Why Young Justice was a better DC reboot than the New 52 (http://tomatoisjp.tumblr.com/post/66860652304/why-young-justice-was-a-better-dc-reboot-than-the-new)
I have to agree with you on this one Tomato. The YJ DCU was a far more well-thought-out and well-planned setting than whatever the DCNu reboot was. I really enjoyed their updating of Adam Strange: they kept the key parts of his origin while updating him and his look in a way that was still recognizable yet felt less dated (I also liked the fact that there was a language barrier, nice touch), and managed to incorporate the whole Zeta Beam technology into a practical form throughout the universe.
The difference is that one (YJ) had a "bible" while the other (DCNu) did not. The former, everyone had to be on the same page about whatever was being added, while the latter, there were cases when one creator had no idea what another was doing. Admittedly, the latter had a whole lot more to coordinate, but I still think they could have spent more time on pre-planning and I'm going to stop now because this is rapidly turning into a rant.
Greg Weisman is noted for his "long game" planning which I think helps with his world-building in general. Look at the Gargoyles universe as a good example. In it, he had three major groups: humanity, gargoyles, and fey, and later explored how all of these fit into tons of global mythology and legend in a way that felt cohesive and unified. He also was behind the "Spectacular Spider-Man" animated series which I think is another good example of adaptation and up-dating an existing universe with tons of backstory.
Yeah I definitely agree with you Tomato. The New 52 was a mess of a reboot. If memory serves even when it was first announced many of DC actual writers had only heard about it recently. Far too many rapid creative changes and flip flopping story elements, there's simply no way to keep things cohesive. I always thought they should have started at the beginning, not 5 years years later.