Tuesday, May 31, 2011

DC Speculation: The Play-at-Home Version

I've been hearing that DC will relaunch all of it's comics with new #1 issues and slightly modified (streamlined) continuity after "Flashpoint" for a few months now, and DC has confirmed the rumors today.

The day-and-date digital announcement is actually more surprising, and it's a bold move. I imagine the conference room in which that decision was made featured an oversized dry erase board with the words "day and date digital" on one side and a gigantic question mark on the other side.

At least it's SOMETHING. Though, unless the digital prices drop substantially, here's what I imagine will happen. Readers with iPads will slowly start to wean themselves off weekly comic shop visits, and then they will realize there's no real hurry to buy comics day-and-date on their mobile devices, since there's no way any of the digital content will be out of stock, so they'll wait for a sale. Then they'll lose interest. Then realize that life without comics isn't that big of a deal. Maybe they'll read Chris Ware hardcovers once a year, and that will be enough.

But until that happens, DC will kick of FIFTY TWO new monthly series in September. The "monthly" designation doesn't necessarily mean ongoing, I'll point out. I'm guessing maybe 30 firm ongoing series and 22 miniseries. 52 ongoing series would be waaay more than they have now, in the DCU. It could happen, though. We'll see.

Here are some of my gut feelings about what we might see (and even though I have some contact with some of these creators, I have not yet asked them about any of this -- it's pure guesswork on my part):
  • Scott Snyder writing two big ongoings -- probably a Superman book (to complement the supposed Morrison Superman series) and the Batman main title.
  • Jeff Lemire writing a "Smallville" series and maybe...Nightwing and the Outsiders.
  • Paul Cornell writing Flash.
  • Sterling Gates writing two ongoings. I'm thinking the Kid Flash series announced a few years back might finally show up, in a new form. Maybe he'll be on the Multi-Colored Lanterns series. Or, no. He'll write the Cyborg solo ongoing.
  • James Robinson will surely do more than just Hawkman. Don't be surprised to see him on an Atom series as well. Or, if the New Gods are in play, something from that pile of toys.
  • Judd Winick will write a Red Hood ongoing.
  • I think they must have courted Brian Azzarello for something. I wouldn't be shocked to see an Azz-written Suicide Squad comic. That would be a good fit.
  • I also expect a resurrection of some other classic titles, with new versions of the characters. Like the Secret Society of Super-Villains, perhaps, based more on the JLU interpretation. Or World's Finest, with a youngish Superman and Batman teaming up.
Overall, I'm looking forward to the relaunches. Besides the current DCU work of Morrison, Snyder, and Lemire, and an occasional Johns or Cornell book, the DC Universe is stale and uninspiring right now. I just hope the relaunched series pair some superior artists with the good writers. The thought of, say, Eddy Barrows on a Grant Morrison comic doesn't encourage enthusiasm.

5 comments:

Kyle Garret said...

Rumor is going around that Morrison will also be writing a Wonder Woman book, with Jimenez on art. I think that would definitive take him away from the Batman books, which is only troubling for me because I rather love Dick Grayson as Batman. I can't think of any reason Dick would quit being Batman and go back to being Nightwing -- it's total character regression. Let's hope your prediction about that Outsiders books holds, then, given that Batman just put Tim Drake in charge of them. Maybe he'll give up that rather silly Red Robin name and follow in Dick's footsteps.
I kind of doubt it, though.

Timothy Callahan said...

Dick won't quit being Batman. After Flashpoint he will NEVER HAVE BEEN BATMAN EVER. I'd be surprised if the streamlined DCU featured Batman Inc, but I'd love it if Morrison wrote all of the Big Three at the same time!

Kyle Garret said...

Here's the thing about that...
Scott Snyder made a comment today on Twitter about his current Detective story still being around post-Flashpoint. It was actually like a 3 part Tweet, with two numbered points.
But it's GONE now. It's been deleted. Which would lead me to believe that someone from DC saw it.
But I don't know anyone else who did, so I could be a raving lunatic.

Andrew said...

I always knew Morrison's run on Batman would be written out of continuity eventually, that's fine, but what about the "two-year storyline" Morrison had planned for Batman Inc? Misdirection on his part or highway robbery on DC's?

It's a bold move for DC, I'll give them that. And since I'm only reading two DCU books right now (Inc. and Batwoman--so really only one), I don't have much to lose. But if I get more Morrison books out the deal, so much to gain!

Alex said...

Tim - Just wanted to say how happy I am to be adding a bookmark for your page back into my browser. Having said that, we need an emergency Splashpage Podcast! This DC news has turned the nerd world on its head. Now we hear Morrison on Superman and Azzarello & Chiang on Wonder Woman - sweet fancy moses!! I need 3+ hours of you and Nevett dissecting this...STAT!!!