Its been bugging me too. Thats why I made this thread.
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This made my day! 
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For comics, there is no need to start at the beginning bec arcs are actually quite self contained. During the bronze age, you can get a complete story in just 1 issue. For jumping on points, can just follow the tv model and have jumping on points every year probably in january. For numbering comics, just make the year and month more prominent, and can easily find the january issue in order to start.
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I think my biggest problem with the various “families” in comics is how most charactors in each of them have basically the same powers. The only real varity in power sets in the Superman family comes from Steel and maybe Conner if they remember the tatical telekinesis. The Green Arrow family is the biggest offender of this because outside of Black Canary, its just a bunch of people with bows and arrows.
I don’t want to read about people with the exact same power set. I want the charactors in each heros respective “family” to have diverse powers separtate from everybody else and not the same powers just repacked with a different ethnic group. Its why I don’t like where Marvel has taken the Spider-man brand in the last few years.
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Good point. It would be a little weird if a GA family member had crazy powers but could we at least get a crossbow? How about a sword?
Normally they have similar personalities and origins too. To join the batfam you either have to be an orphan or the child of a supervillain. Everyone else will get sidelined (Bluebird) or thrown in one of the other categories given time (Tim).
You know what would also be great from DC? A story where some Gotham hero bumps into another and just waves and they continue. That’s it. Just an acknowledgement that stuffing 80 heroes into a city means that sometimes they cross the same roof and don’t team up or fight. It happens in Marvel.
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You have a lot of interesting points, but I think the suggestion of a linear timeline where things progress…just isn’t going to work. I think that comics fans accept that things have to snap back like a rubber band to the “standard” (or some version of the standard) status quo. We used to read all kinds of stories that were like this - Sherlock Holmes, pulp adventures. Heck, the first three Indiana Jones movies were like this. One of the reasons people, at least people like me, subscribe to a long running story is trust in the idea that we’ll get what we pay for. It’s like a low risk, low yield investment. No, you’ll never get rich, but you won’t lose your shirt, either. Some people aren’t interested in that. They can read indies, or prose books, or watch TV (though TV also has its version of this in the sitcom and the procedural mystery type shows, which don’t get a lot of critical buzz, but still command huge audiences).
I honestly think a lot of the suggestions about comics turn them into something they aren’t, and which the new thing won’t be bad, it also won’t be the thing that theoretically people are trying to save. Maybe it shouldn’t be saved, but I still think there’s a ton of value in these ageless characters who still have something to say to us all through the years.
I would like comics to go into politics the way Priest writes it, where there’s an exploration of the motivations of why people believe what they believe, and complexity in how those opposing belief systems clash. I have next to no interest in reading politics the way Tom Taylor writes them, where all the good guys have the right beliefs, and all the bad guys the wrong.
To me, this is a fundamental difference in approach. I don’t care that all the Batfamily are street ninjas, or that Clark, Jon, Conner, Kara, Karen, etc are all basically flying bricks. I care about what they want, who they are as characters. If you have conflicting motives, I couldn’t care less whether they have the same powers.
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I have a hard time thinking of a title from the big two thats currently ongoing that would be easy to reprint from the start without getting confusing and the only two major charactors that it COULD work for a while would be Wally West as the Flash along with Daredevil.
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I still don’t see the point of having them on the same Earth
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I have no clue what Karen’s status is. Guess I’ll find out in Action 1051 this month!
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So remove Supergirl then? As long as we keep Power Girl that is fine.
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No, just do how they fixed the Golden Age Green Arrow lore and have Supergirl + Robin get displaced to the 70’s for a while. Supergirl removes the Superman logo from her costume to avoid messing with the time line and Robin just avoids staying out of the lime light. Then somewhere long the line after Dick and Kara return to the present, Kara is split into two in a Superman Red/Blue situlation creating Powergirl.
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Well, if they put them all in a deluxe edition, it’s not so bad! 
I tend to agree, but the industry relies heavily on collectors right now, and if you get rid of them, the industry completely collapses.
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Collecters who are getting older and older with no real growth in the readership with the youth. Ever notice how the bulk of comic book writers at the big two now adays are in their mid to late 30’s in age or even older?
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I’m not saying that they are the future. But you can’t torch your current income stream for a gamble.
Well, you could. That’s what Aftershock did.
That didn’t work so well. It won’t work well for DC either.
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She still hasn’t been made canon. That’s like counting Huntress (Wayne) or Terry.
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Aftershocks whole bussiness model was getting Netflix deals and other film made.
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Notice how I described the problem, though?
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I actually agree but not for the same reasons. It will never work because they haven’t done it. Corporate will never allow it and the fans wouldn’t know what to do with themselves after something worthwhile actually changed. I don’t think that’s a good thing though, just a sad fact. I’d do it and let people complain and that’s why no one puts me in charge of anything. Question was what would I do not what would I think would work. (Yes I realize that may not make sense. Doesn’t make it any less true).
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An art book basiclly right. That collects the variant covers. That would be cool and help with some of the issue. Some comics would need an omnibus for all their covers though.
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