Comics: DC to Relaunch Their ENTIRE Line!

(JUSTICE LEAGUE #1;
Art by Jim Lee and Scott Williams;
Colors by Alex Sinclair;
Copyright: DC Comics)

Coming to a Newstand/Smartphone near you, this September... DC Comics has announced plans to relaunch their ENTIRE line, spanning across the entire DC Universe, giving us 52 issue #1s and will feature "younger" and cosmetically redesigned versions of the heroes of the DC Universe.

Written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Jim Lee, Justice League will be the first of the more than 50 titles to debut in September, each of which will go on sale with same day digital releases via DC's various mobile applications and Web store. The initiative is designed explicitly to make the DC Universe more palatable for new readers and, in the words of DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio, "today's audience."

Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are among the DC Comics characters who will be "injected with new life," according to Dan DiDio, who spoke with USA Today.

In September, more than 50 more first issues will debut, introducing readers to stories that are grounded in each character's specific legend but also reflect today's real-world themes and events. [Jim] Lee spearheaded the redesign of more than 50 costumes to make characters more identifiable and accessible to comic fans new and old.

"We looked at what was going on in the marketplace and felt we really want to inject new life in our characters and line," says Dan DiDio, who co-publishes DC with Lee. "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."

DiDio's remarks would seem to indicate that existing DC readers are going to see major changes in the status quo and continuities of their favorite characters and titles. while not entirely throwing out the existing histories of these iconic characters.

There's no conceivable reason to mess with high-selling moneymakers like Batman Incorporated, Green Lantern, Batman: The Dark Knight and, well, other Batman titles, and to do so would be a huge mistake, especially since Grant Morrison's major Leviathan uber-arc is, alongside Geoff Johns's Green Lantern, the only major DC title with ongoing stories continuing past August. The Superman and Wonder Woman franchises, on the other hand, are in desperate need of a shake-up. J. Michael Straczynski absolutely murdered any narrative momentum those books may have had before.

Unfortunately, while DC is unquestionably making a bold risk, it could blow up in their face just as easily as it could drag comics publishing kicking, screaming and tantruming into the twenty-first century. DC isn't launching a manageable line of high-class titles that they can slowly expand; they are flooding the market with fifty-two new series. Fifty-two. I'm not sure there are fifty-two exemplary creative teams in all of comics. Inevitably, a large number of these books are going to be a complete bust, and the new casual digital fan they're courting with this initiative won't have any idea which those will be. This has the potential to cause a big problem in the comics world, akin the the crash in the early 90s, when similar relaunches occurred.

Make no mistake, this entire endeavor is focused on the digital market. DC isn't dumb. They know print is dying. They know they have no chance at beating Marvel in the print market, as years and years of examples have proven. Rejuvenating the characters (literally) and providing a fresh start all across the line isn't about a quick sales bump in the direct market. In fact, it isn't about the direct market at all. It's all so that people logging into comiXology can check out these digital DC comics they've heard about don't see an issue number in the 900s after Action Comics and throw up their hands. This being said, there has been no statement about whether Action Comics, or Detective Comics - two of the longest running titles in comics ever - will get a new set of issue numbers, or if they will remain untouched.

A thing of the past?

And what about those struggling retailers that, as Brian Michael Bendis so bluntly put it, are getting "fucked in the ass" by this decision? If your shop is a small-town glorified UPS depot that makes its living off of pull lists, you're probably not going to make it. If you've built a loyal clientele, are savvy enough to get to know your customers' tastes and hand-sell them titles, and maintain a consistent backlist of high-selling, high-quality trade paperbacks and hardcovers, then chances are you have nothing to worry about.

But what if it goes wrong? DC is burning a lot of bridges in the interest of building this new one, and if both the direct market and digital consumers don't come to this in sufficient enough droves, this is going to be an incredibly difficult, if not impossible, car to turn around. They're risking losing the support of both their existing retail partners and their hardcore fanbase in the interest of drawing an entirely new readership. While this is exactly the sort of drastic action digital comics proponents have been praying for for years, make no mistake, if this blows up, DC is completely screwed.