I'm the kind of guy who loves to discuss and debate and examine subject near and dear to my heart, even if my ability to meaningfully and pointedly express thoughts often lags behind my passion on the subject. So please bear with me as I try...
I'm the kind of guy who loves to discuss and debate and examine subject near and dear to my heart, even if my ability to meaningfully and pointedly express thoughts often lags behind my passion on the subject. So please bear with me as I try to convey my thoughts on this subject, and in this case the subject is ReBoot.
I first became aware of an attempt to renew interest in ReBoot from a little website called ReBoot Revival around March. I was so impressed with the website and hopeful of its goal I signed up immediately and even linked to it from my own (shameless plug) website. And why not I thought, after all over the last few years or maybe last decade would be better, I saw new life breathed back into a number of animated shows. I saw Family Guy, Futurama, Big O and to a lesser extent Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z revitalized thanks the exposure they received on Cartoon Network. Even ReBoot was rekindled in part thanks to Cartoon Network.
So when I heard Zeros 2 Heroes would be working with Rainmaker to produce a ReBoot comic I was excited and rushed to their website. As exciting the prospect of a new Reboot product was I was even more excited after reading this:
You've seen it before: a big entertainment company trying to squeeze out a few more ducats from a classic and much-beloved story. They tart it up, modernize it, stick in a hip new sidekick, then parade the "new and improved" production in front of the fans... who are suitably disgusted.
Naturally, the production bombs and no one can seem to figure out why. But this time, it's going to be different.
Rainmaker Entertainment is bringing back ReBoot. And they want you - the fans - to help them get it right.
So with optimistic enthusiasm I dived into the different pitches eager to hear the ideas and see the concepts. I was little prepared for what I would find. I was infuriated by what I found; Alien invaders, Orwellian Nightmares, characters and concepts completely abandoned or radically changed, bad fan fiction, political demagoguery, ugly and unappealing artwork, and ideas that has little or no place in a product that should be based on established ReBoot material. Every failing that Zeros 2 Heroes mentioned was unfolding right before my eyes. Like most fans I wanted a continuation to the story that we were left hanging on not this nonsense. I was ready to walk away from the whole prospect.
But I let my head cool, remembered that fans were going to get a say in what happened and signed up to Zeros 2 Heroes. I took a deep breath and addressed each pitch for what it was and what I expected from a ReBoot comic. So I started with them as they were presented to me ReBoot: Regenerated was first up.
With ReBoot: Regenerated I really hated the idea that everything that I knew and loved from Reboot, Mainframe and all the characters were gone, destroyed was the word they used. And apparently the villain of the series Megabyte was responsible and vanished proclaiming a "New Viral Dawn" despite his speech given at the end of the ReBoot series. But after considering the concept and characters after that the idea began show promise. A new team of open source sprites battling viruses without consent from the guardians, while unraveling a plot between the new villainous omnimorph called Pathogen and the guardians could make for interesting reading. But this is the kind of story that could be told without involving or affecting the original material, making it perfect for a spin-off if all that destruction nonsense is dropped.
Next was ReBoot: Arrival and I was immediately barraged by a number of concepts that I did not want in ReBoot. Space Aliens, earth invasions, and the user interacting with the characters to stop the alien invaders. No, I wanted no part of that. But then again all the characters were still there and the way I knew them. Even mainframe was still there admit in danger but still a part of the story. And concepts from the original material were being brought up and expanded upon, like the Net and the Codemasters. Aside from the alien invasion nonsense this felt a lot like the ReBoot I knew and loved, but that was a lot to put off to the side. If the real world junk could be dropped or carefully minimized this would be a wonderful extension to the ReBoot world.
Then was ReBoot: 2.0 and the concept sounded very strong. The characters and world were still there and we were going to see what kind of affect a new "operating system" would have on all of them and their world. But then I started seeing what the idea of a new "operating system" really was, an excuse to radically change everything that was ReBoot to suit the storytellers needs. Instead of the stories of life inside a computer world it became another Orwellian story of the evils of "Big Government" and total control. It's a story we've heard time and time before and while that isn't inherently a bad thing it's a story I don't want in the ReBoot universe. I was particular disgusted when the villainous operation system was described as such "Serenity is the government, its Whitey, Big Brother and The Man all rolled into one." This coupled with the unnecessary and terrible changes to the character's designs and personality's makes what could have been an interesting idea an unbearable one.
Then I came across ReBoot: The Last Guardian and was immediately left with a bad taste in my mouth. After seventeen years or at least to give the benefit of the doubt to the writers the computer equivalent has pasted, and a new character called Bit who is the daughter of three of the original characters, Dot, Bob, and Megabyte is introduced as the new main character. Now the characters are there but they've been radically changed to show off the new character Bit. Both the character and story reeks of self insertion and the Mary Sue concept that floats around fan fiction terminology. On top of this the entire story seems to happily discard everything that was setup and established throughout ReBoot's run. I can't see anyway to improve this since the entire concept of this pitch revolves around this new character and this new character doesn't seem like a good idea in the first place.
Lastly was ReBoot: The Last User. I wanted to scream. More aliens, horrible art, almost nothing remotely resembling the ReBoot we know aside from names. I'm honestly having such trouble expressing by distaste for this pitch in a coherent manner, that I feel I'm doing a disservice to any readers. The idea of aliens and their technology leading the world to a utopia only to have sinister intentions bores me greatly and has little place in a ReBoot story. These characters are bland and uninteresting, and this pitch is the worst offender as far as the list of faults listed by Zeros 2 Heroes is concerned. I can't nor want to help this idea improve.
My apologies if that was a little long winded, but I needed to express my thoughts and feeling concerning ReBoot and the pitches presented here, but after all that's what this revival is all about and what different teams want to hear.