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Printheads: DC Comics unleashes a new universe of superhero titles

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      CommentAuthorVornaskotti
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2011 edited
     (9904.1)
    DC Comics unleashes a new universe of superhero titles

    Starting this summer, the publisher will re-number its entire DC Universe of titles, revamping famous characters such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and others from its 76-year history for a more modern and diverse 21st century.

    http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2011-05-31-dc-comics-reinvents_n.htm

    I'm not much of a superhero comic person myself, but this really got my attention:

    In an even more important move in the competitive comics industry, DC is making issues of all the renumbered titles available digitally via apps and a DC website the same day they arrive in comic shops. It marks the first time a major comics publisher has done so with its popular superhero titles.

    These guys understand the digital marketplace, it seems. Day-and-date multiformat is the best way to combat piracy, I would say.
    • CommentAuthorgzapata
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2011
     (9904.2)
    I haven't liked the last half decade of what they've been doing so I don't see myself liking any of this other stuff either. I do like that Superman finally is getting those undies off though
  3.  (9904.3)
    STOKED

    besides morrison and a few little things here and there (current DETECTIVE run, paul cornell/pete woods ACTION run up until 901 etc) i think DC desperately needs to do something like this. im a huge geek and i barely even read their mainline books anymore! thats a bad sign. gimme gimme gimme some new shit
  4.  (9904.4)
    Day and date - great, as if my blog isn't enough!
    Seriously though - from my point of view, this is a massive change from the DC of 12-18 months ago where they were dumping Zuda and not looking at anything digital! Now lets see the others follow suit!

    Any news on Avatar?
    •  
      CommentAuthorMorac
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2011
     (9904.5)
    Interesting news. I never got in to mainstream DC, and this may change that, which I believe is exactly the response they are looking for.

    Day-and-date multiformat is the best way to combat piracy, I would say.

    It may not be the best way to shut down piracy, but it is probably the best way to make money in an era of piracy. I think too many companies focus on the former rather than the latter. Besides, I would like to think that piracy after the original purchase isn't that much worse that people reading physical copies that have been left lying around (though there are probably many numbers out there to prove me wrong).
  6.  (9904.6)
  7.  (9904.7)
    It's sad but I'm so completely removed from DC that I honestly don't know where I'd begin looking at any of the revamped titles. I'm also not sure I'd trust DC to handle characters I'd care about. The post-Identity Crisis DC isn't anything I want to read. They've got a lot of trust to rebuild.
    • CommentAuthoricelandbob
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2011
     (9904.8)
    The digital thing is what interests me as my LCS has an interminable delay for getting their singles to shelf and while i do buy TPB's, this delay often means that i have on many an occasion, downloaded certain issues. If they get the pricing right, then this would be something i would definitely get into.

    As for 50 relaunched titles though? i don't know. even if it works for them, there's going to be a lot of pain and stress on the creative team. i wonder how many of them were aware that this relaunch was going to be so big?

    And same thing with 3millionyears - Any news on Avatar's digital formats?
  9.  (9904.9)
    Having 50 simultaneously released titles speaks more of a lack of quality control and bad editorial judgment. Unless DC's new editorial policy follows the crap on the wall principle.
  10.  (9904.10)
    Boy, this will be the most exciting two year long return to the 1980s status quo yet!

    And when they finally get around to retelling Invasion!, I bet it'll just as good as the original.
    •  
      CommentAuthorchris g
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2011
     (9904.11)
    The chip on DC's shoulder has not been as obvious as it is today! They could have just launched their own Ultimate style imprint (had their chance with All-Star and only managed to make that version of Superman truly great) rather than relaunch everything for the benefit of newcomers/movie going audiences curious about superheroes but just can NOT be bothered to check out of a few choice trades to learn what a guy like Superman or Batman are all about. It simply HAS to be #1 or it's not worth jumping into. It's like some fucking nerd club and you have to be there in line or be left out until the next time they relaunch! Anyway, good luck with all that. I'm just waiting for Batwoman to ship already :D
  12.  (9904.12)
    there's going to be a lot of pain and stress on the creative team.


    as opposed to having to work within decades of schizophrenic canon every word and every panel?
    •  
      CommentAuthorBeamish
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2011
     (9904.13)
    This sort of excites me, I've stopped reading many DC books because they seem tired. I'm not going to say it's a good idea until it happens though. I find it to be interesting considering that so many people expected them to renumber under the legacy system of totally volume numbers like Marvel has been. Being a comic nerd I have seen a lot of relaunches to number 1 and I've seen very little effect if the talent is not up to the task and even then as soon as the talent leaves the title many readers quickly follow (see any title Johns has left). I wish them the best. What they need to do is land a Matt Fraction or a Jonathan Hickman, that would help a bunch.
    •  
      CommentAuthorHEY APATHY!
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2011 edited
     (9904.14)
    I kind of figured that Superhero stories all recycled themselves every two or three years anyways. You know X-Men fight Apocalypse, Xavier disappears,X- men fight Sentinels, Xavier Returns, X-Men fight Magneto then it starts all over again. If they just started back at # 1 ever three years then the audience would know that they are teenagers now and could move on to mature reader graphic novels, creator owned or alternative books, letting the next generation of wee ones start fresh? I really don't know anything though in 1988 I thought Peter Parker was a photographer in college trying to make his way in the world in the world but it turns out he's still in high school?.

    When I a kid reading this stuff the continuity issues where really confusing, so if Kids are still the main audience maybe starting fresh will work?
  15.  (9904.15)
    I'll get behind it more once i hear a word or two from Grant Morrison on the subject.

    alot of the american guys at dc just think like buisnessmen ,but if Batman inc gets fucked with...and who sees Batman and Superman as 22 year olds or whatever?

    if it's as extreme as Dick Grayson being robin again? damn strange, probably won't be that extreme.

    I've always disliked continuity obsessed folk who fear change and now i feel like i'm split down the middle on this...makes ya feel a little old.

    Radical changes and evolution within the existing continuum seems the healthiest approach to any saga or tapestry.

    The mighty DC oaktree goes under the chainsaw... gonna take a while to grow a tree fulla stories that big again.
    •  
      CommentAuthorjoe.distort
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2011 edited
     (9904.16)
    ive seen so much bitterness and rancor on this in the five or so hours its been official that it makes me think EVEN MORE that its the right thing to do if its pissing off the hardline folks.

    and, sadly, for the people saying 'if you are upset by this, read stuff like INFINITE VACATION or NONPLAYER instead!'
    sorry, thats not really gonna happen. the kind of serious superhero geek that gets mad about this kinda stuff ints gonna totally drop all the stuff they love in order to read two comics with a combined 3 issues in a 7 month span. that will definitely not scratch the itch
  17.  (9904.17)
    Well after a spliff I'm much more inclined to just shut it and go with the flow anyway.

    There's 'daytime stressed spinetroubles me' and 'aaaah i love dis comics man me' and i just transitioned from one to the other in under an hour...heh


    COMICS!

    Night Y'all
  18.  (9904.18)
    This could be 1990s-issue-?-1 bullshit all over, but with DRM to make things really fugly. But I'm going to be optimistic and hope that, for the first time in my life, someone will be publishing comprehensible superhero comics that don't require a constantly growing storage space.
  19.  (9904.19)
    I stay away from the internet for a couple of days and when I come back the folks at DC have lost their fucking minds. This whole thing reads like a fake April Fools Day story.

    I guess I need to wait and see how this shakes out, but if it does what it says on the tin, this is bad news for the few really interesting books DC has put out in recent years, most notably the Batman line, which would be crippled by a rollback to an earlier status quo.

    (EDITED TO ADD: The above comments refer, obviously, to the creative relaunch of the line and not to the day and date digital stuff, which is a splendid idea. Unfortunately, It is not beyond the realm of corporate excuses to imagine a scenario where the whole thing goes down and flames and the suits blame the digital aspect instead of the relaunch. Which could result in others being very sceptical of digital publishing.
  20.  (9904.20)
    Upon reading this news:

    Day and date digital: Yay! (sorry brick and mortar stores, thems the breaks)

    Rebooting the entire DCU with 50 titles: Seriously? Again?

    Jim Lee redesigning everybody's costumes: Oh, for fuck's sake.
    as opposed to having to work within decades of schizophrenic canon every word and every panel?
    I'd rather have the decades of schizophrenic canon to mine and weave into stories (a la Morrison) then have to work under the constant threat that any groundwork for a longform story I'm trying to tell will have to be thrown out because Geoff Johns has decided he wants to re-write every superhero's origin for the fourth fucking time in under ten years.

    Beyond how this may or may not effect Morrison's Batman run, does this kill 'Multiversity,' too?

    And the following quote just throws up a giant 'wtf?':
    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."
    Isn't that exactly what he was doing with JLA post-Infinite Crisis/52? And it lasted, what, two years before he had Red Arrow shooting heroin and fucking dead cats in back alleys?

    This wouldn't bother me if I didn't think that DC will in all likelihood take the wrong lesson from this inevitable failure and, rather than adding some additional reigns on Johns and loosening up on the actual creatives in the company, they'll just retreat from the digital space again and continue to let Johns do whatever he wants.

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