If you happen to read comic books, or even if you’ve never read one but you happen to have gotten a papercut from a radioactive trade paperback then you’ve heard of The New 52.
Oh I get it, his t-shirt has a cape attached. That's less ridiculous than spandex.
It’s not really new anymore because it started in September of 2011, and much like the disaster a decade before, it shook America to its core, and it was an inside job. What DC Comics (the guys responsible for Batman and Superman) did was attempt to transform all their comics to catch up with current trends.
You see, dark and gritty realism is cool.
Pictured: cash cow dark and gritty realism
I was all for this at first. I love dark and gritty like fat kids love wearing their t-shirt in the pool so no one makes fun of them. I’m a huge fan of comic book writers like Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, and Alan Moore, and they’re all different kinds of twisted. But then they crossed the line with Lobo.
Basically, he's a ripped KISS fan who hates colorblind KKK members
This is Lobo. He’s a guy so badass and over the top he’s the only survivor of his entire race. Not because a natural disaster destroyed his homeworld like some pussies we know (looking at you, Superman), but because Lobo killed everyone else on his planet with his own two hands. He rides a space-motorcycle across the cosmos, wreaking havoc and pretty much shooting peoples dicks off just because he got drunk and he feels like it. He’s my favorite character in DC comics. Or at least, he was, until this happened.
So, now he's some sort of fishman/TRON: Legacy hybrid? Seems legit.
This is dark and gritty realism. No more over the top 80’s hair, no more space motorcycle, no more punching space-KKK people in the face with chains, no more fun.
This is when I understood I don’t want all my media to be dark, gritty and realistic. Dark and gritty has its place and when it’s well done, it’s amazing. Hell, Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis is one of my favorite comics ever and it’s set in the most bleak future I’ve ever seen in fiction. But, Transmetropolitan remembers it's a comic; it has fun. The main character has a gun that makes people shit themselves, for christ’s sake.
I would literally trade my eyelids for one of these.
At the end of the day, comics have a tradition of fun. While you can have completely serious comics and they can be incredible (Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, for instance) there are some characters that aren’t meant for that. Batman is dark, gritty and realistic and everyone’s known for years that if they want dark and gritty from DC Comics, Batman is where to go. However, DC’s endeavor is to make every title dark, gritty and realistic. Instead of creating a tightly knit universe with a strong theme what DC has produced is just...boring.
Oh good god, they hired Rob Liefeld. This cannot get worse.
There is no room for fun with The New 52. There is no room for a character like Lobo with no limits on his debauchery and broad antics of ultra-violence. There’s no room for the bright, sunny Metropolis where Superman solves all our problems with a single punch. There’s no room for Green Arrow to… I don’t know what Green Arrow does, reads Shakespeare? Combs his beard? Emails other superheroes the meeting minutes so he feels like he has a purpose?
"Ooooo, let’s do a dark and gritty reboot of Green Arrow," said someone who wasn't immediately shot.
I argue that we can have it all. We can cover Gotham in darkness and wallow in gritty realism until we smell like hobo puke and still have room for bright Metropolis, Lobo’s insane extraterrestrial pogroms and Star City’s complete worthlessness. Dark, gritty and realistic is the trend but does DC have to forsake the bright innocence of the past in order to follow the trend, or can a company with at least 52 titles make room for fun, for over the top, for a universe populated with unique characters instead of 52 Batmans?
On the bright side, Gotham would be cleaner than an obsessive compulsive's fingernails
The dark and gritty reboot is a cliché now. Every reboot is dark and gritty. Comics are a viable art form with as much potential for personal and social influence as any other but I argue reducing them all to monochromatic, shadowed narratives is just as insulting as regarding them as children’s fair and writing infantile storylines. I want variety. I want Lobo, Superman and Batman. I want funny, stupid, light, upbeat, or even crazy sometimes. I want a choice and DC isn’t giving me that anymore, so the only decision I have left is to find something else to read.
Don't even get me started on you.
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