2016-03-07

To kick-off 2016, DC Comics announced two major shake-ups to their publishing plan.



The first was Rebirth which has been communicated as “Not A Reboot”. Rebirth begins in June 2016 whose solicitations reveal more details on the creative teams via solicitations that are imminent. DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio seem to be the dominant forces behind this.



The second is DC’s plan to publish contemporarized takes of Hanna-Barbera pop culture franchises by the industries top creators. DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee seems to be the dominant force behind this.

Will the latter do for DC Comics what Star Wars did for Marvel’s market share?

The Comics Nexus team weighs in on DC Comics plans as DC’s media people hover their dominant fingers above their keyboards to press “send” with the June 2016 DC Comics solicitations.

Spoilers follow.

John Babos

I’m torn by Rebirth. While I’m gratified DC Comics seems to be addressing the Legacy issues I wrote about when the New 52 was first announced, I’m not a fan of their whole publishing plan. I don’t like the idea of twice monthly shipping books, but perhaps it’s better than having two to four “family” titles being released a month. I like that they are holding the line at $2.99 and that there are some monthly books in the mix still. Anyhow, I await news of creative teams, but based on characters alone, I’m intrigued by the following.

Twice Monthly Books – Six on my radar, but likely five on my pull list

Deathstroke

The Flash (Barry Allen or pre-Flashpoint Wally West or both?)

Green Arrow

Green Lanterns

Justice League

Justice League America (Is this continuing a JLI themed book or is this a continuation of Bryan Hitch’s delayed series? If it’s the latter, no thanks, but former, maybe. I’ll only read one JL series.)

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Monthly Books – Eight on my radar

Batman Beyond

Earth 2

The Super-Man (Is this Lex Luthor as a Superman post Darkseid War or is this the continuation of the Superman: Lois and Clark series or something else?)

Super Sons (Batman’s son Damian Wayne and pre-Convergence Superman’s son Jonathan Kent as headliners?)

Superwoman (Is this the Crime Syndicate’s Superwoman or someone else? If its the former, I’m intrigued.)

Teen Titans

Titans

Trinity (Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman in one monthly book? I’m in.)

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We saw the Justice Society, Legion of Super-Heroes and classic Wally West Flash in Geoff Johns’ teaser video, but based on titles announced don’t see where they might fit. Looks like this announcement is Rebirth Wave One. And still no Shazam? Oh come on now!

When the creative teams are announced this list may be augmented or contracted.

On the Hanna Barbera front, I’m a fan of Scooby Doo, but not this Apocalypse version. I may try issue #1, but what I am intrigued by is Future Quest which appears to be where we’ll see most of the HB toys in play. Likely cross-overs eventually or visits from other series characters; DC Co-Publisher has hinted the HB characters of this line are in a shared universe.

So that works out to eight (8) monthly series and around five (5) twice monthly series from DC I’ll be sampling. If I like them all, that works out to 18 DC books at $2.99 each for a total of $53.82. I may be reading more DC books, but price point roughly the same as pre-Rebirth as there are no $3.99 books in the mix?

Win, win, win? We’ll see.

James Fulton

I am really not allowing myself to get excited by anything to do with Rebirth. I think that the New 52, the DCYou initiative, and DC’s general unwillingness to provide consistent creative teams on many titles has sapped me of all trust in the company.

So far all we have seen are a list of titles being published, and their frequency. That’s not enough for me now. In fact, learning who is going to be writing and drawing these comics might not be enough for me, without some kind of guarantee that these titles are going to last past eight issues, and that the artists are going to stick around past the first three issues.

Here’s an example: I love the concept behind the Suicide Squad, and am a huge fan of the original series. When that book was launched in the New 52, I was excited, but hated it. Then, eventually, it was given to Ales Kot, and it became as good as it ever had been. Suddenly, though, Kot was off the title, and it looks like even he didn’t know that was going to happen. I stopped reading. Last week, New Suicide Squad got a creative team I could be excited about in Tim Seeley and Juan Ferreyra, but I’m now not sure if they are going to be with the book any longer, once it ‘rebirths’. Apparently Jim Lee will somehow be involved, which makes me skeptical about the bi-weekly schedule to say the least. DC has done a good job of training me not to care about any of this though.

Yes, I’d love to see a vital and entertaining take on the JSA or the Legion of Super-Heroes. I just don’t know if I trust the company to give me that any more.

So far the only thing that has interested me is that Tom King is going to be an exclusive writer for the company. I don’t really want to read a bi-weekly Batman though (even though I like the $2.99 price, which is going to be something like $15 an issue in our Canadian money soon?).

I’m sad to see that the titles I’ve been enjoying most – Omega Men and Midnighter are gone, but I’m not surprised.

I could very well end up buying a lot of these rebirthed titles, but I need a lot more information before I commit to anything. I know that a lot of DC fans are character-driven, but I’m not any more, so most of these announcements are meaningless. I would like to see the company do better sales-wise, because I think Marvel needs a counter-force to push against. I’m just not sure that current leaders at DC (Didio, Lee, and Johns) are the people to manage the company any more.

[Concerning Hanna Barbera…] Zero interest. Adding Jim Lee does nothing to change that.

Mike Maillaro

In their rush to push their big licenses, they seemed to have gotten rid of a lot of their more unique series. Starfire, Secret Six, Justice League 3001, Black Canary, Prez, We are Robin, and Robin: Son of Batman all failed to make the cut here. And a lot of those are my favorite DC titles.

I do like that Batman Beyond is still around, and I am glad that Blue Beetle is getting another shot. After Convergence, I was hoping we would get a new Booster Gold series, but that hasn’t appeared yet either. And still no Shazam, Legion of Super-Heroes or Justice Society. I am hoping there will be some more announcements down the road, but this seems like DC isn’t taking a lot of risks here, and that is a bit of a shame.

I am also surprised that we didn’t get anything Milestone or Wildstorm in these announcements. It seems like DC is really just trying to focus on a few core lines. I am not sure that is the right approach, but I am willing to wait and see before I really get down on this. I actually enjoyed most of the New-52.

I am really curious about the two Titans teams. Titans Hunt has made it clear that Nightwing and company did have a version of the Teen Titans at some point, though someone wiped their memories of it. I am hoping that we will get to see these guys teamed up again. Teen Titans has been kind of creatively bankrupt during New-52, so I am hoping they can find a creative team that can give it a boost.

Joey Atimoyoo

I’m not sure how I feel about Rebirth yet. I do think that continuing on the current course is a terrible idea so something has to be changed up. Before more news broke about it, I thought it would be good to see Geoff Johns oversee this BUT I didn’t want him to drop anything at the same time. Well his role in this is large and as a result, he’s had to drop Justice League. I think it’s for the best as DC Comics is something that really needs to be fixed right now. I really do not dig the twice a month stuff and it’ll make me less likely to put a book in my file as a result. I’m unsure what titles I’ll be reading because I’m waiting to hear more about the creative teams. As a comic reviewer, I’ll have more to review again (temporarily at least) because I’ve pretty much stopped reading DC with the exception of Justice League and Batman Eternal and have stopped reading all things Marvel.

I almost wish that they were going back to the old DCU, the one thing Johns talks about is bringing back legacy and what makes each character special, etc. Well the one thing that made the universe work is how well-connected characters were and the history they had with one another. I didn’t realize that was missing until I read a couple of Convergence issues. I’m still not convinced that a complete reboot in New 52 was ever necessary to address sales issues, etc. If a good creative team was on a title then I was onboard, period.

In the end, they can tout whatever universe they’re currently on. However, it won’t matter if the creative teams aren’t strong and consistent. Also, what’s the point of doing bi-weekly releases if we’re most likely going to have fill-in talent every so often or a possible high turnover rate with the talent? I’d rather have 12 straight issues done by a good creative team. I’m simply not sure if I can trust the people in charge to do right by the characters and titles anymore. We’ve had a fair amount of reboots, resets, restarts in the last ten years that I’m not sure another one will actually solve anything. I’m going to give titles a shot, but I admit my wallet is on a shorter leash after the New 52. I want to like this and I felt some hope after viewing Johns’ video pertaining to Rebirth. I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on this as more information is released…I’m still not 100% sure what’s what yet though. I want to be optimistic, but feel like I’ve been burned too much…I’ll definitely take a wait and see approach though.

As for the Hanna Barbera stuff, I don’t really have an attachment to much of it. Some of it was from before my time and I grew up in a small town with farmer vision, so I didn’t have the opportunity to watch many of them. I’m willing to give a couple of titles that I’m unfamiliar with a shot such as Space Ghost and Future Quest just because some other releases of older properties (by other companies) such as Magnus: Robot Fighter were a pleasant surprise for me. I’m usually willing to give something new a try.

….. [the] one thing I was glad to hear about… Detective Comics and Action Comics going back to their original numbering. I was reading Detective until number 900…I was so annoyed that they didn’t switch to the original numbering for that one, single issue that I stopped buying the book altogether until Manupul took over.

Phil Allen

WB & Hanna-Barbera:

Since Marvel was bought by Disney (who then proceeded to buy Lucasfilm) it was only a matter of time before Marvel published Star Wars comics again. When it was announced they would be doing just that, it opened my eyes to the idea of DC publishing titles from it’s parent company, Warner Bros. So while I’m very excited to be getting these new series, particularly Future Quest and Scooby Apocalypse (who has received their own share of “contemporary reboots” over the years through TV and direct-to-video episodes), I can’t help but feel this may be just the first wave in new titles. Who knows what could be next! It’s probably best for DC to just dip their toes in these waters and wait for initial sales to come through before announcing more, but I’m willing to bet in the next few years, there will be an added layer to the “DC vs. Marvel struggle” in these parent-company titles.

REBIRTH:

Finally! When the news initially broke I was thinking the same thing many others were: “Oh DC, not another reboot! Not another contemporary take on already contemporary characters! Not another pander to another demographic and forgetting your core fans!” I’ll admit, we haven’t seen anything yet, so any of these could still happen, but I’m a bit more optimistic now. Let’s break down the basics real quick:

All new #1’s, except Action Comics & Detective Comics: The New 52 almost made it to five years without rebooting a series twice, unlike Marvel who just last year rebooted everything, giving quite a few series two #1’s in the same year. Action and Detective Comics will return to their Pre-New 52 numbering, with the New 52 issues filling in the gaps.

All comics are $2.99: I was beginning to miss DC‘s “Drawing The Line at $2.99” campaign from before the New 52, anyone else remember that? Maybe it’s the naive young fan in me, but I thought it was a great way to show it wasn’t about the money. Same reasoning behind most Image Vol. 1 trades only being $9.99. Hopefully this price-point will stick, at least for awhile. This does have a two-pronged effect where the twice-monthly books are concerned, though. It’s great that the issues are individually cheaper, but now we have twice as many to buy per month. That will depend on what you buy though.

The Line-up: DC’s obvious main-stays are arrive in June 2016 (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.) with a few surprises coming in July and in the Fall. The standouts I see are:

Batgirl & the Birds of Prey – A returning fan-favorite!

Nightwing – No more super-spy Grayson?

Batman Beyond – Hopefully with Terry McGinnis this time…

Blue Beetle – It’ll be nice to have Beetle (and possibly Booster Gold?) back in something other than a Forever Evil or Convergence tie-in and a futuristic take like Justice League 3000. They’re all good stories, I just mean to have them back in regular continuity.

Trinity – I’m assuming they mean Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman?

Superwoman – Not sure yet if this will be Superwoman of The Crime Syndicate from Earth 0, 2, or 3 (depending on which story you read) or Lois Lane’s Superwoman from waaayy back in the day…or something altogether new.

Super Sons – Sons of Superman? Or is this a “We Are Robin”-esque team?

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Fans have been quick to point out that recent favorites are missing though, such as the aforementioned We Are Robin, Omega Men, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, and many many more. That doesn’t mean they won’t be coming, that’s just what we have now. 52 titles five years ago was pretty bold (many were cut before one year was through) but 32 seems like a pretty thin line. I’m willing to bet we’ll hear of quite a few more before the year is out.

Overall, I’m excited for this as it seems that DC is finally realizing that something has been missing over the last few years and is dealing with it by taking the “back-to-basics” route, which can really go any number of ways. I also feel more confident with Geoff Johns behind this more than I did with Didio/Lee behind the New 52. We won’t know until it’s released, so for now I choose to be optimistic.

Paul Miranda

There is endless debating on this topic. One can opine until one is blue in the face. I’ll be as succinct as possible.

The most primordial thing that DC is doing is realizing that they must uphold the concept of legacy. This sets them far apart from their main opponent. There’s a reason why Marvel refers to the publisher as the Distinguished Competition. It’s time to return to a particular distinction. It’s crucial to remain unwavering in the tumultuous sea of trend. Proudly hoist the flag that emits singularity rather than pale imitation.

Old enough to remember

ACTION COMICS #957
DETECTIVE COMICS #934

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I applaud, bow down, and concur wholeheartedly with the proper sequencing. These titles are so historically significant that it’d be foolish to dismiss them entirely. Having them bi-weekly accelerates the route to #1,000 which will be two firsts for American comic books.

One time is never enough

AQUAMAN {6th Series} #1

BATMAN {3rd Series} #1

BATGIRL {4th Series} #1

BATMAN BEYOND {3rd Series} #1

BLUE BEETLE {4th Series} #1

CYBORG {2nd Series} #1

DEATHSTROKE {3rd Series} #1

EARTH 2 {2nd Series} #1

FLASH {5th Series} #1

GREEN ARROW {5th Series} #1

HARLEY QUINN {3rd Series} #1

JUSTICE LEAGUE {2nd Series} #1

JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA {2nd Series} #1

NIGHTWING {3rd Series} #1

RED HOOD and the OUTLAWS {2nd Series} #1

SUICIDE SQUAD {4th Series} #1

SUPERGIRL {6th Series} #1

SUPERMAN {4th Series} #1

TEEN TITANS {6th Series} #1

TITANS {3rd Series} #1

WONDER WOMAN {5th Series} #1

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I’m a stickler for details. Notice how I specify what volume the title is entering? I’m counting proper monthlies, not mini-series nor maxi-series. In my 32 years of reading and collecting, I never imagined in a million years that the Emerald Archer would ever graduate past one solitary mini.

The Big Three a.k.a. Trinity needlessly undergo another re-set. However, there is speculation that they will be renumbered #900 to mark another milestone and set a major record. You can calculate if you wish. I’m not going to bother.

I’ll spare you all of my blathering. The only guaranteed book on my list, despite creative changes, is WONDER WOMAN. Rumour has it that the Finches are off and working separately. I have every single issue of WW volumes 3 and 4 no matter how horrible the runs. Second importance will be accorded to BATGIRL, JUSTICE LEAGUE, and NIGHTWING. Third choice goes to AQUAMAN, BATMAN, CYBORG, FLASH. Fourth and final thoughts will be towards the anti-heroic DEATHSTROKE and the grim urban GREEN ARROW. If I’m not a fan of artist and/or writer, I’ll pass on the last six mentioned.

Fresh coat of paint:

BATGIRL and the BIRDS of PREY #1

GOTHAM ACADEMY: NEXT SEMESTER #1

GREEN LANTERNS #1

HAL JORDAN and the GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1

The HELLBLAZER #1

The SUPER-MAN #1

SUPER SONS #1

SUPERWOMAN #1

TRINITY #1

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The name is almost the same. The concept differs somewhat. Once Geoff Johns stepped down from GREEN LANTERN {5th Series} #20 and there were line-wide changes with the other three family titles, I dropped them all. Once upon a time I was a massive worshipper of Hal, Guy, John, Kyle, and the universe-spanning GLC. Hopefully, with the plural designation, Simon Baz will be given the proper screen time he so deserves. The only three from this bunch are TRINITY, BATGIRL and the BIRDS of PREY, and GOTHAM ACADEMY: NEXT SEMESTER. In that order.

Pluses:

• Super-affordable price point. I’m curious how that will pan out in the ever increasing inflation but let’s enjoy it for as long as possible.

• Double your pleasure, double your fun!! If you can’t get enough of your fave character/title, then the wait is only one week apart versus four.

• More to come!! It’s a no-brainer that this is simply scratching the surface. A mission statement to cover the entire 80-year history and highlight the importance of every single character from the most obscure to the most endearing assures us of Booster Gold, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Elongated Man, Sgt. Rock, etc. etc. etc.

• Particular selections mean that they is something for everyone. I’m sure there’ll be a resurgence of horror and war.

• Omigosh!! It almost slipped my mind. I’m super-psyched for the Hanna-Barbera franchise. The only title that has me going ga-ga is FUTURE QUEST.

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Minuses:

• Holding the line at $2.99 times two times whatever amount of books you choose to purchase can still end up being costly. It’s simple economics. One should be very selective.

• Emotional investment is more detrimental. It’s all a matter of perspective. There’s always a real danger of the cancellation axe swinging above your precious darlings. It matters little your ardent fandom if the sales don’t come through.

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‘Nuff said!! Oops! Wrong reference. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/72x72/1f609.png" alt="

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