DC: Rebirth

So, a lot of news out this last week.

Geoff Johns will be writing a massive story that includes all the books in one way or another.

YouTube video

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/exclusive-geoff-johns-details-rebirth-plan-seeks-to-restore-legacy-to-dc-universe

It's in the same vein as "Green Lantern: Rebirth" and "The Flash: Rebirth." Some things alter and change, but it's more character-driven, and it's also more about revealing secrets and mysteries within the DC Universe about "Flashpoint" and The New 52 that are part of a bigger tapestry. A hidden and forbidden secret. DC has always felt mythic and sprawling. You can't put boundaries on it or rules. It will break them. And it should. This does. It does in a big way. This is the start of a storyline that continues, not through one book, but through the entire DC Universe -- something I'll be able to talk about after the one-shot is out. Again, I know we're keeping a lot of details under wraps -- frustratingly so for a lot of people -- but "DC Universe: Rebirth" #1 will answer a lot of your questions while raising a whole bunch of new ones. It will reverberate for a long, long time and we can talk more after this massive one-shot is in your hands on May 25!

To build on what I've said before, I've got a lot of comics, I've read a lot of great stories, and one of the most compelling things about published, periodical comic books in a mainstream, comic book superhero universe, is that it's part of a larger universe -- and we've got a great story to tell about it. A big story.

Rebirth lineup, all books at 2.99, and some are going to be double shipped:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/dc-announces-full-rebirth-line-twice-monthly-books-lowered-price-point

June:

Rebirth Specials:

AQUAMAN REBIRTH #1
BATMAN REBIRTH #1
THE FLASH REBIRTH #1
GREEN ARROW REBIRTH #1
GREEN LANTERNS REBIRTH #1
SUPERMAN REBIRTH #1
TITANS REBIRTH #1
WONDER WOMAN REBIRTH #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):

AQUAMAN #1
BATMAN #1
THE FLASH #1
GREEN ARROW #1
GREEN LANTERNS #1
SUPERMAN #1
WONDER WOMAN #1

New Issues (Shipping twice monthly):

ACTION COMICS #957
DETECTIVE COMICS #934

July

Rebirth Specials:

BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY REBIRTH #1
HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS REBIRTH #1
THE HELLBLAZER REBIRTH #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE REBIRTH #1
NIGHTWING REBIRTH #1
RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS REBIRTH #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):

HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
NIGHTWING #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping monthly):

BATGIRL #1
BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY #1
THE HELLBLAZER #1
RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS #1
THE SUPER-MAN #1
TITANS #1

Fall

Rebirth Specials:

BATMAN BEYOND REBIRTH #1
BLUE BEETLE REBIRTH #1
CYBORG REBIRTH #1
DEATHSTROKE REBIRTH #1
EARTH 2 REBIRTH #1
SUICIDE SQUAD REBIRTH #1
SUPERGIRL REBIRTH #1
TEEN TITANS REBIRTH #1
TRINITY REBIRTH #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):

CYBORG #1
DEATHSTROKE #1
HARLEY QUINN #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #1
SUICIDE SQUAD #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping monthly):

BATMAN BEYOND #1
BLUE BEETLE #1
EARTH 2 #1
GOTHAM ACADEMY: NEXT SEMESTER #1
SUPERGIRL #1
SUPERWOMAN #1
SUPER SONS #1
TEEN TITANS #1
TRINITY #1

Geoff Johns is off JL

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/johns-announces-justice-league-departure-ahead-of-rebirth

Jim Lee to draw Suicide Squad

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/jim-lee-artist-suicide-squad-rebirth

Tom King, Clay Mann, John Timms, and Sam Humphries sign exclusive contracts

http://www.newsarama.com/28034-dc-signs-tom-king-more-to-exclusive-deals-ahead-of-june-s-rebirth.html

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/02/18/sam-humphries-signs-exclusively-to-dc-comics-ahead-of-rebirth/

Bollocks.

I can't help but be embarrassed for DC at this point.

Originally posted by Galan007
I can't help but be embarrassed for DC at this point.

👆

Originally posted by Galan007
I can't help but be embarrassed for DC at this point.

On one hand, I hope they don't change history again, and New 52 stays in continuity.

On the other hand, I kind of hope they do, so I can stop reading them entirely.

Wow, I'm not interested in any of these.

I don't get why they're going back to Batman Beyond (and *please* tell me they aren't going with Tim-Batman Beyond) and Deathstoke (why not Midnighter, who's book is way better?), disappointed that they're returning Dick to Nightwing (him being a spy was new and interesting!), and fingers crossed for a Wonder Woman without a horrible backstory, but for the most part it's a fairly conservative lineup and that makes a lot of sense considering how much they're faltering.

The problem isn't that they don't put out good stuff, it's that there's no continuity so when someone starts reading for the new stuff, in a year or two it's gone and so are they. They need to retain readers between authors and encourage people to move between titles, which requires more consistency and coordination than they've been showing.

Given that, though, a more conservative lineup of mostly popular name characters does make sense, even if it doesn't have anything that wows me. It'll be easier to reduce the churn that way.

The real question I guess is if they realize they need to reduce churn, or if they're just thinking "THIS rotation of titles will get all the sales back! And if it doesn't last, why, we can do this again in two years!" The problem could be higher up with Bob Harris and Didio and their approach to running things, after all.

Batman Beyond is immensely popular.

I can't imagine they'll have a difficult time selling that book.

Originally posted by krisblaze
Batman Beyond is immensely popular.

I can't imagine they'll have a difficult time selling that book.

Have you followed the latest stuff? Or, which incarnations of his books over the last several years have you picked up?

Batman Beyond- as in Terry McGuiness- was popular as a show. There were multiple Terry books, which had pretty stable, but I hate to say it, low, sales, and had a spinoff or two that did the same with Superman and the Justice League of the time. The first one of these books was noted for ditching Terry's gallery like Inque in exchange for future versions of characters like Hush to mixed reactions, but later ones were better and introduced a Batgirl Beyond and similar and I've heard good reviews.

After Future's End, they replaced Terry with Future Tim Drake in a post-apoc setting with some of Terry's cast. In 8 issues, it dropped from 50k sales (right out of FE) to 20k (as-of January, the last month I have sales info on), and is presumably still falling at a rapid pace. I don't think I've seen anyone speak any buzz about this one.

Terry and the Batman Beyond concept is *cool*, but it's not an easy sell based on an older show as it is, and they'd messed with the concept very heavily so I don't think it has heavy draw on it's own. I mean, you can of course do a pretty good Terry book, and tied to a relaunch it may have a chance, but it's by no means a natural safe bet is what I'm saying.

Current Batman Beyond book is surprisingly good, especially since Dan Jurgens hasn't written anything good in a while. I think they'll continue with that series.

Originally posted by Zack M
Current Batman Beyond book is surprisingly good, especially since Dan Jurgens hasn't written anything good in a while. I think they'll continue with that series.

Huh, that surprises me (for aforementioned 'Tim not Terry' reasons).

Still, sales wise it's an odd choice. It's lost 7k sales in the last two months.

That's just a guess. Losing sales isn't anything new. last BB series lost sales as well.

Originally posted by Zack M
That's just a guess. Losing sales isn't anything new. last BB series lost sales as well.

Losing sales isn't new, but there's 'standard attrition' and 'sales freefall.'

Like, the previous series would normally lose a few hundred a month. Not ideal, but it's like, you can look at that and say, "We're at 20k, In 6 months, sales will be at, say, 18 if we're lucky, 15k if we're not." That is a fairly standard low-sales-but-has-a-following book that's not going to last indefinitely, but makes plenty of sense to keep going at least.

If you're at 20k and you lost 2k last month (which it did), you better hope that things level out fast or you could find yourself at single-digit thousand sales before long... in other words Batman Beyond looked to me solidly like it would be on the chopping block before this relaunch.

In the same time Batman Beyond dropped 9,000 (or in other words, October to January, 29k to 20k), Sinestro, another low seller in the same range, dropped 3k (23k to 20k) at the same time.

If it's restarting, I do wonder if they're going back to Terry and the non-post apoc setting- even if TimBB is a good story, it's sales resemble a sinking stone.

I'm not sure how they'll go back to Terry since they killed him off. The current series is pretty damn good, so I hope they don't bring him back.

Comparing the Batman Beyond series in 1999 (Which featured Terry) is a lot similar to now. The sales from that series went down to 17,000 and below.

Originally posted by Zack M
I'm not sure how they'll go back to Terry since they killed him off. The current series is pretty damn good, so I hope they don't bring him back.

They killed him in a story involved time travel. Wouldn't be hard.

Yes, but the per-issue drop is much smaller and it was able to stay stable around those levels. And it's the modern times, not a decade and a half ago, that matter.

It started pretty low, but from issue 6 to issue 16- a whole year (and 16 being the issue where it ended)- Batman Beyond Universe, the latest Terry book, dropped three thousand readers.

You know, not far from what the current series does per issue.

Unless the current series stabilized hard before the reboot, as a publisher I'd be going, "Danger, Danger!".

Yes, even if it's good. Unless it's getting seriously good press in the news or graphic novel/digital sales way above that (I don't think it's graphic novel has even come out yet), it's not something that, business-wise, is justifiable to do much with other than wrap up the story (I also say publishing wise, it's almost always a good idea to wrap up the story because it creates fewer ill feelings than a sudden cutoff).

Originally posted by Q99
They killed him in a story involved time travel. Wouldn't be hard.

Yes, but the per-issue drop is much smaller and it was able to stay stable around those levels. And it's the modern times, not a decade and a half ago, that matter.

It started pretty low, but from issue 6 to issue 16- a whole year (and 16 being the issue where it ended)- Batman Beyond Universe, the latest Terry book, dropped three thousand readers.

You know, not far from what the current series does per issue.

Unless the current series stabilized hard before the reboot, as a publisher I'd be going, "Danger, Danger!".

Yes, even if it's good. Unless it's getting seriously good press in the news or graphic novel/digital sales way above that (I don't think it's graphic novel has even come out yet), it's not something that, business-wise, is justifiable to do much with other than wrap up the story (I also say publishing wise, it's almost always a good idea to wrap up the story because it creates fewer ill feelings than a sudden cutoff).

Even if it was Terry, I don't see the sales increasing all that much. The current storyline is actually pretty good, so I hope they keep the same team flowing.

Originally posted by Zack M
Even if it was Terry, I don't see the sales increasing all that much.

Well, yes. Considering DC's dire need of stable good sales, going with a book that's prior version was in crashing low sales, and who's old ones were sub-20k stable sales, it's an odd business choice no matter how you slice it, no matter which Batman Beyond. Tim is just moderately more bizarre a chance than Terry, since fewer people are attached to him in the role, but neither seem a business choice.

Consider that there's characters like Starfire and Power Girl who can hold books at better sales. Or, heck, a modern Tim Drake book, 'Red Robin,' would leave me less head-scratchy.

The current storyline is actually pretty good, so I hope they keep the same team flowing.

Even if it's good, sales/business wise, it is bonko to include during an attempt to save DC from the threat of low sales.

Wow, BB (1999 series) was almost at single digits there. Lowest point was 11,000.

Originally posted by Q99
Well, yes. Considering DC's dire need of stable good sales, going with a book that's prior version was in crashing low sales, and who's old ones were sub-20k stable sales, it's an odd business choice no matter how you slice it, no matter which Batman Beyond. Tim is just moderately more bizarre a chance than Terry, since fewer people are attached to him in the role, but neither seem a business choice.

Consider that there's characters like Starfire and Power Girl who can hold books at better sales. Or, heck, a modern Tim Drake book, 'Red Robin,' would leave me less head-scratchy.

Even if it's good, sales/business wise, it is bonko to include during an attempt to save DC from the threat of low sales.

Most of DC's smaller, obscure characters have never sold all that well in the past. I don't expect Terry to be any different.