It feels like reboots are all the rage these days. I thought that it was just in the world of movies, but seemingly not. I just found out the entire DC comic line is doing a reboot. That's right, the whole line. That's over 50 titles, some of which have been running solidly for over 50 years. That's a huge move. In some ways it's exciting, in others, it's kind of sad.

With films, a reboot of a traditional story is at times necessary. Take Batman for instance. The majority of the old Batman movies had different actors playing Batman anyhow, so a synergy was never really established. Some of them had Robin in them, others didn't. So doing a reboot many years later makes a lot of sense.

In other stories, like Superman and The Hulk, a reboot seems just like a ploy to make money. The reboots don't truly further the storyline at all, but due to the popularity of the stories, the developers think they can make a few dollars by retelling the story over again from a different angle. I don't really like that mindset and am a tiny bit wary of supporting such reboots because I do not necessarily want to see more of them.

But with the reboot of the entire DC comic line, it seems like rebooted movies are the way of the future. It's odd though. Before about 5 years ago, I don't think there was such a thing as a reboot in the film world. Maybe I am wrong, but I seem to remember that sequals were always merely just extensions of the prior movies.

The reboot mindset represents a basic change in storytelling. The film producers are trying to give one generation exactly what they are trying to find, probably realizing that when the next generation comes along, they can just reboot again and reinvent the story according to what the most recent generation is looking for. Stories are now not timeless I suppose. It is too bad.