I know, I know, yet another article about the “new DCU”? But it’s clearly important nerdnews, and it will be for at least the next 10 years when DC reboots again.

Lots of folks are griping about how this makes the DCU untrustworthy: Why should we care about their “major events” if they’re just going to erase them all on a regular basis via a Crisis or a Flashpoint or what-have-you. I imagine that these are the same folks who didn’t like Spider-Man: Brand New Day for the same reason. But I submit that this isn’t really a bad thing.   The core information about the DC heroes will stay the same—the legends that we grew up with will essentially be updated or tweaked, leaving intact the Clark Kents and the Bruce Waynes, but reworking everything so that it is less ridiculous that Bruce Wayne has been fighting crime for over six decades but is still in his thirties.

What’s the alternative for a long-running publishing comic book company with beloved heroes?  Marvel chooses to ignore “real time” and instead keeps its characters at the same age in perpetuity, relatively, but puts them through “cycles” either in their own books (Cap gets shot, Bucky becomes Cap, now exit Bucky and reenter Steve, e.g.) or on a “universe” level (House of M, Dark Reign, etc.). That’s why Brand New Day was necessary: Peter Parker was getting too old and needed to revert, because age and personal developments narrow possibilities for a storyline that is in essence timeless.

So accept that this is just DC’s way of cycling back for the next generation of readers and, knowing that, let’s look at the whole thing on its merits.

Lots and lots of changes are being proposed—nearly the entire publishing line is changing. Here’s a cheat sheet to help you reconstruct your entire monthly pull list….After the break.

THE GREEN LANTERNS.

Thanks almost entirely to Geoff Johns, the GL books are some of DC’s most successful monthly sellers. So, it’s no surprise that Johns and the existing core team of corps creators will stay on past Flashpoint. If you liked what they were doing before, you’ll probably still like it. In fact, overall, the new DCU is Geoff’s world, and everyone else just seems to be living in it.  Four GL titles announced:

• Green Lantern by Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke.
• Green Lantern Corps by Peter Tomasi and Fernando Pasarin.
• Green Lantern: The New Guardians by Tony Bedard and Tyler Kirkham. The current GLC team move on to tell the story of some “new” Guardians of the Galaxy.  Unclear if they’re new to us, or if the old, big-headed dudes get killed in Flashpoint. I suspect it’s the former, not the latter. Honestly, I don’t know who wants to read this.
• Red Lanterns by Peter Milligan and Ed Benes. The wild card, with the potential to be very interesting or very, very stupid and short-lived. Kind of like Red Hulk. Or not (hopefully not).  I wonder why both Marvel and DC had a green guy and then branched out by making him red?  Nice cover, though.

THE BATVERSE.

I did a lengthy and extensive post about this a few days ago, so I won’t rehash it here. Suffice to say: Exit Grant Morrison (for a little while at least). Tears abound.

THE SUPERMANVERSE?

Enter Grant Morrison! (Or at least that’s the rumor.)

After a wholly disappointing trip to the moon and then another JMS start-then-abruptly-stop, we may actually see Superman books that matter again.  Note: There’s been no announcements as to whether Action or Superman will be renumbered at #1, or whether they’ll erase that ghastly Mon-El storyline. Odd, though, that DC hasn’t said anything official about the world’s first superhero yet.  If the Morrison rumor is true, they’re probably just saving the best for last.

THE ANTI-VERTIGO.

New “dark” books that look like Vertigo and smell like Vertigo, but are part of the grander DCU? This could be good—or it could lame-up the brightest star in DC’s publishing lineup. This is easily the publisher’s biggest gamble in the rebootification. DC has announced the following titles:

• Swamp Thing by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette. Fantastic team, with another former Marvel artist, Francesco Francavilla, doing some fill-ins. The art is gorgeous, from what I’ve seen.
• Animal Man by Jeff “Sweet Tooth” Lemire and Travel Foreman.
• Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE by Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli.  S.H.A.D.E. stands for Super Human Advanced Defense Executive. This has mad potential….To be stupid. Or visionary. Hey, I’m open to it. Jeff Lemire is one of the best new writers in the biz, and Ponticelli’s art is fantastic.
• Justice League Dark by Peter “Hellblazer” Milligan and Mikel Janin.  This is basically Ghostbusters, JLA style, featuring John Constantine, Deadman, Shade the Changing Man and Madame Xanadu. Kinda like every major Vertigo player that DC couldn’t figure out what to do with will be teamed up. Meh. I’m not really a magic/ghost story guy. Seems like DC is taking its edgy, interesting concepts here and kinda making them more bland.
• Demon Knights by Paul “Luthor stars in Action Comics!” Cornell and Diogenes Neves. The cover to issue #1 is extraordinary, but I can’t say I care to read a tale of yore in which Demon is fighting alongside King Arthur (it’s set in the Middle Ages). Perhaps I’ll pick this up in trade…I’m kinda halfway there with Paul Cornell.  I love his Action Comics work, but his acclaimed Captain Britain stuff left me cold.  Very, very cold.
• Resurrection Man by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Fernando Dagnino. Dude resurrects with new powers each time he dies. Oh my God! They killed Kenny!
• I, Vampire by Josh Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino.
• Voodoo by Ron Marz and Sami Basri.

THE REST OF THE DCU

NOTHING ON SHAZAM YET. No news on the Big Red Cheese.  Guess I’ll just re-read my old Jeff Smith run.  Great, fun comics.

ISSUE RENUMBERINGS (NEW #1s). Believe it or not, there are still people who buy comics just because they have the #1 on them. With 52 #1 issues all coming out in one month, these people will be homeless.  Here’s the ones we know about so far….Note: Waiting for trades on these is risky, because it’s unlikely DC will publish 52 trades in 6-8 months to follow the 52 #1s premiering in September.

• Justice League by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee starring Cyborg, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman.
• Aquaman by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis.
• Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang.
• The Flash by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato.
• The Fury of Firestorm by Ethan Van Sciver, Gail Simone and Yildiray Cinar. One of the few I’m actually considering buying in issue form, largely due to Simone’s involvement (but also because the fire-haired dude was a mainstay in my youth).
• The Savage Hawkman by Tony Daniel and Philip Tan.
• Green Arrow by J. T. Krul and Dan Jurgens.
• Justice League International by Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti.
• Mister Terrific” by Eric Wallace and Roger Robinson.
• Captain Atom by J. T. Krul and Freddie Williams II. The words “JT Krul” and “my pull list” shall never be in the same sentence. Except for that sentence I just wrote, of course.
• DC Universe Presents featuring Deadman by Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang.  More Deadman? Justice League Dark was already too much. Dude is a great supporting character, but other than the Neal Adams mini from long ago, he kinda sucks as a star.  I think Brightest Day proves that.
• Legion Lost by Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods. I’m mildly interested because it’s got the cool Legion heroes (Wildfire, Timberwolf and Dawnstar) and takes place in the now, not in the future. See, they’re “lost.” Get it?

• Legion of Superheroes by Paul Levitz and Francis Portela.  No major change here.  If you didn’t find Levitz’s style dated before, there’s no reason you won’t continue to like it post-Flashpoint.
• Teen Titans by Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth. Oooh! Yet another reboot!  This time with Wonder Girl, Red Robin (Tim Drake), Kid Flash . . . And Superboy got a tattoo (and what looks like a “kick me” sign taped to his back). Oh, and Red Robin seems to have become Falcon. And the team only hunts teenaged criminals. I’m not kidding.  This is getting a lot of attention because the cover is pretty cool, but give it ten issues and they’ll turn it over to someone else again.
• Static Shock #1 by John “Xombi” Rozum and Scott McDaniel.
• Hawk and Dove #1 by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld. Yes, that Rob Liefeld.

NO WORD ON WILDSTORM. The fate of the Wildstorm characters is still up in the air.

DIGITAL BOOKS. DC will release digitally, same day, same price. On the one hand, this is a slap in the face of the retailers who have supported DC since the beginning of DC. On the other hand, you can only read these “books” on the platform you buy ‘em on, so if the host goes out of business, your files are worthless. And unlike Apple, which clearly wasn’t going out of business when it sold you that Kaiser Chiefs album you listened to once and never again, the new digital platformers are emerging business: I have no confidence that the $2.99 I spend on Justice League #1 will enable me to read it next year, when DC reboots again and I want to reminisce, because I have no confidence that Comixology will be around then.