The DC Universe Relaunch At-A-Glance

DC Comics has nicely assembled a gallery of 49 of the 52 first issue covers for the titles that are relaunching in September (missing are three Green Lantern-related series, for some strange reason). They're in alphabetical order, and hovering your mouse over each reveals whatever bits of info the publisher has released so far. Quite a handy little site for comic geeks like me.

My current plan, which certainly may change between now and September, is to buy the first issue of each of the 52 series, although I may possibly omit a few that I'm fairly confident I'll have no interest in (e.g. Voodoo, Grifter, Hawk and Dove). However, any title that doesn't grab me right away probably won't get a subsequent $2.99 out of me in October or beyond. Based on the characters and creative teams involved, I'm inclined to break the 52 titles into the following groups:

No-Brainers / A-List

• Action Comics
• Aquaman
• Batwoman
• Green Lantern
• Justice League
• Superman

Likely Candidates / B-List

• Batgirl
• Batman
• Savage Hawkman
• Legion Lost
• Legion of Super-Heroes
• The Flash
• Wonder Woman
  

Possibles / C-List

• Animal Man
• Birds of Prey
• Resurrection Man
• Stormwatch
• Supergirl
• Swamp Thing

The Rest / D-List

• 33 other titles

So it should be interesting to see how my expectations match up with reality, once the comics start coming out and I get to read the actual product. I'm still considerably ambivalent about this direction, as I think it's an "all-in" gesture by a publisher that wasn't - in my opinion, anyway - in a position where it needed to take such a huge risk. I have a sinking feeling this will be considered a historically significant move on their part for all the wrong reasons, once the dust settles and we can look back on it with the advantage of hindsight and contextual perspective. But I hope DC prove me wrong.

[Update later that same day: Bleeding Cool has somehow gotten their hands on the September soliciations for DC - 3 days ahead of their release - and they certainly provide some interesting reading!]

[Update Jun 15/11: Comic Book Resources did a survey - which I took part in - asking fans to rate the 52 titles, based on what we know so far. The results are now posted!]