DC's One Year Later: A Failure? (Potential Spoilers)

[Spider-Man]

One Year Later...and sales are dropping. Many have criticized DC's post-OYL universe as too confusing and a mess. Continuity isn't matching between titles and some characters are completely differentl than before the big reboot. On top of that, sales are dropping and creative teams are falling apart. Either books have been delayed beyond belief, creative teams have been reshuffled, and most revamps have been cited as failures (both financially and creatively). Some books are still remaining strong but other titles are seeing their sales drops to numbers lower than before the OYL reboot. So, is DC's One Year Later a failure?

 

[Jin Kazama]

Honestly, I would consider it a failure. 90% of the OYL titles are now back at around exactly where they were pre-OYL, without little explanation on the year that was gone. Most of the creative teams just used it as a way to start a new storyline without having to properly wrap up an old one. As a jumping-on point. Not as a part of a storyline.

Some of the comic have become better, some laughably worse, but none of those because of OYL, but because of the stories and creative teams involved.

Not to mention, as a person that's read all of 52 up to this point, None of it has any relation to the majority of the mainstream DCU titles. Unless something huge happens during World War III to make everyone and their mother become deeply involved in it, then I see no reason at all for the need to have OYL, other than to do, as I said, a way to stop current storylines and try to bring on new readers with a fresh start.

 

[Ed Liu]

...I see no reason at all for the need to have OYL, other than to do, as I said, a way to stop current storylines and try to bring on new readers with a fresh start.

The only OYL books I tried out afterwards were Wonder Woman and Aquaman, and in both cases, I felt that the "fresh start" was as heavily dependent on past continuity as any comic was before it. As comics, I liked Aquaman more than Wonder Woman (but that was because I really, really hated the WW restart), but I thought it was a pretty rotten way to do a "fresh start," if you ask me.

Then again, I follow books for creators, not whatever crossover event is affecting things at the moment, and I'm waiting for the trade on nearly everything (Kurt Busiek's Superman is probably the only exception). The fact that OYL Atom is some new guy is less interesting to me than the fact that it's Gail Simone writing him, and Simone's involvement is the major factor for me to continue reading Birds of Prey.

-- Ed

 

[Eddie G.]

Well, 52 was still pretty cool. Beyond that though the OYL thing was a waste. There's been some cool stuff in the Batman and Superman books, but nothing happened in those books that really needed the jump. Then we have the fact that the re-launches of Flash, Justice League, and Wonder Woman have been horrible. Stuff like Blue Beetle is good, but would've actually worked much better without OYL.

Marvel has it's problems, but its mega-events seem more naturalistic, and I get the general direction that editorial is going. DC is just a mess right now, and I think Countdown is just going to make things worse.

 

[Stardust]

I haven't been able to read the 52 storyline. Being overseas I had to depend on the forum and the internet to catch up on what happened. Since I follow the Superman and Batman storylines, I was surprised at what they did to Cassandra. I'm not really pleased at it because she was such a great character before. I haven't fully understood the "reboot" and the purpose of OYL and 52, but I've been slowly catching up on the series.

 

[Stu]

I've found the majority of the DC titles are a lot better since OYL happened. I'd probably say that's because of the new creative teams and I really didn't give a crap about Infinite Crisis or Omacs and such.

Then again, since I read a total of around 3 DC comics, I'm probably not the best one to ask...

 

[Jin Kazama]

Since I follow the Superman and Batman storylines, I was surprised at what they did to Cassandra. I'm not really pleased at it because she was such a great character before.

Well, you now have one less thing to worry about, because they've since turned her back to the good side in the pages of Teen Titans, explaining her motives for turning evil and bringing her back to the heroes.

 

[Invidente 7]

..........what?

Well, 52 was still pretty cool. Beyond that though the OYL thing was a waste. There's been some cool stuff in the Batman and Superman books, but nothing happened in those books that really needed the jump. Then we have the fact that the re-launches of Flash, Justice League, and Wonder Woman have been horrible. Stuff like Blue Beetle is good, but would've actually worked much better without OYL.

Marvel has it's problems, but its mega-events seem more naturalistic, and I get the general direction that editorial is going. DC is just a mess right now, and I think Countdown is just going to make things worse.

Just in what dimension do you live in? Marvel has become a huge mess with the Civil War fiasco while DC is stronger than ever thanks the reboot, and also the WW relaunch was a sucess

 

[Robin2099]

Just in what dimension do you live in? Marvel has become a huge mess with the Civil War fiasco while DC is stronger than ever thanks the reboot, and also the WW relaunch was a sucess

I wouldn't go that far. The relaunch of The Flash was a disaster till Gugenheim took over. Aquaman was good when Busiek was writing it, but now it's just become incredibly juvenille. WW has gotten even worse. Why they didn't put Andreyko on that book I'll never know. I will agree that Civil War was a mess though.

 

[wonderfly]

Just in what dimension do you live in? Marvel has become a huge mess with the Civil War fiasco while DC is stronger than ever thanks the reboot, and also the WW relaunch was a sucess

And thus, this thread turns into your good old "DC vs. Marvel" debate.

I think what Civil War and Infinite Crisis/OYL have both done is to divide comic book fans into opposing camps, (and most comic book readers already lean in favor of one publisher over the other), but these mega-events have only further entrenched both sides in their stances.

I myself saw Infinite Crisis/OYL as making the DC universe incoherent, (I guess that whole "multi-verse" thing was too hard to wrap my head around), and so it was a good enough reason for me to stop reading 90% of current DC continuity, (I generally stick to titles not affected by modern DC continuity, such as Jonah Hex and Legion of Super-Heroes).

"Civil War", on the other hand, while not the best written mini-series in and of itself, provided several story possibilities that are truly unique in this post-Civil War universe...I find myself signing up more and more Marvel titles to read each month, because I want to see the entire fallout from Civil War. It's a good time to be a Marvel fan, for me.

But on the other hand, I know other fans, (like yourself) who had the completely opposite reaction, and now find themselves dropping all Marvel titles, and sticking with DC. It's a strange phenomenon, and I can only attribute it to the two companies going down different paths as far as publishing and storytelling style.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

I've found the majority of the DC titles are a lot better since OYL happened. I'd probably say that's because of the new creative teams and I really didn't give a crap about Infinite Crisis or Omacs and such.

Then again, since I read a total of around 3 DC comics, I'm probably not the best one to ask...

You Spider-Man avatar is a subtle hint, "Marvel Mod."

 

[RedKing52]

OYL was a great concept that was horribly executed. Aquaman, Detective Comics, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Outsiders and Superman were the only books on my reading list that, more or less, stayed consistent and good as the event pressed on (Outsiders and Arrow especially). If DC's going to try something like this again, they really need to get it in gear.

 

[The Myst]

Green Lantern, specifically Hal Jordan, is my favorite character in the DCU. I loved the first nine issues of the series. #10 was when it jumped OYL. It's sucked horribly since then. The latest issue was the first one since OYL where I enjoyed the book and liked Hal's character. Hell, I was considering dropping the book for a while and was wondering whether I was even a fan of the character anymore. That's how bad it had gotten. It was only reading Waid's Brave And The Bold that reminded me why I loved the character of Hal Jordan so much. The post-OYL GL was so bad, it killed my interest in my favorite character. The latest issue was good, I'll give it that, but waiting through a year now of terrible, terrible issues which were delayed constantly because Johns is writing so many damn books these days was hell as a comic book reader.

Dr. Mid-Nite is my second favorite character in the DCU and I love all things related to the JSA from Golden Age to the pre-OYL JSA book. I've been nothing but disappointed with the relaunched post-OYL JSA book and I hate almost all the new members of the team except Sandman (Who technically isn't new to the team, he's just back to it) and Starman. I've always hated the Commander Steel family and this latest one is no exception. I hate the Rick Tyler Hourman (Love the other two, why couldn't the android have rejoined the team?), hate Liberty Belle/Jesse Quick and always have, and I hate Damage. This love triangle doesn't interest me in the slightest and all I do is laugh at Damage and his newfound emoness. Cyclone is one of the worst JSA members ever created. Seriously horrible. Obsidian has always sucked when he's not a villain and adding him to the team does nothing but bloat the now huge roster. Which brings me to my next point, what was the point of adding so many new members? There are 16 members of the JSA now. That's way too many to fit in a book. And what did they need new JSA members for anyway? There's plenty of stories to tell with the ones from the last book, which was going great before they got the bright idea to relaunch it completely. They didn't need new members. There are so many stories they could tell with Jakeem Thunder, Mr. Terrific, Dr. Mid-Nite, etc. But apparently Geoff couldn't think of any so he threw in the worst bunch of new recruits ever. Not to mention this awful new son of Wildcat's.

They also relaunched JLA. Meltzer's relaunch is one of the worst JLA books I've ever read. Red Tornado, Vixen, and Geo-Force are some of the worst characters ever period, not just JLA members. Focusing on them makes for boring, bad stories. And that's all the book has focused on so far. To his credit, Meltzer has made Roy Harper interesting to me for the first time since Green Lantern/Green Arrow. But the rest of the book sucks. And now they're doing a JLA/JSA/Legion thing. I apologize to any fans of the Legion but I hate that group. And you know that with three huge teams being involved here, there's not going to be enough room for them to focus on but one or two people from each team and inevitably somebody (Read: any characters I like) will be shafted. This is going to be a chaotic crossover and a plain bad story.

52 was a good series... before I realized it was going nowhere, had no relevance to the mainstream DCU, and they killed another of my favorite characters (The Question). I would've dropped the book a long time ago if the whole thing wasn't already paid for. I damn sure didn't buy World War III though.

I doubt I'll be buying Countdown but I'm tempted just to find out what happened to The Atom, something that should've been answered in 52.

So do I think OYL was a failure? Hell yes.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

And thus, this thread turns into your good old "DC vs. Marvel" debate.

I think what Civil War and Infinite Crisis/OYL have both done is to divide comic book fans into opposing camps, (and most comic book readers already lean in favor of one publisher over the other), but these mega-events have only further entrenched both sides in their stances.

I myself saw Infinite Crisis/OYL as making the DC universe incoherent, (I guess that whole "multi-verse" thing was too hard to wrap my head around), and so it was a good enough reason for me to stop reading 90% of current DC continuity, (I generally stick to titles not affected by modern DC continuity, such as Jonah Hex and Legion of Super-Heroes).

"Civil War", on the other hand, while not the best written mini-series in and of itself, provided several story possibilities that are truly unique in this post-Civil War universe...I find myself signing up more and more Marvel titles to read each month, because I want to see the entire fallout from Civil War. It's a good time to be a Marvel fan, for me.

But on the other hand, I know other fans, (like yourself) who had the completely opposite reaction, and now find themselves dropping all Marvel titles, and sticking with DC. It's a strange phenomenon, and I can only attribute it to the two companies going down different paths as far as publishing and storytelling style.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't IC/OYL an attempt at cleanup, wheras CW has made this more complicated? They'd kind of taken opposite paths, haven't they?

 

[Jin Kazama]

Infinite Crisis was supposed to clean up a lot of hanging loopholes and streamline things. The bad thing is, though, is that it was a success as far as sales go, so they decided to milk it, thus making it more convoluted. Instead of getting the world one definitive history, they re-added the multi-verse, which only complicates further.

Although, if what I've felt all along to be true, this will all get cleaned up with next summer's big event, at the end of Countdown. Because Countdown is just a roll-over of Infinite Crisis due to IC being successful and them trying to stretch this thing as far as it can go.

It just sucks that we have to wait two years after IC to get things cleared up, this screwing with the main comics in the meantime.

 

[wonderfly]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't IC/OYL an attempt at cleanup, wheras CW has made this more complicated? They'd kind of taken opposite paths, haven't they?

Yes, IC/OYL was indeed an attempt at streamlining the DC universe, but it didn't tackle the job of fixing continuity errors and sorting out the conflicting multi-verse stuff which only Diehard DC fans can understand, (casual DC fans like myself can't make heads or tails of it all).

 

[Stardust]

Well, you now have one less thing to worry about, because they've since turned her back to the good side in the pages of Teen Titans, explaining her motives for turning evil and bringing her back to the heroes.

Hum. Cool that's good. I can't wait to catch up to that issue. It might take me a few months at the rate I'm going....

 

[Invidente 7]

Green Lantern, specifically Hal Jordan, is my favorite character in the DCU. I loved the first nine issues of the series. #10 was when it jumped OYL. It's sucked horribly since then. The latest issue was the first one since OYL where I enjoyed the book and liked Hal's character. Hell, I was considering dropping the book for a while and was wondering whether I was even a fan of the character anymore. That's how bad it had gotten. It was only reading Waid's Brave And The Bold that reminded me why I loved the character of Hal Jordan so much. The post-OYL GL was so bad, it killed my interest in my favorite character. The latest issue was good, I'll give it that, but waiting through a year now of terrible, terrible issues which were delayed constantly because Johns is writing so many damn books these days was hell as a comic book reader.

Dr. Mid-Nite is my second favorite character in the DCU and I love all things related to the JSA from Golden Age to the pre-OYL JSA book. I've been nothing but disappointed with the relaunched post-OYL JSA book and I hate almost all the new members of the team except Sandman (Who technically isn't new to the team, he's just back to it) and Starman. I've always hated the Commander Steel family and this latest one is no exception. I hate the Rick Tyler Hourman (Love the other two, why couldn't the android have rejoined the team?), hate Liberty Belle/Jesse Quick and always have, and I hate Damage. This love triangle doesn't interest me in the slightest and all I do is laugh at Damage and his newfound emoness. Cyclone is one of the worst JSA members ever created. Seriously horrible. Obsidian has always sucked when he's not a villain and adding him to the team does nothing but bloat the now huge roster. Which brings me to my next point, what was the point of adding so many new members? There are 16 members of the JSA now. That's way too many to fit in a book. And what did they need new JSA members for anyway? There's plenty of stories to tell with the ones from the last book, which was going great before they got the bright idea to relaunch it completely. They didn't need new members. There are so many stories they could tell with Jakeem Thunder, Mr. Terrific, Dr. Mid-Nite, etc. But apparently Geoff couldn't think of any so he threw in the worst bunch of new recruits ever. Not to mention this awful new son of Wildcat's.

They also relaunched JLA. Meltzer's relaunch is one of the worst JLA books I've ever read. Red Tornado, Vixen, and Geo-Force are some of the worst characters ever period, not just JLA members. Focusing on them makes for boring, bad stories. And that's all the book has focused on so far. To his credit, Meltzer has made Roy Harper interesting to me for the first time since Green Lantern/Green Arrow. But the rest of the book sucks. And now they're doing a JLA/JSA/Legion thing. I apologize to any fans of the Legion but I hate that group. And you know that with three huge teams being involved here, there's not going to be enough room for them to focus on but one or two people from each team and inevitably somebody (Read: any characters I like) will be shafted. This is going to be a chaotic crossover and a plain bad story.

52 was a good series... before I realized it was going nowhere, had no relevance to the mainstream DCU, and they killed another of my favorite characters (The Question). I would've dropped the book a long time ago if the whole thing wasn't already paid for. I damn sure didn't buy World War III though.

I doubt I'll be buying Countdown but I'm tempted just to find out what happened to The Atom, something that should've been answered in 52.

So do I think OYL was a failure? Hell yes.

uhhhhhhhhhh ok, so you think Green Lantern and JSA suck, sooo what is that you think are the best comics outhere?

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

In someways, it failed, in others, it hasn't.

Honestly, the DC Universe doesn't feel that different to me than it did two years ago. We have some changes, but the universe as a whole feels largely the same, with some new faces and changes in place.

Now, with that said, it has been a success, in my opinion, in raising interest in the DC Universe. New books like 52, and many of the new launches have been great, and I've found myself enjoying more books One Year Later.

So, from a business standpoint, I think they did a good job. But from the perspective of making long term changes to the universe, it wasn't very successful.

 

[DR.MID-NITE]

Dr. Mid-Nite is my second favorite character in the DCU .

Welcome to the club. If you are a fan. Check out the recent JSA classifieds. They had 2 issues devoted to DC's resident hero doc.