Trade Perspectives: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the DC Comics Relaunch

I've been reluctant to write about DC Comics's announcement of a "historic renumbering" of their superhero titles in part because the details seem to shift and grow so rapidly that any post might be immediately outdated (I started writing this, for example, when all we knew about was Justice League #1; I'm continuing amidst news of Savage Hawkman, Justice League International, and others; and just a second ago the news of the digital "combo packs"), and in part because I'm not quite sure what to think yet.

Again, I'm not sure what to think yet. I'm not sure anyone can be.

My worst-case scenario is that DC is going to reboot all of their titles back to the beginning. Superman fights an all-new Parasite for the first time; Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad save R. J. Brande's life and become the Legion of Super-Heroes; Green Lantern re-discovers the threat of Parallax. This becomes an opportunity for writers to basically tell the same stories over again with just slightly different trappings.

Other worst-case scenarios, solicited on Twitter: kanenwriter, that Superman might end up in a relationship with Wonder Woman; ElfGrove, that what emerges might be a less diverse DC Universe; SpeedsterSite, TheFlashReborn, Bullseye1984, and TomatoSurprise are concerned for the fate of the Flash family, Oracle, Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes, Question Renee Montoya, Batwoman Kate Kane, Batgirls Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain, and others. All perfectly valid fears.

My "ah-ha moment" about my own worst-case scenario was that my worst-case scenario was personal to me. Of course I'm concerned about a line-wide DC Comics reboot; I'm a big continuity fan. And so I took what little information DC has released about their post-Flashpoint plans and concocted a surety in my own head that the very worst thing I could think of (comics-wise) was absolutely going to happen -- and I even considered, momentarily, whether my own comics reading time was at an end.

But the bottom line is, I realized, that I just don't know whether DC is restarting their continuity or not. We don't really know a lot of anything. It sure seems that Firestorm and Hawkman and Green Arrow are all starting from scratch. Then again, Booster Gold and Guy Gardner in Justice League International look pretty much the same, and I'd be pretty surprised if Batman Inc. goes under, or Gates of Gotham doesn't lead to anything, or the Batwoman series never emerges. Let alone the sheer inexplicability of the forthcoming Chase collection if there's no more Cameron Chase, or a new edition of Batman: No Man's Land if "No Man's Land" never happened.

So this is my statement of waiting and seeing, in essence. Most certainly there will be more to discuss, even perhaps by the time this post sees light, and I'll be back on this topic with a more trade-waiting-centered post not too long from now too (along with your weekly business-as-usual dose of reviews and analysis). And I'm eager to hear your takes on all of this as DC's news unfolds -- your worst-case scenarios, your hopes and fears for the new DC Universe, and your own take on all the hoopla; please chime in below.

Fingers crossed, folks. Just imagine.

UPDATE: This morning, DC has released information on the Green Lantern family of titles that really seem like continuations of the previous books, plus Geoff Johns's statement to the Associated Press that "Green Lantern #1 picks up a few months later" from the previous issue of the book. So maybe my fears were indeed unfounded ...