DC Announces New Earth One Project

*Originally published on 12/10/09



DC has announced a new project called "Earth One". This will consist of two lines of stories that take place outside of current DC continuity. It seems like an attempt to redo what the All Star line tried to do, in creating a new line of comics and stories not muddled by decades of complex continuity. So far, only Batman and Superman titles have been announced, but if all goes well, it's likely that we'll see more. I know that was the idea with the All Star line, but I think it's a pretty safe bet that those projects are dead in the water.

The kink is that rather than be released in individual issues and then put to trade, these will be going straight to the graphic novel format. It will also be ongoing where as the All Star titles were limited to 12 issue runs (Batman never even finished, only making it to 10 before fading into obscurity).

Also unlike the All Star line, all of the "Earth One" titles will share continuity, making it much closer in tone to Marvel's Ultimate line. I don't remember who it was, but I remember some writer talking about comic continuity saying that each title should be it's own world, so while Green Lantern would appear in Flash, it wouldn't be the same Green Lantern that appears in Green Lantern. That was the case with All Star Batman and Robin. While Superman does appear there, it's pretty well established that it's not the same Superman seen in his own All Star title. While it is simpler in theory, and with DC acknowledging a multiverse, it's within the rules of the story, I think that would get more confusing as time went on.

I doubt any crossovers are going to happen anytime soon. Eventually, I'm sure they will but right now the focus is on telling the stories of the early days of the respective heroes and getting the titles and characters established.

Writing the Superman titles is J. Michael Stracynski of Babylon 5 and The Real Ghostbusters fame. The artwork will be done by Shane Davis. I haven't read much of his comic work, though many people praise him. The best I can do is praise the episodes of the aforementioned Real Ghostbusters that he wrote as they were quite excellent.

Fan favorite veteran writer Geoff Johns will be writing Batman: Earth One with Gary Frank, who worked with Johns during his run on Action Comics. As Geoff is familiar with, and has been shown to really understand, Superman, DC decided to change it up to allow him to write a character he hasn't worked with before. Given his track record, I'm really not worried about it. It'll be interesting to see his take on the characters.

While the origins of both characters have been well covered, both writers promise to bring something new to the table while maintaining respect to the character's iconic background. Given how well Geoff has done in recent years on the comics he's written, and how well much of Stracynski's work is well received, I'm not at all worried. Both put the characters and stories ahead of other superfluous distractions.

Sadly, there is no release date, though I imagine it will come out some time next year. I read somewhere (though i can't remember where) that there will be two releases a year. Between the fact that the crew is already working on the comics, the lack of release date, and the wide gap between releases, I really don't see any reason for delays.

Some worry that this marks the beginning of the end for comics, well the individual issues anyway. I know more and more readers are "trade-waiting" but I don't see comics dying down anytime soon. I like going into comic stores and hunting for issues. It's part of the fun. I do, however, support this venture and will definitely be picking these titles up. I like the idea of some stories going straight to trade, and I like the idea of some stories taking place outside the main continuity to appeal to new readers who don't want to spend time backtracking through Wikipedia to get the necessary background information.