Change to be PERFECT. woRm on DC Comics.

I was putting the new newspapers up today at Barnes and Noble and I noticed an interesting article the title read, “DC Comics reinvents its Universe”. All of their major characters are getting rebooted. Change is coming.
I’m one of those people that happens to like both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Two of my comrades in my writing group absolutely loathe DC; in fact they admit their hatred of Superman whenever the subject comes up.
Honestly I’m excited to see what is in store for DC Comics. They have a lot of old characters some of their major players have been around for more than 70 years.
Marvel I would say is kicking DC’s butt film wise. So far, we’ve seen X-men, Spider-Man, The Hulk (First one sucked), Fantastic Four, Daredevil (hated it), Elektra, Thor, Ironman, and in July Captain America. Next year, The Avengers Movie will hit theatres.
I will say that I believe the reboot is because a lot of DC’s characters need makeovers! They’ve had the same look for decades.
Wonder Woman is perhaps my favorite heroine from DC. I don’t mind her costume, but I will say that it is in need of a makeover. I’m happy that Jim Lee is working with this DC Reboot. Justice League will be released after this reboot on August 31st. The Line-Up will include Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. I noticed on the new artwork that Wonder Woman has a new costume! Finally! That one-piece is hot don’t get me wrong, but if you’re thinking film wise it just looks silly. DC was able to make a Green Lantern movie and it looks good, but I would love a Wonder Woman movie but not if she has that outdated costume or that lasso. I don’t really care for the lasso on Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman’s lasso makes those bound in it only able to speak the truth-they can tell no lies.
The masterminds of this reboot are Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. Lee is one of my favorite comic book artists, before going to DC he did a lot of stuff for X-men. Lee is in my top five comic book artist (FYI- (1) Michael Turner, (2) Jim Lee, (3) Marc Silvestri (4)J. Campbell (5) David Finch look up some of their art on Google!) I’m interested in seeing what they come up with this fall because it will be very exciting to see how the public handles it.
My favorite heroines from DC are Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Powergirl, Supergirl, Vixen and Huntress. For the males, Batman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan and John Stewart), Nightwing, Martian Man-hunter, Green Arrow, Black Lightning, and Beast Boy. When I compare DC’s characters alongside Marvel I tend to lean towards Marvel. I fell in love with the Justice League when I watched the television show on Cartoon Network the last three seasons were my favorite, I liked how there was some espionage, huge battles, and the fact that the world felt they couldn’t trust the league. When I think of the character’s back-stories Marvel by far has the most interesting (Side note: I love Wolverine’s back-story best I’ve seen).
Now let’s take a look at Wonder Woman’s back-story compared with Rogue’s from the world Marvel.
Wonder Woman was created during World War II. She is an Amazon (warrior women remember Xena?). Her mother is Hippolyta and she was given her powers from the Greek gods (Edith Hamilton’s Mythology is one of my favorite books). Her mother sculpted her on the beach and she was given life. Her powers like I said are from the Gods. She got her strength from Demeter, Wisdom from Athena, Beauty from Aphrodite, and her size from Hermes. Wonder Woman is what I call a “Tank” a super strong hard to kill bruiser. Batman said, “Wonder Woman is one of the greatest melee fighters in the world” (From Justice League). She is also a member of the Justice League. People say that Superman is too powerful but in the DC world Wonder Woman, Shazam, and even Martian Man hunter could take him out if he went rogue. Now that wasn’t much back-story but compared to how Rogue got her powers its kind of ehh…“G-rated”?
Rogue on the other hand is also what I call a “Tank” super strong and invulnerable (Don’t get her confused with the wimpy Rogue seen in the films she was wrong!). She’s from Mississippi and was taken in by Mystique (shape-shifter and member of the Brotherhood and Freedom force). Rogue got her “Tank prowess” from absorbing Carol Danvers Powers also known as Ms. Marvel (My friend Dallas is a huge fan of them both he got some awesome sketches done at the Dallas Comic Convention we attended). Rogue made flesh contact with Ms. Marvel and permanently absorbed her powers. Rogue is one of the heavy hitters of the X-men she can lift about 50 tons. I really like the Rogue that I read about in the Essential X-Men Volumes that I own (check em out if you’re wanting the “basic straight” story of the Uncanny X-men.
I mention the stories of these powerful women because it’s a stark (No, not Ironman) contrast between the worlds of DC and Marvel. I feel a lot of the characters in DC are G rated and kid friendly while in Marvel they are able to seem more realistic because the world is a bit darker. The X-men story was written during the Civil Rights era one of my favorite things to study and teach from U.S History the parallel between Black/White and Human/Mutant (Homo Sapiens/ Homo Superior) is what made the X-men so incredibly believable people were already buying into the theory of Evolution and the whole idea of mutants trying to survive the prejudices of humanity just seemed to “gel”.
DC’s characters have kept the same basic story lines for a long time. I’m not against the changes because change is good! Seasons change and people change that’s just the way of the world.
Here is a quote, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often”-Winston Churchill. Everyone has his or her issues and things that they need to work on. I have mine you know yours. DC wants “perfection” so they are changing. What changes have you made? Have a good one, comrade!