DC to relaunch with 52 #1's

[House of Usher]

Superhero comics used to make up about half of the titles I bought regularly.

[Daveycandlish]

Men in bright underwear punching each other has never really appealled to me. The only DC book I regularly read is Jonah Hex, so this will have little affect on my monthly expenditure

[Dandontdare]

I can see WHY they're doing it, as DC continuity is a right old mess (how many decades can someone legitimately be a "Boy Wonder?), but this risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Continuity's a mess since the Big Two decided to try and maintain a market of the SAME dwindling pool of fanboys instead of turning over a larger pool of younger readers, and pandered to their anal insistence that the comics should operate in something approximating real-time.

Fuck that. In superhero time now=now; tomorrow=tomorrow; yesterday=yesterday; ten years ago=yesterday; forty years ago=the day before yesterday. If you have a problem with this, remember that you're reading a book about an alien who looks just like us but can fly and wears his pants outside his trousers.

The Simpsons have a Christmas special every year, and yet no-one's head seems to explode over the continuity implications of Bart STILL being ten years old.

That's not directed at you, by the way, DDD. It just drives me insane that all traces of fun in the comic industry seem to have been sacrificed on the altar of fanboy pandering.

Gaah!

Jim

No, it' a very good point. Most of the DC TPBs I tend to buy are short series (eg Superman & Batman) or standalones, which are often flashbacks (Batman Year One) or themed stories (Long Halloween),  elseworld type stories (Red Son, KIngdom Come). These pay no heed to the dead weight of fanboy continuity wank. I think only my Green Lantern collection has any sort of ongoing narrative that I enjoy.

So why can't DC's titles be like this? Run a 6 month Batman story. Then run several months of one-offs with different artists and writers. Than a massive 12 part epic. Ignore the passage of time, just tell the best stories you can, changing styles and moods constantly, but always juggling those same basic elements. Batman and Superman have so much symbolic weight they lend themselves to any amount of retelling and reinterpretation. I've got no problem with that at all, sounds like heaven, and not far from what you seem to be getting at.

What we've got however, is the worst of all possible worlds. They TRY to make it all hang together when obviously it makes no sense when looked at carefully. The time-scales don't match up, but there IS a a passage of time - And Lo, Dick begat Jason who begat Timothy....The Final Crisis followed the infinite one which followed the one on multiple Earths, Superman's death & resurrection came before Batman's death and resurrection ... etc.

Either do it right (Judge Dredd) or don't do it at all (DC at it's best)

This new relaunch just seems to be an excuse to recycle decades of old stories in shiny contemporary packaging, like Hollywood, bereft of new ideas.

But I said that about the Ultimate Marvel stuff and ended up loving that...

Which is a long rambling way of saying I don't really know. 

Be interesting to see how it pans out in the next few years.

[Strontium Claw]

The real problem in US comics is lack of variety, each month 95 of the 100 best selling titles are superhero comics, most people just aren't interested.

This isn't a dig at you, SC, but I've always found the notion that comics fandom is forced to buy superhero books at gunpoint an odd one.  That five percent of comics that isn't superhero books tells a different story than the one you think: unless your assertion is that those five comic books sell out quickly and everyone who missed out on the chance to buy them 'settles' for superhero books as a consolation, it's far more likely that comics readers want to buy superhero books and actually aren't interested in stuff like Ex Machina (one presumes because they had the misfortune to read it).

There's a snobbery about superhero books that's little more than "superhero fans are morons and boffins want to read comics about the Dreamtime/WW2/dystopian sci-wank"  that I can't abide.  A good story is still a good story regardless of genre - and superheroes are a genre just as much as gangsters, soldiers or cowboys are.

No offence taken PB! - You're dead right about Ex Machina!

Nobody is forced to buy anything, but wider distribution (digital, newstand, etc.), won't necessarily lead to a significant growth in comics sales if the material doesn't appeal to that wider audience. Horror, mystery, romance and war comics might attract more non comic readers to the medium if they are affordable and made widely available 
- The industry cannot grow by relying solely on superhero fans.

I grew up reading British comics in the 80's with only the occasional Marvel UK title so I'm not what I call a natural superhero comic fan. I got into US comics about 13/14 years ago by following Morrison, Moore, Ennis and Ellis at Vertigo, and have grown to love silver and bronze age Marvel and the more offbeat modern superhero stuff (e.g. Astro City, The Mighty, Godland, etc.) as well as Vertigo.
My approach is simply to enjoy the best and forget the rest.

[Colin YNWA]

I'd also keep an eye out for what DnA and Paul Cornell get assigned to as well, plus there might be some more exclusives in the pipeline as they give their writing pool a bit more depth and breadth.

Yeah I think (hope) we'll see a host of new writers going to DC. Either that or the writers assigned to the Flashpoint minis might earn a run out. We'll see but I'm hoping for some exciting exclusives to back up this aggressive move.

That isn't an example of a lack of variety - that just shows superhero comics just sell well, largely thanks to a historical accident.

I often wonder about this, with no real insight I have to admit. I think (guess) that while 'historical accident' certainly has a part to play I also think that the superhero genre is one that happens to be something that comics do better than any other medium. Hence there longevity. Comics help detach from reality unlike any other medium and provide a visual medium that makes melodrama work wonderfully. Both things that superheroes need more than most genre. I think that has a large part to play in it. For me most superhero movies, even in this time of astonishing special effects just don't look convincing. The fact that they are too 'real' makes the leap required, to paraphrase Jim, to believe that really is an alien flying powered by the colour of the sun still too far. The hyper-reality of comics enables the Kirby crackle to make perfect sense.

This new relaunch just seems to be an excuse to recycle decades of old stories in shiny contemporary packaging, like Hollywood, bereft of new ideas.

With apologies to DDD for this as I'm citing this example when I could have chosen many, no doubt some from myself. We're all making a lot of assumptions about something that to date is based solely on a few press releases and a heck of a lot of speculation. Fans always seem to react this way and I'm sure DC love it as they'll just be chuffed that for the last couple of days 'Fear Itself' has barely had a mention on the Internet. I'm confident (though of course speculating) some of the stuff will be wonderful and reinvigorate old ideas and some will be tosh that offers nothing new. I'll wait to see before predicting too much however.

[Emperor]

The first 10 are announced, seems Morrison isn't on Wonder Woman, which works for me as it leaves him on Batman:

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/06/02/the-new-justice/

Also if you are looking to catch up Comics Alliance have a good round-up of previous news:

www.comicsalliance.com/2011/06/01/dc-comics-reboot/

My tip: Keep an eye out for pricing announcements - DC have been bold (and brave?) so far, if they are really committed to making this new reader accessible then might they drop down to $1.99 or even $0.99 for the #1s?

[Colin YNWA]

Well there's three I'm buying into, possibly even 4. Flash is also a defo for me and while I'm not sure about the writing team knowing neither's writing chops it'll look good just got to hope the stories as good.

I'm stoked that Wonder Woman is getting such a great line-up. I was hoping Gail Simone would get her back but knew that was wishful thinking this's almost as good though and I have very high hopes for that one.

I'll defo be checking out Braver and Bolder as well as it sounds up my street.

Gaile Simone I'll normal pick up but don't really have any feelings toward Firestorm but might check it out. Tempted by Aquaman and Justice League International but not sure how many will make the cut as this is only 20% so far, no Cornell, Morrison or Synder yet so will have to cut some things off if the rest of the announcements are as strong as this.

Absolutely chuffed by this so far.

[Greg M.]

As a neutral observer, I can't say those line-ups are blowing me away, though I'd say Azzarello on Wonder Woman seems the oddest and least predictable choice - I've no interest in the character, but am left wondering (no pun intended) what his take will be. I guess that is entirely the point. I actually liked Geoff Johns back when he was just 'Geoff Johns, the guy that wrote The Flash' but these days he seems like a more omnipowerful, omnipresent version of Marvel's Chris Yost. And the presence of JT Krul on the starting line-up of two of those titles is not inspiring. 'Flash' has traditionally been my main in-roads into the DCU proper, but I assume this is all still focused around Barry, which is something of a hurdle for me, as I've moaned at length previously. Suspect the best is yet to come, announcement-wise.

[Colin YNWA]

As a neutral observer, I can't say those line-ups are blowing me away,

Well that seems to be a view shared by most the Internet responses (though I'm really out of step with that normally so no surprise there).

The way I'm looking at this is I currently have 11 ongoing DC titles on my pull list. With only 20% of the current titles in theres 3 defos and 3 that I'll see about. If that gets multiplied through (and with three of my favourite writers still to come that could still very well happen) DC will have be shelling out more than I do currently - or making some tight cuts. To my mind that's a job well done in the very mirco-scale of me!

Think Brian Azzarello on Wonder Woman is the kinda bold move I was hoping for and on one of my favourite characters and Chiang on art is just perfect.

Yeah shame its Barry not Wally though. Unless those eyes are there is throw us a curve ball (don't see that for one second)

[Greg M.]

Think Brian Azzarello on Wonder Woman is the kinda bold move I was hoping for and on one of my favourite characters and Chiang on art is just perfect.

I think it would take more along these sort of lines to grab me... a name writer whose work I have read and respect, taking the reins on a character that doesn't seem an obvious fit. As I say, I'm not drawn to the character, but if I'd seen Azzarello's name on sundry other DC comics, starting at #1, I probably would give it a shot. A lot of the rest seems to be a bit of a 'musical chairs' routine, shuffling the regular creative pieces around (a lot like what Marvel's Ultimate line started doing for a while there - it's Loeb, Bendis and Millar, but in what order?)

I think in some ways, someone like me is the target market for a relaunch like this - I like comics, I like superhero comics, I like plenty of the DC characters, but I've never invested anything like as heavily in the DCU as I have in the MU, so a bunch of #1s should be a good opportunity to bring me on board. I'll have to see what the next 42 bring.

[Emperor]

The Hawkman series sounds promising - it is very similar to the brief Warners have been circulating looking for Hawkman screenplays and I liked the sound of that.

[gdwessel]

I just sure hope these are good books.

[Colin YNWA]

Some more news the new Green Lantern titles have been announced... although in this case there is very little new news as we knew most of this or its a return to old writers.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=32612

In theory this adds Red Lanterns to my list but while I love me some Pete Milligan I have no investment in the character at all I'm not a fan of Ed Benes... this one hangs on there in we'll see territory.

[zombemybabynow]

don't know who redesigned the costumes but every one seems to have a turned-up weird V-collar?

[Colin YNWA]

Well Bat-Books (or at least some of them) have been announced.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/06/dc-comics-relaunch-batman-and-robin-dark-knight-and-batgirl/

Original source here

http://uk.comics.ign.com/articles/117/1172822p1.html

A lot of news crammed in there. Confirmation of Detective Comics 1, Bruce Wayne the only Batman (makes sense I suppose if you're trying to make this a simple entry point for people) as well as the creative teams.

So far I'm finding these disappointing. I'm loving Snyder on Dick Grayson in Detective but Greg Capullo isn't really a draw for me, not compared to Jock and Francisco Francella. So that one heads to the maybe pile. The rest just leave me cold. The Batman books as annouced are sure going to have a fussy, tight detailed, dark lite, flairy swishing cape thing going on. All the artists have a very similar style to my eyes and not one I'm a massive fan of.

Anyway we'll see what happens with Batman Inc and Dick later today but the Nightwing cover also going the rounds may answer one half of those anyway?

Its a shame, based on the very limited information I'm going on, as it seems to be more of the same, put removing some of the more interesting elements. Guess I should hold fire until Batman Inc. announcement to see if Grant Morrison gets to play here as that might re-stir my interest in the Bat franchise.