I miss the pre-Flashpoint DCU

[Hulk_Is]

What more is there to them than stories?

That's their purpose, they are books after all.

I don't focus on the story aspect myself. I mean, I'm reading Aquaman and while his and Mera's (his wife) decision to stay above ground for the time being and the ongoing mysteries of the Trench is dandy and all, I'm currently just enjoying the encounter with the bad guys and their weird barfing for the time being. The "story" will take care of itself.

I'm one of the few adult readers who can enjoy superhero comic books on a base level. I understand there's an actual story that takes place, but I'm just as content to see characters get punched in their faces and planets blowing up.

And to expand on my explanation, if you were to take Batman and apply him to that same story, I wouldn't even follow it. To me the story isn't important. I like the main character and so I was 90% sold right there.

[Scorpion 76]

I have to agree that it's been an overall good thing, minor quibbles regarding excessive violence and well loved characters and legacies disappearing aside. It's not as though the old universe has disappeared completely and who knows what the future holds for the likes of Booster Gold & the JSA, who basically have the potential to be able to restore some of the old ways in their storylines. Then there's Multiversity, which will feature the first proper look at the DCnu in its entirety.
I think to sacrifice all the good that has come from what was unarguably this year's defining event in comics just to bring Wally West and Connor Hawke back would be utterly disingenuous for reasons that have little to do with corporate greed. Looking at what is out there just now fills me with optimism, especially in the Justice League, Batman and Green Lantern books, which have retained a lot of what was working before while still moving forward. 'Justice League Dark' is a hoot; 'Action Comics' is a lot of fun; 'Stormwatch' is surprising and interesting; 'Swamp Thing' & 'Animal Man' are coming along like the past 15 years never happened, while others like 'The Shade' and 'Frankenstein' are helping further redefine the DCnu as a whole. Sure, there are some missteps such as 'Suicide Squad' & 'Red Hood & The Outlaws', but there is plenty for the average comics fan every week. It took real balls to tear down everything so that they could start from scratch, and ultimately the New 52 will be remembered as the move that saved the company and made it more relevant and welcoming for the next generation of fans to come in from the worlds of the film & game adaptations. Any industry needs new blood, it's a simple fact of life and by embracing this DC have changed the rules of the game, for now at least.

[Raye]

I don't focus on the story aspect myself. I mean, I'm reading Aquaman and while his and Mera's (his wife) decision to stay above ground for the time being and the ongoing mysteries of the Trench is dandy and all, I'm currently just enjoying the encounter with the bad guys and their weird barfing for the time being. The "story" will take care of itself.

I'm one of the few adult readers who can enjoy superhero comic books on a base level. I understand there's an actual story that takes place, but I'm just as content to see characters get punched in their faces and planets blowing up.

And to expand on my explanation, if you were to take Batman and apply him to that same story, I wouldn't even follow it. To me the story isn't important. I like the main character and so I was 90% sold right there.

If you're only concerned with characters punching bad guys, what does a reboot matter? They're still punching bad guys... some have different costumes, but they've had costume changes before without the aid or a reboot.

Personally, I'm fairly new to the DCU. I've read a bit from before the reboot, but not a whole lot, so it doesn't really affect me much. but I can understand how some people may be upset that their favorite character has been changed in a way they may not like, or something...

[Buried Alien]

I predict that sooner or later, everything you love and miss from the old DCU is going to re-emerge in some form in the New 52 DCU.

They always do. By the time the old DCU was done, much of what had been taken out by COIE a quarter century earlier had returned in some form (except a proper Katar Hol/Hawkman and Shayera Thal/Hawkwoman).

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[The_Dork_Nut]

I miss the Flash family/wonder where they are???
Remember Barry can traverse time and Dimensions so they could be in the multiverse somewhere.

About it for me.

[doolbnoom]

i was really stoked. DC touted this as a big thing, however.... titles like Demon Knights really let me down. but there are other titles that are very good. it's taking time to adjust for me, and slowly, the DCnU is "kind of" mixing old and new- in my eyes. but the exclusion of such prominent characters as Wally West, the JSA, and countless others is unforgivable and shocking. yet, the JSA shall return and i'm sure the others will eventually follow.

but, yes, i miss the old DCU very much. i'm happy there are so many back issues to get and 'catch up on'.

[chastmastr]

i'm happy there are so many back issues to get and 'catch up on'.

Oh, I as well. (And, again, see the link in my sig. I see the last universe as winding up nicely with the last issues of the pre-Flashpoint titles, except for Flash itself and Time Masters, which were kind of prequels to Flashpoint and the new DCU. Somewhere out there a married Lois and Clark live in a world where Clark gave out those little Superman squad devices, and so on...)

[Pixie_Solanas]

I don't miss it at all.

[chastmastr]

I don't miss it at all.

. . .

well, alright then.

[batmanjones]

I miss the pre-CoIE multiverse. My thoughts on the vast majority of 1986-2011 are good riddance to bad rubbish.

[chastmastr]

I miss the pre-CoIE multiverse. My thoughts on the vast majority of 1986-2011 are good riddance to bad rubbish.

I think that's a bit harsh; my gripe isn't with the existence of one but with the absence of the other.

[Jono11]

I predict that sooner or later, everything you love and miss from the old DCU is going to re-emerge in some form in the New 52 DCU.

But what if the things I miss are very specific forms? Is Wally West coming back as a legacy hero who's undergone 20 years of comics' worth of character growth? Is Superboy coming back as a young man who's come to terms with being half-Superman/half-Luthor with the help of his long-time friends, Tim Drake and Cassie Sandsmark? The things I miss about the old DCU are things that won't be coming back because it would be nonsensical to bring them back in the specific forms I remember. They've established a new continuity explicitly to make it impossible to go back to the old one. This isn't as simple as it was to make it so Supergirl's name was Kara Zor-El again.

[Pixie_Solanas]

. . .

I refuse to live in the past. Onwards and upwards.

[Flash174]

Since the beginning of this past summer, I've been reading DC comics from the late 90s and early-to-mid 00s. To me, this was the Golden Age of DC, the era that introduced me to the DC Universe and formed the basis of my hobby (though my friends and family may call it an obsession). It is the center point of my collection, from which I worked backward and forward.

It's one of life's great cliches, but things change. Sometimes for the better; sometimes for the worse; sometimes for something neither better nor worse, just different. Reverence and nostalgia are the enemies of art (and yes, I'm foolish enough to think that, sometimes, comic books ascend to the status of art). The DC Universe had to reboot, otherwise it risked running stagnant, stale.

I think DC did a great job with the reboot. Are there bad books? Oh yeah. Good books? There's some great books! Mediocre books? Yep. But there will always be good, bad and mediocre books published. In the end, though, they've rejuvenated a number of properties, and brought the entire line up to modern readers' sensibilities.

I miss the DC Universe I grew up with, but I still have the experiences of it, the memories of taking the bus after school to the nearest comic book shop to buy the latest issue of Dixon's Nightwing or Johns' Flash, and devouring the issue again and again until the next one. And I still have them in long boxes, just waiting for me to read and experience anew, whenever I want to.

The old DC Universe is gone, but it's certainly not dead.

[Endless Flight]

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana

Much like Marvel and DC since the early 90s.