Interesting changes afoot for Detective Comics starting Nov. 2004

[Kevin Boyd]

http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16373

[Kevin Boyd]

Looks to me like the oval symbol is back... probably in Detective Comics #800.

[Silver Surfer]

Have to give DC props for keeping the series running without renumbering after all these years. A tribute to the history of their characters and the original creators. By the way I noticed in the JLA cartoon that Bruce Wayne is an old, retired guy? Is this the case in the current comics? Who is his replacement?

[Kevin Boyd]

Hmm? He's an old retired guy in Batman Beyond, but in the regular JLA cartoons he's Billionaire Industrialist Bruce Wayne... same as in the comics.

 

They replaced Bruce as Batman once before in the comics and it was a disaster.

[Silver Surfer]

Sorry my bad. I guess I have only caught one episode of Batman Beyond. Another question- how does DC deal with the fact Bruce is now almost 90 years old? Did they give him super strength that slows the aging process a la Captain America?

[Mister_Comics]

Have to give DC props for keeping the series running without renumbering after all these years. A tribute to the history of their characters and the original creators.

 

Totally agree.

 

Thats one thing DC has over Marvel.

[Kevin Boyd]

Sorry my bad. I guess I have only caught one episode of Batman Beyond. Another question- how does DC deal with the fact Bruce is now almost 90 years old? Did they give him super strength that slows the aging process a la Captain America?

 

DC applies a philisophy similar to Marvel's "10-year rule".

 

Batman started his career around age 25, and he is in his late 30's now - making him active for only 14-15 years as Batman in the DCU. If you use Grayson as a place marker in Batman's career, then he became Robin at Age 10 (Batman's 2nd year), then moved out at Age 18 to go to college (Batman's 9th year), became Nightwing around age 20 (Batman's 11th year) and he would be about 23-24 now (Batman's 14th year in action).

 

I would recommend the History of the DCU tpb for an explanation of how DC Continuity works. Essentially, while certain characters are specifically bound to certain time periods (like the original JSA), the central characters of Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. have a "floating start date" to their careers of about 14-15 years (used to be 10). This allows the other characters to become cross-generational.

 

Wonder Woman (Diana) is an odd case because if you go by her retro continuity she has been active about as long as Wally West has been the Flash - about 3-4 years DC time. Byrne did a continuity implant by making WW's mother Hippolyta the WW2 era Wonder Woman who was a member of the JSA and went on to have adventures with the early JLA.

 

If Batman had been active since 1939 he would be 90 now. If you want to read a fun series where the characters actually aged as they should have, check out John Byrne's Generations 1 & 2 (if you like them try 3, which isn't as strong). In Byrne's revised history, an older Bruce Wayne (no longer Batman at the time) won a fight against Ra's Al Ghul in a Lazarus pit and became immortal (around 1980). Grayson had become Batman in the 1960's but was killed in a fight against the Joker (Jr.). Bruce's son then became the Batman of the 1970's and 1980's until Bruce Wayne came back to reclaim the mantle.

 

Darwyn Cooke's DC The New Frontier takes a similar approach by showing what the 1950's would have been like in the DCU if the characters had debuted during WW2. Except in Cooke's revised history, Robin doesn't show up until the late 1950's.