It's getting ridiculous-- they should just follow the model of the Timm/Dini-verse.

Not quite a reboot, but I would like them to simply stop writing Earth 1 and 2 stories.

Plain and simple, leave those universes intact so the fan boys won't bitch about their favorite characters being destroyed, but move the stories to other Earths, basically I'm asking for all Elseworlds all the time, but not in such terms, just give writers and artists the characters in the most general terms and give them free reign, in my opinion that would lead to much better stories.

So... yes? What?

It's Marvel that needs a reboot, between the two of them. One that sticks for at least 10 years.

I voted "No".

I voted "Who care?". I really don't care about DC's continuity at all (or Marvel's). I want entertaining comic books, and it doesn't matter to me if the most entertaining Superman comic is an out-of-continuity All Star book.

I voted 'YES' cuz I like the animated Timm universe, and the JLU universe, and the Brave and Bold universe.

They should just stop all these universe-fixing events and give us stories. There is no reason for all this nonsense they've been doing for the last 2, 3 years. Get on with it already.

I wonder if they'd be able to compete better with Marvel if they dropped all the Crisis BS.

Then it's a failure on that front as well, sales are hemorrhaging.

I like the Crisis BS

Crisis BS = No avatars

Voted for "Who Cares". In the abstract, yes, DC could use a full reboot ~ so could Marvel, so could any company working a shared universe of fictional characters, and it should be done about once every 10 or 15 years just to make sure that the product is contemporary. That would best ensure a continuing replenishment of new buyers for the product.

But in actual practice, it's not the "status quo" that really matters, it's the people writing the books. You could set things up very well, but a bad writer will wreck it. Conversely, a good writer can spin gold out of a poor or even convoluted premise.

Im in the "who cares" camp..DC has been too busy doing reboot after reboot...just ignore the crap and write cool stories...(Mike Carlin, Bob Wayne and some other dinosaurs should get the re-boot and DC needs some new blood in editorial).

Like Linda said...its all about the talent..to me right now Marvel is firing on all cylinders with Brubaker, Fraction, Millar, etc...

Y'know for a long time I have been convinced that this is just what Final Crisis was leading to, a DC Reboot, Ultimate DC, whatever. Now with the announcements that DC is "folding" Milestone and Archie characters into their universe, I'm not so sure. So what is the big DCU status quo shake up that has been hinted at, I wonder?

+1

The time has come for both major companies to dispense with "continuity" and just tell stories linked by some common conceits, a la Sin City.

No need to establish what "universe" or "earth" something is in. Just pick up a story, tell the reader enough to grab hold, and press on.

The "continuity" will come to be associated with certain writers and certain runs. No layer behind that says "yeah, but where did this HAPPEN?"

I don't think a reboot is the answer, because I'm sure there's at least a few books doing it right and putting bums in the seat. However there's probably a few titles that could stand to shed a few decades of unflattering continuity. Superman is title that seems to be having some issues.. a fresh start probably wouldn't hurt. Batman could probably do with another half reboot, leaving Nightwing in place. Although Batman continuity is such that you probably don't need to

Ultimate Universes work, reboots don't. Not at this point in the game.

Writers are no longer held by continuity. You can kill off Captain Penetrate and replace him with Kid Penetrate, but eventually a writer will come along that was a huge fan of the Captain and thinks he should return to head up the title.

Then you have the Didio's of the world who can't decide on a plan. When your reboot comes with an easy escape plan back to previous continuity, your reboot ain't gonna' last. Right now it appears that they set a course and then check their bearings with the fan community to see if they're headed in the right direction. They drift in a general direction with no set goal.

Ultimate seemed to work because it couldn't revert to the other continuity (the other continuity was still alive). If they had killed the MU when they started the UU? We'd see examples of continuity drifting backwards.

When Marv Wolfman was writing Crisis On Infinite Earths, he pitched to the DC powers-that-be that once Crisis was over, all of the January 1986 DC books would start over at issue #1. Clean slate, everything you knew never happened.

Of course, that didn't happen, but it would have been interesting had they done so. The editors and creators would have to have worked overtime to coordinate such a thing, but I guess we'll never know what might have been.

I disagree that Didio hasn't had a plan. I think the plan was to offer an endless promise of the next Big Event fixing everything, but the conclusion of each is just a setup for the next Big Event which will fix everything. I think that's been the plan all along and will remain so for as long as Didio is in charge.