Love it or hate, it’s coming. USA Today has the bombshell that’s been growing in strength with rumors recently that DC Comics will be rebooting its entire lineup of DC Universe characters later this summer as the Flashpoint series picks up steam. The company has gone through reorganizations over the years with its cast of characters, but wholesale permanent changes outside of the Legion of Super-Heroes slate of titles has largely been relegated to the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline with other series making incremental changes here and there to account for various problems that have crept in.
“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. 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.”
Having gone through this with the Crisis on Infinite Earths release in the 80’s, I’m already largely seeing the same reactions, but it has me excited to see what they’re going to do and to be able to connect with these characters and situations from the ground up again. And what is really different this time, something that will gain a lot of attention as the releases start to hit, is that DC will be making all these rebooted titles avialable same-day via the DC Comics iOS app with Comixology. As a comics fan that has gone 100% digital, this opens up a huge amount of new content for me and others in the same position.
“We’re allowing people who have never bought a comic book in their lives to download them on portable media devices and take a look,” Lee says. “Having the ability to give people access to these comics with one button click means we’re going to get a lot of new readers.”
Join in the discussion about this here!
dc must be getting pretty desperate to pull something like this. With Batman the only strong franchise in the lineup it isnt surprising that they would feel the heat after Marvels success of their movie lineup.
On a side note I am surprised that Image hasnt had more success with the movies. They also have some very popular titles. Both Powers and Chew are being turned into tv series but I am surprised there isnt more on the big screen.