USA Today confirms that DC is in fact relaunching everything at #1 in September, and Geoff Johns and Jim Lee are relaunching Justice League.
It looks like it’s a bit more than simply a coordinated jumping-on point like One Year Later or the post-Zero Hour #0 issues or a more thorough reboot. Jim Lee has “spearheaded the redesign of more than 50 costumes to make characters more identifiable and accessible to comic fans new and old,” and Dan Didio says, “This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today’s audience.”
Further details about individual series and characters will follow on The Source over the next week.
I guess the first rule of Flashpoint has been rescinded.
More importantly: DC will begin releasing comics digitally on the same day as the print editions go on sale.
As for what this means for the Flash franchise…I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but I’m beginning to suspect that one of my worst-case scenarios for Flashpoint is actually going to happen.
Update: Newsarama posts a letter DC sent to retailers about the revamps, including the following explanation:
We have taken great care in maintaining continuity where most important, but fans will see a new approach to our storytelling. Some of the characters will have new origins, while others will undergo minor changes. Our characters are always being updated; however, this is the first time all of our characters will be presented in a new way all at once.
More details will be announced over the next month, with full September solicitations on June 13.
Updates: CBR has a round up of what we know so far. USA Today has an interview with Geoff Johns, Jim Lee and Dan Didio. More breakdowns at Weekly Crisis, Comics Alliance. The Beat has a round-up of creator & retailer reactions.