Actually as I stated when DC Comics first announced gutting their entire universe and starting over with every issue being #1 I was kind of lost. How do you really do that logically? So far my initial thoughts have not changed. Superman in Justice League is different than Superman in Superman and completely different than Superman in Action Comics. I’ve figure out how they could have a Teen Titans comic when there is no history of these characters as sidekicks, or Nightwing, or the Red Hood… It’s like jumping into the TARDIS when you move from issue to issue. Each one is in it’s own time frame. It used to be (as a naive) comic book reader you could kind of think that everything in one universe was happening around the same time (give or take a month or two) but for DC its like they have decided that every time occupies a different part of space/time. Which can be confusing. I think I’ve figured some of it out using the character of Superman as an example-
In Action Comics we are covering the back story of Superman (think of is as Year One). In Justice League we are getting the founding of the League (so again Year One for the Justice League) which didn’t happen during Superman’s first year as a hero, so the costume is different. In Superman we are dealing with a later version of the Man of Steel as we also are in Supergirl. This does save me from one of the things I despise about having one character in multiple books which is the poorly executed crossover. Still it does make reading these titles a little on the timey-wimey side.
One thing this has done is caused some artists to do their take on the “NEW 52” and one in particular I like is Aaron Diaz of Dresden Codek. Who has a fantastic blog on design: Indistinguishable From Magic recently he’s taken on the DC Universe by not just redesigning the look of the characters, but also their origins and back stories… which has been neat since it looks like DC has done some things just to shock people into the understanding that “You’re not in Smallville, Kansas anymore” Catwoman, & Starfire seem to be the ones getting press right now, but as long as DC is getting press, I have to believe that they will continue “pushing the limits.”
Heres a list of links on what Aaron has done to the DCU- one of these days I’d love to try this out (who knows maybe that will my creativity project for 2012.
Aaron’s discussions on character design are great for anyone looking at the science behind good design, you don’t have to agree with everything he has to say, but you will end up learning something.
As for the where “My Geek Odyssey” fits into this- I have been inspired to look at some more tweaks to my character design that should show up in this next arc or in some sketches.