Holy Reboot, Batman! And Superman! And Wonder Woman . . .

Well blimey - that was a bit of a fast news day wasn't it?

Typically I heard the news about DC's reboot just moments before I was heading off for the day with zero net access - but hey, I don't pretend to offer any up to the minute news here.

So, DC are to relaunch their titles in September with all new sparkly shiny #1's.

Chief among them is the new Justice League title written by Geoff Johns with art by Jim Lee. While the choice of writer comes as no real surprise (it's been rumoured for ages) the choice of artist is something that made me frown. Lee's stuff is good but he's notoriously slow - how many issues do you think will ship on time before it starts to slide?

A lot's being mentioned about the redesign of costumes as well although looking at the image on the left there's nothing there that isn't instantly recognisable. Superman's still got the S shield, Aquaman's still in gold scales and green, Batman's still got the bat symbol. It's noticeable that they all have the same collar style though - maybe they all went to the same tailor?



So what else do we have coming our way in September? According to CBR there's . . .

• A new title starring Superman written by Grant Morrison.
• No big surprise with the success he had with All-Star Superman
• Birds of Prey #1 - This new ongoing series will not feature the work of longtime "BoP" writer Gail Simone. In fact, many tried and true approaches to books will be getting a second look at DC in September.
• Hmm, wonder how Gail Simone feels about that.
• Teen Titans #1 - The new start for the teen team will be written by "Red Robin" scribe Fabian Nicieza.
• So will the current series get to #100?!
• Justice Society of America #1 - Only one of a number of current titles that will welcome a creative team shift, the future of the original superhero team will apparently not involve current writer Marc Guggenheim.
• Wasn't there a recent interview with Guggenheim who said he was planning years worth of stories on this title?
• Wonder Woman #1 - Don't expect the recent changes from writer J. Michael Straczynski to stick when the Amazing Amazon sees another new #1 hit.
• Here's hoping they'll do something worthwhile with the character.
• Green Lantern #1 - Even with a new #1, Green Lantern remains in Johns' hands, and readers can expect the effects of major crossovers like "Blackest Night" to stay in place moving forward.
• So even though it's a line-wide reboot, we can expect some things like the recent Blackest Night to still have happened? Seems kinda odd, not just wiping the slate clean.
• Hawkman #1 - While fans have known a "Hawkman" series by James Robinson has been in the works since the writer mentioned it on a panel at New York Comic Con, Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston has been reporting the rumor that the book will be drawn by "Batman & Robin" and "Outsiders" artist Philip Tan.
• Hawkman? Sign me up, even though Robinson's writing has been spotty of late.
• Aquaman #1 - No surprises here. The already announced series featuring the sea king by Johns and Ivan Reis will be part of the relaunch wave.
• "Relaunch wave" - see what they did there?

There's 52 series launching (shades of the DC Explosion?) which, according to Dan Didio:

"It's not just about straight superhero characters and stories. We're going to use war comics, we have stories set in mystery and horror, we've got Westerns."

which offers up the chance of some diversity in setting if nothing else.

Obviously more news will be coming out over the next few days but I have to wonder about the titles that I'm getting, particularly Secret Six, Power Girl and Zatanna - the last two in particular don't do great in sales and could be for the chop.

On the whole, I'm interested and intrigued by this.