It’s not going to be hard for DC Comics to release 52 new number one issues in September when the company relaunches its entire superhero line. In fact, DC just released the first batch of number one titles that will be hitting the stands come Relaunch Day.
Justice League #1 – Geoff Johns and Jim Lee
Wonder Woman #1 – Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang
Aquaman #1 – Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis
The Flash #1 – Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato
The Flash knows he can’t be everywhere at once, but what happens when he faces an all-new villain who can?
The Fury of Firestorm #1 – Gail Simone and Ethan Van Sciver
Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond are two high school students, worlds apart – and now they’re drawn into a conspiracy of super science that bonds them forever in a way they can’t explain or control.
The Savage Hawkman #1 – Tony Daniel and Philip Tan
Carter Hall’s skill at deciphering lost languages has led him to a job with an archeologist who specializes in alien ruins – but will the doctor’s latest discovery spread an alien plague through New York City? No matter the personal cost, Carter Hall must don his cowl and wings and become the new, savage Hawkman to survive.
Green Arrow #1 – JT Krul and Dan Jurgens
Oliver Queen is an orphan who grew up to fight crime as the Green Arrow, a billionaire playboy who uses his fortune to become a superhero – able to fight the most powerful super-villains in the universe with nothing but a bow and arrow.
Justice League International #1 – Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti
Mister Terrific #1 – Eric Wallace and Roger Robinson
Captain Atom #1 – JT Krul and Freddie Williams II
Captain Atom has all the power in the world, but no hope of saving himself. Charged by nuclear energy, possessing vast molecular powers, he has the potential to be a god among men – a hero without limits. But the question is this: Will he lose himself in the process?
DC Universe Presents #1 – Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang
The anthology series gets a new look in DC Universe Presents, a new series that will focus on multi-issue story arcs each featuring a different superhero from the DC Universe’s rich cast of characters, told by some of comics’ most exciting writers and artitsts.
DC will no doubt release more information over the next couple of days. Stay tuned! For now, use the comment section below to voice your love/hate about these new titles.
72 Comments
Dammit. I want to read every single one of these. I gradually moving into the area of cautiously optimistic in regards to the reboot. However, I still reserve the right to be petrified that DC will manage to screw it all up. And that new Wonder Woman costume is not nearly as bad as I feared it would be.
Okay that Savage Hawkman cover looks just F-ing ugly. I was hoping for something along the lines of the Wednesday Comics Hawkman, but that. Ewww! No.
Captain Atom going all Doctor Manhattan, or out of that Superman 2 parter from Final Crisis, I will have to see where that goes, but maybe it will be some good.
Fury of Firestorm, the art looks off, Van Sciver has lost his appeal to me, and that cover does nothing to reverse that trend.
DCU Presents looks hopeful, and might generate some good stories. I like antholgies, they can’t really dovetail it into the next big event.
Smallville maybe done, but it looks like no one told Green Arrow. Haha! Well, can’t win them all.
You’re in luck! According to DC’s Blog & Yildiray Cinar’s deviantART.com page, Van Sciver is going to be co-writer with Gail Simone and Cinar will be doing the interiors, which is a much more appealing to me.
I like Van Sciver, but I think Cinar’s a way better fit for Firestorm. I think I’m more excited about that book than any of the others.
Gotta say, as a Marvel reader, this has got my interest piqued in buying some DC titles for a change.
The Savage Hawkman looks like a flying, Wolverine, Conan the Barbarian hybrid. Never read Hawkman (being a new reader and warned not to by the Major Spoiler Podcast) but with this reboot I’m ready to start. Anything Geoff Johns writes I’ll read and am a big fan of Ethan van Sciver’s art so I’ll check those out too.
I have always liked Hawkman. I am in.
So, no Power Girl on the JLI cover… what does this bode for the thrice plus universe survivor?
I just hope the Batman in JL and the one in JLI are 2 different ones. If both are Bruce…boring…
I believe it was announced that Batman, Inc. was sticking around… and looking at the costumes on both covers seems to indicate two different bat-men.
Dick Grayson and Donna in JLI and Bruce and Diana in JLA. HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!!
Mr. Terrific having his own book! That I like along with the art on the Aquaman cover.
And while I don’t like the title “Savage Hawkman” (gimmick infringement from Conan and Dragon) I do like the character going back to the antique weapons “kick your ass and make you eat your teeth” Carter Hall (who had an incredibly bad attitude long before anyone even heard of a guy named “Logan”.
Captain Atom as Doctor Manhattan…not so much.
Gotta wait until I hear more on the “new” Firestorm power set and background before I can make a call on that. Ditto on Wonder Woman.
Thankfully, these releases and the Flashpoint issue from this week have me feeling a bit more optimistic (albeit still guarded) in regards to the DCU move. I am most definitely interested in the direction that Grant Morrison takes Superman and (finally) a costume update for him after the other “Trinity” members have changed looks several times.
Now, once I find out the status of the JSA, Marvel Family, Batman, Inc. and Birds of Prey I’ll be even more interested. Hell, I’d even be interested in them keeping the Teen Titans around if they can get someone who can write. The current story arc in that title is awful.
Actually, Doctor Manhattan IS Captain Atom or that is who the Doctor was based upon.
I am looking foreward to Firestorm though. Always liked the character and the Rusch/ Raymond combo is more interesting to me than the Martin Stein .
Push. They look different.
So, if pantsing someone is the act of pulling their pants off, can we say that Wonder Woman was reverse – pants’d? :D
But seriously, looks interesting. Glad to see that with this new reboot they’re trying to give some back bench characters a new shake, maybe gain them some new readers.
I might pick up flash just for Francis Manapul’s art. Love his style, and definitely Firestorm just for Gail Simone’s writing.
And this is why I’m one of the few looking forward to digital comics! All of these so far look like they’re worth picking up (at least the first issue), and I’ll quickly run out of space if I have to find long boxes to hold all of this!
As for the JLI cover, I recognize everyone but the long-haired woman in the bottom left. Could that be DCnU’s version of Donna Troy? And looking at the utility belt on Batman, could that possibly be Dick Grayson?
Looks like Donna Troy to me.
Who was the guy with the fork?
August General In Iron from the Great Ten.
I’m curious about most of these, but I gotta say this.
What the hell did they do to Booster Gold’s costume? All the extra stripes just look bad. I think they should have just gave him the Smallville costume.
And speaking of Booster… any chance that he’s going to remember the current continuity?
who’s the dark haired woman on the JLI cover? zatana? wonder girl? any ideas?
also i really LIKED the jacket mr. t wore. i want one myself. it was always cool.
no costume changes to guy or deadman
hawkman is just too savage. he was a KING?
ww is still off. gold lasso with a silver costume? also white stars! just adds contrast. hmmm…..black booties. i think it’s more a yeah but not a yes yet.
firestorm is AWESOME. just a bit frightening and hard to see him in a team. where’s stein?
cap atom? well jury is still out………
The ones that look the most exciting to me are JLI (it’s so nice to see Donna Troy in an outfit with a collar again), Fury of Firestorm (Gail Simone can negate that messy cover through sheer power of awesomeness), and Flash (if only for Manapul’s gorgeous art). Wonder Woman would sound nice if I knew more than the (admittedly solid) creative team and if it wasn’t in that damned outfit. It’s not bad – it’s just so generic…
I am genuinely pleased & surprised that Mr. Terrifc is getting a title. Never saw that one coming.
That Hawkman cover, as well as that title, sound like they arrived about 18 years too late. Heck, I’m pretty sure that cover was originally of Wolverine & was just tweaked. Finally, I am dismayed & saddened that new Aquaman will not be taking cues from “Batman: Brave & the Bold”. THAT would bring in readers; have you heard how many people want that Aquaman to have his own title?
I’m interested in this. I will buy a lot of these #1 issues digitally and see what sticks. As someone who stopped reading comics from the big 2 because of all the continuity and cross-over confusion, I’m willing to give them a chance to hook me back in with new stories or retold stories that I can get into without having to do internet research (that’s a ridiculous expectation of a reader for any genre). If it’s just a sham/renumbering stunt, then they will once again stop getting my money.
Personally, I think the Wonder Woman title has some potential.
I’m rereading my Azzarello arc in Hellblazer and remembering all his awesomeness.
That could be enough to hook me in.
Well… shoot!
Now I’m excited.
Firestorm:
Excited by the prospect of Gail Simone on Firestorm. He’s an old fave character of mine. One question, though. When did Ronny Raymond’s version get eye makeup? Looks like they’re changing Rusch’s version too.
Savage Hawkman:
Ugh. That costume is early 90’s silly. If he scratches himself, it looks like he’d impale something.
JLI:
Not sure who the dark haired woman is (someone posited Zatanna, which makes sense) or the rock guy with the…bident? pitchfork?…but it looks like the old JLI is back together (with the addition of Vixen) which makes me happy.
Captain Atom:
As Larry pointed out, the short blurb makes it look like they’re trying to tie Cap back to Moore’s vision for him in Watchmen. In retrospect, I’m surprised it took someone so long to do that. Not sure where you can take that in continuity (assuming ANY of these are in continuity).
Also sort of excited by the prospect of these being digital. I’ll most likely try out one of them in that format (probably Firestorm).
The “rock guy with a pitchfork” is August General in Iron from China’s Great Ten.
A few look good enough to spike some interest, show me the Red Lantern ongoing series cover and I’m closer to joining the group.
Beware My Power!!!!!
Firestorm. “Diversity” only a white person could dream up and or love. Wasn’t the new F’storm a black guy? Why make two of them now and give them different costumes? Come on, DC. Please tell me you can do better than this.
Actually, since you’ve got three (yeah, I’m counting Mr. Terrific due to the sheer number of years between the original and him) black characters that were already in existence and were not recent “reboots” (Cyborg, Mr. Terrific, Vixen) then DC’s already got a jump on “diversity”. Jason Rusch has been the “physical” manifestation of the Firestorm matrix for a while but it looks like they’re going more for either Ronnie and Jason to have an independent Firestorm persona with the ability to combine into an “uber-Firestorm” or such. Just a guess.
And I think the rending of Green Arrow there is one of the best I’ve seen since Mike Grell.
4 Black characters, divided between 11 titles, only 1 of which is not sharing a team title with a white, European-Descended American character is barely scratching the surface of diversity. And no, Aquaman does not count, because for all intents and purposes he is a white guy.
Yeah. My point. It’s not like they say “OK, we’ll go with the Jason Firestorm. It’s natural. It works. We commit to writing this character. Inetad we get a “mirror image” idea with the two? It just sounds like something from 1976. What, will they make an action figure that you turn its head and it goes from one color to the other?
You make Barry Allen or Bruce Wayne a black guy for no other reason than you can and I will be impressed. Not throwing bones like this.
Sorry, I can’t see Mr. Terrific or Cyborg as “throwing bones”. They’re both characters with a great deal of potential that have gained a fan base “on the content of their character and not on the color of their skin”. Not only that but this is only 11 titles out of 52 relaunches so I don’t think those numbers will hold, especially based on DC’s efforts to broaden the fan base. Personally, I would have rather seen John Stewart in the JLA rather than Hal Jordan simply because the character and Guy Gardner usually meshed more with a team than Hal or Kyle.
Rather than “swap out” a character I’d personally rather see the development of established “diverse” characters or the creation of new characters or “legacy” characters of golden-age and silver age characters either “dead” or no longer in use. DC has the “Dakota” characters such as Static Shock, Steel, the “new” Aqualad (especially if they go the route of the character from the “Young Justice” series), Vox, Bumblebee, Crispus Allen (depending on the fate of The Specter in the current JLA arc), The Question, The Black Adam Family, etc. Given this “reset” there are several characters or groups that would be interesting to see with diverse characters, such as the Challengers of the Unknown, Atomic Knights, etc.
No offence but if DC wants real diversity (as in reflecting reality) they need more Latinos not more black people, they are more Latinos in the US then there are African-Americans.
@Ricco
None taken. You’re correct and I’d applaud more latinos being included, drafted as the legacy characters, etc. as TaZ has stated.
@TaZ
Your post is much better thought out than mine. You’re right on all fronts. I’d love to see a new Challengers with a great new cast. An ensemble cast like that is a perfect fit.
I didn’t mean to imply the already established characters like Mr. Terrific and Cy were the thrown bones. They already are good characters.
This new Firestorm on the other hand, looks and feels like a corporate marketing ploy, rather than a character.
And OMG. I just saw that. No John Stewart???
Agreed. While they do have Fire (Beatriz Da Costa), where is Jamie Reyes?
I don’t even really care about reality – it’s a superhero comic, so reality has already gone out the window. But I definitely see what you’re saying.
I’d like to see more diversity overall, not just adding of Latinos and Blacks to represent US populations, but more characters of not only various ethnicities, but of gender, sexual orientation, abledness, etc…
I think if there’s one diversity department DC gets credit for, it’s for the disabled department with Oracle, who is a great, fully realized character whose disability is an important aspect of her character, but not the ONLY aspect.
TaZ is right that DC has a bunch of these characters who may not be Batman or Superman, who could really benefit and gain a higher profile from this reboot pulling in new readers.
And now they’re undoing Oracle, so there goes that diversity….
I’d like to see more Latinas/os, Asians and Native Americans as well. And of course more LGBT characters–any chance we’ll get Mikaal and Tas as a real couple?
Any chance we’ll get Mikaal and Tas as a real couple?
Have they ever even MET? I’d say that Obsidian and Mik have at least interacted. I’m always as bothered by a random pairing of the only gay characters than as by the dearth of them.
Dol you think the Firestorm in the middle/background is a gestalt of the other two? Or does it have something to do with Deathstorm?
I’m waiting on a Marvel 616 –> Marvel Ultimate Nick Fury transition… I expect there will be at least one well-known character that does this.
As much as I like some of the covers, looks, and talent, I’m starting to seriously think “ENOUGH!”. Especially as this whole “Hey! Let’s restart the DCU! Again!” seems like it was a last-minute decision.
If the comments by the guy from Marvel are any indication, they’ve been planning this for a while–they clearly had to get all the current storylines to end in August, so that took a while to organize, and if we add how much earlier they would have had to plan Flashpoint to set this up, this certainly is not a last-minute decision (even if some of the changes in creative teams seems to suggest that plans aren’t set in stone yet).
But ARE they gonna end by or in August? Brightest Day’s aftermath seems to me like it’s supposed to go into Fall. Now stories CAN be ended early, and plans changed (Johns was supposed to have been doing a new Aquaman series coming out of Brightest Day, which seems to have been pushed back to this new launch, just as a for instance), but things like Morrison’s Batman being said to continue on in some way says, at least to me, that those in charge are picking and choosing what stays and what goes.
How many reboots/resets/whatever have we had since Identity Crisis? Superman: Birthright was a soft reset. Infinite Crisis brought back some of the multiverse and put the Waid/Kitson Legion reset into a different light. One Year Later was a pretty big shuffle. Then Countdown. Final Crisis had some big repercussions for the DCU.
Am I missing anything?
I like Wonder Woman with the black pants. Only She-Hulk can pull off wearing the bathing suit as a super hero costume.
Calling it now: JLI bottom left is Black Canary.
I think it’s supposed to be Donna Troy.
Dan Jurgens has confirmed it isn’t Donna.
Hmmmmm…..ok. The fact that it might be Dick Grayson as Batman in JLI has dropped my freakout level down 2 notches. BUT, I’m still reserving the right to crank it back up until I see what they do with Connor, Cassie, Bart, Tim, and the GL universe.
Also, Booster’s new digs look blah. Does Skeets get a redesign too?
Anyone catch the unfortunate placement of Green Lantern’s gattling gun construct?
I think this could be pretty promising, but I’d love more detail on what is being planned.
What’s going to happen to Damien? Booster & Rip? the New Batgirl? Is Babs still Oracle? etc.
SO many questions.
But ifbthey told you everything right now, opening your christmas presents on christmas morn wouldn’t be as fun.
Babs is going back to Batgirl….. hunh?????
Can Damian even exist since Bruce is his father and in this version of reality Bruce died as a child?
I’m not optimistic, but I’ll see. Mr. Terrific alternate reality or not should NOT have tattoos, to me he’s more of college professor type, not a technology based Luke Cage. A few years ago I would have liked to have seen a Geoff Johns helmed JLA run, now not so much. Also while still over 40 titles to be released what’s going to happen to people like Jaime Reyes or Cyclone?
Ugh, I was hoping they would ditch Mr. Terrific’s T-spheres. Those and the “invisible to technology” shtick always seemed silly to me. I like him better as a Batman type who gets by on brains, muscle, and the occasional gadget.
I’m intrigued by the Firestorm concept. Will be interesting how that plays out.
Hawkman looks ridiculous, as does Cyborg. They went overboard on those costumes IMO.
How or when did Aquaman get his hand back? Last time I read an Aquaman comic he’d just gotten his hand skeletonized by a bunch of piranas. Yes, It’s been that long. Color me disinterested. Aquaman always ranked down there, in my estimation, with Batroc the Leaper.
Got it back during Brightest Day. Lost it again during Brightest Day. Got it back AGAIN at the end of Brightest Day. Puts an all-new meaning to “give the character a hand”.
Is this still going to be 2.99? Cause if they are, I might have to pick me up some DC titles for a change.
Well I must commend DC so far from what I see. If they are going to do it then they have decided to go full ham on it. Just do it all and do it right. I am very interested now, but I will have to catch up with my shop since I have not been in over a year. I still will have to do trades though. You aint gonna burn me that much or that often no matter how much I love ham.
DC said today that it wasn’t a reboot… are we seeing the rest of “Earth One”?
Sweet baby Jesus. Again!? Well, I guess it’s time, after all it’s been what, ten whole minutes since the last universe-wide reality reboot. I’m tired of pretending I care. I say it’s spinach, and I say the Hell with it. Another year, and they’ll declare another big this-time-it’s for-real crossover event. Don’t worry about all those comics from the last reboot, they don’t count anymore. Unless they do.
JLI bottom right… I agree… Black Canary is my guess too.
Bottom Right or Left? Right is Vixen, with Ice at the direct bottom and who I think you meant on the Left looks more like Donna Troy.
Side note: Maybe it’s me, but I’m not convinced Jim Lee has all the answers in terms of redesign. Cyborg and Hawkman look a little overcooked. Mr. Terriffic and Firestorm(s) look off, too.
Aquaman, depending how they do him. Anything with Dick Grayson, Green Arrow, and JLI. I think those are the titles I’m getting from DC when this starts.
Meh
Looking at the sypnosis of the Hawkman book, that really sounds like the premise they have for the movie.
I also like the art on this book.
As a non-DC reader i will gladly give a lot of this titles a try
Since I have been collecting comics, this is the 3rd major change to the DC universe.
I think it is time for me to
rebootretconreset the number of titles on my DC pull list.It’s not Donna Troy or Black Canary. It was confirmed elsewhere that she wasn’t one of them. It can’t be Zatana as she’s in a martial arts move and not a magical stance. So who is she? Anyone else got an opinion?
Maybe it’s supposed to be Maya (Chandi Gupta), she was on the team back in the day and she manifests and bow and arrows so she doesn’t have to carry a physical weapon around. If she looked more asian I’d say maybe the female Dr. Light, again another ex-member of the team. Or it could be a total oddball choice like throwing Talia al Gul or switching someone’s gender and that’s a female alternative to a pre-existing male character. Totally redesigned outfit for “Black” Mary Marvel (or Isis or whatever her name was). Or I could just list any random female from the DCU and be just as likely: Gypsy (if you want a Detroit Leaguer), Huntress has the black hair, I dunno though, we’ll see when we see I suppose and it’ll probably all be obvious.
Could this character be from Wildstorm, Charlton or Milestone?
Maybe it’s Cassandra Cain, she rocked the black and yellow costume, but it is cowl-less.