On the very day that DC let fly news of its plans, come Aug. 31st, to relaunch its main superhero line in the form of 52 first issues — and, not so incidentally, move to digital release simultaneous with print — my interest was piqued by my friend Stefan’s invitation to pitch creative teams for any or all of the titles.
It was purely a fan exercise, to be clear. Stefan Blitz, of the Rhode Island Blitzes, is
a pal from our days working together at the fabled Philadelphia comics shop Fat Jack’s Comicrypt and unlike at least three other friends I made during that time has not gone on to work for DC Comics. No-one had yet heard, 25 days ago, what these 52 titles were or what the state of the DC Universe would be. Stefan, in his capacity as editor-in-chief of Forces of Geek, was just asking a small circle of folks to brainstorm on a lark; then he’d post a slate of the most intriguing combinations. By the time he told me that he’d canned the endeavor I’d already put together an entire roster of 52 series within the framework of a targeted continuity reboot.
Yeah, I know.
I found it freeing to undertake such an exercise as merely another longtime comics reader again, following a decade or more during which I tended to beg off this sort of thing lest it reflect inappropriately on my journalistic efforts. Given that I’m still largely outside the comics scene these days, after many years away entirely, I was frankly surprised at how totally I got into it. While the superhero genre was my first love in the comics realm and DC my deepest, longest-standing preference in that genre, I don’t have much connection to what the company’s putting out today; I suppose that an exercise like this takes advantage of exactly that fact, even though my lack of enthusiasm for the actual relaunch when news broke had me wondering if I really,
truly might have more-or-less outgrown caring about this stuff entirely (with sincere apologies to how that could read to those adult persons who care about this stuff fiercely; there are indeed a variety of good reasons to care).
My thoughts on what DC is in fact doing both logistically and creatively are the
purview of another post. Should circumstances allow there will be yet another dispatch on my ambivalence over the current marketplace, fandom, and my place in it all after that. Now I’m letting the geek flag fly unfettered, however, as I unveil the delusional chimera of 52 rebooted DC titles I came up with in the couple of days following Stefan’s prompt, fleshed out over several days more as I researched what the writers and artists whose work I followed before my forced hiatus from comics have been up to lately.
Since many of today’s buzziest creators are known to me more by reputation than
by experience, I’ve let myself reach back a bit, although I don’t want this to be an exercise in nostalgia. Per Stefan’s initial instructions, I tried to be mindful of such situations as the extreme unlikelihood that Alan Moore would be coming aboard while ignoring actual exclusivity contracts or what the lack of any particular participant’s previous association with DC might suggest in terms of their interest. This may not be a hoax, but in addition to a dream it is certainly something of an imaginary story — as, Moore once reminded us so poignantly, are they all.
We’ll start anon, technology willing.
Intro | DCU Part 1 | DCU Part 2 | Multiverse | DCU Part 3
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