Spoiler Warning: Issue Five

Spoiler Warning.  Issue Five

This is going to be a new style of discussion for things that haven't ended yet. There is an obvious spoiler warning attached and these are all my best aproximations of what's to come.


Our topic today? DCnU


Welcome to Issue Five. In Today's discussion I'll lead us along a road that answers the question of what's going to happen in DCnU.

Now I've already talked this issue to death but for those late to the party the DCnU is a soft reboot by DC comics on their mainstream universe.  What does that mean?  It means they are rearranging or in some instances, restarting continuity in order to make the material they represent easier to enter for new readers.  It should be noted they are doing this instead of including recap pages for previous issues(DC still refuses to sum up what happened in the previous issue).  So some thing will remain in contiunity and some things will be removed and sent beyond the multiverse.  Batman and Green Lantern are going to remain mostly the same.  Superman and family are being redone from the ground up.  Lois and Clark will have never been maried, Krypto hadn't arrived yet, Superboy is a weapon, and Supergirl is very much Kryptonian.  For any other group of books everything is in question.  The biggest change is that a handful of books(Action Comics and Justice League in paticular) are now being set in the past(for at  least the first arc).  Five years in the past for Justice League, likely something a little further back for Superman.  This point is marked as the dawn of Superheroes.  Indeed, older superheroes like the Justice Society of America( a group of older super heroes that predate the Justice League) shall have never existed.  And then a large portion of the Wildstorm titles such as Grifter and Stormwatch are now being integrated into the main DCnU.  We are going to be getting a wider variety of books as we now get supernatural books, war books, western books on top of our normal superhero fair.  Some changes are welcome.  To be honest, I'm really excited to read All-Star Western and DC universe Presents.  As I've talked about before I am less excited for the changes to Batgirl.  I'll read it because I want to support Gail Simone but the changes to the character fly in the face of the character and the cited reasons are in no way justifying the means.  but the single biggest issue is the rampent misogyny going on at the editorial level.  DC took their staff from over 10 percent women to now 1 percent women.  That's completely and totally unacceptable.  I suggest you pass along similar sentiments to DC at every chance you get because if you don't they will think they can get away with this behaviour. 
I don't want to resay what was said, but I do suggest you read this:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/07/29/dc-comics-listens-to-batgirl-makes-changes/

Have you read it yet? 
No?
Read it.
Okay, now are you done?
Good.  Because that is what we all need to do.  We need to hound them until they are so frustrated that it is easier to just hire more women than to face the arguments against them.

Let's get back on track now that I've complained about September for a sufficiant period of time.
Most of these creative teams will be here for six months.
Beyond that six months(and that doesn't equal six issues) we could see a lot of changes to the smaller books.  A signifigant change will likely see that every team on a failing book will be cut and replaced or switched.  I don't expect the Hawkman book to last too long.  In general I urge readers to follow creators, not characters. 
With the latest info writers like Paul Cornell, and non-Batman Scott Snyder books,  will need quite a bit of help.  And of course read Gail Simone and other female creators books.  Even if you are a guy who doesn't like female books(why are you reading this?) you should still support it because a variety of creators from a varitey of experiences will result in creatively original books.  I highly recomend you look at Osborn by Kelly-Sue Deconnick and Secret Six by Gail Simone before you write off female creators.  They are in no way Girly as we've come to use the term.  They often have the best stories to tell and deserve your time. 

Stay Tuned for our next Issue of Spoiler Warning.