No, readers, I speak of the more general term. The definition of "Reboot" in my case is to take an established franchise or series or such, and start again, from the beginning, this time taking a direction in tune with the more popular aspects of that time period.
For a good example of this, take a look at the series created by companies like DC and Marvel. Every so often, as times and the ideas and morals change, and as new writers and artists are hired, we see the stories of tried and true characters like the Justice League and the X-Men come to a decisive conclusion, only to resurface some time later, with a new Issue #1, a new storyline, and old characters with new looks.
The idea of restarting a story is not exclusive to just comics either. All types of media, from TV shows and movies, to regular books, to video game series, have at least one example where someone's decided to hit the reset button and wipe the slate clean.
What I intend to do here today is give a few examples of why this strategy shines, examples where it fell flat, and a couple of times of my own where I've had to hit the reset button on my work.
The Old Batman Movies to The Dark Knight Saga
Then came Christopher Nolan in 2005 with Batman Begins, which put Batman deep into the grimdark, heavy-voiced, villain-driven storylines that people had then come to expect from him in this age of comics. This continued with The Dark Knight, which pit Batman against old enemies the Joker and Two-Face, and finally The Dark Knight Rises, which served to fit as a conclusion.
To me, the most notable differences between these two sagas is their tone, the direction they took going forward, and how the people behind the films made their decisions on their sequels.
As the Original Batman films slowly became denser and wackier (culminating in Batman & Robin), the Dark Knight Saga became progressively darker the more the films went on, as Batman's past constantly came back to haunt him, and how he had to get past that.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to Steel Ball Run
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a long-standing manga/anime series, worked on by one Hirohiko Araki ever since 1987.
Chronicling a very long bloodline of warriors and their fight against all manner of violent supernatural villains, the manga has a 20 year backlog of over a hundred volumes and still counting!
The first six parts of the story followed a different descendant of the original protagonist (or at least someone really close to the descendant) at a different place and period in time, from 18th century England, all the way to 21st century America in the present day (well, up to 2011, anyway).
The reboot part of the story came in the form of Steel Ball Run, whereupon the universe the story was originally set in was literally reset, returning the world as we knew it to the 18th century.
This new universe featured new versions of certain characters and their abilities and powers, but in a new light, taking the story of a bloodline fighting evil monsters and minions and turning it into a transcontinental race, (alongside the fighting evil monsters and minions) with some very interesting conspiracies behind it...(the race, I mean, not the story itself. The actual manga, I imagine has no conspiracies behind it whatsoever...)
The new story has since moved into 2012 in it's timeline with a new narrative, but, by now, the point's already been made; the universe we once knew from the past had a gallon of turpentine chucked over it, and had an upgraded can of paint thrown back over it just as quickly.
Spyro the Dragon to Skylanders
If you invested time in the Sony Playstation consoles in the mid-1990s, chances are you've heard of Spyro the Dragon. From that time, up to 2008, the character and the series had appeared through many action-adventure platforming games, of varying quality, builiding a universe with its own locations, heroes, enemies, and mythos.
Created by Insomniac Games, the Spyro name was passed along to different studios and systems as the years went on, and the series began to slip slowly into decline...
Come 2011, though, Activision was handed the rights, and what they did with Spyro's world was indeed, one of the more polarizing examples in gaming, as of late...
Spyro himself, and a few other elements from his series were fully absorbed into the Skylanders universe, with a considerably different appearance (Many of Spyro's original fans, myself included, are in agreement that the new look...takes some getting used to).
Though the Skylanders franchise was in fact built using Spyro's name as a foundation, it has since found its own footing, and the characters in that universe now share equal importance with the video game veteran. (Provided of course, you can find his figure in stores...)
My Own Work
I've drawn my fair share of characters and stories in my time, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have more than a few ideas wind up on the cutting room floor. I do, however, have a tendency to bring my work back into the light when I've put a bit more though and effort into the subject.
Mostly, this comes in the form of a fresh update to something I've done once before, be it to my original characters...
Pictured: My original character, Raleno from 2011-2013
Or to my stories...
Pictured: VS. Universe Page 29 :"Original" and "Redone after Critique":
...Somedays, it seems all you need to make something look brand new is a new coat of paint.
Finally, I bring this blog to a close, with this simple point.
Whether they're better or worse than the old stories is often a matter of heated debate amongst fans. One thing that is certain though, is that these kinds of characters have enough history and popularity to last decades; more than enough time for the characters, worlds, and storylines to change hands between creators.
~Jalen @Xero-J Johnson
__________
You can follow me (and my random thoughts) on such things as...
deviantArt! (my main site)
Twitter!
Facebook!
Pinterest!
LinkedIn!
Miiverse!
No comments:
Post a Comment