Line #24 RevisitingTheRoots/TheDCU


1	!Franchise/TheDCU
2	RevisitingTheRoots in this franchise.
3	----
4	[[foldercontrol]]
5
6	[[folder: Comic Books]]
7	* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
8	** Every so often, when the main members of the RoguesGallery just can't come up with particularly good ideas for capers and run-of-the-mill street crime in Gotham City spikes upward, [[Characters/BatmanTheCharacter Batman]] will be called upon to beat down ordinary muggers and two-bit murderers. This never seems to bore Batman, however, but to strengthen his resolve: it reminds him how his lifelong quest began in the first place.
9	-->'''Batman:''' (''to a mugger as he handcuffs him'') Slime like you made me... I owe you.
10	** Grant Morrison again in their run on ''ComicBook/{{Batman\|GrantMorrison}}''. Remember back in the Silver Age, when Batman made a social club for all his international imitators? Or when he participated in a psychological isolation experiment for NASA? Or when a female socialite became Batwoman to try and get his attention? Grant did, and they reminded us all.
11	** The ''Batman'' story "The Monster Men" does this for Hugo Strange. In his initial appearances ''very'' early in Batman's career, Hugo Strange was a fairly typical MadScientist whose main goal was the creation of "monster men"--that being, mental patients converted through genetic engineering into hulking, brutish superhumans. He then vanished from continuity for decades, and made scattered appearances in the 70s and 80s before being fully revamped in the Post-Crisis era in his modern incarnation as a PsychoPsychologist who grows obsessed with Batman's psychological profile and seeks to test and emulate him. "The Monster Men" marries the two portrayals by bringing those early appearances back into continuity, and retelling them such that Strange is both a geneticist ''and'' a psychologist, and his monster men represent his experiments with creating a higher form of being. Batman's defeat of him gives him a full up-close view of what Batman is capable of, sparking his obsession, as he believes Batman to be a better example of what he's looking for than his own creations.
12	** ''ComicBook/RedHoodAndTheOutlaws'': As part of the ''Rebirth'' initiative, Jason's Post-Crisis origin is brought back alongside elements from his story that hadn't seen referenced in ''decades'' like Ma Gunn.
13	* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
14	** Creator/GrantMorrison's run on ''ComicBook/ActionComics2011'' from the ComicBook/New52 was based around doing this for [[Characters/SupermanTheCharacter Superman]]. Like in the original [[MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] stories, their Superman was physically weaker and had an AntiHero streak, as well as a strong inclination towards social justice. This was justified by having their stories be a {{Prequel}} of sorts, showing Superman as a brash, young idealist.
15	** The storyline ''ComicBook/KryptoniteNevermore'' was intended to return the character to his [[MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] roots as a weaker but wiser and more human character.
16	* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': After years of cosmic adventures, ''ComicBook/GreenLantern2023'' focuses on Earth like the Silver, Bronze, and Dark Age comics.
17	* ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'': There are several arcs the center around reunions of the Fab Five or on their memories.
18	** ''ComicBook/NewTeenTitans'': Starfire has got married and stayed in Tamaran. Nightwing does not want to hear about anything. Changeling tries to stop Mento, who got crazy. Cyborg is in the hospital, after Mento almost killed him. Raven has been missing since ''ComicBook/TheTerrorOfTrigon''. Kole is dead, and Jericho is crying for her. The New Titans are no more. So, who will work with Wonder Girl? Wally West, Jason Todd, Speedy, Aqualad and Hawk. The original Teen Titans are back! (but not for very long).
19	** ''ComicBook/TeenTitans1996'': Following the end of ''Teen Titans Volume 2''[[note]]The series dedicated to the H'san Natall and their affairs.[[/note]], apparently ''somebody'' felt the franchise had gone too far astray, so Devin Grayson's work on ''The Titans'' (launched in 1999) and the [=JLA/Titans=] crossover preceding it focused greatly on setting up the Fab Five as TrueCompanions and building a new phase of the team based around the Fab Five and their personal nominees.
20	[[/folder]]
21
22	[[folder: Films]]
23	* ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'' features much of this approach to ComicBook/{{Batman}}.
24	** Like his earliest appearances, Batman's main clash is against the mob and corruption in Gotham with only very sparse supernatural elements, many of his gadgets are less explicitly bat-themed and he operates mostly solo, without a ComicBook/{{Robin}}.
25	** His villains are also strongly influenced by their original depictions in the comics: ComicBook/TwoFace is without a split personality, ComicBook/{{Bane}} is portrayed as the GeniusBruiser he was in his [[ComicBook/{{Knightfall}} original appearance]], and Creator/HeathLedger and Creator/AnneHathaway were reported to have studied ''The Man Who Laughs'' and actress Hedy Lamarr, the inspiration for their [[ComicBook/{{Joker}} respective]] [[ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} characters]].
26	** In additon, per WordOfGod, this incarnation of Batman does not operate within a SharedUniverse, much like the earliest DC/National Comics in which most superheroes were presumed to take place within their own universes.[[note]] Though ''The Dark Knight Trilogy'' does predate the trend of the Shared Universe in cinema, this was still a deliberate choice by Creator/ChristopherNolan, as previous DC films such as ''Film/SupermanReturns'' and ''Film/BatmanForever'' had made brief mentions of a larger DC Universe within their respective worlds.[[/note]]
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
30	* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' in its fifth season made a conscious effort to return to being the gritty crime drama and "street-level show" it was in the first (and to a lesser extent, second) season, after two seasons of introducing sci-fi and mystical elements to the show in order to help establish the [[Series/{{Arrowverse}} shared universe]]. Notable changes include a renewed focus on the organized crime element in Star City and Green Arrow abandoning his strict policy of ThouShaltNotKill, making him once again the lethal vigilante he was early in the show. Furthermore, the BigBad of this season, Prometheus, is a skilled archer and BadassNormal more akin to Season One BigBad Malcolm Merlyn than the nemeses of subsequent seasons. Also, [[spoiler: Prometheus' origin is tied to Oliver's actions during Season One and is connected to the List, another early element of the show which has now been made relevant again]].
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder: Video Games]]
34	* After Creator/ChristopherNolan's ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'' showed us just how Batman might work in a serious, modernized setting, ''Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries'' reintroduced us to the dark, anachronistic Gotham and corny-but-not-to-be-trifled-with villains we got to know from the Creator/TimBurton [[Film/Batman1989 mov]][[Film/BatmanReturns ies]] and [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries the animated series]]. Then Zig-Zagged, as [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins the prequel game]] took more cues from Nolan.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder: Western Animation]]
38	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' started out doing its own thing with the Bat-mythos, but gradually, that got into more familiar territory: introducing Batgirl and Robin, giving Bats his signature LanternJawOfJustice (possibly to indicate aging), replacing Marion Grange with Hamilton Hill (who would be more familiar to the viewers of [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries the previous animated Batman series]]) and playing down the new stylized designs of the villains.
39	* After decades of dark, serious ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' stories, ''Westernanimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' revived the goofy silliness of the [[MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] stories.
40	* Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' takes many cues from the earliest ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' stories from the [[MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]], in marked contrast to earlier seasons, which were mainly based on more recent [[MediaNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] stories. Most notably, the first episode features the League establishing the Hall of Justice as a second base in addition to the Watchtower, and continues the story with a fugitive ComicBook/LexLuthor joining the new Secret Society (which is very much modeled after the LegionOfDoom) after [[spoiler:having his many crimes exposed]]. Overlaps with DeconReconSwitch; the season spends much time [[{{Reconstruction}} reconstructing]] the same SuperheroTropes that the previous season [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]], returning to the light-hearted and optimistic tone of early ''League'' stories.
41	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Young Justice\|2010}}'': Season 3 plans restores the first season's use of mystery and espionage, something that was mostly absent from the second season, ''Invasion''.
42	[[/folder]]

Context RevisitingTheRoots / TheDCU