52 and the DCU vs. the New 52 and the DCnU

I’ve been hesitant to comment on this. Everyone has an opinion, and I was letting some time go by for some issues to come out and to let the fires die down.

Let me be clear – I haven’t read a single issue of this New 52 business, but I’ve seen the pics and read some reviews and felt now is the time to throw my hat into the ring.

I understand why DC did this. Readership was down and they were losing money. A shot in the arm was needed for both themselves and the industry in general.

My problem is how DC chose to address these concerns. By starting from scratch, DC succeeded in gaining new readership, and put many of their issues in the top ten sellers for the past two months…but they alienated many fans, such as myself, who grew up with these characters. This once again proved to me a glaring reality:

I am not the target market for either of the Big Two’s publications.


I’m approaching 40 and have a wife and a child, a mortgage, and a 40+ hour a week job spanning nights and weekends. A good night’s sleep is a rarity, a night out to see a movie in the theater is an endangered species, and a blessed weekend to sit in peace with a stack of comics to read at my leisure doesn’t exist anymore.

My point is that DC desperately wants my money, but isn’t writing stories with me in mind. They have changed their universe to appeal to the younger, allowance driven generation and left mine and those before me in the wind.


Now this isn’t a new idea for DC. In fact, they’ve done it at least twice before.


The Silver Age of comics began with a new Flash, replacing Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick with Barry Allen. – Goodbye loyal Golden Age readers.

DC attempted to bring Golden Age fans back by re-introducing Jay to (then) current DC Universe with the creation of Earth-Two. But this begat multiple Earths to the point where the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline was needed to merge all parallel universes into one “New” Earth. Oh, and Barry Allen is replaced by Wally West as the new Flash. – Hello Post Crisis, goodbye loyal Golden and Silver Age readers.


This new DCU had problems as well, since Superboy no longer existed, that meant that neither did the Legion of Super-Heroes. So along came Zero Hour. While the debate exists whether or not this new “New” Earth is in fact another beginning to the DCU, Zero Hour caused at least some changes to most characters…including Flash by killing Wally West. – Goodbye loyal Post-Crisis readers.

So this goes on for a while, but DC decides to throw more crises into the mix, with Barry coming back, Wally coming back, Bart Allen becoming Flash, and a lot of other crazy stuff. – Good luck following that.


Then came 52, which didn’t deal with Flash too much. Wally was back, but powerless and 52 new Earths are created (including Jay’s Earth-Two). This was a great story that felt to me as a swan song; a tip of the hat to all DC had done before. It wasn’t a slate-wiping event, but a great “jumping-on” point for new readers without pissing off whatever loyal readers DC had by then.


But apparently DC wasn’t done pissing readers off.


So now we have the “New” 52, starting the DCU over from scratch (again), ignoring everything that came before (again…including Crisis on Infinite Earths and 52 by the way). – Goodbye whatever loyal readers DC had by then.


I gave up reading DC a while ago, but my interest never waned. I still cared about these characters even when I couldn’t afford to follow them on a monthly basis. Now it has gotten to the point where I simply don’t give a rat’s ass what happens anymore.


I’m done with DC as it is now and wash my hands of it. Any money I spend on DC will be filling in the holes of my collection. And when I retire, I’ll spend my golden years sitting down every weekend reliving the “good ol’ days” with a stack of comics and follow my beloved characters when they made sense…in between long naps and the occasional night out.