The facts: DC will be re-numbering all DC Universe titles starting with #1 in September. Please note, Justice League #1 will debut on August 31, so as I predicted, Flashpoint #5 will NOT be the only release that day. I win that one, at least.
In a USA Today article, Dan DiDio declares
We looked at what was going on in the marketplace and felt we really want to inject new life in our characters and line...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.
CBR reports that in a letter to retailers, DC VP of Sales Bob Wayne said the massive reboot:
will introduce readers to a more modern, diverse DC Universe, with some character variations in appearance, origin and age. All stories will be grounded in each character's legend -- but will relate to real world situations, interactions, tragedy and triumph. Some of the characters will have new origins, while others will undergo minor changes. Our characters are always being updated; however, this is the first time all of our characters will be presented in a new way all at once.
Let me translate. DC's co-Publisher and Senior VP of Sales are out and out telling you that their current stories are NOT being told for today's audience, the the current DC Universe is not modern and not diverse, that the marketplace has said that the comics they publish need new life.
Has there ever been a more thorough admission of failure? "People don't like the comics we're publishing, they're not at all relevant, so we're going to start over." As if the comics that were allegedly lifeless and and irrelevant and not being told for today's audience were somehow being published by elves or fairies, and not by the exact same people making this announcement. The new product will be much better than the old product!! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Oh, yeah, and new costumes:
In the 70s we had the DC Explosion, followed by the DC Implosion. Well, now we've got the DC Punt. "We have seen the enemy, he is us, and we're shifting the whole line to Ultimate DC."
Obviously, more to follow.
7 comments:
With this latest round of insanity, I am sooooo glad I've pretty much dumped DC from my pull-list (though if they bugger around with Legion of Super-Heroes AGAIN I shall be mighty pissed!)
Bad news, Flea.
I'm going with Flushpoint, I'm hashtagging it and I'm using it conversation. People at work will be confused, but that's business as usual.
Snell- Your theory about DC and its handling of Superman becomes more and more prescient every day. My guess a this point is that DC will, indeed, provide Superman with a radically different origin....or just different enough to get around all of the entanglements with the Siegel & Shuster lawsuits (who claim ownership of specific elements from the early Superman canon).
Hell, if they can change the costume and re-number Action Comics back to #1, renaming his birth planet and his civilian identity doesn't seem like as big a leap at this point.
In other words, a great time for me to stop buying Superman comics (for the first time in 30 years).
Oh, joy! More revised origins!
Because THAT's the area where DC was lacking before now: They didn't keep fiddling around with their characters origins enough!
Yahoooooo!!!
Yes, but at least they get to keep chaos magic...
DC has chaos magic?
(Rereads JLA/AVENGERS 1-4)
Oh, yeah, they do!
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