LNH/LNH20/LNHX: The Tao of Reboots

[Andrew Perron]

On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:01:13 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> Isn't that what LNHY did, though? It doesn't have ANY classic LNH
> characters, except Exclamation!Master! and Kid Enthusiastic.
> (Respectively a villain who became a hero and a hero who became a
> villain.) 

Hey, I didn't notice that!  Neat.

> I wonder if the difference is in the ambiguous way the
> revamp/reboot is being pitched. It's being handled like a reboot even
> thought it's not really a reboot. It's more like the transition from
> Earth-2 to Earth-1 in the DC Universe, but done intentionally.

Or like the Ultimate Universe, but with less of a focus on re-telling old
stories.

> LNHY
> underwent the fate of all alternate universes in superhero comics; it
> diminished and got eventually ignored. (I also think the tonal clash
> in the setting that resulted from "The Devil Came Down to Georgia,"
> even though that was a good story in and of itself, and the
> unnecessarily restrictive "only one LNH member per writer" rule hurt
> it too. But that's a whole other rant.) 

Honestly, I just think there weren't enough people around to make a
critical mass.  2004 was one of RACC's two lowest-traffic years (along with
2003).  Compare that with 2011, which already had fairly consistent
three-digit posts per month even before this.

> LNH20 is kind of being treated
> as the "main" universe, the "Earth-1," but the "Earth-2" is still
> around.
> 
> Personally, I think this is how DC should have done its own reboot. 

Yes.  That they had was actually one of the early rumors on it, and boy
howdy was I disappointed when it wasn't true.

> DC
> had a problem in that there were a lot of books that were floundering,
> but a few--the Green Lantern and Batman titles--that were doing really
> well. So DC changed the universe but without rebooting those two
> lines, turning everything into a convoluted mess. What I would have
> done is create a new "Earth-1" which would be treated as the primary
> world, while letting Green Lantern and Batman continue on the old
> Earth. 

Indeed.  Makes so much more sense. (Honestly, that's what they should've
done with CoIE!  It was understandable not to then, but not now.)

> I'd also do the reverse of what LNH is doing with the "iconic"
> characters--most of the main heroes of the original Earth die, and the
> former sidekicks and minor heroes have to come to the fore. 

Eh, even if it weren't for trademark issues, DC has some of the iconic-est
iconic heroes.  I can see keeping 'em around, though futzing with their
details is good too.

> AJM (Though I do appreciate the fact that we finally have a
> Frankenstein book now)

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, would introduce a mummy hero to LNH20,
but Wil has that market sewn up.