10 Unpopular Comic Book Character Reboots (That Were Actually Perfect)
Just because it was terrible doesn't mean that One New Day didn't save Spidey.
As one of the most common and longest-running serialized mediums, comics are often presented with a unique problem.
Many of the most iconic and lucrative characters have been around for so long that their personas have become stale and clash with modern worldviews, but putting them through growth or change violates their legacy and pop cultural importance. And it pisses off fans.
The solution to this problem is the same universal comic glue that fixes any number of other issues in the medium: reboots. Multiple universes need to be condensed into one? Reboot it. The timeline is too convoluted to be understood? Reboot it. A character has been written into a corner and there's no logical way to get them out? Reboot it.
But by now, comic readers have caught on to the game and reboots these days are rarely given the benefit of the doubt. Usually, they are instantly hated for daring to violate or change beloved comic lore.
However, they are sometimes not only necessary to save certain characters, but once in a while they can even improve upon an original character. And sometimes, the hate that a reboot receives overshadows the legitimate narrative potential they provide.
10. Batgirl - New 52
Despite starting out as an auxiliary character in Batman's mythos, Batgirl a.k.a. Barbara Gordon evolved in the comics and in readers' hearts. Her chipper personality and impressive applied intellectualism set her apart from the darker and goofier heroes in her midst and made her stand out. That's why it was so devastating when she was cut down by the Joker's bullet in Alan Moore's The Killing Joke.
Despite Moore himself disowning the comic, DC made it canon and Batgirl officially lost the ability to walk.
But even losing the lower half of her body didn't stop Barbara Gordon from being a superhero. Not long after her attack, she reinvented herself as Oracle, the Justice League's resident computer hacker, super genius, and tactical coordinator. From her workstation in the Gotham clocktower, she coordinated the heroes of the Justice League through multiple global and multiversal crises and made herself a critical element of the team.
In the New 52 relaunch, however, Barbara Gordon was abruptly back to being Batgirl, with the explanation that a surgical computer chip had repaired her shattered spinal cord. Fans were outraged that decades of continuity and an icon for the disabled were being rewritten, but one person who unequivocally agreed with that creative choice was Alan Moore himself.
The change has stuck since, with Babs going onto receive another successful reboot in the Batgirl of Burnside.