Originally Posted by
Vakanai
First, I would slowly create a sort of "Ultimate Marvel" DC line to co-exist with the current line/universe. We'll start it off with some one shots and minis, maybe a few OGNs, to handle origin stories and such. Think Earth One, but minus the whole waiting for years for a new book thing. Then we start with a few titles, say New Batman, New Superman, New Wonder Woman in the first year of publication. Every year a few more books come on line. Everything is early career stuff. Year three of the universe we introduce a Justice League mini, and do a JL special every year after that, but no ongoing JL book until, well, read on...
There'll be rules for the new line. First no deaths of heroes/villains, ever, because that's stupid. You either take away someone's favorite characters forever with that approach, or you make death a revolving door. So no killing off named characters. No dead Alfreds. Second, no Crisis events, period. PERIOD! Third, keep families and legacies small. No way in hell should Batman have FOUR Robins/former-Robins, never mind three Batgirls/former-Batgirls. Lets say that every main/big superhero gets four superhero relatives in their families tops, and that's it. So Batman could have Nightwing, Oracle, Robin, and Batgirl and that's it. Or Red Hood, Red Robin, Batwoman, and Signal. Or Bluebird, Clownhunter, Spoiler, and Orphan. You get the point, four of those can exist in the new universe. Add to that one pet only - Ace the Bathound or Batcow for example. And every character can support no more than 3 ongoings, while their family members only get a book apiece, not counting team books. Also, the characters in this universe and the other ongoing universe can never cross over/meet.
Again, that new universe is slowly being built up year by year book by book while the main/current/old universe is ongoing. Kind of like 616/Ultimate, only with the old books slowly winding down. This is the plan - let it be known that the old universe will be retired, but have a plan. No epic Crisis event! Instead create a 10 year plan and have the best writers pitch stories that will end each character's run over time. Instead of an event and deaths galore, have DC Classic come to a natural, satisfying conclusion by giving the heroes happy endings. Batman finally makes serious headway in Gotham, the corruption in the GCPD is dealt with, Arkham becomes more than a revolving door - it actually gets good security and starts truly rehabilitating the crazies! Batman marries Catwoman, and wonder of wonders he actually wins his war on crime in Gotham City! Gotham no longer needs a Batman, so he retires! Something similar goes down for Nightwing/Red Hood/Robin/et al. Now take that general idea and apply it to every other hero and family. Over a ten year period they all get, more or less, happy endings, and DC Classic ends because there's just not enough trouble or problems left to shake things up. These characters are happy, and they're just no longer needed to put on the capes and tights.
So that's it, slowly build up New DC and slowly wrap up DC Classic over a decade. As books in one universe winds down and ends, books in the new spin up. And the last title to end happily in DC Classic is Justice League, and that's when New DC can start doing JL as an ongoing instead of a big yearly special. A new universe is made without rebooting the old, nobody is pissed over what happened to their favorite characters because they all got happy endings in the Classic Universe, and the new one was built up over time with an actual plan, has many characters in it but not the glut of family/legacy characters that are so many most go long stretches without appearing in a title. Okay, so not every fan will be happy, but I think this is the best plan considering, and it's what I'd do.