DC reveal the plan for their REBIRTH

After countless teases, the first details of this summer’s big DC Rebirth initiative have been revealed at the ComicsPRO event.

First up was the announcements that DC had acquired the writing talents of fan-favorite writers Tom King and Sam Humphries.

King, a former CIA counter terrorist agent, is no stranger to DC as he has been writing Grayson, Omega Men as well as Sheriff of Babylon for Vertigo. As a result of This, King, also the writer of Marvel’s ‘Vision’ series will leave that book with issue 12.

King had this to say about his signing: “To me, DC is Superman. DC is Batman. DC is Wonder Woman. DC is Swamp Thing, The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, All Star Superman, The New 52 and The Court of Owls.  DC is where the great comics get made. I’m honored and proud to be part of that tradition, and I’m going to do my best to deliver my best work ever. I can’t wait for people to see what’s coming.”

Sam Humphries, also a predominantly Marvel writer and who is currently working on Star-Lord and Weirdworld for the publisher also signed an exclusive contract but issued no comment. What books he will be working in and when he is to leave Marvel will be announced later.

Also signed to exclusive contracts to are artists Clay Mann and John Timms.  Mann has already been contributing interiors to the DC miniseries ‘Poison Ivy : Cycle of life and death’ while Timms has provided pencils for all of DC’s popular Harley Quinn books.

It was announced at DC’s presentation on Thursday that Rebirth will start with ‘DC Universe Rebirth, an 80-page one-shot to be released on May 25 and written by Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and drawn by past collaborators Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis, Gary Frank and Phil Jimenez.

All DC Comics titles will then be renumbered with new issue 1s except for Action Comics and Detective Comics which instead will be renumbered for where they would be by now if they had not been relaunched with the New 52, issues  #957 and #934 respectively.

There will be monthly books and those that ship twice monthly, however in a highly applauded move, DC announced that all books, regardless of their publication schedule, will be priced at $2.99. The line will consist initially of 32 total ongoings, 17 twice-monthly and 15 monthly titles. There will also be 23 ‘Rebirth’ one-shots ahead of the launch the new ongoings to help set the stage. Take a look –

June:

Rebirth Specials:

AQUAMAN REBIRTH #1
BATMAN REBIRTH #1
THE FLASH REBIRTH #1
GREEN ARROW REBIRTH #1
GREEN LANTERNS REBIRTH #1
SUPERMAN REBIRTH #1
TITANS REBIRTH #1
WONDER WOMAN REBIRTH #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):  

AQUAMAN #1
BATMAN #1
THE FLASH #1
GREEN ARROW #1
GREEN LANTERNS #1
SUPERMAN #1
WONDER WOMAN #1

New Issues (Shipping twice monthly): 

ACTION COMICS #957
DETECTIVE COMICS #934
July

Rebirth Specials:

BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY REBIRTH #1
HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS REBIRTH #1
THE HELLBLAZER REBIRTH #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE REBIRTH #1
NIGHTWING REBIRTH #1
RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS REBIRTH #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly): 

HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
NIGHTWING #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping monthly): 

 

BATGIRL #1
BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY #1
THE HELLBLAZER #1
RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS #1
THE SUPER-MAN #1
TITANS #1

Fall 

Rebirth Specials:

 

BATMAN BEYOND REBIRTH #1
BLUE BEETLE REBIRTH #1
CYBORG REBIRTH #1
DEATHSTROKE REBIRTH #1
EARTH 2 REBIRTH #1
SUICIDE SQUAD REBIRTH #1
SUPERGIRL REBIRTH #1
TEEN TITANS REBIRTH #1
TRINITY REBIRTH #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly): 

 

CYBORG #1
DEATHSTROKE #1
HARLEY QUINN #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #1
SUICIDE SQUAD #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping monthly): 

 

BATMAN BEYOND #1
BLUE BEETLE #1
EARTH 2 #1
GOTHAM ACADEMY: NEXT SEMESTER #1
SUPERGIRL #1
SUPERWOMAN #1
SUPER SONS #1
TEEN TITANS #1
TRINITY #1

No word on creative treats except that a special event revealing all talent and creative teams is scheduled to take place at WonderCon in Los Angeles on Saturday March 26. This press conference will be live-streamed on the DC Entertainment’s YouTube channel.

DC’s panel coincided with a manifesto video launched through Comic Book Resources which has Geoff Johns speaking about his spear-heading what he calls the company’s mission statement. In it, the writer stats it’s all about restoring “Legacy” to the DC Universe.

I myself was very critical of DC when the New52 was launched as the streamlining of the continuity took away exactly what made me fall in love with the DC universe so for me it’s hard not to get excited about everything Johns lays out here and his enthusiasm, history of working with these characters makes me very excited for DC’s future.