friends, today my childhood ended.

okay, so in any literal sense of the word, my childhood ended over ten years ago. stick with me though, i have a story to tell.

in june of 1938, superman was introduced in ACTION COMICS #1. batman arrived less then a year later in DETECTIVE COMICS #27. countless followed, but it wasn't until all those costumed characters met for the first time and formed the justice league that we had what's come to be known as the DCU: a shared universe for all of our favourite heroes. they could banter, argue, fall in love, team up for epic adventures -- the possibilities were endless.

unfortunately, after decades of exploring those endless possibilities, by the 1980s the result was an unwieldy mess of a multiverse, with dozens of variations of every single character and the contradictory burden of a 50 year history in stories that were intended to appeal to the youngest of generations.

thus: CRISIS ON THE INFINITE EARTHS.

CRISIS was one of the defining stories of the decade. it was the end of every DC story that had come before and a new beginning for every story that would come after. a new earth in a lone universe, a blank slate to fill with modern ideas and stories. superman was given a fresh origin! former mad scientist lex luthor was now a much more contemporary idea of evil: a businessman! and batman was... well, the same. if it ain't broke, don't fix it. the "post-crisis" DC universe began.

two years into this post-crisis universe, my parents gave me my very first comic book. SUPERMAN #24 was the issue, and i don't remember anything about it that the cover doesn't tell us -- superman fought a bizarre, mohawked, orange lady named rampage. what i do remember is the image that truly captured my imagination.

the issue ended with clark kent having a post-adventure chat with lois lane, but in the very last panel as he turned to walk away, we saw that his shadow wasn't that of clark's -- no, dear reader -- it was the shadow of superman. cheesy? maybe, but to 5-year-old nimesh it was the equivalent of clark kent turning to me and winking. it was as if the two of us knew his secret and the rest of the world didn't, a personal connection i alone had with superman. it may have been the very image that ensured i would love comic books for the rest of my life.

there comes a time in every boy's life, though, when he must leave childish things behind and become a man. for me, it happened when i was six. the year was 1989, and a parent had brought home tim burton's latest release on VHS. an absurdly tiny object, considering it was about to change my life forever. the film was, of course, BATMAN.

i followed my two favourite heroes over the years. i could only afford comic books once in a while -- a random issue here, a short run there, but i somehow managed to keep track of what was going on with my champions through whatever means available. i knew batman broke his back (he got better) and i knew superman died (he got better). i knew clark and lois finally tied the knot, and that gotham city was ravaged by plagues and earthquakes. but what finally brought me back to the comic store for good was that idea of the "shared universe" i mentioned earlier. it was the justice league.

the aptly named "big 7" -- superman, batman, wonder woman, green lantern, flash, aquaman and martian manhunter -- had never before assembled as the justice league in the post-crisis universe (and therefore, never in my lifetime). in my DC universe the justice league had been reserved for smaller-tier characters who couldn't maintain their own series, and used quite well to that effect. the time had come for the powers that be to bring out the big guns though, and apparently this was exactly what my teenage self needed to become a gen-u-ine comic collector.

i adored grant morrison's epic run on JLA, and the ambitious year-long batman story told in real-time called NO MAN'S LAND. i discovered classics like frank miller's BATMAN: YEAR ONE and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, and fell in love with new takes on old concepts like GOTHAM CENTRAL. i spent every dollar of lunch money and allowance i could on any cover that caught my eye. those of us for whom the reality of high school was perhaps not what we had been led to believe, we all had our own forms of escapism. the DC universe was mine.

as an adult, while i never left the comic book store... i admit, i drifted away from my favourite superheroes and their shared universe. i would drop back in from time to time, when an event story was cool enough to grab my attention or when a book was written by a particular writer i loved. whether i was following my heroes or not though, i always felt the same way: the post-crisis DC universe was mine, and so it would always be.

until today, when that universe came to an end.

after 25 years of its own convoluted continuity (not to mention an overall decline of sales in the industry), a decision had to be made. what could DC comics do to generate buzz, welcome new readers, and erase the notion (perceived or otherwise) that you need to be "in the know" to read comic books? when THE DARK KNIGHT makes over a billion dollars at the box office, why doesnt that translate into more batman books in the hands of kids?

the solution DC came to was a bold one. one that harkens back to that CRISIS in the '80s but in a far more drastic way. every single book DC publishes is rebooting at issue #1 this month. every single character will be new again, and everything we think happened... hasn't.

goodbye post-crisis DC universe, hello DCnU. (okay, THE NEW 52.)

when this was announced a few months ago, it rocked the comic book world... which, admittedly, is not very hard to do. the real question is whether the rest of the world will notice, and we'll know the answer soon enough. but i give tremendous credit to DC for trying something new. there's excitement in the air, excitement at the shops, and there seems to be a genuine buzz spreading.

last night, i attended my local comic shop's midnight release pajama party for the first title of the THE NEW 52, JUSTICE LEAGUE #1. DC's senior vice president bob wayne showed up to answer questions, which ranged from the nerdiest minutiae of superhero history to the long-range financial plans of this relaunch. the thing that was most clear though was the hope from everyone in the room that this was an opportunity for great stories to be told, and for more people to show up and read them.

in another step forward for the industry, DC has announced that their comics will arrive day-and-date across digital platforms -- a first for a major comic publisher. rather than steal business from brick-and-mortar retailers, i think this gives superman and batman a chance to get some face time with the millions of smart device owners out there looking for an app to kill time with at work, on the subway, or in the bathroom.

my purchase last night was the JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 "combo pack" which included a code to download the book in its digital format. i had never read a digital comic before, and what better time to try? i loaded the issue on my tablet and thought it looked crisp and stunning, and digital comics could end up being a great way to sample the books i eventually want to buy.

to return to the crux of this story though, today, my childhood ended. but you'll note -- i never said endings have to be a bad thing. my DCU might be over, but my heroes live on and i'm curious as ever to see what happens to them this time. i would like to think there's a kid just barely old enough to read, maybe even born today, who in 25 years will be writing a nostalgia-filled post about how their universe is ending... but they can't wait to see what happens next.

i wonder which image will capture their imagination?

2011.08.31