Historic Landmarks

DC surprised everybody today by starting to announce the changes to the DCU post-Flashpoint, including renumbering issues to #1. This is, of course, a Big Deal that requires a lot of thought.

The news is very sketchy as we only have the single USA Today article and The Source blog post with real data. The comic news sites are covering this pretty heavily, but the best I can tell they’re just regurgitating the same news from above with no new information. So, what do we know for certain?

• Flashpoint #5 & Justice League #1 will be the only books shipped August 31
• Justice League #1 will be written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Jim Lee
• Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, & Aquaman will comprise the new JLA
• 52 comics that will be renumbered to #1 over 5 weeks
• Jim Lee has redesigned 50 costumes
• Every issue will be available in print and digital at the same time

Looking back and doing a quick count of DCU specific comics that shipped in April and May, excluding mini-series, I saw 40 and 33 comics, respectively, so 52 issues is going to be a huge number of books. While this means that we won’t have less books coming out than we do now, I expect a handful of the books that are currently running will disappear to be replaced by something else. Johns previously announced that he’ll be working on a new Aquaman book. We also know from the end of Justice League: Generation Lost that there will be a new Justice League International book. We’re also awaiting the J.H. Williams Batwoman book. The previously promised Static Shock book may or may not be cancelled (some recent articles have been saying it is, but I think they might be misreading some prior announcements). So, with Justice League we have an idea for five of the 52 books. I think it’s safe to assume that everybody who has been announced to be in the JL book will have their own solo book, which gives us another six books.

The image included in the USA Today article looks to be a partial shot of the new Justice League cover. We get to see the redesigned costumes for Green Lantern, Aquaman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. WW looks like the redesign that we’ve already gotten. GL and Aquaman don’t look too much different except for they both have a neck guard/collar thing added to their costume. Superman’s costume is the most that has changed as he now has a new S shield. The biggest change for every character is that they all look younger than they have previously. Wonder Woman became younger in WW 600, but it looks like that every character will be doing that. What I find most interesting is that neither Flash nor Batman are pictured, so we can’t speculate about which Batman and which Flash it is.

If the move is the de-age the “older” characters in this reboot, Kris and I are concerned what that means for the younger generations. If Bruce is Batman and he’s a younger Bruce, will it make sense that he is on his fifth Robin? Based on the relative ages in the USA Today picture, Superman looks like he is closer to Dick Grayson’s current age. It would be really disappointing if the younger characters disappear to make way for the younger versions of the “older” characters. If Superman looks like he’s in his twenties, does it make sense to have a Superboy who is a clone that is also in his twenties?

Kris and I both have a list of characters that we’ll be rather upset if they change significantly in this overhaul. First and foremost, Stephanie Brown needs to continue to exist and be written by Bryan Q. Miller. Batgirl has consistently been the best comic that DC has released for the past two years and it would be a tragedy if that gets swept away. I think the same could be said for Tim Drake as well. We don’t really care who would be Batman as long as Dick Grayson is still around in some form. Also, there will be chaos (not just from us, but from a large chunk of the readership) if Barbara Gordon disappears completely or can magically walk. Kris feels that if they’re rebooting things anyway, then they need to give Roy his arm back and bring Lian back. Reading Winick’s run of the Outsiders make us realize how horrible and disappointing the current Roy instance is. Personally, I’m worried that Roy will disappear completely or will be de-aged along with Green Arrow such that he is too young to have a child.

Making such a sweeping change like this can make a great jumping on point for new readers. However, as Kris was quick to point out, it also makes a great jumping off point.