DC Universe relaunch in September 2011

[Wood]

Returnability is a huge deal, and shows yet again that this was not some reactionary hair brained move of desperation, but a careful constructed bold plan.

As to Bob and my disagreement on this digital angle, I said this on 11OC this week and I'll say it here too, a year from September, DC will be selling more digital issues per month than they do print issues.

Yep!

[BobBretall]

As to Bob and my disagreement on this digital angle, I said this on 11OC this week and I'll say it here too, a year from September, DC will be selling more digital issues per month than they do print issues.

I don't disagree with you on this, Wood. At the rate print sales are plummeting I'd say this is pretty much a guarantee.

I just think the current pricing model will be a barrier to entry for a lot of potential new readers. That doesn't mean that they won't get any digital readers, they'll get a lot, a decent # pirated from print readers who are used to the $2.99 pricing model and are not into collecting physical books.

[Trev]

c) Returnability
We are backing up our commitment to you and this launch, by putting our copies where are mouths are. We will be offering 100% Returnability on all of the remaining 41titles. Returnability across the rest of the 52 allows the breadth of these titles to get their fair chance with your consumers. This comes with a qualifier - your total post-FOC September orders in dollars for DC periodicals must be 125% or more of your May post-FOC orders for DC periodicals.
As with prior returnable programs, qualifying retailers will be required to return stripped covers from the returnable issues along with an affidavit of destruction to Diamond Comic Distributors at a date to be named later. Retailers will then be issued credit for each copy, minus 10% of the cover price. At a minimum, this returnability program will be offered for September, October, and November.

I'm glad they are offering returnability, but retailers will have to eat 10% of cover price.

Which at a 72% discount is equivalent to about 40% of what they paid.

72% discount on a 2.99 book means paying 84 cents a copy. If your choice is to return it for 54 cents or throw it in a dollar bin, what would you do?

The only real reason to do this is that you took a BIG chance on a book and are stuck with a ton of copies or the book tanks at about 50% or more of what the prior book did and you increased you expected 20-30% gain, for example.

[JohnMayo]

Returnability is a huge deal, and shows yet again that this was not some reactionary hair brained move of desperation, but a careful constructed bold plan.

As to Bob and my disagreement on this digital angle, I said this on 11OC this week and I'll say it here too, a year from September, DC will be selling more digital issues per month than they do print issues.

Yep!

They may well sell more digitally than in print. Frankly, with the current sales level, that shouldn't be too hard to do given the potential size of the digital realm. I question if the price point is right for that market but a lot of that will depend on how "complete" and fulfilling each issue of these DC 2.0 comics are.

If each issue is only part of a story, that will hurt sales. If each issue feels like there is a completeness about it, even if the story spans multiple issues, the price will go down better. People need to feel like they are getting the equivalent of a television episode, not just one of the between the commercial breaks acts of a television show.

Ultimately, we will have to take DC's work on how things sell digitally as that information isn't publicly released other than in the "it sold great" press releases.

[JohnMayo]

I've tried to graph out how the DC 2.0 titles are connected to each other based on what little we know so far. I have only included characters and creators that can be used to link titles or, in the case of Deadman, area solo feature in a title that isn't named after them.




(I'm using GraphViz for this and haven't mastered the layout commands for it which is why the image is so wide.)

[BobBretall]

More official solicits with creative teams named:

GREEN LANTERN #1
Geoff Johns has been charting the adventures of Hal Jordan and the GREEN LANTERN Corps since GREEN LANTERN: Rebirth, collaborating with such major artists as Ethan Van Sciver, Darwyn Cooke, Prentis Rollins, Marlo Alquiza and Mick Gray.
This fall, Johns reunites with artists Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy, as the series begins anew with GREEN LANTERN #1 with cover by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado. Together they will continue to thrill readers and expand the Green Lantern mythos.
Change is coming. But set aside your fear. It’ll be worth the wait.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1
When deadly conflicts emerge across the universe, it’s up to Guy Gardner, John Stewart and an elite Green Lantern strike force to keep the peace.
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1 will be written by Peter J. Tomasi with art by Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna. The cover to #1 is by Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy.

GREEN LANTERN: THE NEW GUARDIANS #1
Who are The New Guardians?
The power of Rage, Avarice, Fear, Will, Hope, Compassion and Love combine to be the most powerful (and colorful) team in the corps under the leadership of Kyle Rayner. Beware their power . . . and their volatility!
GREEN LANTERN: THE NEW GUARDIANS #1 will be written by Tony Bedard and illustrated with cover by Tyler Kirkham and Batt.

RED LANTERNS #1
Going solo. Atrocitus and his Red Lantern Corps return in their own series, battling against injustice in the most bloody ways imaginable. This Lantern Corps takes no prisoners, they are judge, jury and executioners!
RED LANTERNS #1 will be written by Peter Milligan with art and cover by Ed Benes and Rob Hunter.

[stardog]

Nice to see that the Green Lantern ship will continue to be steered by the same people. Even with the promise of change, a good sign for the people who are panicked that everything they've read will now be meaningless.

[JohnMayo]

While there will be massive change, this is clearly a relaunch, not a reboot. The Justice League International title, for instance, is coming out of the Justice League: Generation Lost series/storyline. The relaunch instead of a reboot is going to make things more acceptable for existing readers but could cause some confusion for new readers. It is going to be very interesting to see how this DC 2.0 plays out.

Other titles I hope to see announced are:

Action Comics
Adventure Comics
Atom
Batman
Detective Comics
Hawk and Dove
Legion of Super-Heroes
Swamp Thing

[torchsong]

Color me interested (bad pun, sorry! ) in that New Guardians book.

Still trying to figure out what I want to get out of the 52 proposed titles, but that one sounds very cool.

1 down, 51 to go, DC!

[abysslord]

The relaunch instead of a reboot is going to make things more acceptable for existing readers but could cause some confusion for new readers. It is going to be very interesting to see how this DC 2.0 plays out.

I'm a new reader to DC and I'm thinking the same thing. All I know is Superman and Batman from the movies and cartoons, although I have been catching up on Batman titles these past few months.

So with this news I thought it'd be cool to pick up the new Green Lantern or Justice League and see if I like it, but seeing as how they're still keeping all the backstory it makes me a little more hesitant. It's not a huge 'keep away' sign or anything, but I feel much more safe going into the relaunched Superman [from what we've heard or guessed] than GL.

I'll still probably pick up the main GL book and give it a shot. If they start crossing over or getting too deep into the history, I may have to quit though. I hate reading stories in the middle and try not to if I can help it.

[boshuda]

As a new reader to DC I'm really excited by the relaunch news. Many of the characters' histories are a mess, and trying to get into a book is painful. I'm reading the GL titles for the past few months, and I honestly have almost no idea what I'm reading. It's still a fun ride, but I just don't have the time to catch up on 50 years (or so) of continuity, so if stuff didn't start making more sense soon I was probably going to end up dropping those books. With luck this reboot will remove most of that and allow me to enjoy these characters without requiring intimate knowledge of their history. To those who are upset at losing that continuity (assuming that's what happens) -- think of it more like watching a JLA animated film in the sense that the core of the character is represented in some sense, but the character won't be exactly like they are (were) in the comics.

I would personally prefer fewer than 52 books. That's a lot of books, and to keep them properly intertwined, in continuity, on-time, and high quality is a monumental task that I don't think DC has proven itself capable of. It would also be great if this reboot simplified things, and I don't think 52 books a month does that. One thing keeping people out of comics is the 'I don't know where to start' feeling people have. Wouldn't it be great if people could come off of the Green Lantern movie, go to the store, and be presented with only one Green Lantern book, instead of 3 (now 4!)?

What would be cool about launching all of the books at the same time is if they all continue publishing and meet their deadlines is that they will all have the same issue number. Not really important, but just kind of a neat thing a few years from now would be if every book from DC was at issue 29 in November (or whatever).

I don't plan on switching to digital books at that price point. $.99 would be my high point on that, so that portion of the announcement is only relevant in the sense that hopefully digital will help bring in new readers. One thing to consider with the digital editions that could be appealing to people, but still requires a lower price-point than 2.99/1.99, is the social stigma associated with reading comics. That stigma goes away when you read on a tablet - no one can see you reading a comic book

[HassanT]

While there will be massive change, this is clearly a relaunch, not a reboot. The Justice League International title, for instance, is coming out of the Justice League: Generation Lost series/storyline. The relaunch instead of a reboot is going to make things more acceptable for existing readers but could cause some confusion for new readers. It is going to be very interesting to see how this DC 2.0 plays out.

Other titles I hope to see announced are:

Action Comics
Adventure Comics
Atom
Batman
Detective Comics
Hawk and Dove
Legion of Super-Heroes
Swamp Thing

As long as the stories are written so that a new reader would understand what is going on, I think it will be fine. I think stories will have change from being "written for the trade" to "written for digital". In other words, more single or shorter story arcs, similar to the way Morrison structures his comics. A lot of small stories that feed into one long story without any one issue feeling like it is a middle chapter. For example, Bendis Avengers would not be a great title to get someone new to try out a digital book.

I didn't think they would do a complete reboot because of the trade market. One of the great things they did with Infinite Crisis was make all 70 years of DC stories "count". As a result, they could launch a new book and at the same time say "check out this collection of older material", kinda like they are doing with Aquaman, Deadman, etc.

Speaking of which, I wouldn't be surprise if one of the new titles is "Infinity, Inc" since DC is releasing a hardcover of the original series.

[Paul Nolan]

and as well as infinity inc. Chase is coming out as a tpb at the end of the year.

[BobBretall]

As long as the stories are written so that a new reader would understand what is going on, I think it will be fine. I think stories will have change from being "written for the trade" to "written for digital". In other words, more single or shorter story arcs, similar to the way Morrison structures his comics. A lot of small stories that feed into one long story without any one issue feeling like it is a middle chapter.

From your mouth to Didio's ear (I hope)......

This is the single most important thing comics need to get back to if they want to keep new readers that happen along & try a comic.

[stardog]

While there will be massive change, this is clearly a relaunch, not a reboot. The Justice League International title, for instance, is coming out of the Justice League: Generation Lost series/storyline. The relaunch instead of a reboot is going to make things more acceptable for existing readers but could cause some confusion for new readers. It is going to be very interesting to see how this DC 2.0 plays out.

Other titles I hope to see announced are:

Action Comics
Adventure Comics
Atom
Batman
Detective Comics
Hawk and Dove
Legion of Super-Heroes
Swamp Thing

I like that list. I also hope that DC still has a good number of books with female leads. That's one thing they've always done a good job of maintaining. Birds of Prey and Batgirl are almost givens at this point (just that they haven't been announced) as is Batwoman, but I hope there's more. Power Girl and Zatanna are two series that I'll miss a ton. I know costume changes are coming, and with new creative teams can they make these characters sell? I hope they try. Zatanna still has a ton of potential. What happens with the Question and who is the Question should be interesting. Maybe Black Canary in her own book? That would be fun. Perhaps Jesse Quick becomes a bigger player in the Flash franchise and she gets a series. With Mr. Terrific getting a book (a 1st timer to a solo series), you can't rule anything out. Man, I can't wait for the solicitations although I assume we'll get some more announcements beforehand.