DC: Our Relaunch Isn’t A Reboot, It’s A “New Beginning.’ Corporate Talk, Yes!

Following DC’s recent Retailer Roadshow,  senior vice president of sales Bob Wayne released a statement that was absolutely stunning in its semantics, double-speak and nonsense.

Digital Spy:

“This is an epic and ambitious initiative that ushers in a new generation of comics for DC Comics and will set the tone for storylines and characters for years to come,” the statement said. “With all the titles starting at #1, our creative teams have the ability to take a more modern approach, not only with each character, but with how the characters interact with one another and the universe as a whole, and focus on the earlier part of the careers of each of our iconic characters.

Okay. Fair enough. That sounds a lot like a relaunch, Bob. Wait, it isn’t?

“This is not a reboot,” Wayne said. “It’s a launch. This is a new beginning which builds off the best of the past.

Wait, is it a new beginning, or is it building off the past? That sounds contradictory. This is confusing. Please, elaborate.

“For the stories launching in September we have carefully hand-selected the most powerful and pertinent moments in these characters’ lives and stories to remain in the mythology and lore.

Hmm. That sounds a lot like what occurred after Crisis On Infinite Earth. So it’s not a reboot, but you’re also taking the mythos of all these characters and treating them like a buffet line. Help me Bob. Explain this to me.

“And then we’ve asked the best creators in the industry to modernise, update and enhance the books with new and exciting tales.”

Wait, I’m still lost. How is reverting the entire look of your brand back to Jim Lee 1990s costume madness updating looks?

In the end, DC’s approach doesn’t seem to be the typical relaunch or reboot. It seems…even clunkier than that. Instead of just wiping the slate clean, they’re picking and choosing what parts of the mythos to keep. This sounds destined just to confound people even more. How will these theoretical new fans know how said parts of the mythos came to be, without referring to older issues? Isn’t that against the goal here? Or if you’re starting from “scratch”, how is this not a reboot? Or a relaunch? Or something.

Is this making sense to anyone else? Or are you like me, and wish they’d stop trying to cage it in terms and just let it speak for itself?