Ways DC Could Have Rebooted the DCU

I've been thinking about how DC could have reinvented the DCU that wouldn't have pissed me off so much.

They could have created another universe in the multiverses and started over. They could have taken the new versions of the old characters in any direction. Everything would have been new and fresh and could've been exciting. The old DCU would exist in the universe we all knew and loved, but we just wouldn't be reading about them, until/unless there was a crossing of the universes and they all met. Fun times! Same as when Earth-1 and Earth-2 characters learned about each other.

Age the longstanding DCU characters to something resembling their actual age, maybe add in a decade or two. Most would be retired, some even deceased perhaps. Keep some of the newer, younger characters in their roles, either at their age at the end of the DCU or a bit more mature. Fill out the character roster with new heroes. Maybe Bruce Wayne, Jr. is Batman. Superman and Supergirl likely age more slowly, so might be able to maintain their roles, or perhaps, their offspring have taken over.

I like either of the above options because they maintain continuity, in a fashion, and the legacy aspect of the DCU that made it so special to me for 50 plus years, along with the multiverse. The DCnU doesn't feel special at all. It just feels like a mess.

NYCC Sunday

It was kids' day at the con. Lots of short folks underfoot. It might've been more mobbed yesterday, but today it really got to me. I could hardly move anywhere. I didn't get many sketches this con, partly because I never got to Amanda Connor's table at the right time and partly because too many of the artists I wanted sketches from were too busy finishing commissions. I don't really commission art or buy finished pieces because I have no room to display them and my money goes toward supporting my toy, book, and comics habits. ;)

Anyway, Cliff Chang was nice enough to do a quickie for me, and Dustin Nguyen did a quick Steph Brown Batgirl sketch. To me, these little sketches are like enhanced autographs.

Now, I'm exhausted and my feet and legs hurt, not from walking around so much as from standing around or moving at a snail's pace trying to get through the dealers' room where I hang out pretty much the entire time I'm at the con.

Highlights in photos...

Cliff Chang

At the DC Booth

I'm not sure what's scarier: that they made these Alfred E. Neuman Justice Leaguers or that I think I want the Wonder Woman one.

Celebrating Spy vs. Spy's 50th Anniversary

Jimmy Palmiotti

Neal Adams

Toys! Toys! Toys!

Steph Batgirl by Dustin Nguyen

Sketch by Cliff Chang

More NYCC ComicCon Photos

I spent time in Artist Alley today, then visited with a flickr friend who came to the con from out of town.

Katie Cook

Amanda Connor is always obliging when I ask her to pose with a toy.

Dustin Nguyen

Amy Reeder

NYCC 2012 Has Begun!

I missed out on Thursday's Pro Hours because I didn't know they were going to do them Thursday evening, so I didn't ask for that off on my vacation request last fall and had to work. :(

Today was a madhouse. I met up with 4 friends I met via flickr, which was very cool. Two are friends I've gone on photoshoots with after meeting them in person a few years ago, one I met in person at last year's NYCC, and the other I met for the first time a few years ago and haven't seen since. It's great getting to meet online friends.

We mostly walked around taking pictures and shopping/browsing at the toy vendors. And I got David Horvath to sign my vinyl Critterbox Cinko. Tomorrow, I plan to hit Artist Alley and some of the comics vendors. I'd love to fill in some GNs and compilations I'm still missing.

David Horvath

Dr. Horrible

Some DC Cosplay

DC Booth

DC Booth

Zombie Nurses!

Yet More on the DCnU

If you haven't seen it, this is awesome: What the DC characters think of the DCnU.

I read Grifter 2 and while not much seems to be happening, it hasn't turned me off, so I'm still curious and still reading.

The Nature of Sex and Sexism in the DCnU

I posted this long comment on a post over at Stars and Garters and thought I'd repost it here, to share and to keep it for myself for future reference.


An excellent post. I do feel the need to add a few things, however,

Because not all women are created equal. We don't think alike, nor do we enjoy the same things. Or get offended by the same things.

First, I'm a middle-aged white married woman who has been reading comics, mainly DC Comics, for over 50 years (egads, that makes me feel OLD).

I do prefer female characters to be strong. I prefer male characters to be strong, too. I want to read about good, interesting characters. I also like reading about quirky characters, ones with emotional conflicts, flaws that get explored in stories, and lots of other things, but mostly, I like them to be individuals.

I'm shunning most of the DCnU not because of how the characters are being treated, but because I just can't handle another reboot, especially one that negates so much of what I know and love about my favorite characters.

Batwoman is fine. She's knew without a lot of history to have negated. Catwoman, no matter how she's being written now, is out for me because too much is being denied as having happened. I'm sickened by what I've read about how she's being depicted, but my not reading her book has nothing to do with that treatment. I'm not reading Nightwing for a similar reason. I don't want to read Dick Grayson going backward in his life.

So, another book I'm not reading is Red Hood and the Outlaws because I detest Jason Todd (I'm one of the folks who voted for him to be killed). And as appalled as I am by how Kory is being treated, I'm also appalled by how Roy Harper is being treated. He was a wonderfully complex character, one who always tried to do the right thing and even though he enjoyed sex with any woman who was willing, he always respected them. And now, he's a moron, based on the panels I saw if he's willing to take advantage of Kory like that.

As for Voodoo, it wasn't the best way to intro the character, but it's a part of Pris that I remember and I'm willing to see where it's going. She is an alien, after all.

So, when it comes to the DCnU, I'm just annoyed and appalled by a lot of the choices they've made. I happen to like reading about males as much or more so than females. I like beefcake and therefore can't begrudge guys their cheesecake, provided  there's that beefcake for me and stories to go with both.

So yes, we all need to keep protesting how females are treated in comics, but let's also protest how idiotic and misogynistic men are so often portrayed, too, because that just keeps feeding the stereotypes and the wrong attitudes in the readers.

The Crisis Crisis

So the Crisis never happened? Here's my take on things, which given I'm reading very, very little of the DCnU, should be taken with a handful of salt.

Crisis happened. Everything happened. As with the post-Crisis, end of the multiverse times, there's no collective memory of it. Back then, time just rebooted itself and plopped people into place as if there had never been a multiverse, but of course, some characters outside the bubble, so to speak, did remember and that led to the second Crisis.

So now, no one recalls the old 'verses. Flashpoint reset everything, with some characters having a history that reflects the Crisis and post-Crisis times and others not.

For us veterans of Doctor Who and Torchwood, this wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff is no big deal.

And I still have no interest in reading most of it.

And someday, we'll have a new reality in the DC realm. And maybe it'll be one I'm interested in reading.