While DC had previously announced that the only comic book shipping Aug. 31 would be Flashpoint #5, the publisher has now said that it will relaunch its entire line with 52 different first issues, beginning with Justice League #1, also scheduled to ship Aug. 31. The other 51 #1s are scheduled to follow in September. The new Justice League series is written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Jim Lee.
In addition to the major relaunch, DC also announced that all titles would be simultaneously released digitally, a practice many publishers have been pursuing in limited amounts for the past few months. Archie has been releasing its entire line digitally on the same day as its print releases for the past few months.
The relaunches, which also feature costume revamps designed by Lee, echo a plan that DC had in the mid-1980s when it had planned to relaunch its entire line following the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths. While a few series and characters did start over (Superman chief among them), most simply made Crisis part of their continuity and moved on, incorporating changes as needed.
Fans wondering about their favorite series will have to wait a couple of weeks until the solicitation information for September shipping titles is released. In the meantime:
Over on The Beat, there’s analysis of DC’s dual announcements, including a round-up of some of the upcoming titles.
The Comics Chronicles’ John Jackson Miller crunched the numbers on restarts.
And, of course, if you’re looking for DC trade paperbacks and hardcovers, check out our online store.
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At this time, the only thing that would interest me about this DC reboot would be getting a call from the company asking me to write a new Black Lightning series and to write it my way. Beyond that, I’ll have no comments until I actually read the rebooted comics.
hopefully we get a reboot of brother power the geek and the prez
I’m more concerned about the fact that this means we’re apparently not going to see Action Comics #1000 or Detective Comics #1000. Even if Action Comics Vol. 2, No. 94 (or whatever number it turns out to be) has a giant blurb “Celebrating 1,000 Issues of Action Comics!” it won’t be the same as an actual, genuine, REAL Action Comics #1000.
As I have said in other places, this isn’t really going to effect me a great deal. I currently only buy one DCU title, which is JONAH HEX, and I don’t know how or if that book will change. I’m curious what the ‘western’ titles that are mentioned will be, and I might take a look at those, as well as the ‘war’ titles. I dropped all of the DC superhero books around the time of Brightest Day #6 and haven’t missed them.
Anybody taking odds on how long this will last and when (not if) at least a few of the older titles return to their original numbering? Is this DC following Marvel’s example again?