Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,
Have you picked up any of the new DC Comics Rebirth titles this week? Did you read DC Universe Rebirth? I did, and I wanted to share my DC Comics story, and my thoughts on DC's Rebirth.
It was September of the late 1970s, and I was at a local convenient store with my mother. She asked me to pick out some comics that we could read together later in the day. I was six years old, and had been reading comics for a few years. I loved my super heroes, especially Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman (which I never missed on television). It seemed that heroes were everywhere from bubble bath to tooth paste to hair brushes. I had posters up in my room, Mego action dolls, and I had a 45 RPM record of the Batman theme song by Neal Hefti (Na na na na, Batman!).
DC Comics was my main place for adventure growing up, and it was not until in 1978 that I was introduced to the Batman Family. It was issue number nineteen, entitled White Bat, White Death. The writing was shared by comics legends, like Denny O'Neil and the art was by a few artists, such as Michael Golden. It contained five stories, one featuring Man-Bat. It was the first eighty page giant that my mom could afford to buy me, and I remember loving it. It was read so many times as a kid that it was falling apart a year later. But what made me a DC Comics fan? As child I had access to hundreds of comics and superheroes. But I chose DC Comics. What I enjoyed about DC Comics, I believe, was the accessibility of the stories to a child like me. I never read a comic from DC that had me wondering what a word meant, or why a character was doing what they were doing. They were fun and easy reads with great writing and art work.
As the years went by and I began to enjoy the newer heroes emerging, such as He-Man, She-Ra, and Transformers, but I still kept reading DC Comics. The 1980s for DC Comics was just as magical to me as the 1970s. We had New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. Then Perez went over to Wonder Woman with Len Wein. John Byrne brought back Superman with Man of Steel. And Batman flew high over Gotham in Tim Burton's movie. It was great time to be a DC Comics fan. But something began to change as we traveled through the 1990s. Comics began to sell fewer copies, more companies relied on gimmicks to sell books, and a war on creator rights began to be waged. It was turning point for comics, and at this stage in the industry's history, it was not looking good for the printed comic.
I stayed with comics through television and film, but from 2005- 2014 I purchased very few comics, picking up a some of the New 52 issues from DC. With rising prices on issues, it was either rent money or reading a comic. I chose rent. Besides, the magic that I had felt as a kid reading comics had left me. That was until I was drawn back to DC with their event, Convergence. This eight week event returned many of the titles that I had loved as a kid. Each two-issue series tied in to the weekly main Convergence book. Although I was a bit let down with Convergence, their two issue tie-in books sparked my nostalgia again. But it was not enough to return readers to DC Comics. Retailers sat on hundreds of unpurchased copies, and sold them at comic cons for pennies on the dollar. Convergence seemed to have flopped, but from out of it we began to see a change. Starting with an eight issue run of a book, entitled Superman: Lois and Clark. This series propelled the pre-New 52 Superman into the current DC Universe. Married to Lois Lane and father to a super-powered son, named Jonathan, this Superman was the one we remembered.
Then we began to read about DC Universe Rebirth, a two-year project that would attempt a resurgence of the DC Comics fans knew and loved from the past.
After many reboots of the DC Universe, I was skeptical. Some of the events used to "clean the slate" failed in my opinion. I did not want to see my favorite characters drastically re-imagined again. I have been a huge fan of independent titles since I began picking up comics again in 2014. And I purchased very few super-hero books. But I wanted to give DC a chance to fix things. And fix things they did! Starting with Superman: Lois and Clark and continuing in the Last Days of Superman story arc, the DC Universe was dealt a major blow as a hero fell never to return. But patiently waiting in another realm of existence, an old friend realized that a force was shaping time, and ultimately erasing the past. In DC Universe Rebirth #1 this old friend revealed himself to be Wally West, the original Kid Flash, and it was glorious.
Rebirth turned out to not be a reboot, but an acknowledgement of fifty years of comics storytelling. It made me feel excited and nostalgic. I made me feel like a kid again! After reading Rebirth I purchased extra copies and began to give them out to non-DC readers. They read the book and said it was very well written and beautifully drawn, and that they could not wait to see what was in store for readers in the next two years. Rebirth #1 was nostalgia, reverence, and acknowledgment. It spanned decades of storytelling, and made me feel like that six year old that I was, sitting on my bed covered in superhero sheets. I could not wait for the next my next Rebirth read.
DC Comics has renewed my interest in not only their titles, but their commitment to giving their fans the stories that they want to read. And for that I am grateful.
If you have a comment for me, please leave it below. I would love to hear your DC Comics story.
Because there is always time to read,
Xepherus3
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All written content, and top logo (c) Copyright 2016 by Thomas Bahr II
Comic book covers and promotional photos are (c) Copyright by DC Comics
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