Ah, rumors! First it was that DC would be renaming and renumbering their whole line to reflect the alternate reality of Flashpoint. Then, when the 15 tie-in miniseries were announced, people started hoping the regular books would go on hiatus to keep them from emptying their wallets.

Now, rumor site Bleeding Cool reports that DC will cancel a number of their lower-selling titles in order to make room in their publishing slate.

On one hand, it’s sad to see some of these titles rumored to get the axe in favor of an unrelated set of miniseries. On the other, the titles listed haven’t exactly been setting the shelves on fire, as this analysis of DC’s December sales shows. Flashpoint may have simply been the last nail, or just a convenient time.

And let’s be honest — this is still at the rumor stage. We’ll know more when May solicitations hit this afternoon.

As a reminder, we’re keeping track of the Flashpoint creative teams as they’re announced or leaked.

This is pure speculation, but it’s an interesting one. Bleeding Cool reports that DC Comics’ upcoming Flashpoint event will rename and renumber DCU titles all across the line, much as Marvel’s Age of Apocalypse retitled all of their X-Men titles for the duration of that alternate reality story.

Basically, that DC will change their publishing lineup to reflect the changes that (presumably) the Reverse-Flash makes in DCU history.

If they do it right, I think this could be fun. It reminds me of DC One Million, in which every DCU title jumped forward to issue #1,000,000 and either told a story about a future version of the lead character/team, or told a story about the character in the future (to varying degrees of success). The Armageddon 2001 and Legends of the Dead Earth annuals were similar (though A2001, IMO, was a more successful event), or perhaps the two https://hyperborea.org/flash/tangent.html”>Tangent Comics events in which DC released nine books as if they were first issues of new series detailing an alternate universe.

I guess the best comparison for a DC reader would be the Amalgam comics that took over a month on the DC & Marvel publishing schedules during the Marvel vs. DC event and its sequels: comics like Speed Demon, or the Uncanny X-Patrol, or Doctor Strangefate. Each was treated as a first issue of an ongoing, often with references to previous series featuring the characters.

Keep in mind that this is still a rumor: DC might not be planning this at all, or they might be planning a few miniseries to run alongside the regular monthly books like they did with Blackest Night, or they might be planning a single month like the resurrected titles last year.