Announced yesterday:

BATMAN, THE DARK KNIGHT will relaunch in September with a new first issue. Same creative team as before: David Finch (writer/artist) and Jason Fabok (art). They have a few issues of the old series to crank out between now and the end of August.

Announced today:

Jeff Lemire will be writing two DCnU titles, both with a supernatural bent: Animal Man and Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. Travel Foreman is drawing Animal Man and the Alberto Ponticelli (Unknown Soldier) is drawing Frankenstein!

Yanick Paquette is the artist on the new Swamp Thing #1, written by Scott Snyder.

Incidentally, I cannot make heads or tails out of the DCnU (DC new Universe). I’ve been told a basic premise, but DC keeps on releasing solicits on books that seem to be continuing plot threads and themes from the old DCU that undermines this new premise: that this is a revised timeline, and we are five years into the new heroic age that started with the arrival of Superman and Batman (instead of about 10-15 years into it like the old DCU). I wrote in an earlier post about alienating older fans in order to appeal to new ones, but DC seems to be doing an unsatisfying and deeply confusing job of explaining what this is all about.

What’s obvious is that there’s time travel involved at the end of Flashpoint, and when things are supposed to return to the way they should be – something doesn’t go quite right and there’s a reset on some things but not others, making for a hodge-podge confusing new continuity that  hits the reboot button (not relaunch) on some characters such as Green Arrow, Firestorm, Batgirl, Flash, Hawkman, the Justice League — but not others, who just get a relaunch of a new #1 like the majority of the already popular Batman and Green Lantern lines.

As a person that buys only collected editions, I see some things I might pick up in 2012 when they are eventually collected. I don’t see anything here that will make me consider picking up any floppies or downloading any digital comics.

I still see this as being good and bad. Good in the sense that the numbers will go way up on some books – regretfully this seems to follow the Marvel lead of short term gains followed by free fall declines until the next event relaunch.  Retailers are in a terrible pickle next month when they need to decide what to order and in what quantities and it will only get worse when they must order the second and third issues without having seen any of the actual books. Return-ability is great, but you still need to outlay the cash and hope for sales or you are stuck waiting to get the credit back for the unsold merchandise.