This coming Wednesday will begin the dawn of a new era in comics, one that hasn't been seen since the days I was a kid. For me, DC Comics represents the "Mount Olympus" of comics publishing and when I was a kid, I went through a story that was an upheaval of solid foundation in my steadfast heroes. "Crisis on Infinite Earths" pulled at me, and had me collect the stories that showed me my idols. The architects Marv Wolfman, George Perez, and Jerry Ordway had been deconstructing these tried, true, and reliable heroes to give them breadth and weight. I literally shed a tear at the deaths of Barry Allen Flash (the "foot in the door" soldier of the Silver Age") and Kara Zor-El Supergirl. The often imitated (in respect) images of their deaths resonated strong and in my youthful age, I had to come and accept that no matter what I the fan wanted, the publisher had a master plan.

Still, I was disappointed at the deaths of Wonder Woman (E1), Robin & Huntress (E2), Nighthawk, Green Arrow (E2), Lori Lemaris, Don Hall Dove, Farmer Boy/ Flower of Easy Company, and Aquagirl to name a few, I knew I would eventually see them again. Wally West was the first graduate of the original Teen Titans to take over the role of mentor (and it was welcomed), knowing that E1 WonderWoman was going back in time to relive her life was genius in thought, and the introduction of a female Dove is awesome (the story was great, but I'm not here to bash the artist who apparently is back on the series and will remain nameless) in theory. BUT, it was the changes they instituted on the primary characters that at first reading felt offensive, but became what I can gradually acknowledge as my acceptance in change (my own personal phobia) for the sake of growth- character driven growth to prevent mothball hording. DC Comics did something to THE BIG THREE that offended some people, but made new fans:

Superman

Under the guidance of John Byrne and the inspiration of the Fleischer Superman Cartoons, we got a Superman whose natural parents died on a sterile-like world, conferred regularly with his now living foster parents, one chunk of green kryptonite existed, he was known as The Man of Steel (a new origin mini series was named for that moniker), but had a bio electric force field that made him invulnerable, was a living solar battery, could fly at will, and was supposedly a well known novelist, as well as a reporter. For all of Byrne's changes aesthetically, no one adhered to them really: the cape was was always tattered and a lot of writers/ artists didn't like that- so they made it stick that the cape was indestructible, . He was supposed to be the only survivor from Krypton, but then we got a protoplasmic chick who turned out to be an Earth angel, then was wiped from existence, before the emergence of another Supergirl, this time the real cousin of Kal-El (Confused yet? That 20+ years of stories in one sentence folks). His time as Superboy was taken away and replaced with VALOR (Mon-El... just wikipedia it here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon-El#Valor) as the inspiration of the teen heroes called The Legion of Superheroes. Superboy and Krypto would return later- Suck it!

Byrne's Superman was revolutionary as it paid tribute to Siegel & Shuster's Superman/ Fleischer's Superman, as well as George Reeves' portrayal in "The Adventures of Superman"TV Show, yet was also distinctively his: Byrne's idea that Superman could be his own "Fortress of Solititude" was introvert in thought and was never really accepted (I personally scoffed at this- even to this day), but was understood. Byrne did great things in his revamp of Superman- his Kent wasn't a clumsy oaf (AWESOME)- he was confident and sure of himself, the vision powers weren't seen as "lasers" (COOL effect and sensible tribute to Reeves' Superman), Lois wasn't trying to reveal any secret identities, Lex Luthor wasn't a mad scientist, Batman wasn't the smiling best friend as he was before- he had grudging respect for Superman's M.O., Bizarro was an imperfect clone that gradually became grotesque (DAMN GOOD VERSION), reintroducing Inspector Henderson in the comics as Metropolis' new police commissioner was pretty good and making Clark 28 years old was a good touch.

Byrne's revamp was the foundation of the same Superman we see now walking across America, who married Lois Lane, and became Batman's best friend again and DC showed that Byrne's version was a Superman just starting to come into his own; powerful & stronger since his 1986 appearance, and gave us the version that we will say goodbye to 8/31/2011.

(By the way- Power Girl once again is left out on the sidelines, feeling no love...)

Batman

The post COIE Batman was crafted by Frank Miller in the equally successful revamp called "Batman: Year One" in which simpler elements are used to craft Wayne into becoming The Dark Knight. This Batman is silent, gruff, and focused in releasing his anger as a doctor wields a scalpel. Other writers injected their own ideas into the character, but Batman's greatest strength post crisis was the dichotomy of the lone dark knight- he wasn't alone: we got a grown Robin now known as Nightwing, a psycho who died and then came back as the second Robin to the Red Hood, and then we got a geek who deduced Wayne was Batman to which Bruce brought the kid into the fold making him the third, until we meet Damien... a brat from a night of passion between the Dark Knight Detective and one of his enemies daughters, who now is the fifth Robin- and his son (read on). We also got a new Huntress (my favorite after Power Girl), the original Batgirl who became the information heroine known as Oracle, and stepping in her place was the girlfriend of the third Robin who became the fourth Robin, died and then came back to life (can't wrap my head around that, so... here ya go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoiler_(comics)... long story short is this; post-crisis Batman was different and accepted, as he will be in the new 52.

(An event called ZERO HOUR screws with Batman a great deal, yet makes him real cool- in this new reality, Bruce never caught his parent's killer- the screw, while he is referred to as a "urban legend"-the cool)

Wonder Woman

An epilogue showed that Wonder Woman (E2) and retired General Steve Trevor went to live among the gods of Mount Olympus, while Wonder Woman (E1) was devolved to clay. George Perez's revamp was carefully thought out, planned, and given a huge push, as her post crisis lifestyle gave us more Greek Heroine than Star Spangled Warrior- something not explored in greater, broad detail. Wonder Girl Donna Tory's origin was still in question after COIE, but we met Cassie Sandsmark who would eventually come in and fill that role of sidekick. This Wonder Woman after COIE was very much Superman's crush in her debut, but eventually became one of his best friends. This WW's Steve Trevor was not her love interest, but an older friend who married her rubenesque friend Etta Candy.

However post crisis Wonder Woman had some issues too- mom was the original Wonder Woman who fought alongiside the JSA (who came back in the next big crossover called ZERO HOUR- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Hour:_Crisis_in_Time) in WWII. She was stripped of the title by an Egyptian Amazon named Artemis who was literally the red headed stepchild of Hippolyta, and endured several real life quibbles over costume changes (including some nonsensical musings over wearing pants). I'll stop there because this leads to my last paragraph...

... This Wednesday, we'll see a new Justice League with a new origin, like the ones presented about the Big Three after COIE. My point is this- all these changes did nothing really to the characters. For a while Superman had a mullet, Batman had a darker suit with no trunks, then he removed the yellow background on his symbol, and fanboys/girls forget that Wonder Woman is a female who should be allowed to change her look. Aesthetics aside, these heroes are due for a change and we as fans should sit back, enjoy the new fresh ideas that will go into making this 52 canon for another 20 years, and stop haranguing about the loss of red trunks on Superman, or the addition of retractable pants on Wonder Woman. Real fans are not about aesthetics- we're about substance over style (I refer to no artist by name) and the substance of Wonder Woman stories will make you forget about pants.

I look forward to Wednesday with Justice League #1... I look forward to all the books (especially the Savage Hawkman with an origin that really makes sense- you'll see) and know that some may reject this now, but most of us will endure and move on, accepting these changes, as we did with the aforementioned Big Three.