Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities DC to renumber all titles starting with #1

Probably more intesting than the actual "new" JLA!

Gonna play devils advocate here...how os this massively different than what Marvel does on a monthly basis. DC is just being upfront about it and doing it at once (probably not the best decision honestly), as opposed to Marvel reinventing their characters over and over again and restarting series, only to revert back to previous numbering as soon as they see fit...only to relaunch with another number one a few months later.

Marvel has changed dramatic things about their characters...One More Day, Avengers Disassembled, Moon Knight toname a few off the top iof my head. The Space titles have been launched/cancelled/relaunched/added a mini to the pot, how many times over the last several years? Thor has had how many # 1 issues this year alone?

Not saying DC has the greatest thing since anything here...just that they are trying something, and who knows what the results will be...you may love some of it, and you may hate some of it...for God's sake, we have endured a 5YL, reboot, 3boot and retroboot in the last 20 years for one team that most of us love and adore. This is like getting back on a bike for us.

I may give some of them a shot, and drop other like a hot potatoe (like I was going to anyway.

Either way, I'm glad that titles like i Zombie and American Vampire will not be hit with this nonesense.

Face it though, some of these titles need a desperate reboot to their core ideas anyway...it might just make some of us happier than we think.


Then again...it could suck Darkseids big toe as well...

o_0

[clears throat]

I would like to take this opportunity to remind Nightcrawler that we still don't have a smilie that bangs its own head against the wall.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

[hides]

[ETA: Yeah, Dev. But I don't have to shell out another 2 or three bucks each and every time I get back on the bike. ]

Some details

1) Of your Marvel examples, only OMD was a continuity rewrite. Status quo changes are par for the course (and, to some degree, SHOULD be).
2) "All at once" is probably the single biggest problem here in a commercial sense. Maybe 10 of the 52 titles will catch any sort of attention.

Marvel's Cosmic books are a self-contained and rather marginally-selling area though - and almost entirely done by a single writing team to boot. And as for Thor... only one #1 that matters. You can't count miniseries that are self-contained and have no major impact on the character in the same class as a linewide renumbering/rebooting/replacing of every DCU ongoing.

Of course we are presuming that it will be 52 new titles at $2.99 each which would be prohibitively expensive for people to buy. However if they dropped all the #1's to $1.00 like they used to do with new Vertigo books then that is a much more affordable figure for people to try new things with and, if they are any good, probably make more of them willing to give issues 2, 3 and so on a go.

You're being too generous. Certainly more generous than my wallet looks to be. I'll see what the solicits for Legion Lost #1 ( see www.bleedingcool.com ) are, but I seriously am thisclose to buying next to NOTHING from the "Big 2"...

Okay, I sucked at that...but oh well.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dc-comics-revamp-retailer-letter-110531.html

"In addition, the new #1s will introduce readers to a more modern, diverse DC Universe, with some character variations in appearance, origin and age."

This tells me tha they are not going to muck with everything and everyone (outside of a new #1 and new focus to the series - which happens all the time anyway.)

Personally, I will probably drop some things that I was going to anyway...but who knows. I'll withhold final judgement until I see what the books are, and who is working on them...same as I ever do.

We already know there is a JLI book coming, and a Red Lantern book. Add inthe JLA above, and there are three already. I also believe that Scott Snyder said that he was staying with Batman somehow, which is a plus in my book as he writes a good Batman story.

I'm not going to write off everything because of a possibly misguided promotion.

So with not all of these being hard reboots, I think that the Marvel comparison (as in a lot of new #1's every year) is more fair. But, we'll have to wait and see.

Aquaman is another one

There is a Hawkman series as well.

And apparently a series named Legion Lost...not sure if that is good or bad. Maybe a Levits/Jimenez joint (that would be good).

It may get worse -- a new "Legion Lost" title, according to Bleeding Cool. No word on whether it replaces LSH, or is in addition. Because we shouldn't have more than 18 months of a consistent story telling direction for the Legion. That might result in a satisfied fan base.

A couple years ago, I decided I would only read books I thought were good, as opposed to following characters I liked through bad creative directions and inappropriate teams. The one exception has been the Legion, but I think that I may be done with that, too. I hope not, but I don't really appreciate the drama.

I wonder what happens to Morrison's Batman, one of the few comics I look forward to now. Rumor is that Grant is dong a Superman book. I would probably read that. Anything else, we will see.

Interesting take...

http://www.weeklycrisis.com/2011/05/breaking-down-new-dc-comics.html

hmmm, maybe I just got old and the world passed me by ....

but, while I have a digital reading device mostly for pulp fantasy novels .... I never want a comic book that way. I like the art on paper, and the archival effect of having an object. And the quiet time of reading the books every week. off computer.

The strategy makes more sense to me, at least where DC is coming from, that they want to jump firmly on the digital bandwagon because they probably think that's the future or they're getting ahead that way.

The new Justice League

I may pick this up as it looks decent art wise, Johns tells a decent story for me most of the time, and it seems like Cyborg has been officially permanently moved to the A listers. That in and of itself is a great thing in my book. The rest of the characters simply look like the same characters with a bit of a tweak to the outfits.

Hey, I'll be getting Flashpoint that week anyway, so why not grab this and give it a shot...if I don't like it...no real harmdone, and I have a comic with a decent looking cover to throw into a box

and for those keeping score at home...that looks a hell of a lot like Wally in there.

I actually fully support making Cyborg an "A-list" character.

Love Cyborg, love moving him to the big boys (which the frikkin Super Powers cartoon did 25 years ago!), but when was the last time he was actually written as an interesting character? And the Jim Lee design looks ridiculous. Is he supposed to look like Doomsday?

It lloks to me like a carry over from the Flashpoint Cyborg, but I'd have to go back and look.

Maybe out of this we will get a good TEEN TITANS book again.


And a JSA/Infinity book.

I love DC and want it to succeed, and if this leads to better stories and more mainstream audiences, more power to them. Superman certainly needs help. It has not been consistently good for a long time, but that is not because of continuity, or marriage, it's because of astoundingly bad storytelling from people who should have done much, much better. I don't know if James Robinson has totally lost it, or he just has lousy editorial support, but his work on Supes and JLA has STUNK! The JLA should have been great under Meltzer and Duffie, too, but it was mostly pointless, uninteresting and unexciting. I KNOW McDuffie could tell a great JL story, so editorial has to be a problem. In contrast, many of the Bat titles have been pretty good, I think because editorial on those books is top notch. So, is DC rebooting it's editorial staff, too?

Well, I can't help but think that if this is a flop people will be fired. Likewise, if it works, Didio and Lee will join Johns as being seen as some sort of Messiah to DC.

If renumbering all its titles at #1 is such a good idea, maybe DC should take it a step further: make every single issue of every book #1 from now on. That way, every issue will be a "perfect jumping-on point" for new readers.

The number of titles on my pull list has already dwindled to five a month. I may drop comics altogether at this point. It seems that DC, having spent the last 25 years trying to find new ways to alienate longtime readers, has finally found just the thing to get rid of them once and for all!

I'm cautiously optimistic. I certainly have no intention of running out to buy 52 brand new number one issues. I'll pick up a few new titles that interest me. From what I've seen so far that will include the new Hawkman series and Deadman in Adventure.

I stopped buying Batman a while back. About the only thing that could get me back into the Bat books would be for them to be more accessible and less convoluted. A new start with Dick as Robin again might do it. Is that what we'll get? Who knows at this point.

I'm always guaranteed to pick up Legion and Wonder Woman. Both could benefit from some clarification and simplification. Is that what we will get? Who knows? Honestly, neither could be made more convoluted than they are at this point so new twists wouldn't throw me that much.

Same day digital comics? I'm old. I like my paper copies and going to the comic book shop. I will likely continue with that approach as long as the paper books are available. I'm not the customer of the future, though. The industry can change or it can die. The innovative comic shops will have to evolve. I don't like it and it isn't fair, but I'm afraid it is a reality. DC may or may not have the answer here. At least they're in the game and fighting for a place in the changing market. Best of luck to them.

The most amusing part of all this is the number of fans posting all over the internet that they will be dropping all DC books. Seriously? Yeah, the usual suspects who complain about everything that is currently being produced, but then freak out at any hint of change. We've seen it before.

The times they are a changing. I'll keep rolling.

Ouch, bad timing - Rockhopper Lad. I was typing while you were posting. Nothing I posted was meant as a direct response to what you posted right before me. Just a general comment on similar posts I've been reading all over the place tonight...

Humble apologies.

Well, I am certainly hoping for the best out of all this...

And to clarify "best"...

All dead Titans now alive...

A couple or three humor based superheroes...

Several books set on the various 52 earths...

SHAZAM/Fawcett on its own world? CHALLENGERS of the UNKNOWN? INFERIOR 5? Stuff like that...

Stuff like this I would buy for certain.

Of course, we all know the books will be 90% Bat/Green Lantern/Super-related.