Read first 2 years of "Action Comics" and "Superman" - DC Comics (iPad)

I was certainly aware of DC's re-launch - (New 52) in 2010, and saw the artwork for the characters, very dramatic covers and new action figures.

I hadn't, however, read much of the new titles.  I rectified that by reading the first two years of both Action Comics and Superman.  I've read Superman pretty regularly in the mid-70's through the mid '90's and on and off since then.  Not sure that I had any specific expectations for the new launch.

    

My experience with Superman re-launches was the "Sand-Superman" era around issue #233 (1971) where an experiment to destroy all the kryptonite on earth causes feedback and removes about 1/2 of Superman's powers.  This was a reasonable thing to do, as Superman seemed to get exponentially stronger with each decade of publication, moving from jumping over buildings to flying fast enough to go back through time.  In fact, he became so powerful that there really wasn't any decent stories to tell - if he was defeated, but not killed, why not just go back in time and stop the villain and avoid the entire "defeat"?

Superman (1939) #233 - Still one of the best covers ever.

The Man of Steel (1986) Mini-Series to re-launch Superman

My second experience was the mid-80's, formal re-boot by John Byrne.  This re-boot took offline both Superman and Action Comics for a few months, a "Man of Steel" mini-series re-launching the origin and character into a newer timeline and re-launched with a new #1 for Superman (with "Adventures of Superman continuing the numbering from the previous "Superman" series).  The new Superman was less powerful than he was prior to the re-boot, but certainly more familiar than the "original" Superman of the 1930's.

I like the "New 52" Superman.  The "he's an alien" sub-plot is a good one, and it explains the Lex Luthor wish/need to destroy him much better than the "he made me bald" sub-plot from the original series.  The military being cautious also makes perfect sense, as does the small mentions of international concern.

Re-tooling Lois and Jimmy is good as well.  I like that Lois and Superman aren't an item right away, and that Lois is actually portrayed as a strong female character.  I always wondered what the appeal of the '50's/'60's/'70's Lois was.  Giving the supporting characters a well-developed life outside of their Clark-Superman relationship only makes the potential storylines stronger, and makes the characters less like two-dimensional hostages.

I like the new suit - I really don't know if I'd have thought much about it either way as being "new" if there wasn't a fuss about it.  It really seems like a new-artist rendition of the original suit, with the only striking difference being the removal of the red underwear of the older model.  I did like the t-shirt and jeans look before the kryptonian suit was introduced.

Updated Superman Suit

Compared to the odd re-launch at Marvel (Marvel Now), where they are coy about what is actually happening with characters and history (particularly the odd handling of Spider-Man), the DC approach is refreshingly honest. I don't feel "betrayed" by changing Supermen - he is quite different than the one from prior eras, but it still "feels" like the same character.  

Marvel's handling of the evolution of their characters leaves much to be desired - Marvel tried to erase several decades of character development, primarily to erase the marriage to MJ).  How did they do it?  They tried to say the Spider-Man of the last decade or more was really a clone introduced in the '70's and the "real" Spider-Man was this guy (Ben Reilly), so forget all those stories you invested in.  Later they made Peter the current manifestation of the Spider-Clan, a mystical bunch of hogwash, where he is in a long line of Spider-Men over time (this also gave him organic web shooters).  The last, and current, move was to have Peter and Mary Jane make a deal with Mephisto (the Devil) to erase their marriage from existence in order to save the life of Aunt May.  What does dealing with the Devil do to a character based upon conscience-induced nightmares?  Also, where is the "trick"?  Doesn't the Devil always extract another cost besides the one you signed up for?  Current status on Peter is that he's dead, but his body is inhabited by Doctor Octopus, with Peter showing up as a memory flash (haven't read in a while, they should be wrapping this up soon).

All in all, the DC re-boots seem to be much better handled - they are doing a re-boot to re-invigorate a character, and doing it overtly seems much more respectful to the fans, and to the character itself.  Marvel seems to either not value their characters, or not value their fans.  The only reason the characters are so well know as to generate the millions of movie revenue is the consistency of the characters over time to generations of fans - they seem to be shooting that model in the foot.