DC Rebooted

[Vagrant]

Got a Marvel topic already and with the news today out of DC figured I'd start this topic up.

A fully revamped DC Universe for a "more modern and diverse 21st century", over 50 new #1 issues, a Geoff Johns-Jim Lee Justice League, and the first of the major comic book publishers to fully embrace "same-day" digital distribution...

That is the breaking news DC Entertainment Tuesday afternoon, finally and officially breaking their silence about their post-Flashpoint plans for their flagship line of comic book titles.

The center of intense rumor and speculation for months now, DC confirmed today that the fictional shared universe of Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lanterm and more will undergo a revamp of their oft-rewritten 76 year-plus history of shared continuity.

Geoff Johns promised USA Today "a focus on the interpersonal relationships within DC's trademark superteam." "What's the human aspect behind all these costumes?" he tells the publication. "That's what I wanted to explore."

The revamp will reportedly involve "introducing readers to stories that are grounded in each character's specific legend but also reflect today's real-world themes and events."

Jim Lee reportedly "spearheaded" the redesign of more than 50 costumes to make characters "more identifiable and accessible to comic fans new and old."

"We looked at what was going on in the marketplace and felt we really want to inject new life in our characters and line," added co-publisher Dan DiDio. "This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today's audience."

Along with the revamp, and sure to cause uproar among those who buy comic books as collectibles, all DC Universe titles will also be renumbered with new #1 issues, including the industry's two longest-running titles - Action Comics, the birthplace of Superman - and Detective Comics, the home of Batman and namesake of the publisher - the former of which recently published its 900th issue, with the latter in the 880s.

The first officially announced title and creative team of the new era was revealed as well. DC Entertainment co-publisher Jim Lee and Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns will be teaming as artist and writer, respectively, on Justice League #1, launching August 31st and starring Batman, Superman,Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman.

Finally, DC also announced they plan to make all of their titles available for sale in digital format on the same day as their publlished counterparts, starting with Justice League #1. While the decision could probably be described as inevitable, the announcement will still likely be poorly received among some segments of "Direct Market" comic book retailers, whose stores account for the current backbone of monthly comic book sales.

DC has previously taken steps to ease the eventual move to fully same-day digital distribution, announcng in March a partnership with digital distributor comiXology allowing individual retailers to sell digital editions of DC comics through their websites, for a share of the online retail price.

The publisher also sent a letter directly to direct market retailers addressing their announcement. In it, SVP, Sales, DC Entertainment Bob Wayne told retailers, "DC Comics will support this initiative with an innovative mix of publicity, promotional efforts and retailer incentives designed to maximize your opportunity to increase your DC sales. We will discuss additional details of these incentives when we get closer to solicitation later in June."

"We're allowing people who have never bought a comic book in their lives to download them on portable media devices and take a look," Lee said. "Having the ability to give people access to these comics with one button click means we're going to get a lot of new readers."

Lee told USA Today what makes this plan so ambitious is that it's not just about changes in characters or costumes but setting the stage for how comic books will be consumed in the future.

"We're trying to set the table for the DC Universe's future success and health."

More information, including other creative teams, titles, and character changes, is expected with September 2011 solicitations, which should be released Monday June 13, 2011.

Reached for any immediate reaction to DC's new digital publication policy, Marvel Comics declined to comment Tuesday afternoon.

So basically all the DC titles(including the big ones) are going to be rebooted and started from issue #1 once again. New costumes coming for about 50 or so of the DC characters as well though no definitive word on which ones.

Now is it just me or does DC seem to do this sort of thing a lot? Seems every time they have a major DC universe event things are kind of rebooted in some form.

[Odesseiron]

Maybe DC will finally be interesting? Sounds like Ultimate Marvel, but they're not separating the worlds I guess?

[Vagrant]

No same world just restarted kind of I guess.

[grantlogan]

I guess this is going to tie in to the Flashpoint event they're doing right now?

Yeah, Flashpoint will be the cause of this reboot.

[Kaslo]

I'm not sure what to think until I actually see it, but with Jim Lee doing the reboot I'm optimistic.

[tyven]

god damn, i dont like this at all. are we resetting character histories here and seriously starting over? like murder of bruce's parents type shit? or is it just gonna be batman 1 and pick up with business as usual?

[Odesseiron]

Batman is gonna be like Spider-Man now. Teenage angst go! His parents will die still just like Uncle Ben still dies in USM, but Alfred will be a 40-something hipster!

[grantlogan]

I wonder if this is all just to make the DC universe more marketable for toys, cartoons & movies.

[Stilzkin]

A reboot right now, with Infinite Crisis (which reworked the origins of many members of DC's cast) just a few years back, does seem pretty rushed.

Apparently those events will still have occured in some form or another. From what I understand Flashpoints is going to chnage some characters origins, which may cause them to end up in different places than were they were but events like COIE and IC may still have happened. Green lantern is supposed to relaunch after the events of blackest night/ brightest day stuff.

[Shuichi]

Hmmm. Not sure what to think of this. I guess whatever, since I've never really been a DC fan. Marvel was always a winner because of their characters and costume design. DC was like that old-timey style of comics. But, I've always been a fan of Jim Lee. This should be interesting.

[tyven]

didn't marvel do this shit after onslaught and wasn't it a disaster?

I feel like Flashpoint is just a flash centric House of M, which is fine because I love the Flash, but this whole thing makes me a sad panda.

[Delirium]

necro bump cause Justice League #1 comes out tomorrow and is already floating around the interwebs.

Spoiler: show

The reboot is supposed to be a big deal, and Justice League is your cornerstone piece of it. If you want to really draw people in, it should have been a double sized issue imo. At least Jim Lee's artwork is as impressive as ever

[Katlan]

oops wrong thread

[grantlogan]

JLA #1 was very underwhelming, it was like Johns took a page from the extreme 90s for the story. If this is representative of the new direction of DC, I don't see it lasting.

[Gilanth]

Just Justice league this week afaik , Which was good but not great but then Geoff Johns is a slow burner so I'm kinda happy with it

[Katlan]

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/104984-DC-Rebooted

there was already a topic for it, on the first page.. not even 15 down

[Qalbert]

Well played.

[tyven]

YO WHY IS GRIFTER IN DC

[Kaslo]

Dv8? But that can be considered Gen13.

[Byrd]

I'm annoyed that my complete run of Batman from #418 to #713 is going to be followed by a #1. But is it going to make any difference in the grand scheme of things? Probably not.