DC Comics’ “New 52” campaign began at midnight with Justice League #1 by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. I sacrificed some sleep to get my hands on it (along with Flashpoint #5) and overall it’s a decent issue that is very new reader friendly. However, even as an infrequent DC reader I felt I already knew or had seen many of the relationships presented here and the issue spends a lot of time establishing some of the principals. KevinMLD and I will be assessing this first issue of not only the Justice League series, but DC’s New 52 and whatever form the new DC Universe may take.

Spoilers for the issue and some aspects of the new DC Universe will follow.

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So tonight’s the night. At midnight, DC Comics releases Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1 and the DC Universe as we’ve known it will be washed away to some currently unknown extent and replaced by 52 new titles; many with brand new continuity.

I don’t know what to think about all of this. I’m excited to see what DC has up its sleeves, but I’m sad to know some piece of this universe I’ve loved for twenty years can never really ever quite be the same again. I have a great deal of distrust for DC publisher Dan Didio and his personal tastes. I know they don’t align with mine. But I love the grand ambition behind all of this. This is a giant gamble and I dig that.

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It’s been a crazy few weeks for DC Comics fans with the reveal that the current series Flashpoint would lead to a complete relaunch of the entire DC Universe in September as the company will be releasing new first issues for fifty-two titles. Interestingly, DC has promised a reimagined DCU featuring in many cases younger, more modern takes on their classic characters and a more diverse line overall in terms of both the ethnicity of their characters and the genres of books they publish. A previous attempt to comment on this news when very little was really known about the relaunch resulted in what amounted to a nasty letter to comic fans about their phony outrage and their tendency to rush to judge was out-of-date before I had typed the last word. As a result, I’ve recruited PTB to help keep the discussion grounded and offer his perspective as a non-DC fan.
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Last week saw the conclusion to DC Comics’ Brightest Day maxi-series that spilled out of the wildly popular Blackest Night story. Blackest Night was the culmination of years of Green Lantern stories by writer Geoff Johns, while Brightest Day turned the spotlight to other DC mainstays like Aquaman, Hawkman, Maritan Manhunter and Firestorm. The story was driven entirely by the recently discovered White Lantern Battery that represents life and is the opposite of the zombie generating Black Lantern Battery that plagued the cosmos during Blackest Night. Brightest Day is the latest in a line of year long maxi-series from DC that unfortunately couldn’t stick the landing. After seeing the run cut from 26 issues to 24 and the unexpected reintroduction of the Swamp Thing in issue #23, a shaky ending shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

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The penultimate issue of DC’s year long series, Brightest Day, arrived in stores today preceded by a monster spoiler for the issue hitting the Internet last night. There’s no way to discuss this issue in any meaningful way without discussing that spoiler so be warned. We were kind of down on the series after seeing it cut from 26 to 24 issues with no satisfying resolution in sight. Issue #23 may have changed all that as it finally brought everything happening throughout the series together and unleashed some huge surprises. There’s plenty to talk about, but the question remains: after what amounted to a shaky flight, can Geoff Johns and crew stick the landing?

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