Reboots

It's a term I think is becoming more and more common: the Spider-Man movies and comics, Superman, Batman... a lot of writers are "rebooting" several series with huge fan-bases. One thing I have found is that these have been occurring a lot right after some sort of huge even in each series; Spider-Man had not only died, but been reborn in a more "evolved" state, and there were so many negative reviews about the movies that a new director has come along and said he wants to start again from scratch.

Superman died a long time ago, relatively speaking. Whether or not there was a specific event that I missed that caused this restart, Superman Earth One begins the time-told origin of the Man of Steel all over again. Guess what. I don't like Superman. He is the universal cheat-code superhero.
Oh, bad guys with guns? Let's make him impervious to that.
Lazers? Nope, won't work.
Fights in space? He can, uh...hold his breath for a really, really long time.
And apparently he just doesn't do wrong. And normal human women fall off of buildings all over the place just because he's around and want him to catch them.
However, this is what's interesting: Earth One made me like Superman. The entire first half of the book is about him going around and basically applying to high-paying jobs by discretely using his powers (like blowing people away in football, discovering how to turn salt-water into a viable energy source, etc). Oh, and that red-headed Jimmy Olson actually has some guts, and almost dies while talking back to a giant alien robot. Basically, the story is much more realistic, and Superman isn't a completely annoying Boyscout figure.

Batman "died" about a year ago. Meanwhile, several things have happened: the old Robin took his place as Batman, and Batman's son took over the role of Robin (yes, Batman also recently discovered he had a son). On the other hand, Batman and Robin All-Star, as you've probably guessed, starts back not to when Batman was born, but when he, uh... ok, he basically kidnaps Dick Greyson, who becomes Robin. I personally loved this version, and thought it was hilarious and cool at the same time; Batman acts like a crazy person. My brother, who is a little more than a Batman "fan" or even "enthusiast", holds a pretty much opposite stance. My favorite phrase that keeps coming up (edited for school purposes) is "I'm the God#### Batman." Seriously.