Prior to the rebirth initiative there was this comic initiative right after the convergence event called DCYOU. This initiative saw an in-between of elements of the new 52 and rebirth especially in regards to tone, which saw a number of interesting ideas explored like a depowered superman with his secret identity revealed, Batman replaced with a younger Jim Gordon, and Wonder-woman with a new constume and being the God of war. This era didn’t last long as it failed to drive up sales but while DCYOU was an controversial failure it did lead to some interesting titles like Black canary, Midnighter, Martian manhunter and Gotham academy that had a diverse number of genres and an almost indie-vibe to the titles that DC rarely done in continuity. It’s also important to mention that despite it’s short run DCYOU did manage to have some elements that stuck in rebirth like Duke Thomas, revamp of Maxima’s character, the new doctor fate, and the introduction of young Johnathan Kent (although that title was leading up to rebirth so I’m conflicted if it should be listed on DCYOU).
While I didn’t hate the DCYOU initiative I’m curious if anyone has different opinions about the relaunch specifically with how you feel about certain titles.
I liked the Robin Son of Batman series about Damian Wayne.
I didn’t care for the Superman titles of that time, with the exception of the Lois & Clark book which was excellent & led directly into rebirth. The Jim Gordon armored Batman was interesting. Wonder Woman was really good during that time period though. Overall I was very glad that Rebirth came around & corrected things.
DC You was quite fun. Some of my favorite new titles to emerge from it were:
-Bizarro
-Martian Manhunter
-Midnighter
-Prez
-The Omega Men
Justice League of America and Robin: Son of Batman were alot of fun too.
One of my least favorite new titles was Black Canary. I dug the idea of her getting another shot at a solo title, but as a rock star? No.
Black Canary also felt like a ripoff of the Burnside iteration of Batgirl.
Overall, I enjoyed DC You.
I remember it and my main (and only) title at the time was Grayson which is one of my favorite series featuring Dick Grayson who is my favorite character if you couldn’t tell. But I will say that I did like the idea of Superman’s identity being public and wished they woulda kept it. Just didn’t like him being depowered, especially at the same time and the shaved head and t-shirt look wasn’t doing it for me either. Characters like Superman and Wonder Woman don’t need secret identities. Superman can hear the entire earth from the sun and be there within a few seconds to save whoever he needs to and WW doesn’t really have many loved ones to protect and she’s usually fighting greek mythology anyway so… I think DC should explore more characters having public identities.
Overall, DCYOU was different and explored many different ideas. Some worked, some didn’t. Personally I never chalked DCYOU up to be anything more than an experiment and that’s exactly what it was.