Flushpoint... Don't Call It a Reboot

That's what DC has started clarifying. Not a reboot, the launch of the new DC Universe. Ah. What does that mean?

On the surface, it seems to indicate that the DCU as we know it - let's call it the old DCU - will go on, but it just won't be the Earth we're exploring month-in, month-out in the comics. Now, they've been very clear about one thing from the start of Flashpoint: This is not a parallel world, it's the old DCU (i.e. its Earth-1) with a changed history. The actual "old DCU" isn't one another Earth, it's been completely transformed. Does Flashpoint end with that history restored, but we still jump our POV over to another Earth (the NEW DCU)? Does it end with history restored with inevitable changes (the soft reboot option, in which the old DCU becomes the new DCU)? Or does the Flashpoint universe survive and the old DCU lost forever?

Might certain characters "jump" from Flashpoint/post-Flashpoint to the new DCU? Guys like the Flash and Booster Gold might be able to (perhaps even leading a migration), keeping certain elements of the old DCU in the new DCU. New #1s don't mean all new characters with new origin stories, after all. It might also explain the Legion Lost series that's been announced. The Legion has been rebooted/re-imagined so many times, it's in danger of becoming non-viable. On the other hand, it's fairly well isolated from other books, so its continuity really doesn't need to be touched just because others books' have. What if the events of Flashpoint cause the Legion to be disconnected from their parent timeline, forcing them to search for a proper home in the multiverse. They could be "Lost" for the space of a mini-series.

Or what if the old DCU survives mostly intact? Could certain books be kept going in that continuity? DC launches the new DCU, but it hasn't announced the death of the old DCU. All #1s need not take place in the new DCU, especially if the multiverse is part of the plan (which we don't know, we only imagine the JSA could be shuffled to Earth-2, as supported by the absence of Power Girl and Huntress to date in the promo material). People who wonder how Johns could abandon his Green Lantern continuity (and the multi-colored Corps announcement could corroborate this), or Morrison his Batman Inc. so early in the game and after so much effort (on both their parts) to set those new paradigms up, could find their answer there. If this is what happens, those books could go on directly from their continuity, though with new #1s (or has anyone thought that past the "52 #1s event", the next month could have #whatever books that merely skipped a month). It's the kind of half-measure the Big Two are into.

Speaking of half-measures, I have to mention Jim Lee's involvement. Remember back in the 90s when Lee and other Image stalwarts were given the chance to redesign Marvel's iconic but low-selling properties behind their own dimensional partition? The Marvel Universe became a good-sellers club only (X-books, Spider-Man, Punisher, Ghost Rider) while the FF, the Avengers and their members were handed over to well-selling artists. It was one of comicdom's dumbest moves, but I'm sure it generated sales in the short term. So is the new DCU just such a scheme? Characters are redistributed across various Earths, including the new one with all the high collars, while others remain behind. Would there be an old DCU where Batman Inc. and the multi-colored Corps, perhaps even polluter-killer Swamp Thing, but no Superman or Wonder Woman. After all, doesn't it seem strange that there's a new Justice League, but also a Justice League International? These concepts don't seem to co-exist on a rebooted Earth. What if most of the Justice League members were shunted off to the new DCU, and JLI was asked to take their place in the old? Would make sense if not for the appearance of what looks like the same Batman on both teams. Or could that be Dick? (Are those the same gloves? It's not the same cowl.) Only one of the four announced Lantern books stars Hal Jordan, the two that expressly mention Guy, John and Kyle could be in the old DCU, with Hal shunted off with the other classic Justice League line-up.

And another likely architect of the new DCU will be Grant Morrison who re-engineered DC's Multiverse in various ways over the years. In keeping with that and his "everything happened" theory of comics, I wouldn't be surprised if the old DCU continued to exist in some form. I also think there wouldn't be as much furor about a reboot/reset/relaunch if it had happened at the end of Final Crisis. The event's very name created an expectation that wasn't fulfilled, very much an anti-climax. I guess they weren't ready...

Sick of this topic yet? So am I, but we just can't stop talking about it!