DC RELAUNCHING entire Universe in September

[thenammagazine]

 

[Kabukiman]

The website TOPLESS ROBOT's take on this:

The 5 years thing can't be right... Aside from all the ridiculousness outlined by Topless Robot, how can you say "Big ____ still happened" yet say Lois and Superman aren't married? When I think of "Big ____", I think of Supes and Lois getting married, I think of the Death of Superman, Knightfall, Emerald Twilight. Which of those still happened? There's no clear definition and it doesn't look like there will be.

 

[Agent0028]

I would rather have Batgirl than Batwoman. I didn't even know the character existed until I stumbled on her in a wikipedia article awhile back. From what I recall she doesn't even really have a connection to Batman, she just decided to copy him. At least Batgirl was sanctioned by Bruce and Huntress was original.

 

[amusedjester]

Topless Robot is right. You can't go re-boot and try to eat your cake, too. There's too much history, too many characters spawned by the main characters to have them exist and yet push back the age of your main characters. The only way to do it is to change the history of some of the younger characters. For example, maybe Nightwing wasn't mentored by Wayne or that he only had Grayson for a year and he was already mostly an adult. Then maybe it was Grayson that took in Jason Todd, resulting in that disaster, kinda like the Obi wan thing with Vader.

Like I said with Superman's costume. If you're going to re-boot, go all the way. Think it through and try to make sense of it. Don't do it half-axed and say that the rest is for later to be revealed.

But as I mentioned, too. I will give it a try. I've read DC my whole comic reading time to just give up without trying it. And I certainly hope that the people in charge are smart enough to surprise me.

 

[Jill Sandwitch]

For all the hate that Batman INC has got I'd say it did do one thing right it actually gave Bruce the right to strip the Bat name from people since he was the legal owner of them. Believe it or not him stripping ____ and Helena of the Robin and Batgirl names has long been a point of contempion for me as he had no right to do so. Honestly they both could have continued using those identifies and he couldn't have done a damn thing except piss and moan if he tried to force them they could have easily threatened to expose his identity if he tried anything.

 

[Agent0028]

It's funny because I've always thought of it the exact opposite. Batman owns anything Bat related and can damn well stop anyone he doesn't want to be a Bat from being a Bat. Yet, what you say is absolutely true, its not like he has any true ownership of it. Still the fact that Batman can, and does, strip people of titles like that shows the respect they have for him.

Personally I think Nightwing is a much cooler name than Robin. If I were ____ I would have happily made that switch. I wish I could have read the comics where ____ left Batman's side as Robin to become his own hero.

 

[Jill Sandwitch]

It's funny because I've always thought of it the exact opposite. Batman owns anything Bat related and can damn well stop anyone he doesn't want to be a Bat from being a Bat. Yet, what you say is absolutely true, its not like he has any true ownership of it. Still the fact that Batman can, and does, strip people of titles like that shows the respect they have for him.

Personally I think Nightwing is a much cooler name than Robin. If I were ____ I would have happily made that switch. I wish I could have read the comics where ____ left Batman's side as Robin to become his own hero.

The thing is I've always thought that Robin and Batgirl belonged to ____ and Barb as they created them in the first place hence why I think that if anyone has a right*albeit a small one* to say who can and cannot be Robin or Batgirl It's them.

I wouldn't have minded ____ taking the Robin identity and making it his own I saw a real badass looking adult Robin from an Alex Ross concept.

 

[sithlord13]

The more I hear about this reboot the more I sob .....

 

[The Mike]

More news:

The panel took place June 18th and consisted of Francis Manapul (The Flash), Jimmy Palmiotti (Jonah Hex), Gail Simone (Batgirl/Firestorm), Jeff Lemire (Frankenstein/Animal Man), Eddie Berganza (Executive Editor for DC) and Ben Abernathy (DC Digital Group Editor). The show kicked off with an intro from Berganza who revealed that brand new artwork and details would be revealed for the first time ever. Later on he poked fun at a fan comment mentioning the reboot as DC's 'new' Universe saying, "Don't call it the new universe…Somebody else did that," joked Berganza.

The Flash


Artist and writer Francis Manapul spoke in great detail about the upcoming Flash reboot, confirming the first story arc will explore the mind and essence of who Barry Allen is. A fan asked if the villain Gorilla Grodd would be coming back to which Manapul was about to answer but then paused to look over at Berganza and only reply with, "Maybe… I need to talk to Eddie about that this weekend. He's a cool villain. Drawing monkeys is fun."

One of the major changes to The Flash character is how he changes into his costume. Manapul expressed that he wanted a reason for there to be inseams on the character's costume. "I thought it would be kind of neat that the lightning, rather than sporadically go everywhere, it would travel along the lines of the inseams," said Manapul, who said the old transformation was past its prime. "As scientific as it was with fabricating air and expanding it….it's a little bit dated. So the new take on it, it's very much expanding on the sci-fi history of the character. So the ring pops off and gets big kind of like when Superman threw that thing. Little chunks of pieces come out which are the red parts of his costume and then it all forms on his body. So that's why there are inseams."

Firestorm


"The new Firestorm book is kind of pretty close in terms of the largeness and spectacle of those early Geoff Johns Green Lantern issues," said Gail Simone.

Writer Gail Simone mentioned that the two main characters Jason and Ronnie have no answers to what is going on with them, only questions. "It's like if you handed somebody the nuclear button to push for all countries around the world, what would you do with that? This story build and builds and builds to something extremely huge," said Simone.

She went on to say that she had been approached numerous times to write Firestorm but that she turned it down previously because at that time she hadn't a grasp on the characters, until now. "This book is about what binds us together as human beings but also what pulls us apart," she said, "It's not just a superhero book."

Bat-Girl


"There's no character closer to my heart than Barbara Gordon. Her new villains are just….ooooh," said Simone excitingly.

The writer went on to reveal a new villain called 'Mirror' and some panels of the character, who appears like a mysterious flasher shoving what appears to be a garden hose down an old man's throat. "He's really creepy and really cool," she said. Simone went on to tease the new Bat-Girl costume saying, "There's some things wired into her costume that is something that hasn't been done before, which is the reason why it looks the way it does," she said.


Jonah Hex

Writer Jimmy Palmiotti revealed story details on the first arc of Jonah Hex by unveiling Gotham City officials have hired the scarred cowboy to come in and solve a crimewave resulting in mass amounts of prostitutes winding up dead. The anti-hero ends up working with Dr. Amadeus Arkham to solve the mystery of the dead hookers. "It's kind of like a bizarro Sherlock Holmes," said Palmiotti.

"They really don't understand what they did by bringing Jonah into Gotham. It's like opening the doors of your house to a vampire. He's gonna come in and make it even messier," said Palmiotti.

Palmiotti also revealed that the rebooted Jonah Hex universe will expand it's storylines to include other Western characters aside from the title hero.


Frankenstein

Jeff Lemire will be taking over the writing duties on the character, in which he says was one of his dream jobs. "The book has become just the most absurd monster mash-up," said Lemire. He went on to reveal that Frankenstein's team will be a new version of the creature commandoes, consisting of Lady Frankenstein (The Bride), Griffith (The werewolf), Father Time and Velcoro. He's sort of the a**hole of the group, just really fun to write." said Lemire.

Animal Man

Lemire will also be spearheading the new relaunch of Animal Man which he is also extremely fond of. "I just have so much respect for this character. It's so fun to write a superhero book that's really much more about family and being a parent than it is about punching people," he said.

"(Animal Man) is really a horror book and Frankenstein, I don't really know what it is. (laughs) It's like Jack Kirby

 

[intothevoid]

The vast majority of these 50 some titles are destined to fail

 

[The Mike]

I saw a page from the internal pages of Batgirl and the new suit is hideous. It isn't AH! artwork on the cover but more idealized, she has huge guantlets with the traditional three spikes but they are twice the size of her arms. I can't find a spot that allows me to pull the pic but look it up...I'm still shaking my head.

 

[Kicksplode]

From Bleeding Cool:

 

[thenammagazine]

From Bleeding Cool:

Yuck.

Still wondering how they're gonna deal with her not being paralyzed.

 

[Serpentor]

Yuck.

Still wondering how they're gonna deal with her not being paralyzed.

There is speculation that it's the suit that allows her to walk, so she's still actually paralyzed just with the suit she can be Batgril which if true and all this other stuff is true its DC trying to have the cake and eat it to. Keep her paralyzed but let her be Batgirl again. And if that's the case I'd like to know why Barbara just suddenly says Screw you to Stephanie and Cass whom she has mentored both of them and says I'm Batgirl again.

If all that other stuff is true and the DC Universe is now 5 years old and everything major still happened DC is about to make comics even more confusing for new readers. I still don't know why they just didn't go full on reboot, go all the way or don't go at all. Everything else just seems lazy.

 

[Kicksplode]

Everything they've said so far makes it sound like she was still paralyzed in this new continuity and either got better or gets around it with the new suit. It's just a very weird situation, because the Batman and Green Lantern franchises seem to be acknowledging most of their old continuity while a lot of others are starting more or less fresh. I agree that they should have taken an all-or-nothing approach if they really wanted to overhaul continuity and reboot the universe.

 

[Kamandi]

Issue 1 of Batman Inc. had Barbara catching a glimpse of a design in the batcave of her in Batgear, so Bruce must have a plan to give her a robo-suit.

Unless that never happened, in which case I never said it or maybe I will say it but a year from now. Or perhaps I said it on Earth 2.

Is there still a multiverse? They'll need it to get out of this mess.

 

[Agent0028]

Was Batman paralyzed after Bane broke his back? It's been awhile since I read Knightfall and the TPB's completely cut out Bruce getting better again. Bane broke his back, he disappeared then pops up again completely fine. It was odd.

I think Barbara getting better makes more sense than a robo suit.

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

Was Batman paralyzed after Bane broke his back? It's been awhile since I read Knightfall and the TPB's completely cut out Bruce getting better again. Bane broke his back, he disappeared then pops up again completely fine. It was odd.

I think Barbara getting better makes more sense than a robo suit.

batman rehabed fo a long while. he went to lady shiva during knights end for training

 

[cr0w]

Issue 1 of Batman Inc. had Barbara catching a glimpse of a design in the batcave of her in Batgear, so Bruce must have a plan to give her a robo-suit.

Unless that never happened, in which case I never said it or maybe I will say it but a year from now. Or perhaps I said it on Earth 2.

Is there still a multiverse? They'll need it to get out of this mess.

That was her avatar in the "Internet 2.0" that Bruce had designed. It was basically what she would look like in cyberspace, similar to the Matrix as she did her thing in tracking down cyber-criminals or whatnot.

Now that I think about it, that very well may be where this book is headed. Not an actual crime-fighting book, but a virtual one.

 

[Kabukiman]

Was Batman paralyzed after Bane broke his back? It's been awhile since I read Knightfall and the TPB's completely cut out Bruce getting better again. Bane broke his back, he disappeared then pops up again completely fine. It was odd.

Between the second and third TPBs, there were two storylines: "Knightquest: The Search" and "Knightquest: The Crusade"

The Search is about Bruce running around the world in a wheel chair looking for his doctor and Robin's dad who were both kidnapped.

The Crusade is all about Jean-Paul and how he goes mad as Batman.

To my knowledge, neither of those arcs were collected as TBP's. The Search is a fairly cohesive story, if I recall correctly, while The Crusade has a couple "done in one" stories as well as mult-part stories.