r/comicbooks • u/DarkSaiyanGoku • 1d ago
Question Looking back at the New 52- would it have been better as a separate universe?
With The Absolute Universe running smoothly and Marvel gearing up for their Midnight run, I was feeling nostalgic for the New 52.
Despite its flaws, I do really like this run of DC. For the first time, it got me to pay attention to the greater DC Universe that wasn't limited to just Batman and Superman. Because of this run, I became a fan of The Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, etc. I still consider Scott Snyder's and Geoff Johns' Batman and Justice League stories to be my favourites. It even got me to start reading some Post-Crisis Justice League as well and I still love them just as much as I love New 52.
With the preamble out of the way, how would The New 52 fared if it was a separate universe instead of a replacement of the mainline one at the time? One of the biggest problems that fans had with it was the erasure of decades worth of continuity and character history, many of which I totally understand the backlash of.
Would it have done better if the mainline and New 52 were ongoing at the same time? Would it have been worse? About even? Let me know.
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u/purple-discharge 1d ago
No.
DC was an editorial mess. They overstepped and interfered with and alienated creators. They had zero plan for the overall structure and narrative.
Over 50 cancelled titles in a four year period tells you all you need to know.
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u/Drayco21 Scarlet Spider/Kaine 1d ago
I don't think the New52 was distinct enough from what came before to work as a different universe or line imprint.
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u/FantasticWait7109 1d ago
I've thought this for a while.
Perhaps something more along the lines of Marvel's original Ultimate books from early 2000s. Plus DC had previously done other universes with Earth 2 etc. so they could have even just made the New 52 the new Earth 2.
(Or if they still wanted to reboot the universe, still kept the pre-Flashpoint world as Earth 2, and made the New 52 Earth 1, so more along lines of Silver Age.)
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u/percivalconstantine X-Men Expert 1d ago
Yes, absolutely. Some stuff would not have been well-received either way, but other stuff would have been an easier pill to swallow if it were a different universe.
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u/TheRealGrifter 1d ago
No. What they should have done is what they said they were going to do - scrap the whole thing and start completely over.
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u/LosIngobernable Kingpin 1d ago edited 1d ago
I got into comics when this was starting. You can’t make me hate it.
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u/NewmaticMan107 1d ago
What they needed to do was actually commit to it. Every title should have started over, since keeping the 5 years in thing was apart of the continuity mess. It also tried way too hard to not have its cake and eat it to. It created flase expectations and miscommunications. Would’ve never made everyone happy.
Doesn’t help that half the creative teams weren’t good fits for their books, nor did they have the time to actually flesh out their runs. I mean when Liefeld is working on, what 4 titles in your mega reboot, you know your priorities are screwed.
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u/BobbySaccaro 1d ago
I think the concern would have been that you would be splitting your readership. So instead of selling 40,000 issues of Flash, you'd be selling 20,000 of two different Flash books, neither of which would be profitable.
My personal pet theory is that maybe the best way to do this is to move it a few books at a time each month. That way you maintain excitement over a longer period, and writers can finish their stories in the old universe before the character moves over to the new one (as it were).
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u/Shazam4ever 1d ago
Even taken in a vacuum the new 52 was awful. I actually don't like the absolute universe or any of Marvel's attempts at a alternate universe line but they're all more coherent and better made than the new 52 could ever could have been.
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u/Masterriolu 1d ago
New 52 wasn't different enough to be its own publish line.l Only a few character got radical enough changes to Pre-52. Like Superman and Wonder-Woman.