DC Comics in the 2000s

Introduction

In my previous article, I wrote about how I was still a Marvel zombie in the aughts. I wrote about Civil War and Planet Hulk. New (maybe just to me) writers and artists were mentioned. Oh heck, you know what? If you want to know, just read the article. I have a tradition on the page to transition from Marvel to DC to Independent. Most times, that independent is just Image.

In any case, the last article was Marvel. This one has to be DC. Without tradition, what are we? To be perfectly honest, the 2000s are when I discovered that DC had more than just Batman and Superman as heroes. Many of the heroes still didn’t speak to me on more than a superficial level, but at least I learned their names.

It’s always awkward when you can’t remember a name.

Other All-Star DC Comics?

The 2000s might have been the decade that introduced me to the DC heroes other than Batman and Supeman. However, y choice of these titles did not reflect that. Honestly, I don’t know if there were other All-Star DC titles. I could Google it, but I’m trying to be intellectually honest here.

In that spirit, I saw Grant Morrison on the Superman title and Frank Miller (Maybe? Again, verifiable, but I’m almost positive it was him on Batman and got tunnel vision. If there were other All-Star titles, I missed. them. Well, I didn’t miss them, so to speak. I might not have read them and I can’t say what I missed. But, I can say confidently that I didn’t miss them. Got it?

Probably not. Even reading that back now, it is quite confusing. So, I will try to clarify. If there were other All-Star titles, I neither read nor bought them. In that context, I missed them. However, I enjoyed both All-Star Batman and Superman so much that I didn’t feel left out of the loop in any way. Unlike other books where I feel bad not collecting them regularly, I don’t have any desire to own other All-Star books. If they even exist. Okay, now maybe I over explained it. The struggle of an educator. Moving on.

All-Star DC Comics: Batman and Superman

Why am I talking about comics I never collected? Comics that maybe never existed? Two comics that definitely existed and I willing collected and read were All-Star Batman and Superman. I already mentioned what initially attracted me to the books. Let me explain what kept me reading.

I hate Superman. This is not some newly found hipster hate in reaction to the new movie Superman. I have always hated Superman. He’s too…for lack of a better term, vanilla. I like my heroes to have a bit of an edge. Grant Morrison didn’t necessarily give him that edge. But, he made the vanilla into a slightly more exotic vanilla. Not quite French Vanilla. Closer to vanilla bean. Plus, the art is gorgeous.

Like everyone else, though, I had a visceral negative reaction to this mustache.

Batman was a no brainer. Whenever you can read Frank Miller writing Batman, you do. I’m convinced now that Frank Miller wrote the title. No Googling necessary! Take that, millenials! Jim Lee, did the art. Okay, DC Comics, fine, just shut up and take my money! Naturally, the book was amazing. As an added bonus, Robin joined Batman. Many writers want to kill Robin off as quickly as possible. Seeing Miller embrace Robin and DC including him in the title was encouraging.

DC Comics Infinite Crisis

While I perused the shelves looking for the latest Civil War tie-in titles, I noticed that DC planned their own event. I knew nothing about the previous crisis event. However, I found their idea of a weekly title intriguing. I lasted through the entire countdown and ten or so of the “Week” titles before bailing.

This is the periodic reminder that my separation from comic books this time was due to my bass-ackwards town charging so much for rent that they put my local comic store out of business. Also, I didn’t have the inspiration to drive for comics or the knowledge of mail order places. I’m regretting that now that I’ve gotten the idea to collect back from Rebirth to the Crisis. Chris tole me that some of the New 52 titles might be tough to collect. I might have to fill in with some trades. That hurts my collector soul.

But, it might be worth it. I’ve heard some things about New 52 that make me hesitate. But, I will talk about that in the next section. I am quite interested in seeing how the Crisis happened and led to Rebirth.

**Spoiler Alert:** Whenever DC Comics want to reboot the universe, they have Flash go back in time and it breaks the timeline.

The Verdict on DC Comics in the 2000s

I know that the Crisis led to New 52. Several times during New 52, Chris tried to convince me to pick up a couple of the books. He especially enjoyed Batman and Swamp Thing. I got neither of those titles, nor any of the other New 52. Since then, the latter decision has been validated because I’ve heard that the New 52 tried to fundamentally change DC titles.

Look, those who have read my articles know that I’m not a strict traditionalist. I do have traditionalist tendencies. At first, I wasn’t sure about female Thor. What sold me on it was that it pissed off the rest of the comic book community in a big way. Therefore my counter culture identity might allow me to enjoy New 52 if I gave it a chance.

Because I most definitely enjoyed what I read from DC in the 2000s. While intrigued by the concept of a weekly series, I did wonder if they could keep it engaging and entertaining. I’d like to see where the series ended up and also how they arrived at the craziness of New 52. Besides, what else am I going to do with my newly found windfall by using DCBS instead of Midtown for my pull list titles?