I still have loads of questions about DC's Relaunch, but for now, with what cursory information we have, which books do I think I'll be checking out?
[+]=Seems better than current version, [-]=Seems worse than current version, [±]=No loss or gain, about the same, [N]=New, no equivalent
Actually excited
-Action Comics by Morrison & Morales (I will read anything by Morrison, but even better if this is pre-Jim Lee redesign) [+]
-Animal Man by Lemire & Foreman (loyalty to both character and writer, though I *am* afraid it'll be too much horror to too little superheroics) [N]
-Aquaman by Johns & Reis (character loyalty, but Johns has been good at restarting classic characters) [N]
-Demon Knights by Cornell & Neves (Cornell on an unsual England-based comic? I'm there!) [N]
-Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE by Lemire & Ponticelli (been waiting for this since 7 Soldiers) [N]
-Resurrection Man by DnA & Dagnino (fun writers and an awesome concept) [N]
Sure, looks fairly solid
-All-Star Western by Palmiotti, Gray & Meridat (Hex is fine, but I'm mostly intrigued by the back-ups) [±]
-Batgirl by Simone & Syaf (I'll miss Steph, but have always liked Barbara and Gail Simone) [±]
-Batman by Snyder & Capullo (Snyder should keep this book on track, rescuing it from Tony Daniel) [+]
-Batman & Robin by Tomasi & Gleason (Tomasi did well on the book before) [±]
-Batwing by Winick & Oliver (I'm intrigued by the African location, but surely, this is a mini-series) [N]
-Batwoman by Williams III & Blackman (was going to get this before, still am) [N]
-Green Lantern by Johns & Mahnke (continues pretty much from the same point, though I admit to finding it tired of late) [±]
-Green Lantern Corps by Tomasi & Pasarin (same) [±]
-Fury of Firestorm by Simone, Van Sciver & Cinar (intrgued by the premise and Simone's at least partly writing it) [N]
-Justice League by Johns & Lee (Johns can make this work, even if I dread the redesigns, but the franchise was in trouble before anyway) [+]
-Justice League Dark by Milligan & Janin (I may be expecting too much if the rather ordinary Secret Seven is anything to go by) [N]
-Justice League International by Jurgens & Lopresti (Jurgens is solid, if not particularly exciting) [N]
-Legion Lost by Nicieza & Woods (replacing Adventure Comics with a strong and intriguing Legion premise) [+]
-Legion of Super-Heroes by Levitz & Portela (business as usual, which was fine) [±]
-Sgt. Rock and the Men of War by Brandon & Derenick (I really like the concept, though I don't know much about it) [N]
-Suicide Squad by Glass & Rudy (replaces Secret Six and I'll buy anything called Suicide Squad; the designs are weird and the writer an unknown quantity for me though) [-]
-Swamp Thing by Snyder & Paquette (I'm sure this team can do good work, just not confident about the new Swamp Thing's paradigm) [N]
-Wonder Woman by Azzarello & Chiang (lovely art and we'll see how Diana is written this time) [+]
Prepared to give it a shot
-Birds of Prey by Swierczynski & Saiz (that writer did ok with Iron Fist, but I'm not invested in any of the characters) [±]
-Blackhawks by Costa & Lashley (looks awfully generic) [N]
-Blue Beetle by Bedard & Guara (Bedard can do solid work, I'll at least look at it) [N]
-DC Universe Presents by Jenkins & Chang (I like Deadman, and anthologies change by their nature even if I didn't) [N]
-Detective Comics by Daniel (just a straight trade with Snyder - why bother?) [-]
-Flash by Manapul (the lack of actual writer on this makes me wary) [-]
-Green Lanterns: New Guardians by Bedard & Kirkham (how many Lantern titles are too many? Kyle deserves a shot, at least) [N]
-Mr. Terrific by Wallace & Robinson (I like super smart characters, but Wallace's credits fill me with dread) [N]
-Nightwing by Higgins & Barrows (I want to follow Grayson somewhere, but again, a lackluster creative team) [N]
-OMAC by DiDio & Giffen (an old favorite that should have excited me, but DiDio's involvement, and that it's really about the damn "modern" OMACs means I'm frowning instead) [N]
-Red Lanterns by Milligan & Benes (only Milligan makes me try it, as I hate Benes and am bored by Red Lanterns) [N]
-Savage Hawkman by Daniel & Tan (I want to see what they do with this broken character, but again, no writer to be seen) [N]
-Stormwatch by Cornell & Sepulveda (Cornell makes me try it, but I'm instinctively opposed to the Martian Manhunter in a former Wildstorm book) [N]
-Superboy by Lobdell & Silva (from Lemire off Johns' actually charming Smallville set-up, on to Lobdell and Superboy's a "deadly weapon"!!?) [-]
-Supergirl by Green, Johnson & Asrar (will depend on the writing, but I'm unenthusiastic with the write-up that makes Supergirl "dangerous") [±]
-Superman by Perez & Merino (at least Grounded will be over) [+]
Not interested, but I don't resent its existence
-Batman: The Dark Knight by Finch (proved remedial in every way and I won't be following it to another #1) [±]
-Captain Atom by Krul & Williams II (haven't been interested in the character since Bates/Broderick days, and Krul isn't the writer to bring me in) [N]
-Catwoman by Winick & March (wasn't reading Sirens either) [±]
-Green Arrow by Krul & Jurgens (better art, but same old writing... maybe the end of Brightest Day will help it [±]
-I, Vampire by Fialkov & Sorrentino (I've got vampire fatigue) [N]
-Static Shock by Rozum & McDaniel (never read a single issue of Static or seen the cartoon) [N]
-Voodoo by Marz & Basri (Wildstorm character + writer I dislike) [N]
Only in case of toilet paper shortage
-Deathstroke by Higgins & Bennett (a hated character with no purpose but to be a 90s anti-hero 20 years out of date) [±]
-Grifter by Edmonson & Cafu (no interest in Wildstorm characters, especially not gun-totting ones) [N]
-Hawk & Dove by Gates & Liefeld (I feel sorry for Sterling Gates) [N]
-Red Hood and The Outlaws by Lobdell & Rocafort (at least two characters I DETEST... reboots were made to wipe these away) [N]
-Teen Titans by Lobdell & Booth (oh, for God's sake) [-]
Stuff from the current line-up lost to Flushpoint
-Batman Inc. (back in 2012)
-Doom Patrol (canceled in preparation for the great Flushpoint, boo!)
-Freedom Fighters (not hugely surprising, though it hasn't paved the way for a new Earth-X series)
-Justice Society of America (an odd exclusion, since it was supporting 2 titles until recently, and Huntress and Power Girl seem to have disappeared from the DCU with it)
-REBELS (not translated into LEGION, but space is busy enough with all those Lanterns about)
-Outsiders (who cares?)
-Power Girl (will be missed)
-Red Robin (will be missed)
-Superman/Batman (as a mixed bag, but lately, mostly good)
-THUNDER Agents (affected? Is it even in the DCU?)
-Xombi (affected? Is it in the DCU?)
-Zatanna (a lot of people liked it)
And nowhere to be seen
-A new, viable Shazam! book
-The Atom, in any identity
-Wally West (replace with Bart Allen if Wally turns out to be the new Kid-Flash)
-Express use of the Multiverse - all books seem to occur on Earth-1
-Chris Roberson (picking up JMS' slack seems to have been a pretty thankless exercise, Hester's not anywhere either)
-Other creators who have done a lot of work for DC lately and were not invited back: Bryan Q. Miller, Paul Dini, James Robinson, Jerry Ordway, Nicola Scott, J. Calafiore, Marc Guggenheim, Pere Perez, Jock, ChrisCross, and many others (though of course, they may be working on later launches or mini-series)
[+]=Seems better than current version, [-]=Seems worse than current version, [±]=No loss or gain, about the same, [N]=New, no equivalent
Actually excited
-Action Comics by Morrison & Morales (I will read anything by Morrison, but even better if this is pre-Jim Lee redesign) [+]-Animal Man by Lemire & Foreman (loyalty to both character and writer, though I *am* afraid it'll be too much horror to too little superheroics) [N]
-Aquaman by Johns & Reis (character loyalty, but Johns has been good at restarting classic characters) [N]
-Demon Knights by Cornell & Neves (Cornell on an unsual England-based comic? I'm there!) [N]
-Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE by Lemire & Ponticelli (been waiting for this since 7 Soldiers) [N]
-Resurrection Man by DnA & Dagnino (fun writers and an awesome concept) [N]
Sure, looks fairly solid
-All-Star Western by Palmiotti, Gray & Meridat (Hex is fine, but I'm mostly intrigued by the back-ups) [±]-Batgirl by Simone & Syaf (I'll miss Steph, but have always liked Barbara and Gail Simone) [±]
-Batman by Snyder & Capullo (Snyder should keep this book on track, rescuing it from Tony Daniel) [+]
-Batman & Robin by Tomasi & Gleason (Tomasi did well on the book before) [±]
-Batwing by Winick & Oliver (I'm intrigued by the African location, but surely, this is a mini-series) [N]
-Batwoman by Williams III & Blackman (was going to get this before, still am) [N]
-Green Lantern by Johns & Mahnke (continues pretty much from the same point, though I admit to finding it tired of late) [±]
-Green Lantern Corps by Tomasi & Pasarin (same) [±]
-Fury of Firestorm by Simone, Van Sciver & Cinar (intrgued by the premise and Simone's at least partly writing it) [N]
-Justice League by Johns & Lee (Johns can make this work, even if I dread the redesigns, but the franchise was in trouble before anyway) [+]
-Justice League Dark by Milligan & Janin (I may be expecting too much if the rather ordinary Secret Seven is anything to go by) [N]
-Justice League International by Jurgens & Lopresti (Jurgens is solid, if not particularly exciting) [N]
-Legion Lost by Nicieza & Woods (replacing Adventure Comics with a strong and intriguing Legion premise) [+]
-Legion of Super-Heroes by Levitz & Portela (business as usual, which was fine) [±]
-Sgt. Rock and the Men of War by Brandon & Derenick (I really like the concept, though I don't know much about it) [N]
-Suicide Squad by Glass & Rudy (replaces Secret Six and I'll buy anything called Suicide Squad; the designs are weird and the writer an unknown quantity for me though) [-]
-Swamp Thing by Snyder & Paquette (I'm sure this team can do good work, just not confident about the new Swamp Thing's paradigm) [N]
-Wonder Woman by Azzarello & Chiang (lovely art and we'll see how Diana is written this time) [+]
Prepared to give it a shot
-Birds of Prey by Swierczynski & Saiz (that writer did ok with Iron Fist, but I'm not invested in any of the characters) [±]-Blackhawks by Costa & Lashley (looks awfully generic) [N]
-Blue Beetle by Bedard & Guara (Bedard can do solid work, I'll at least look at it) [N]
-DC Universe Presents by Jenkins & Chang (I like Deadman, and anthologies change by their nature even if I didn't) [N]
-Detective Comics by Daniel (just a straight trade with Snyder - why bother?) [-]
-Flash by Manapul (the lack of actual writer on this makes me wary) [-]
-Green Lanterns: New Guardians by Bedard & Kirkham (how many Lantern titles are too many? Kyle deserves a shot, at least) [N]
-Mr. Terrific by Wallace & Robinson (I like super smart characters, but Wallace's credits fill me with dread) [N]
-Nightwing by Higgins & Barrows (I want to follow Grayson somewhere, but again, a lackluster creative team) [N]
-OMAC by DiDio & Giffen (an old favorite that should have excited me, but DiDio's involvement, and that it's really about the damn "modern" OMACs means I'm frowning instead) [N]
-Red Lanterns by Milligan & Benes (only Milligan makes me try it, as I hate Benes and am bored by Red Lanterns) [N]
-Savage Hawkman by Daniel & Tan (I want to see what they do with this broken character, but again, no writer to be seen) [N]
-Stormwatch by Cornell & Sepulveda (Cornell makes me try it, but I'm instinctively opposed to the Martian Manhunter in a former Wildstorm book) [N]
-Superboy by Lobdell & Silva (from Lemire off Johns' actually charming Smallville set-up, on to Lobdell and Superboy's a "deadly weapon"!!?) [-]
-Supergirl by Green, Johnson & Asrar (will depend on the writing, but I'm unenthusiastic with the write-up that makes Supergirl "dangerous") [±]
-Superman by Perez & Merino (at least Grounded will be over) [+]
Not interested, but I don't resent its existence
-Batman: The Dark Knight by Finch (proved remedial in every way and I won't be following it to another #1) [±]
-Captain Atom by Krul & Williams II (haven't been interested in the character since Bates/Broderick days, and Krul isn't the writer to bring me in) [N]
-Catwoman by Winick & March (wasn't reading Sirens either) [±]
-Green Arrow by Krul & Jurgens (better art, but same old writing... maybe the end of Brightest Day will help it [±]
-I, Vampire by Fialkov & Sorrentino (I've got vampire fatigue) [N]
-Static Shock by Rozum & McDaniel (never read a single issue of Static or seen the cartoon) [N]
-Voodoo by Marz & Basri (Wildstorm character + writer I dislike) [N]
Only in case of toilet paper shortage
-Deathstroke by Higgins & Bennett (a hated character with no purpose but to be a 90s anti-hero 20 years out of date) [±]-Grifter by Edmonson & Cafu (no interest in Wildstorm characters, especially not gun-totting ones) [N]
-Hawk & Dove by Gates & Liefeld (I feel sorry for Sterling Gates) [N]
-Red Hood and The Outlaws by Lobdell & Rocafort (at least two characters I DETEST... reboots were made to wipe these away) [N]
-Teen Titans by Lobdell & Booth (oh, for God's sake) [-]
Stuff from the current line-up lost to Flushpoint
-Batman Inc. (back in 2012)
-Doom Patrol (canceled in preparation for the great Flushpoint, boo!)
-Freedom Fighters (not hugely surprising, though it hasn't paved the way for a new Earth-X series)
-Justice Society of America (an odd exclusion, since it was supporting 2 titles until recently, and Huntress and Power Girl seem to have disappeared from the DCU with it)
-REBELS (not translated into LEGION, but space is busy enough with all those Lanterns about)
-Outsiders (who cares?)
-Power Girl (will be missed)
-Red Robin (will be missed)
-Superman/Batman (as a mixed bag, but lately, mostly good)
-THUNDER Agents (affected? Is it even in the DCU?)
-Xombi (affected? Is it in the DCU?)
-Zatanna (a lot of people liked it)
And nowhere to be seen
-A new, viable Shazam! book
-The Atom, in any identity
-Wally West (replace with Bart Allen if Wally turns out to be the new Kid-Flash)
-Express use of the Multiverse - all books seem to occur on Earth-1
-Chris Roberson (picking up JMS' slack seems to have been a pretty thankless exercise, Hester's not anywhere either)
-Other creators who have done a lot of work for DC lately and were not invited back: Bryan Q. Miller, Paul Dini, James Robinson, Jerry Ordway, Nicola Scott, J. Calafiore, Marc Guggenheim, Pere Perez, Jock, ChrisCross, and many others (though of course, they may be working on later launches or mini-series)
Comments
And I like Supergirl's look from the waist up. Which is something.
Booty: "Jim Lee" is the only explanation I have.
I suppose I shouldn't be concerned until I see what current books are coming back in 2012. Jim Lee on costume redesign is worse than DiDio writing anything.
Incidentally, it and the rest of the Milestone titles were integrated into the DCU a while back, from what I gather. Xombi would have been a hoot to see intersect with Morrison-era Doom Patrol, or the recently reintegrated John Constantine.
It is weird, so many books that were selling OK, cancelled, and critically acclaimed creators nowhere to be seen. As you say, though, we only know about Month One, and then only a titchy bit. perhaps a few missing heroes will fill the seven so-far-unnannounced JLA places (how can there not be room for an Atom?).
We know there are plans for Batman Beyond to restart (and possibly a JLA Beyond book). The stories started in Weird Worlds continue in (?)My Greatest Adventure. I wouldn't be all that surprised if something like Xombi continued at its original numbering in October.
Is DC's strategy to make fans freak out, only to pacify them later? The "it's not as bad as I thought it would be" principle.
All New Atom
Birds of Prey
Blue Beetle
Booster Gold
Checkmate (ditto)
Doom Patrol
Flash/Flashpoint
Freedom Fighters
Green Lantern
Green Lantern Corps
Emerald Warriors
JLA
JSA (both titles)
LSH (both titles)
Power Girl
Secret Six
Shadowpact
Zatanna
...for a count of 20
Will read/try:
Animal Man
Blue Beetle
Resurrection Man
Flash
Green Lantern
Green Lantern Corps
GL: New Guardians
JLA
JLI
Legion Lost
LSH
Mr. Terrific
Stormwatch
Hawk & Dove
...for 14 titles.
Net loss of 6 titles, so the re-org is a failure from DC's perspective where I'm concerned.
Agree with a lot you said, especially re: Flash, my all-time favourite character (GL is #2). With Jay, Barry, Max, Bart, Wally, John Fox, Irey and others to choose from why only one book?