Don’t quite know why, but of late DC Comics has been trying to modernize/revitalize/re-work many of their superhero concepts.

Perhaps the editors/writers/artists felt that some of these older concepts had become stale with the passage of years and felt it was time to upset the cart a little and see what happens.  It may also be that the for the most part successful re-working of various characters on the many DC TV shows have also inspired a desire to do the same in print.

Which leads us to the above.  In case you haven’t been following Superman comics of late, one of the big things that was recently

…SPOILERS FOLLOW!…

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

…was have Superman’s secret identity of Clark Kent be revealed to the world at large (by Lois Lane, no less!) and the fallout of this revelation.

Now, it appears that Superman will take on a new secret identity…

Superman’s Getting A Brand New Secret Identity

How long will these changes last?  Who knows.  In the past when DC or Marvel made “big” changes to their well established characters they would inevitably return them to a semblance of what they were before (for example, they “killed” Superman and kept him dead for a while before bringing him back.  They turned Hal Jordan/Green Lantern evil and he did some truly ghastly things, including mass murder, before he too was apparently killed off.  He returned and the villainous stuff was explained away.  Over at Marvel, they killed off Steve Rogers/Captain America and he returned as well.  Etc. Etc.)

I can’t help but wonder if today’s changes, however, might be longer term.  There is no doubt that comic book fiction is far different today than what I remember from my own childhood and the writers/editors of today may be in a more experimental mood than before.

Doesn’t mean they won’t eventually bring things back to the status quo, though!