How can it be catering to the old guys if DC's returning to a fictional structure that worked for a vastly superior number of readers for 70 years prior to CRISIS, with everything neatly explained by the Multiple Earths theory? I mean, DC had a limitless canvas for story-telling with the Multiple Earths, and decided to crush all that together and create a nightmare of continuity problems that the company has yet to recover from, and it only took them twenty-two years to figure it out.

...70 years prior to CRISIS...

*******

uhh...what?

Uhh, you're hedging over 20 years. Why not argue the statement, then point out it's 50 instead of 70? Like that makes a damn.

Well, if the Superman who lifted the car was retroactively the Superman of Earth 2, then we are talking the totality of DC up to that point. Readers weren't "aware" they were reading Superman of Earth 2, nor writers/artists telling tales of same, but DC made it plain with two Flashes on the same cover that that was the case. 

The Multiverse was there, and like Delbert Grady it had always been there. Comics pros merely gave it a name. And it worked. Infinite worlds, infinite alternate histories, infinite story possibilities traded in to become "like Marvel". To go from a Multiverse to a series of retcons ripped the heart out of those shining DC icons. And not just once.

Hmm... Marvel of the 70's...

I guess there are a lot of worse goals a company could make.

I loved Marvel of the 70's.

Brad Hague wrote:

QUOTE: I loved Marvel of the 70's.

So did I. :-)

John Byrne wrote: Marvel of the 70s, perhaps.

How so? I, too, have fond (albeit nostalgiac) memories of that decade of Marvel-dom.

EDIT: After reading my comment, I realized that one could infer that I thought your comment was a pejorative one. I'm not assuming that--just wanted to make myself clear. 

Michael Connell wrote: I've noticed on my DC site the younger readers seem to be complaining that DC is starting to cater to our generation "The old guys" with the return of the Multiverse, Hal Jordan back as GL and the new JLA.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But this is like saying keeping Clark Kent as Superman "caters" to the readers of the thirties and early forties.

Quite the contrary. That's merely following continuity. But 20 years ago DC deliberately broke continuity, with CRISIS, MAN OF STEEL, George's WONDER WOMAN reboot, etc. To harken back to the pre-CRISIS days is to play to exactly what I find most wrong with DC these days -- their idea of "innovation" is to press REWIND. And that is most definitely catering to the "old" crowd.

I applaud DC for catering to me.  Unfortunately about 80% of their books are still aimed at other readers.  They need to fix that.

I hope that "going back to the 70's" includes bringing back all of those war, romance, and horror titles.  And the oversized editions too.