawkman. While he was given a new origin with "Hawkworld", a problem arose. See, Hawkman and Hawkwoman were still being utilized by DC. They appeared in Action Comics #588, 600 and Superman #18, among others where they played a significant part in all three issues. They also were in "Legends" and "Millenium", before going into "Invasion". They even appeared in JLI. "Hawkworld" was meant to take place at the same time as "Man Of Steel", "Year One" and "Emerald Dawn". But, a late decision was made to have Katar and Shayera debut after "Invasion", which messed up all of those JLA and other DC stories. So the JSA versions of Hawkman and Hawkgirl were retconned as serving as liasions for the JLA. And Fel Ander was created to fill in other stories where Katar was important and Carter couldn't be used. This then lead to "Zero Hour", where an attempt to move forward took place by merging Katar and Carter, but that didn't work. Finally, it was Johns who came up with the curse and reincarnation storyline to try and work things out.

-"Challenge Of The Gods" was not going to take place early on, but rather at the same time that "Legends" took place. Thereby messing up all the JLA stories and resulting in Black Canary replacing her. This in turn messed up Donna Troy and resulted in "Who Is Donna Troy?", which in turn was created to clarify the fact that Wonder Girl was originally Princess Diana as a teenager, when Bob Haney put her as a founding member of the Teen Titans. Donna was supposed to be a compromise, but then that all went out the window. Then there was the JSA, where Diana was also a member and so Byrne came up with having Hippolyta taking on the role of Wonder Woman and spending several years with the JSA in the past.

-Speaking of the JLA, Superman and Batman went from being full time members to being reserves who were called up to help when necessary. Batman didn't become a full time member right away and Superman didn't until just before his death.

The Flash was one of the few heroes whose origins remained virtually unchanged, save for the later revelation that Barry Allen's death resulted in his becoming the Flash in the first place. That he became the lightning bolt that empowered him that night. And now you understand.

[PA_Kid]

:wink:
Marv Wolfman pitched an idea to the DC higher ups about rebooting all of the characters and renumber all of the books. Sound familiar? But the problem is that only John Byrne and George Perez were willing to go that far. The other writers and editors didn't want to do that. They would only do a soft reboot and all numberings remained the same, except for the Superman titles. Or when a book was subsequently canceled and then relaunched with a new number one. The issues with continuity are as follows.

-Superman was now no longer Superboy growing up, as under Byrne, he developed his powers slowly and didn't make his public debut until he was twenty four. This messed up the Legion's origins as they relied on Superboy quite extensively. This resulted in Byrne and the Legion writers creating a solution that should've been the end of it, but additional issues regarding that retcon resulted in further retcons. All of which ran through "Legion Of 3 Worlds" where Johns created a middle ground so that all Post Crisis stories had happened at some point.

-Continuing with the Superman thread, his being the only living Kryptonian to leave Krypton messed up Supergirl's status with both the Legion and within the first Crisis. Along with issues of the JLA where Kara played a part. Superman and JLA editorial wound up agreeing to have Power Girl fill in those gaps instead.

-Speaking of her, Power Girl was one of the leftovers from the Multiverse. A new origin was needed and so she was retconned as thinking she was Kryptonian, but instead was from Atlantis and was related to Arion. That is until she was retconned back into her old origin going into "Infinite Crisis".

-Hawkman. While he was given a new origin with "Hawkworld", a problem arose. See, Hawkman and Hawkwoman were still being utilized by DC. They appeared in Action Comics #588, 600 and Superman #18, among others where they played a significant part in all three issues. They also were in "Legends" and "Millenium", before going into "Invasion". They even appeared in JLI. "Hawkworld" was meant to take place at the same time as "Man Of Steel", "Year One" and "Emerald Dawn". But, a late decision was made to have Katar and Shayera debut after "Invasion", which messed up all of those JLA and other DC stories. So the JSA versions of Hawkman and Hawkgirl were retconned as serving as liasions for the JLA. And Fel Ander was created to fill in other stories where Katar was important and Carter couldn't be used. This then lead to "Zero Hour", where an attempt to move forward took place by merging Katar and Carter, but that didn't work. Finally, it was Johns who came up with the curse and reincarnation storyline to try and work things out.

-"Challenge Of The Gods" was not going to take place early on, but rather at the same time that "Legends" took place. Thereby messing up all the JLA stories and resulting in Black Canary replacing her. This in turn messed up Donna Troy and resulted in "Who Is Donna Troy?", which in turn was created to clarify the fact that Wonder Girl was originally Princess Diana as a teenager, when Bob Haney put her as a founding member of the Teen Titans. Donna was supposed to be a compromise, but then that all went out the window. Then there was the JSA, where Diana was also a member and so Byrne came up with having Hippolyta taking on the role of Wonder Woman and spending several years with the JSA in the past.

-Speaking of the JLA, Superman and Batman went from being full time members to being reserves who were called up to help when necessary. Batman didn't become a full time member right away and Superman didn't until just before his death.

The Flash was one of the few heroes whose origins remained virtually unchanged, save for the later revelation that Barry Allen's death resulted in his becoming the Flash in the first place. That he became the lightning bolt that empowered him that night. And now you understand.

Great (long) description. (Glad I'm not the only one who remembers the Wally West origin thing. :biggrin:)

Long story short, by not relaunching everything in a consistent way at the same time, all sorts of minor continuity issues cropped up that readers kept askign about and writers felt the need to keep explaining. Problem was that each explanation led to five other questions or contradictions that another writer eventually tackled, and so on, and so on - leading us to the mire we have now.

[mistergoodman]

They've said the retcon is also to show the heroes as younger and elss experienced... but if they are keeping all of the back stories then how are they younger?

They're only keeping the important stuff. The unimportant and lame stuff didn't happen. :smile:

Anyway, it's not that different than Spider-Man having 50 years of adventures, many of them initially described as months apart, while aging very little. DC is taking that to the next level, removing an undefined number of stories, allowing the characters to have aged less!

[Bamf25]

They're only keeping the important stuff. The unimportant and lame stuff didn't happen. :smile:

Anyway, it's not that different than Spider-Man having 50 years of adventures, many of them initially described as months apart, while aging very little. DC is taking that to the next level, removing an undefined number of stories, allowing the characters to have aged less!

They are selectively retconning based on story needs and character needs. I suspect the readers will not know 100% of what has been removed for many months if ever. From this point forward any information presented will flat out superceed previous material, and the writers will not need to justify or come up with complicated stories to make the changes fit. Then the newly presented material or possibly officially supported previous story will be considered canon.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

This sounds confusing. They want to do new beginnings but they want to keep aspects from the older stories around even though they aren't in continuity anymore. It sounds like the post-Crisis debacle all over again.

If you ask me, they're making it up as they go along. Hardly a solid strategy for the reboot.

[PA_Kid]

If you ask me, they're making it up as they go along. Hardly a solid strategy for the reboot.

You can actually see Dan has wanted to do this for a long while if you look back - only now is it happening (probably because of the regime change).

Like it or hate it, Dan Didio seems to have a clear vision of what he wants to achieve - that's a good thing for it's potential success. The real question though is execution.

Personally the fact that several teams didn'g materialize until late isn't a huge negative - just means that some of the pitches were better than others and they are trying to go with what feels best for the overall brand in some cases and not relaunch stuff simply because it's something they've always done (like JSA or Batman/Superman).

If the editors don't enforce continuity in the new stuff though, they're screwed.

[thedragonreborn]

I'm actually more worried after reading these quotes. I agree that DC needs to take a stand and stick with it, and if they intend to cancel and restart every book, do it. No mealy mouthing. Sure they're going to piss off some people, but people are going to be mad when they read for a few months or years believing something that happened in old continuity and then a new issue completely kills that. So piss off the continuity nuts right up front, made a hard relaunch that restarts all the books with new stories, and hope that the new fans make up for the fans that drop everything, which I imagine will happen. Being vague and wishy washy never helped anyone.

[CagedLeo730]

I'm glad this thread started.

I'm reading all this stuff, and many still don't seem to see what's actually being said of the changes.

Only a "reboot" if you define COIE as a "reboot," and COIE didn't "reboot" everything. Lots of pre-COIE stories remained canon, for many characters.

Batman and GL, as far as their specific local continuities, are being changed so little here in this Relaunch it really seems.


From another board:

I agree. This is how to best approach the Relaunch continuity.

It all happened, until you find out otherwise. And even then, it must clearly completely rule out said story at issue, not just alter its apparent time frame or something minor like that.

Hey! I think that's my quote from the DC boards. I'm sorta flattered.

[bubble_chunks]

It seems like the most confusing thing DC does is embrace continuity while simultaneously rejecting it. Pick a stance!



There's a long time-honoured tradition of sort-of rebooting everything, but not-quite, making a hash of it and having to spend years ironing-out all the inconsistencies at DC comics. Its part of the *fun* of being a DC comic fan.

Actually, it is fun. It makes for lots of discussion, debate, head-scratching, some lousy stories, lots of good ones, and the occasional exceptional story.

That's why I'm looking forward to this reboot/not-rebboot. :biggrin:

[mistergoodman]

They are selectively retconning based on story needs and character needs. I suspect the readers will not know 100% of what has been removed for many months if ever. From this point forward any information presented will flat out superceed previous material, and the writers will not need to justify or come up with complicated stories to make the changes fit. Then the newly presented material or possibly officially supported previous story will be considered canon.

Exactly.

And I have no problem with this. It'll be too bad if Gail Simone's Birds of Prey stories aren't in continuity anymore, but I'm looking forward to reading her Batgirl comic.

[zetomenn]

So this is what they are saying in breif. Nothing is being erased or reset, we will just not be referencing the past stories directly from this point forward. This way old reads can still love their old stories, and new readers will not be left out. All stories and origins going forward will superceed (read retcon) what happened before, but if things are not specifically spelled out, old readers can assume they are as before. If we do change something, that will be the new cannon. Old stories specifically referenced will therefor become official connon at that point.

Well that is how I read it.

Yeah, that makes sense.

People seem to be interpreting this within the context of previous continuity, as though the relaunch is just another storyline and not a fixed point where everything before it is academic, or at least fodder for Wikipedia updates.

The problem is in the mindset of a Canonical Totality.
If people are going to insist on some kind of hard realist representations of time and collective memories, in diegesis, that lock stories into place then they first have to explain the exact physics behind Green Lanterns ring.

And the upside for the pedantic trainspotters that need the continuity to feel stable in life think of this: you can now erase the stories that you hated, even entire careers of creative teams you wish you didn't have to trudge through when you re-read our collection LOL

[Ghostbuster]

They are selectively retconning based on story needs and character needs. I suspect the readers will not know 100% of what has been removed for many months if ever. From this point forward any information presented will flat out superceed previous material, and the writers will not need to justify or come up with complicated stories to make the changes fit. Then the newly presented material or possibly officially supported previous story will be considered canon.


That's a nice idea in theory but only if the new material is better than the old. I mean do you really want people like Judd winick and JT krull overwriting great stories by John Ostrander, Keith Giffen, Mark Waid, etc.?


Strong stories like JLI: A New Beginning, James robinson's starman, ostranders suicide squad, the golden age, etc. May go out the window if it doesn't suit the writer of the month's agenda. Kinda like how Geoff retold green lanterns origins just to make it seem like blackest night was going to happen all along. That is just dumb.

[mistergoodman]

Strong stories like JLI: A New Beginning, James robinson's starman, ostranders suicide squad, the golden age, etc. May go out the window if it doesn't suit the writer of the month's agenda. Kinda like how Geoff retold green lanterns origins just to make it seem like blackest night was going to happen all along. That is just dumb.

Yeah, readers were pretty outraged over Johns' stories contradicting silver age stories published 50 years earlier. (Not.)

I think until we hear otherwise we should just assume that fondly remembered or popular stories are still in continuity (perhaps slightly tweaked) and crappy fogotten stories no longer happened.

Incidentally, Robinson's Golden Age was never in continuity. It was always an Elseworlds, but we don't remember it any less fondly. Or were you referring generically to the comics golden age that hasn't been in continuity for decades (and even when it was continuity, it was an alternate Earth).

[Bamf25]

That's a nice idea in theory but only if the new material is better than the old. I mean do you really want people like Judd winick and JT krull overwriting great stories by John Ostrander, Keith Giffen, Mark Waid, etc.?


Strong stories like JLI: A New Beginning, James robinson's starman, ostranders suicide squad, the golden age, etc. May go out the window if it doesn't suit the writer of the month's agenda. Kinda like how Geoff retold green lanterns origins just to make it seem like blackest night was going to happen all along. That is just dumb.

This is the risk that DC is taking. Yes, they are basically opening the door for new writers both good and bad to selectively eliminate what great creators have done in the past. We just have to hope that the editors have respect for stories that are truely great, and are honest in admitting what stories are not. Unfortunately, taste is subjective, and what an editor deems as worthy may not make (and likely won't) make some readers happy.

If they want this to work, editorial needs to keep much tighter controls on what is done from here on out. So they are palcing a ton of trust is the creators putting down the new foundation. If the foundation is not sound, logical, and interesting, they will again fall into the cycle that made this "reboot" needed in the first place.

As for the creators from the golden and silver ages. I personally do not think they were anywhere as concerned with continuity as we are now. They were just writing stories for kids (we need to be honest about that). They did what was needed to create an interesting 10 cent story that any kid could pick up at any time and understand. As comics evolved through the 60's and into the 70's those kid grew up, and to a point comics did also. The stories and characters and therefor continuity became more complex and more important. But editorial lagged behind in understanding what different writers within their own company were doing at a given time. The continuity became quicky convoluted and complex, thus they have always been playing catchup.