Earth One? More Like Earth Whaaaa?
On their Source Blog this morning, DC Comics announced a new line of ongoing graphic novels called Earth One that will feature “the most powerful heroes of the DC Universe, with their first years and earliest moments retold in a standalone, original graphic novel format, on a new earth with an all-new continuity”. Now, I like the idea of a series of ongoing graphic novels, provided the price is right—like, maybe no more than $10-12 a book for 100 pages or so. Geoff Johns and Gary Frank are doing Batman: Earth One, which I’m sure will be worth a look—those guys are on a bit of a streak lately—and J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis will be handling Superman: Earth One. I’m not a big fan of either creator, so that doesn’t do much for me. However, it does even less for me considering the fact that this new, updated origin for Superman has been announced while yet another new, updated origin—by Johns and Frank, no less!—hasn’t even finished yet! To add insult to injury, that currently-running series, Superman: Secret Origin, is pretty much the only Superman title I have any interest in reading right now. When said story is the umpteenth retelling of a story everyone and their dog knows by heart, what does that tell you about the quality of the line these days?
Here’s the problem, as I see it: the first modern redo of Superman’s origin was released in 1986, as the six-part miniseries The Man of Steel, written and illustrated by John Byrne. Seventeen years later, Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu revamped Supie’s early years yet again in the twelve-part Superman: Birthright, and now, only six years after that, Superman’s beginnings are being chronicled once more in Secret Origin. This mini should wrap up in early 2010, and all signs seem to be pointing towards the fact that the Earth One books will ship later that same year (although, I’m going to be realistic here and say 2011 is probably more likely).
So, let’s do the math: The Man of Steel drops in 1986. Seventeen years after, Birthright arrives in 2003. 2009 brings us Secret Origin, a mere six years later. Then, in 2010 (or so), Earth One will endeavour to tell the world pretty much the same goddamned story, only one, maybe two years later! At this rate, I expect yet another revised origin story to be announced before Earth One has even shipped. If these trends continue, DC Comics will be publishing an ongoing monthly series of continuously revamped Superman origin stories before Obama’s first term is up.
This is the kind of thinking that makes me nervous for DC’s future. When they’re not busy squeezing more and more money out of an existing, shrinking fanbase (hello, JSA All Stars!), or stretching what might have been a nicely self-contained storyline into a yearlong, multi-title event (I’m looking at you, Blackest Night and New Krypton), they’re resorting to repackaging all-too familiar stories. Maybe if the monthly books were better and more accessible (like, say, the Johns run on Action Comics or Morrison and Quitely’s terrific All-Star Superman), DC wouldn’t need to worry about making a new line that is accessible. After all, how can you possibly beat this for a re-telling of Superman’s origin?
There you have it—four panels, eight words, and we’re off to the races. People want to buy Superman comics when they’re good. They don’t give a damn about continuity or format, and they already know his origin story. Creating a new line like this is almost like admitting defeat, or acknowledging that the regular line of books is hopelessly polluted with confusing continuity and conflicting backstory. It’s a short-term, desperate solution. I wouldn’t have a problem with a line of graphic novels that told new, self-contained stories featuring the DC characters, books that maybe linked together to form larger stories in a shared universe that is occasionally mentioned but never dwelled upon. And who knows? Maybe Earth One will become that. But by promising us a heaping dose of same old-same old right off the bat, it’s off to a shaky start.
Completely on the money. As a DC fan(Atic) even I feel that DC is losing it. We don’t need more origins, we need more Paul Dini Batman, more Geoff Johns GL and more grant Morrison and Gail Simone in general. Also less frank miller.
I think the way DC is constantly calling do-over on their own stories is pretty insane, but this is more of an Ultimate Marvel type deal, so it’s not really a big deal in the grand scheme. They can do out-of-continuity stuff all they want.
I don’t personally feel like this is the magic way to get new readers, but if it works it’s not hurting anything.
i wish the new editions called “earth one” were just damn good stories that as an aside retold or reaffirmed their origins.
Killing Joke, What do you get the man who has everything, Goodwin & Simonson’s Manhunter, Books of Magic, Selena’s Big Score, mass market editions of these would do well in every bookstore and airport kiosque, not just in specialty shops.
(does “zero hour” not count? Wasn’t that partly origin revisits too?)
I’m not sure all of All Star Supes was accessible. Yeah, the origin was crisp, but the rest of the series was packed dense with stuff that threw me off it. I may be a heretic, but I really only finished it out to finish it out. I was just happy to find a few moments each issue that I liked.
Back to the issue at hand. This sounds like a stab at DC Ultimates. More than just another elseworlds. Wild, crazy new anything goes type continuity ( even though the main folks won’t die or be overwhelmingly different from what we know).
I loved the Byrneboot, and so was turned off Birthright because I didn’t think it was remotely necessary - and it ruined all the really good bits of Man Of Steel, like Byrne’s version of Krypton and the non-wimpy Clark Kent. Secret Origin seems to be an attempt to find everything that Byrne threw away and squeeze it all in to one amorphous blob, that consequently drags like a two-legged cow.
The downside of the Byrneboot, however, was that the writers, starting with the man himself, then felt it necessary to reinsert every part of the Superman mythos, all “updated” without actually contradicting the stories that the ageing fanboiz loved from their misspent youth. The one attempt to do something new — the Milton Fine Brainiac — was savaged by the readership, so much so that it’s all been retconned to death and we’re back to the green-skinned robot shrinky dude. Dull.
Earth One will be the same. A flash of originality (or not, in the case of Superman) followed by the shoehorning of seventy years of cherry-picked continuity. All with shiny artwork and lots of stripperific women, I expect, since this is just DC Ultimates after all.
(And what is it with DC mimicking Marvel years after the fact? They’ve done DC Zombies (Blackest Night), now they’re doing Ultimate DC (Earth One). What next? Superman sells his marriage to Neron in return for the life of his mother? The government demands that all metahumans be registered, and Superman and Steel end up on opposite sides of a civil war? Lex Luthor forms his own Dark Justice League? Ho hum…)
Thank you so much for posting That Page from All Star. I really want to send Dan Didio a copy of it every time they announce something like this or Secret Origins.
As for the Earth One project itself, I’m fairly torn. On the one hand, I second your applause of the concept of original graphic novels… but this? And from these creators? JMS has been consistently disappointing at DC and I can’t think of a single good use of Batman from Johns in his entire career. (To say nothing of the Alfred concept art… have you seen the Alfred concept art? I mean, really?) I’m a big enough fan of the World’s Finest that I’m at least going to give the books a try (or at least Batman), but I kind of feel the whole thing is unnecessary and there are much better potential uses of the Multiverse.
The idea of these new reader accessible books never makes sense to me. How would the supposed “new reader” know which book is for him or her? It’s not as if one is labeled with a “70 years of continuity” sticker and the other isn’t. And why would a new reader commit to a $14.95 book when he or she could try something for $2.99? The only new readers who will be getting the Earth One books are those that get copies as gifts from comics fans desperate for someone to discuss the new look Alfred with them.
Plus they’re kind of doing a similar thing with Batman over in the pulpy thing they’re starting, and both of them will certainly overlap whatever origin retelling comes with Bruce Wayne’s inevitable return.
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! Your post pretty well sums up my feelings on this as well. I want to be optimistic about this undertaking. I think there is a great idea at the core of it, but it’s pretty much just another new series for the core audience. This is being announced to the core audience, using core audience terms like “continuity,” under the guise of “new reader friendly.” We don’t need new origins, they’re well established for both characters, so just get to writing good stories about the characters already.
For all the delays, that was at least something the All-Star lineup managed - new stories with a new take on both Batman and Superman. You may not like it, but it certainly was different and actually felt new and original. I hope that spirit is maintained without any handcuffing of the creators into continuity laden GNs.
It’ll be interesting to see how these continue to be marketed. I really hope DC and Random House pull off something new here. I think they can with a lot of hard work and a good looking product.
This is exactly what I was thinking. DC should have just turned Birthright into an ongoing Ultimate-style series years ago for the casual comic readers.
Not that I’m not excited about Gary Frank Batman, but this whole endeavor just seems weird.
Also, overhaul Superman/Batman! One shots! All-star creative teams! It’s not rocket science!
“(And what is it with DC mimicking Marvel years after the fact? They’ve done DC Zombies (Blackest Night), now they’re doing Ultimate DC (Earth One). What next? Superman sells his marriage to Neron in return for the life of his mother? The government demands that all metahumans be registered, and Superman and Steel end up on opposite sides of a civil war? Lex Luthor forms his own Dark Justice League? Ho hum…)”
Marvel’s guilty of the same.
Secret Invasion? I half expected the Skrulls to start shouting ‘No man escapes the Manhunters!’ ala DC’s Millennium.
Civil War? *cough* LEGENDS *cough*
This is the sort of argument that can be waged back and forth from both sides of the fence. Personally, I don’t mind these Earth One stories precisely because they’re continuity free and standalone. That said, I probably won’t be getting them, because other than Alfred channeling Sam Elliott there, there’s not much to interest me. I wish DC would just make more Elseworlds books.
I agree that redoing the origin story is a waste. The lesson people should have learned from All-Star Superman is that, with this particular character, you can just launch right into a story and make up your own prior continuity…you know, just like most non-comic stories do.
However, as lame as this story sounds to us geeks, it’s worth noting that releasing a series of OGNs directly to bookstores is a significant move. People are saying “make the regular comic more accessible to newcomers” but the fact of the matter is, it’s hard to get newcomers buying pamphlet comics. They don’t casually walk into comic stores–which, as we all know, can be fairly uninviting to large swathes of the population–and they don’t want to plunk down $3.99 for a slim booklet so they can “follow the ongoing story”. These are the key ways in which the market has limited itself to the hardcore, loyal nerd audience and alienated everyone else, far more so than the actual subject matter of the comics. (Continuity porn is annoying, but there was a steady stream of new readers on X-Men throughout the 70s and 80s, so that can’t be the problem in and of itself, right?)
So getting comics out there where the mass audience might actually come into contact with it, in a form that they might actually buy, is crucial. We might criticize the creative team or the story they’ve chosen to tell, but I think that stuff may not matter if they can get non-comics fans buying it.
Okay, good point. Getting something out there for regular folks to pick up is smart thinking - hope they follow through with it.
All-Star Superman is such a good comic for that. The only problem with it is that there isn’t really anything to point them at afterward. Well, there is, but it’s hard to segue the enthusiasm generated by it into another series or whatnot.
I am all for putting out something for regular folks to pick-up, and I don’t mind the idea of OGNs about Batman or Superman, either. I don’t like that they have weird Earth 1 titles. If I had never read a Superman book, but was curious, and saw one called Superman: Earth One, I would be reminded that comics are confusing and are for giant nerds.
“Okay, good point. Getting something out there for regular folks to pick up is smart thinking - hope they follow through with it.”
Do you honestly believe people (In SERIOUS numbers) who have never cared for comic books or have ever entered a comic book shop, who aren’t fans, are going to suddenly start buying because they see a Superman graphic novel at Target or Barnes & Noble?
DC’s quest for readers who AREN’T FANS in my opinion is counter productive. They aren’t addressing the REAL challenge and issues they face. Buying graphic novels requires a steeper financial commitment from readers who are already being taxed by the almost ridiculous cost of some of the regular monthly comic books. A guy who walks into a comic book shop and comes out with an armload of comic books has made a serious purchase that most definitely made a dent in his wallet. Cost is the major factor that has narrowed DC’s demographic for the potential buyer.
If, in the future, all comic books were to go the way of the graphic novel, then how much more is the reader’s buying power being diminished? How many readers are going to walk out of ANY book shop carrying an ARMLOAD of graphic novels????
THIS is the tactic for luring “regular folks”?
Not ALL kids are comic book fans and readers. Heck, not even MOST kids are comic book readers. When I was growing up, I bought comics by the armload. However, of all the kids in my neighborhood, there was only one other who bought and read comics like I did.
In my own extended family, I have scores of nephews and nieces, and then there’s my own grandchildren. None of them OR EVEN THEIR FRIENDS are comic book readers. That’s a bona fide fact.
Do they enjoy the superhero films like Iron Man? Sure. Do they give a hang about buying and reading comic books or graphic novels? Nope, not in the least.
I can understand DC’s desire to expand their exposure beyond the lowly comic book shops, but it’s just this simple.
A comic book fan is their only (”CONSISTENT BUYER”) well to draw from.
Personally, I stopped buying comics years ago. A friend of mine who is an expert on comics (Going back to the Golden Age) and owns an extensive collection of comic book memorabilia and collectibles, stopped buying five years ago.
From my perspective, it all STILL comes back to DC not effectively addressing what it’s REAL obstacles are in growing sales. I think it’s out of their control.
Someone pointed this out - this is a possibility of a comics world without comic shops. If these succeed, wouldn’t that mean DC could stop making floppies and just go all OGN on your ass?
“this is a possibility of a comics world without comic shops. If these succeed, wouldn’t that mean DC could stop making floppies and just go all OGN on your ass?”
You’re missing the point entirely. Personally, I could care less about DC’s future, ..When I said I stopped buying years ago, I was telling the truth.
The question is their ability to expand their readership. The truth is they can’t expand it beyond their audience source,. Their draw and lure will always be limited to fans of the genre, namely comic book geeks. (Say hello)
So out of ALL the potential customers who peruse the book stores like Barnes & Noble or chain stores like Target, only a SMALL percentage of them are apt to drool over a Superman graphic novel and make the purchase. DC’s gains in sales will only be moderate at best, and not the business changing boon everyone here seems to think it has the potential to be.
Be realistic for crying out loud.