Reset at 1, Again

     Apparently DC Comics is going to reset the numbering of a lot of its titles to 1. Detecive and Action Comics, Superman and Batman, all reset. They can't go to Zero because they've done that once already. Marvel Comics has done this a few times, then undone it, then done it again, then undone it but added the reset numbers to the originals (so that, say, Avengers #432 never actually happened, because it was Vol. III #4. Head hurt?).
     Obviously, this is a ploy to bring on new fans. Knowing you missed the first 581 episodes of back-story is a little daunting. #1 is a great point to jump on. Back when I used to read comics, I remember being excited to buy such milestones as Detecive Comics 600 or Amazing Spider-Man 400. It felt cool, like touching history, being a part of something that stretched all the way back to the Depression.
     And yet, I can also recall the violent thrill of anticipating in those summers of the early 90s the new (simply) Spider-Man series by Todd MacFarlane, or the new (simply) X-Men series by Jim Lee. Those #1s were something so refreshing in an era of 364s and 509s. Funny enough, it's Lee who masterminded this relaunch, and who is redesgning a lot of the major characters.
    What? Mucking with history? Well, maybe there's something to this. Magazines rarely make a big deal of their issue number. Maybe comics cling too much to their monthly designation. I mean, as I recall, every issue ending in a zero had to have some major event in it. The anticipation of issues 595-599, the hangover of issue 601. Creators must've felt a lot of stress having to provide a major payoff whenever a numerical click was coming. Many of those were hokey (new costumes, new heroes, dead girlfriends). I mean--and I take this with a nostalgic grain of salt looking back with childhood joy on a pretty commercial "art form"--I seem to remember the best stories were often nowhere near these milestone numerals, because the creators had freedom to express themselves when they wanted, in the blissful unconcern of the pages of issue 232.
       Maybe it's a good thing, then. Maybe I appreciate history too much, I'm too protective of the past. Maybe when comics are concerned I'm a (DEAR GOD!) little c conservative. Maybe a fresh start is a good thing.
      . . . . Maybe it doesn't matter. I'm not going to start reading them again, anyway.