DC Comics, the folks in charge of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and numerous other heroes, decided to restart their universe… and, boy, do they seem to have gone off the deep end.

Now, I haven’t really read monthly comics since Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman finished up in 1996. I’ve picked up trades here and there, and for some of the more impressive stories, I’ll even get hardcover collections. I do, however, pay attention some of the comics blogs and podcasts and I think I’m pretty well up-to-date on the current happenings.

Over this summer, the Flash had a crossover storyline that reset the entire DC Universe’s history. That meant a brand-new start point for all of their magazines, which are all currently restarting with issue #1 on each title.

There is an understandable motivation here: Start it all again, get a fresh start, update the characters… but it’s all simply cosmetic. There’s been nothing truly interesting done in this reboot (though the responses to Batman and Wonder Woman have been mostly positive) and there have been a couple of major setbacks. Those setbacks, in my personal opinion, are enough to convince the non-comic reader to continue to dismiss comics as a teenage boy’s fantasy.

Basically, the boobs just ain’t needed. It’s story that’s needed.

Here’s what I would have done:

1. Superman should have been the first title released and he should have had a (within continuity) 15-20 year headstart on almost everyone else in the DC universe. Superman is supposed to inspire us to be something greater, so let him be the first hero, the elder statesman, and allow it to play out some of the themes from Mark Waid’s Kingdom Come
2. Batman is the second title. Within five years after Superman makes his appearance, Batman should make his. That allows for some excellent contrast against Superman. The Big Blue Boy Scout compared to the Dark Knight. Batman and Superman become the prototypical examples for the heroes to come after them.
3. Wonder Woman is the third title, coming 10 years or so after Superman appears. A decent amount of flashbacks to the Greco-Roman era of heroes might actually make her title the first in terms of chronology. This is massively key. For centuries, the human race had heroes (Greco-Roman myth primarily), and then they stop as the heroes fade. After centuries of hiding (after centuries of being in the open), Paradise Island’s inhabitants would choose to send their emissary, Diana, into the world to observe (and eventually take part in) the rise of these new heroes.

Boom.

That is DC’s trinity. Within the course of a decade in the continuity, you create massive story possibilities with just those three titles.

I would put Green Lantern in there around the fourth or fifth title to launch simply because this rise of heroes would be one of the things that would grab the attention of the Green Lantern Corps.

What else would I do?

• Monthly releases need to go. A lot of these writers are “writing for the trade” and look towards larger and larger storylines that cannot be efficiently told within the serialized monthly format. Keep the number of pages produced on an annual basis, and move to a two month release schedule. Six issues a year would probably free-up the creative teams a bit, too.
• Release the issues in annual trade paperbacks. Ignore if it ends in the middle of a storyline… just release the trades to collect the the issues. This would be an excellent way to pull in readers who aren’t interested in establishing pull lists at the local comic book shop (if one even still exists near you)
• Create a couple of out-of-continuity anthology titles in order to start discovering and developing new talent. How much of DC is written by just Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns? Seriously, it’s time to start actively discovering new talent.

These are easy, easy, easy things for DC to to take action on. They’ve attempted to not wither on the vine with this reboot and they’ve simply delivered the same stuff they have been. Now is time to actually step up, reboot properly, and make some structural change for the good.

Otherwise, I suspect DC (and Marvel a few years later) is done for.