This morning, DC announced a new crossover event sure to create headlines all over the comics world. Starting in September 2012, DC will publish “Justice Crisis,” a four month event, running through every DC book, with its main goal to bring back the old, pre-“Flashpoint” continuity in January 2013.
Co-publisher Dan DiDio had this to say on the matter: “We want our characters to be like a pair of cheap jeans – by the time you get comfortable with them, it’s time for new ones.”
“Our most successful year long event was “52,” so we thought people would just naturally assume that “the New 52” was going to be another year long experiment – I’m really trying to understand why people are so surprised by this,” said co-publisher Jim Lee.
“Justice Crisis,” written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Jim Lee, will focus on Pandora, the mysterious figure from “Flashpoint” #5 waging war on the Justice League, and the effects of the battle will be, basically, a re-set of the 1938-2011 continuity.
Geoff Johns said, “There have been clues from the beginning – the schizophrenic nature of Hal Jordan, having two totally different personalities depending on which book you’re reading, or the idea that Batman could have had four Robins in 5 years, or even the idea of cancelling two war books and then launching another – the reader had to know there was some method behind this madness.”
“I mean, c’mon guys, all those collars?” said Lee. “You’d think that’s a permanent design choice? I hope you’d respect me more than that.” It has also been announced that fill-in artist Cafu will be taking issue #2 from Lee, whose responsibilities as Co-Publisher will keep him from drawing all four issues.
Johns described his enthusiasm at getting to play around with two separate continuities, with real consequences felt in both. “I love continuity, so the only thing I’d love more than that is to have multiple, confusing continuities, competing for people’s space in their brains. When you see a character called ‘The Ray,” if you’re thinking of less than 3 people, we’ve failed.”
DiDio continued, “Look, my ten years at DC has taught me many things, but the primary one being that people want #1s, regardless of what is inside. They also have an inflated sense of numerical importance, so this way, we got to release over 60 #1s and now we get to go back to the old numbering and please the old timers – this is business 101, folks. We are also pleased to announce that Rob Liefeld will be drawing issue #3.”
One of the big pieces of the “New 52” continuity was the integration of WildStorm and Vertigo characters the main universe. Johns claims that “Hellblazer: Rebirth,” a new miniseries by himself and Ethan Van Sciver, will do for Vertigo what “Flashpoint” did for the DCU. DiDio added, “Our plans for the WildStorm universe are, pretty much, to put it on the backburner. No one really reads those, anyway. Sorry, Jim.”
At the end of the discussion, it was announced that Lee will be helped on issue #4 by Cliff Richardson.
Stay tuned to Multiversity for more throughout the day.
