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.