What has me a little “eh…what?” is that DC is truly pulling out all the stops in terms of getting out the message here. The executive brass at DC, along with main editorial heads, are traveling the country and spending some major cabbage in support of the plan. This past week, they started by meeting with Diamond Comics Distributors (our monopoly distribution company for DC), and we waited and tensed for the other shoe to drop when they announced what must be some major news behind this expensive country-wide tour of theirs.

Nope, no other announcement. They are just that excited about the relaunch. The main thrust of the meeting was how much thought Jim Lee put into the color and thickness of Green Lantern’s shoulder pads, and I swear I am not exaggerating.

Nothing about digital, nothing about the impending collapse of the direct comics market after a May in which NO BOOK exceeded 100,000 copies distributed (which is the first time in history for that unfortunate milestone), nothing but a “Boy, you guys are gonna love what we do with Superman” 100% editorial material presentation.

I’d say I’m speechless, except I have a lot to say about it. I liken it to being on the Titanic, with the ship clearly sinking, and the Captain is letting us all know that the band is going to play some really fantastic music in the next set, so settle down and enjoy.

When comics retailers get together and chat honestly, there isn’t a person in the room who predicts that they’ll be selling more comics a year from now than they are today, and that overall continuing decline in circulation is the devil we are all hoping to overcome. Certainly, good comics are a piece of that puzzle, but that isn’t the only thing that’s broken. It shocks me that DC seems so blithely optimistic about a primarily editorial response to the languishing market.

If the comics are fantastic, we might see a nice uptick for September, followed by the inevitable cooling off as the books get a few issues along. The first 20% will be in danger of cancellation by the six month mark, the next 20-30% in danger as we get a year or so into it. And, after that, we’ll have a market that is publishing less books in May of 2012 than they did in May of 2011.

I’d love to be wrong, but I’m not.

Maybe that’s just the eternal optimist in me, but this seems like a pretty drastic step just to pull in some quick cash. History will judge how well this works out, and heaven help DC if this IS just a marketing gimmick, because there’s really no way to top things if they’re stupid enough to try such a thing again.

I’m pretty sure the case already went. DC is set to share the rights at some point in the near future. I’ll leave it to the legal eagles in the crowd to dish the details.

I see this as a Silver Age of the new technology. DC is going to make a charge at those who have embraced the new technology with this new launch of the characters, but appears to be leaving them just similar enough to the characters we all know and love so we’ll check in. It’s not a Jay Garrick dumped for Barry Allen Flash, but it is a refreshing of the brand.

JJ, you make a number of great points and raise a bunch of questions that I haven’t asked, but some that I have. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re going to get any answers any too quickly. At least not any answers that are not, “Wait and see.”

I’m intrigued by some titles, but with this relaunch I find myself more interested by creators than by characters, which has never been the real reason that I read these things. Sure, creators inform some of my decisions, but they are never the driver to my purchases.

It will certainly be interesting to review these columns and comments a mere ninety days from now, won’t it?

It’s still too early to know what’s really going on, but most of this is a reaction to the ongoing Siegel/Shuster case, and DC’s making sure to establish its own Superman, so they can continue on no matter how the case goes.

Sure, but I’m also excited as hell to be there on the ground floor of the “new” one. I plan to try all but about 8 of the new titles, and if the creative teams they have in place pan out I’ll probably end up reading about 50-75% more DCU on a monthly basis than I am now.