Today DC officially announced that the conclusion of Flashpoint they will officially reboot the entire DC superhero comics line. All DCU titles, including Action, and Detective Comics will be restarted with new number 1 issues. Over 50 of DC’s classic characters have been redesigned by Jim Lee to make them more identifiable to the general public and fans alike.
On Wednesday August 31 DC will only be shipping 2 titles; Flashpoint #5 (the final issue of the miniseries) and the all new Justice League #1. All 51 other titles will be released in September. Along with this announcement, DC has let it be known that they will be releasing all titles in digital formats via the DC website and their apps, on the same day they arrive in stores; making them the first of the “big two” publishers to do so.
In an interview with USA Today, DC Editor Dan Didio has indicated that this is not going back to the beginning, but to an early point in their careers, with the Justice League being comprised of the original seven- Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. They plan on giving a modern take on the origin of the classic super team. The new series will be handled by two of the industries biggest names- scribe Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee; who also happen to be DC Comics Chief Creative Officer and
More information about the new titles will be made known in coming days and weeks.
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Tags: Aquaman, Batman, Dan DiDio, DC Comics, Flashpoint, Geoff Johns, Green Lantern, Jim Lee, Justice League, Martian Manhunter, reboot, Retcon, Superman, The FLash, usa today, Wonder Woman
About the Author
Written by David "The Exile" Vandervliet
I write about what ever has me Geeking out at the moment.Among my areas of expertise: DC Comics, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, Musical Theatre, M Theory, Chess, Stellar Cartography, and Gardening.If you like what you read here, you can check out more about me at Exiled in Geeksville
I won’t even begin to rant on here, but lets just say I am INCREDIBLY displeased with this.
You and me both. On the one hand, this feels like the demon spawn of Crisis on Infinite Earths and Heroes Reborn. On the other, while I don’t care as much about DC’s numbering as I do Marvel’s, I was really looking forward to seeing Action Comics #1000 in my lifetime.
I think we all were honestly. No book has ever reached that kind of a number, and with this happening that looks like it’s going to take a lot longer than any of us expected it to.
Has any book reached 1000 issues?
No. And now it’s likely we won’t be seeing that happening anytime soon.
I certainly was looking forward to adding Action #1000 to my collection one day along with a few others that earned a #1000 legitimately. What a rip off. And I am not at all excited about a bunch of worthless new #1′s. I can’t believe they didn’t learn from Marvel’s mistake and how they eventually reverted their numbering back. Does DC really have to learn this the hard way and drag us along for the ride? Then again this might be the perfect jumping off point.
Agreed, I have no idea what DC is thinking in doing this. Unless this is like an ‘alternate universe’ thing where within a year they’re back to the normal DCU (hello ‘Heroes Reborn’) then I don’t see this working out for them at all.
Even if it reverts back to original numbering though it negate Action Comics run. We’ll have #1-#903 or 904, then #1-#97 or so then POW #1000 like it’s special. Without complete numbering it might as well be another Deadpool #1000.
I’m not as concerned about the writing as much as I am the looks of the rebooted characters. Supes looks 16!
Not only that, but what happens to all of the legacy characters from the ‘Young Justice’ generation? Tim Drake, Conner Kent, Bart Allen… would they just cease to exist?
KYLE FRAKKING RAYNER!
Oh, I know. Dude Kyle is my favorite GL, you don’t have to remind me.
Mine too. Hence the “frakking”.
I’ll second Kyle as my top GL too.
Well at least we know that Kyle is safe, Geoff Johns already announced the new GL titles coming out and Kyle is the lead on one of them. Thankfully.
AW MAN! DC must have gotten all my letters!! And done the opposite…
So this could be your fault…
I dont know how i feel about this. DC will be completly changed by the time i get back from deploymeny. grab a copy of batman#1 for me please
I should probably be able to grab you one!
I can understand why so many folks are upset about this. It does seem like decades of continuity is been tossed out – certainly the wording of some of these press releases could have been more reassuring.
Devil’s advocate here though – I am curious about DC’s promise to push through on digital copies of these 50 issues and what that could mean. Also while Marvel stole a march on them with the Ultimate line – which consequently was used for several of the film adaptations that have come out since (you can see the logic here from DC/Warners PoV) – they didn’t have the balls to do an all-out reboot of the comic line. DC have gone all-in, maybe it will actually pay off for them.
The major difference between this and the Ultimate Line is that this is FULL continuity, not an alternate universe. Everything is being thrown out the window and started over.
Kinda throws my editorial from the other day about digital distribution into a whole new light though doesn’t it?
Well Ultimates is fairly flagging now though.
I don’t even read comics and this seems profoundly stupid to me.
Well, like I said to Jordan, DC does have precedent with this in the form of Crisis. That said, Crisis was an effort to revamp the line for the ’80s and do away with some of their more convoluted continuity, as well as the multiverse concept. This just seems pointless.
Agreed. There really isn’t any need to change everything as drastically as they plan to. They did something similar wiht ‘One Year Later’ and it was a ton of change tht didn’t feel all that necessary. This jsut seems like Geoff Johns seeing how much he can get away with. I would hold it against him if I didn’t have so much faith in him as a writer to be able to pull this off.
I’m mostly concerned about alot of characters being ‘discontinued’ (for lack of a better word)out of existance.
I don’t think this came from Johns, at least not entirely. Part of what makes Johns such an excellent writer is his ability to work within continuity. Even when he’s retconning the crap out of it (Parallax), he does so in such a way that it doesn’t dump on what came before. Besides which, I saw a statement JMS made on the subject (also partly a response to the questions this brought up about him leaving Superman and Wonder Woman when he did), and based on what he said, I’m thinking this is more of a DiDio thing. The short version is that when DiDio would meet with JMS in LA, conversation would at times turn to his ambitions and aspirations regarding DC, and supposedly this came around to DiDio’s goal of rebooting the DCU, not unlike what we’re seeing here.
Well if decades of continuity are NOT tossed out I maybe ok with this. (I’m still sore about One More Day)
That is EXACTLY what came to mind when I heard about this. I seriosuly just DROPPED Marvel after Civil War except for a few books, then Brand New Day was what made me drop them completely.
Marvel told us we would like One More Day and to be open minded. People still complain about it.
Pretty much. I hated it, and I still hate that it happened becuase it ruined all those years of continuity and storytelling; as if they never happened. That’s what this would mean for DC. Ugh.
It didn’t actually ruin years of continuity. The main things it fixed was returning Peter’s secret identity and FINALLY getting rid of Mary Jane as a main character and ending that silly marriage.
Beyond that, it made the book as exciting and fresh as it was when it first started, seriously. I was reading Essential Spider-Man around the same time this started and there were a lot of comparisons in the way the stories felt, fresh and exciting.
But the marriage was a problem with me. It never felt right and it wasn’t until after it happened that I realized Mary Jane was one of the reasons I was never able to stick with this book in the past.
I’m a solid supporter and fan of the OMD/BND fixing of the Spider-Man line. Plus, there are still a few things that can unravel it at any moment. The big questions are when will it happen and will I stick with the series when it does?
It’s coming up on four years now, and One More Day still sticks in my craw. To this day, it effects my ability to read current Spidey stories. Even though Slott has been (mostly) solid so far, the taint of OMD/BND is still there. The worst part is that it only happened because Quesada couldn’t “get over” the spider-marriage. Which is exactly what Marvel has been telling us to do with OMD – get over it.
I REALLY hope this doesn’t do the same thing to DC.
It was quite insulting to readers to just wipe the slate clean on Spider-Man.
I don’t see how this is like Brand New Day. BND was awesome and very well done. It injected much needed excitement and a sense of new into Amazing Spider-Man.
It also kept everything that happened before while getting rid of the useless junk like the marriage. More and more there are references to early issues of Amazing, which I love.
What DC is doing is wrong. Starting over? You can’t ‘start over’ when you have decades of continuity. And to say….
Well, I’m not going to go on a long rant, because I most certainly can and probably will at some point, but let’s just say I do NOT agree with this and won’t support it. I’m just glad I’m not invested in the DCU and this doesn’t affect Vertigo.
Because I’ll tell you one thing: If it does and Fables starts over from #1 I’m dropping it and never looking back.
This is only for the DC Superhero universe books. 52 of them (interesting choice 52 books, 52 universes…. assuming that also makes it through the reboot)
I don’t think you can’t start over – DC has done it before – several times. It’s part of what cause the need for the original Crisis. It was also done with Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis. (They also considered doing all new number 1′s after Crisis and Zero Hour)
Maybe it’s my age, but I didn’t find Peter Parker’s marriage to MJ as “useless junk”, maybe because I was “growing up” with Peter, (and more so with Wally West aka the Flash #3)
I don’t have a problem with reboots they happen all the time and can be quite successful(Star Trek anyone) I am worried about what it means about characters I have an emotional investment in (Again Wally, Dick Grayson, Kyle Rayner among others.) More so I am not happy with the reboot meaning restarting Action Comics and Detective Comics – All the others I am ok with, Even Superman and Batman. I always felt if you were going to do a new number 1, it should be warranted – not just a new team or creative team. But a fundamental change, something that makes it a different book. That is what DC is doing. And by including Action and Detective it shows just how big this is.
I am not sold on the idea, by any stretch, but I do give DC credit for taking the big chance.
At least they are getting lots of press (probably the real goal in all of this).
There is that alright.
Well of course, and to sell lots of comics.
They need it as they are always the bridesmaid of comics.
I don’t know if I’m bent about this or not – truthfully, the continuity could use some polishing up. Characters and ideas born in the 40′s and the 50′s or even the 80′s don’t always give the sense of a contemperary mindset. Don’t get me wrong, some of what makes the DCU interesting is this incongruity – but if you toss everything in, every title, every character, and only those things that are truly sacred to each character are held as inviolate – then, perhaps you can restart the entire continuity.
Do I trust Dan D. to hold what I believe to be the ‘right’ characteristics of each DCU member sacred – no, or more accurately, NO!
The thing that makes this unique is that they are promissing 50 new issue no. 1′s in August/September – which says two things to me: they’re serious; and they’re not in it for the money or they would have drug it out over 12 or 24 months – with all the books coming out the same month, Joe Comicbuyer is going to have to budget and choose.
Otherwise it doesn’t seem much different than the ‘new direction’ that DC took in the mid 60′s – lot’s of new issue 1′s; re-imagined characters; redesigned costumes; re-introduced characters; and new characters – all designed to try to take some market share back from Marvel and the stupid ideas of continuity and ‘flawed’ heroes.
I think the bigger question will be the digital versions being available on the same day that the LCS gets the paper copy – but I don’t like digital comics, and I don’t see that having any effect on how I buy or read my books.
Lee K
The digital versions being available on the same day makes a HUGE difference, as it allows people to pick up the books in either format at the same time. People that prefer digital or that don’t have a good LCS available will find this to be really convienient and be able to keep up wiht their books much more easily.
I totally agree – the impact there could be HUGE; I’m just bowing out of that part of the discussion because I don’t see it having a direct effect on me – at least not right away. (That is, barring involuntary change in the way I buy & read books.)
OK – now anyone following my Twitter (@GeeksvilleExile) knows when I first heard this news this morning I was vehemently opposed to this.
Now, really the only reason this is a bad idea is Action/Detective numbering controversy. It’s a ballsy move by DC. DC has spent 9 years looking up at Marvel in the sales charts. This does send a message that they are serious about making exciting comics that you will be talking about. (I think this is most comments I have gotten on any story on CBed)
You can check out more about how I feel about this story on http://www.ExiledinGeeksville.com
http://exiledingeeksville.com/2011/05/31/dc-reboot-what-does-it-mean/
You can make exciting comics without destroying a legacy.
Agreed. This is what I refer to as ‘pulling a Marvel’. When they need to make money, they jsut take something that is okay and DESTROY IT. Brand New Day, Ultimatum, Civil War, DeciMation… the list goes on…
Skott, not to beat a dead horse, but you just perfectly encapsulated the biggest problem with One More Day (or, as Jordan points out, the many other times they’ve “pulled a Marvel”). Whether you like BND or not (and gods know we differ on that one), there’s no denying that OMD itself dropped a giant, steaming pile on two decades of continuity – nearly half of the character’s existence at that point. And it did so in the clumsiest, most poorly thought out manner possible.
I don’t see much of continuity being dropped with BND, there were some subtle changes changes and some major ones, Spider-Man getting his secret identity back and the marriage finally going away, but overall it was a much needed recharge for the character and series. It set Spidey back to basics. Back to what works. But it did so without erasing decades of continuity and starting over, again, from #1. It was a minor event than was handled very well and flowed very naturally.
Honestly, I was about 2 months behind when BND started and from all the negative remarks I was reading online and from what I was hearing in my LCS at the time, I honestly thought I would drop it as well. I bought them because my LCS had pulled them for me and I don’t like having them put books back. I read the first 2 months in one sitting and totally failed to see why people hated it. As I said before, it returned the books to it’s roots, emotionally, without erasing decades of continuity. Things that needed to be fixed were fixed and Spidey got a whole new set of problems.
‘ Over 50 of DC’s classic characters have been redesigned by Jim Lee to make them more identifiable to the general public and fans alike.’
I guess this depends on which characters Lee is redesigning, but…what? DC has some of the most iconic, recognizable characters in the history of comics, so I’m not quite sure how Lee plans to make them more identifiable. I’m also assuming they’re not putting Lee to use redesigning Judomaster or Anarky. Maybe he’s working on Matter Eater Lad?
The rest of this sounds like a bad idea, too, but that part stuck out to me the most.
No, he’s redesigned the basics into costumes that look more or less the same with mild alterations. That part of this announcement looks like Lee is tooting his own horn with ‘I designed ALL OF THESE’ when really its more like “I Added shoulder Pads!” or “I added a choker collar!” haha. I’ve seen one image of his new ‘Justice League’ which oddly enough is missing Martian Manhunter but has Cyborg of all people.
That’s what I thought (about it being just the basics). I did notice that his Superman lacks the red underpants, to which I cry BLASPHEMY! I want the red underpants!
I didn’t even see a full pic of the costume, only the one of the whole group. Ugh. This just sounds terrible.
Just another reason why i make mine marvel.
Dude, all this is is DC taking a page out of Marvel’s book. This is pretty much identical to ‘Brand New Day’, just on a much bigger scale. I love hearing all these people saying that “yeah Marvel NEVER does stuff like this! Yeah marvel!” when really Marvel has been doing this for the better part of the last decade and has been owning the market share of sales; leading DC to start doing similar things. DC didn’t used to do a major event every year like marvel did, then ever since infinite crisis they’ve been non-stop with them because Marvel has been non-stop with them. The Marvelisation of DC has now come full circle.
yeah to fair I should have said I make mine Marvel minus Spider-Man I hated Brand New Day and everything it stood for.
WHat about ‘Ultimatum’? That was a reboot too. What about Civil War? Decimation (post House of M for those who don’t remember)? The list goes on for times Marvel has tried to reboot in the past decade.
I really don’t consider Civil War and House of M reboots though. I can see HoM, especially since the sole purpose of that (and Decimation) was to cut down on the number of mutants, but all that did was go WAY too far in the opposite direction.
Civil War was a brilliant series and House of M was a good way to do a reboot with Mutants. Ultimatum was god awful though.
One thing I will say for Marvel’s various reboots is that they typically do go through the mental gymnastics of making sure it all makes sense, even if they do occasionally half-ass it (or sixteenth-ass it, in the case of One More Day). This just reeks of DC saying “Screw this,” and starting over, potentially more so than Crisis.
That sounds about right. It just bothers me. As far as I’m concerned, I’m comicbooked’s resident DC Fanatic, so the fact that this could alienate me to the point of ‘I’m done buying their books’ disturbs me. If this doesn’t go over well they stand to lose way more fans then than they would be gaining.
You’re right, and that’s the problem both Marvel and DC have when they do things like this. Every time they reboot a character or a team or a universe or whatever, they say they’re doing it in the name of bringing in “new readers”. But they’re going about it in such a way that alienates established readers (who,given the state of the industry, they should be holding onto like grim death) and only makes things more complicated for the hypothetical newbies. Moreover, the majority of new readers at this point are likely to be established readers; in this case, curious or disaffected Marvel fans or people who are otherwise new to DC but familiar with comics. But that’s not who they want. They want everyone who buys a ticket to Green Lantern or Man of Steel or The Dark Knight Rises to start picking up the comics, and that’s just not going to happen unless the industry itself changes radically (particularly in terms of distribution and mainstream advertising).
Right on! You, too, Nick C. As a former Marvel-only junkie I turned to DC when Marvel couldn’t be bothered to care about the fans or quality content while they worshiped high sales without remembering how they got them back in the 90′s. DC delivered bigtime and I’ve been gung-ho DC for years but this move ranks of the same crass greed. Sure sales on #1′s will be higher than normal but what happens a month later when your #2′s slip lower than ever because you alienated your real fans and the gimick-gawkers are gone??? Comics just aren’t the same anymore. Guess I’ll be catching up on those old series I never had time for back in the day.
Plu aren’t they losing the copyright to Superman (origin, etc) in the next couple of years?
They aren’t losing it as much sharing it.
And it only applies to the material in Action 1 (and I think 4) So the Superman that the Shuster/Simon families will own a piece of will not be able to fly, among other things.
They will be able to market that Superman, they could license it to another comic company if they wanted to, but I doubt it.
Hopefully they will sort it out, I doubt they would make much from the original Superman vision.
I wonder when the Archie Reboot will be?
You know what, I’m just going to say it: I am excited for this. The only thing that’s been worth reading from the main DC heroes as of late has been Green Lantern, so I’m fine with a bit of change.
The only real problem I have with this is, I feel as if they should at least give a proper ending to the series they are cutting loose. That’s the problem with super hero books, there is never an ending to their story, there is never any sort of threat to the characters. What’s the point of the super hero comic anymore? You tell nothing but stories of people who risk their lives, but you know death means nothing in these books, where is the risk? Why even care?
I’m not saying super hero comics aren’t worth reading, I’m making my own and I buy them every week. I love them, but the problems are apparent. So, I say bring it on, but at least give the current continuity a proper send-off.
I thought they killed Archie off?
To be fair you could never kill Archie.
Random thought… they’re dropping all books and starting fresh right? Where does that leave the future set ‘Batman Beyond’? *tear* They just gave it back to me a few months ago… they can’t take it away right…? Right…?