One of my opening posts in this blog was heralding the achievement of reaching 900 consecutive issues of Action Comics, with the 900th of Detective Comics on the way.
Then, DC decides to throw a monkey wrench in all that.
Apparently, DC is once again rebooting all their titles complete with tweaked continuities, and this time they’re leaving a Crisis out of it. Hot on the heels of their latest event, Flashpoint, in which Flash is mysteriously sent to another dimension, DC announced that the day the last issue of the event comes out is the day they begin their new runs, starting with Justice League #1. After that primer, 51 more titles (52 total, the number of universes DC has) will follow starting the following week with all-new #1s.
Here’s DC’s official blog post on the launch:
If you know us, you know we both hate secrets. In fact, you might’ve seen one (or both) of us have a grin or two on a convention panel recently. Why? Because it’s hard to keep a secret as big as the news we shared yesterday.DC Comics will be making history this September. We’ll be renumbering the entire DC Universe line of comic books with 52 first issues. We’re publishing innovative storylines featuring our most iconic characters helmed by some of the most creative minds within the industry.Not only will this initiative be compelling for existing readers, it’ll give new readers a precise entry point into our titles. And on top of that, all of these titles will be released digital day-and-date across the board.Yesterday was just the beginning. After all, we don’t want to spoil the many surprises we have up our sleeves. It’s so important to us to make sure you maintain those feelings of excitement and unexpectedness when you pick up a new issue of our books.We’re energized and looking forward to have you come on this journey with us as we make history this September.
–Jim Lee & Dan DiDio, DC Comics Co-Publishers
So far the exact changes are being kept under wraps, and the titles themselves were slowly being leaked through the DC PR machine. The initial books were Justice League Dark, Nightwing (yes, Dick Grayson is being demoted), Birds of Prey (which relaunched barely a year ago), Batwing (one of the new Batmen recruited for Batman Inc.), Batman, Batman and Robin, Batman: The Dark Knight and Detective Comics (all now starring Bruce Wayne and his son Damien as Robin), the much-anticipated Batwoman that has been constantly delayed, and several others. The one bound to be the most controversial is Batgirl, which looks like it has Barbara Gordon returning to the role since she became Oracle after being paralyzed in 1988’s The Killing Joke.
The goal, DC says, is to put stories first and make books accessible to new readers, which will be helped by their new day-and-date publishing (releasing an online downloadable version the same day as the print version, instead of one before the other). So, it looks like they took a page from the Marvel book to risk alienating their existing fanbase for the sake of the possibility of a new one.
I am not a fan of reboots. Reboots or retcons. I deem them unnecessary and lazy, unless you’re bringing back a cancelled title after a period of time. #1s don’t have the same allure they did back in the 90s. Hell, even then, the allure was the anticipation that every #1 was an instant-classic and thus a good investment. Plus, I don’t buy into the whole starting over for accessibility argument. When I started reading comics, the books I read were 30 years into their current storylines. I managed to catch up just fine.
What disheartens me, besides the return to horrid 90s-style costume designs, is the unknown fate of several of my current favorite characters. If Barbara is Batgirl again, what happens to Stephanie Brown? Despite the crappy name and costume, where does Tim Drake’s Red Robin fit into all this? Gotham City Sirens was a guilty pleasure every month, playing on the friendship of three villainesses begun back in the Batman cartoon. On the plus side, I am looking forward to the new Justice League International after the teaser we got in Generation Lost and Blue Beetle back in his own book.
The rundown so far (from Bleeding Cool.com):
2. Justice League International #1 by Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti
3. Teen Titans #1 by Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund (read more)
4. Suicide Squad #1 by Adam Glass and Marco Rudy (read more)
5. Action Comics #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales (read more)
6. Superman #1 by George Pérez and Jesus Merino (read more)
7. Superboy #1 by Scott Lobdell and R.B. Silva and Rob Lean (read more)
8. Supergirl #1 by Michael Green, Mike Johnson and Mahmud A. Asrar (read more)
9. Batman #1 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. (read more)
10. Detective Comics #1 by Tony Daniel (read more)
11. Batman: The Dark Knight #1 by David Finch (read more)
12. Batgirl #1 by Gail Simone, Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes. (read more)
13. Batwoman #1 by J.H. Williams III, Haden Blackman and Amy Reeder (read more)
14. Catwoman #1 by Judd Winick and Guillem March (read more)
15. Red Hood And The Outlaws #1 by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort (read more)
16. Batwing #1 by Judd Winick and Ben Oliver (read more)
17. Nightwing #1 by Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows (read more)
18. Batman And Robin #1 by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason (read more)
19. Birds Of Prey #1 by Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz (read more)
20. Green Lantern #1 by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy (read more)
21. Green Lantern Corps #1 by Peter J. Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna (read more)
22. Green Lanterns: New Guardians #1 by Tony Bedard, Tyler Kirkham and Batt (read more)
23. Red Lanterns #1 by Peter Milligan, Ed Benes and Rob Hunter. (read more)
24. Aquaman #1 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis (read more)
25. Wonder Woman #1 by Brian Azzarello #1 and Cliff Chiang (read more)
26. Flash #1 by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul (read more)
27. Green Arrow #1 by JT Krul and Dan Jurgens (read more)
28. DC Universe Presents #1 by Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang (read more)
29. Savage Hawkman #1 by Tony Daniel and Philip Tan (read more)
30. Blue Beetle #1 by Tony Bedard and Ig Guara (read more)
31. Fury Of Firestorm #1 by Gail Simone, Ethan Van Sciver and Yildiray Cinar. (read more)
32. Mr Terrific #1 by Eric Wallace and Roger Robinson (read more)
33. Captain Atom #1 by JT Krul and Freddie Williams II (read more)
34. OMAC #1 by Dan DiDio, Keith Giffen and Scott Koblish (read more)
35. Static Shock #1 by Felicia Henderson, John Rozum, Scott McDaniel and Jonathan Glapion. (read more)
36. Hawk And Dove #1 by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld (read more)
37. Deathstroke #1 by Kyle Higgins, Joe Bennett and Art Thibert (read more)
38. Legion of Superheroes by Paul Levitz and Francis Portela (read more)
39. Legion Lost #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods (read more)
40. Grifter #1 by Nathan Edmondson, CAFU and BIT (read more)
41. Voodoo #1 by Ron Marz and Sami Basri. (read more)
42. Stormwatch #1 by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda (read more)
43. Animal Man #1 by Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman and Dan Green (read more)
44. Swamp Thing #1 by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette (read more)
45. Justice League Dark #1 by Peter Milligan and Mikel Janin (read more)
46. Demon Knights #1 by Paul Cornell, Diogenes Neves and Oclair Albert (read more)
47. Frankenstein: Agent Of SHADE #1 by Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli (read more)
48. Resurrection Man #1 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Fernando Dagnino (read more)
49. I, Vampire #1 by Josh Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino (read more)
50. Blackhawks #1 by Mike Costa and Ken Lashley (read more)
51. Sgt Rock And The Men Of War #1 by Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick (read more)
52. All-Star Western #1 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Grey and Meridat. (Vigilante by Darwyn Cooke in the back?) (read more)
Details for each book can be found here.
It should be noted that there are several books missing from this list, including the just recently started Batman Beyond, which reportedly IS continuing despite all this. How much truth there is n that, well, we need to wait and see.
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