This new initiative will be spearheaded by Scott Snyder's Absolute Batman.
DC Comics has been having a rough go of things lately. The publisher has been in the creative doldrums for a while now, with gimmicky reboots and uninspired legacy characters all falling flat at the feet of reader apathy. Some series, like Batman, remain consistent sellers, but they're nowhere near the level of sales that they have been in even the semi-recent past.
Across the street at the House of Ideas, however, Marvel has been tinkering with a reworked Ultimate line of comic books. Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman is the flagship book of the line, introducing a slightly older Peter Parker married to Mary Jane and the father of two children. Fans have been delighted and the line has been a seeming success for Marvel, with Ultimate Spider-Man apparently even outpacing the sales of the floundering Amazing Spider-Man series by Zeb Wells. It's from this Ultimate line that DC is basing its new Absolute publishing initiative on.
Absolute Batman is the headliner series and is expected to be helmed by Scott Snyder with Nick Dragotta on art. The rumor on the web is that attendees at this year's San Diego Comic-Con will be able to get their hands on an ashcan (black and white) preview comic showing off the Absolute line. There are even images floating around of Dragotta's reimagined take on Batman, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the hulking, foreboding figure that he was in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. Notably, Batman doesn't appear to have his signature cape in this iteration, instead wearing some kind of flight suit with flaps or pieces of cloth that extend from his arms.
That's not the only change to the character, as this Bruce Wayne is rumored to be a working class man with limited technology at his disposal. This would trend with DC's current fixation on eliminating Batman's wealth, as certain clusters of social media users have latched onto the idea that Bruce being wealthy is "problematic." Since the Absolute line isn't mainline continuity, this will allow DC to produce a version of Batman that's more in line with the mythical "modern audience" that so many media companies have been chasing for the past decade (to no avail).
Alongside Snyder, the rumored lineup of creators and books is as follows:
Absolute Superman (Jason Aaron)
Absolute Wonder Woman (Kelly Thompson)
Absolute Flash (Jeff Lemire)
Absolute Green Lantern (Al Ewing)
Absolute Martian Manhunter (Deniz Camp)
Artists like Wes Craig and Rafa Sandoval are among some of the names floating around as potential artistic collaborators, but it's unlcear who will be drawing what beyond Dragotta on Absolute Batman. The Absolute lineup is anticipated to be part of the DC multiverse and not completely separate, allowing for the possibility of crossovers and so on with the mainline DCU. Opinions will vary on how wise that is, but any such interplay between universes would likely be down the road after the Absolute series have had a chance to establish themselves.
This version of the DC pantheon is being described as a reimagining of the characters if they were conceptualized today, with the goal of asserting them as underdogs. This is in contrast with the usual take of DC heroes being more like gods. It's not the first time DC has tried its hand at an Ultimate-style universe, as the publisher has produced similar lines in years past with All Star Superman and All Star Batman in 2005, and the Earth One books that launched with Superman in 2010. It might initially seem futile to take a third swing at this concept, but as noted above, things aren't clicking for DC right now and this might be the shot of adrenaline the company so desperately needs to turn things around.
The full reveal is alleged to be coming tomorrow, July 17, but as this is all still percolating as rumor, take that and all of this with a grain of salt. One thing is for certain, if this doesn't work out for DC, it could be a sign of bigger problems to come.
Source: Bleeding Cool
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