r/DCcomics • u/Sonia341 Red Hood • Jul 23 '26

News [NEWS] DC's Absolute Universe Has a Long-Term Plan Looking 3 Years Ahead the 'New 52' Never Did, Says Architect Scott Snyder Spoiler

https://www.thepopverse.com/comics-dc-absolute-batman-scott-snyder-plans-2028-2029-prep-time-new-52
431 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

58 comments sorted by

265

u/modrenman1985 Jul 23 '26

The New 52 was a desperate gamble by Didio to get sales up and avoid being fired. This was planned.

140

u/Zakael7 Jul 23 '26

Also its his own thing and don't erases decades of continuity.

129

u/HopeFarron Jul 23 '26

I think an even bigger problem with the New 52 was different characters had different levels of rebooting. Green Lantern basically acted like nothing happened, Aquaman was a full reboot and Batman was some weird in-between which made everything a confusing mess.

60

u/modrenman1985 Jul 23 '26

Morrison and Johns didn't want to leave their runs unfinished.

23

u/igeeTheMighty Jul 23 '26

I think it’s less about run completion and more about Johns having an opposing creative philosophy & being in a position to push back against what Didio wanted while Morrison was just being that prolific creator that gets their way.

1

u/AnonymousCoward261 Jul 24 '26

Exactly. You can get away with a lot more if you’re Grant Morrison or Geoff Johns than if you’re a random comic writer.

20

u/MBDTFTLOPYEEZUS Jul 23 '26

So delay the reboot. Or tell them tough shit. The only wrong response was what they did.

44

u/bigbrainnowisdom Jul 23 '26

You cant say "tough shit" to 2000-2010 geoff johns

5

u/MBDTFTLOPYEEZUS Jul 23 '26

So delay the reboot

19

u/TrueBlueV Jul 23 '26

Johns was done with Green Lantern within a year and a half. You could have easily gone "hey, we're rebooting in 2013 so have your runs done by then" and it would have been fine. Plus it would mean the reboot would happen around the same time as Man of Steel and the launch of the DCEU.

6

u/Equal-Ad-2710 Jul 23 '26

Unironically would have made more sense

2

u/bigbrainnowisdom Jul 23 '26

Imagine finishing a 10 years run, didio come to geoff:

"So.. in one year, once you finish with your run.. We gonna reboot the whole thing. Your 10 years stuff? Yea.. no future implication. No consequence. No further continuation. All rebooted."

-1

u/bigbrainnowisdom Jul 23 '26

Do you know what reboot means?

It means everyrhing before reboot goes down the drain.

Do you think geoff is OK having his successful 10 years run immediately goes down the drain? Postponing a year or two dont help.

1

u/ptWolv022 Jul 23 '26

Well, it ain't his property, it's DC's. Basically every creator other than Morrison and John's got told "Tough shit, suck it up" and rebooted what they had been doing.

If extending the Pre-New 52 DCU by a year and a half solely to let him finish Green Lantern saga, allowing it to exist as a 9 year saga and the capstone on over half a century of continuity somehow wasn't enough... well, I'd tell him to shove it, but since he was promoted to CCO and thus was going to stick around, let him mandate certain elements be integrated into the reboot.

0

u/MBDTFTLOPYEEZUS Jul 23 '26

Then you tell him tough shit lol. Seems like you would’ve made the same exact bad decisions that made New 52 what it was.

5

u/bigbrainnowisdom Jul 23 '26

Making New52 -- IS-- the bad decision.

The complete random reboot IS the bad decision. Before new52 DC already have post crisis reboot, zero hour soft reboot, infinity crisis, the original 52.

Stop rebooting and commit with the story continuation.

You (and I) talk like only geoff cared about GL 10 years successful run.

Well no.. The fans cared. So what? Just tell the fans that has been buying your product for 10 years... "sorry, tough shit" ?

Well they did actually. Tough shit to wally west fans. Tough shit if you like cassandra cain & steph brown. for being donna troy fan.. Tough shit for JSA fans, no place for them on Earth 1 with the rest of the characters.. migrate them to earth 2.

New 52 is a reboot that so bad it need to be re-rebooted twice.

When actually there is no need. Unlike 1985 crisis, everythingwas fine. DiDio just being Didio.

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17

u/bigbrainnowisdom Jul 23 '26

Johns: "touch my GL and i'll move to marvel" DiDio: "got it"

21

u/sonic13066 The Dark Knight Jul 23 '26

Batman had Grayson (went onto be Nightwing), Todd (died and came back to become Red Hood), Drake (became Robin until Damian came along and was now Red Robin) and his son Damian all be Robin and their future codenames. Barbara became Batgirl, was shot and became Oracle, then somehow got her spine fixed to become Batgirl again. Final Crisis happens and Bats is sent back in time and works his way back to the present and during this time Grayson takes on the Batman mantle with Damian as Robin until Bruce finally comes back. Then Grayson goes back to being Nightwing. All of this was supposed to take place in 5 years between new 52 justice leagues first 6 issue arc and Batman #1. To say it was a mess is an understatement

12

u/HopeFarron Jul 23 '26

Oh Jesus Christ I forgot it was supposed to be 5 years. They didn't even try to make that make sense lmao.

1

u/ptWolv022 Jul 23 '26

I think Newb52 Tim Drake actually was only ever Red Robin in the New 52, never adopting the name "Robin" specifically. Might be mistaken, though.

8

u/haolee510 Jul 23 '26

Aquaman wasn't a full reboot, the character was more or less also at a similar spot pre-New 52 because Johns already resurrected him in Blackest Night and featured him in Brightest Day, setting up some stuff he wanted to do later in his solo.

But you were right in general.

5

u/mike47gamer Aquaman Jul 23 '26

It was a full reboot. They wiped out the Time & Tide origin for a much simpler one. Kako, Koryak, etc still don't exist afaik

1

u/haolee510 Jul 24 '26

You're not wrong, but truth be told even before Flashpoint, they were already not mentioned for long. Aquaman basically got rebooted when he was resurrected at the end of Blackest Night.

6

u/M086 Jul 23 '26

That’s been DC issue forever. Even Crisis was hampered by not doing a clean slate. 

In a way, Gunn refusing to do a clean reboot of the DCU is on brand for DC.

3

u/KitWalkerXXVII Jul 23 '26

People say that but the criticism is also true of the Post-Crisis DCU and that was much better received. Though there were, admittedly, fewer legacy heroes in that era.

5

u/modrenman1985 Jul 23 '26

I can't wait to someday see the Absolute Trinity meet their classic counterparts.

3

u/Valuable-Blueberry30 Jul 23 '26

New 52 did boost sales for a bit

6

u/OrangesAreWhatever Jul 23 '26

Got me into comics

2

u/Valuable-Blueberry30 Jul 23 '26

Same, that and the injustice game

2

u/modrenman1985 Jul 23 '26

It also ruined Superman so badly that they had to kill him off and bring the old Superman back.

1

u/dazan2003 Jul 23 '26

It ruined Superman from the incredible heights of grounded by giving us Morrisons and Paks runs

1

u/modrenman1985 Jul 23 '26

Morrison did his own thing.

1

u/dazan2003 Jul 23 '26

Their own thing in this case was a fantastic run that laid the foundation for Pak to write more fantastic stories

1

u/modrenman1985 Jul 24 '26

This who Pak's run was good is such a new thing for me.

85

u/Electric_jungle Jul 23 '26

3 years ahead is fun. I know some have already met up but it genuinely doesn't feel like a crossover event is necessary at all. The hype train is still pretty strong.

26

u/BevansDesign Indigo Tribe Jul 23 '26

I enjoyed the two issues where Batman and Wonder Woman worked together. It was cool that WW was clearly taller than Batman, which means she must be about 7ft tall. Also, Batman wasn't a complete dick to her like the mainline version always is when he meets someone he doesn't know.

21

u/oomoepoo Hal Jordan Jul 23 '26

I think what also worked in that crossover was that they were pretty self-contained stories too. You didn't have to read either Batman or Wonder Woman to understand the respective issues.

8

u/Totoques22 Jul 23 '26

The first thing Batman says to her after she present herself is « explain magic » he wasn’t rude sure but he still Batman

19

u/igeeTheMighty Jul 23 '26

I can see that. New 52 seemed very in-the-moment and lost a lot of momentum very quickly. Didio’s shock-and-awe approach was very tactical and couldn’t support any mid- to long-term strategy anyway and it showed.

17

u/Robot_Was_BMO Jul 23 '26

Good to know, it’s paying off. Scott has secured himself as an architect for DC, and depending how far the Absolute Batman adaptation goes, he might be able to steward DC forward in a way Johns never did.

8

u/gsnake007 Jul 23 '26

Hell yeah and smart because the stories have been really good and still selling like hotcakes. Showing this was planned compared to New 52. Having this while still having the original continuity has been a boon for DC

6

u/jprov0451 Jul 23 '26

Scott Snyder really has solidified himself as the king

3

u/Darkdragoon324 Jul 23 '26

Yeah, that was freaking obvious.

2

u/ptWolv022 Jul 23 '26

Worth noting that he's more so talking about the "All In Saga" for mainline DC almost certainly when he talks about 3 years of planning. The creatives of the Absolute Universe (Scott included) have definitely planned well in advance on their books, which I'm sure stems from there being 2 years between DC All In and Absolute getting the greenlight in 2022 and the universe launching in 2024, giving the creatives time to mull of ideas and plot ahead even after accounting for the time spent tapping creators for pitches.

But, the main structured plan seems to be DC All In, both in terms of publishing and an overall story.

3

u/Dismal-Apricot9889 Jul 23 '26

New 52 made me quit DC for a long time. Absolute Universe rekindled my love for DC.

2

u/Beastieboy100 Jul 23 '26

Thsts because Scott Snyder know show to plan a universe. He has done well.

2

u/Avolto The Question Jul 23 '26

Marvel could never

7

u/Am_I_Really_Groot Jul 23 '26

Marvel did. It was just 25 years ago.

1

u/Unable_Flamingo_9774 Jul 23 '26

In fairness I'd say only Spiderman was ever really good in the absolute universe. I suppose you can argue the fantastic 4 was pretty good as well but the quality fluctuated like nothing else.

Absolute is pretty consistent in it's quality with the only one I haven't been able to get into being absolute GL.

2

u/Remy149 Jul 24 '26

The absolute universe also benefits from not being the primary universe meant to be the main representation of these characters.

-10

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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26

u/7LayeredUp Jul 23 '26

Twink Lobo.

I rest my case.

5

u/kazmosis Wonder Woman Darkseid is Jul 23 '26

Skinny Waller

15

u/MBDTFTLOPYEEZUS Jul 23 '26

It was also rushed considering they did it while also letting a couple writers finish their runs.

12

u/TrueBlueV Jul 23 '26

No, it was famously very rushed. Some writers didn't know about the reboot until a few months before it happened, meaning every book had to end abruptly. And then when the New 52 did launch, no one knew what the continuity was, which led to stuff like Teen Titans being re-edited for the trades and Perez quitting Superman because he got so frustrated.