…but that’s just Black Label! That’s what Black Label was meant to be! Creators doing their big prestige stories and if people enjoy ‘em enough then DC would canonize the stories. An “Ultimate DC” to me means a separate line of books that have a shared continuity and are set on the same Earth. This doesn’t sound like that, it sounds like another attempt at doing All-Star or Earth One where there’s no shared continuity and creators do their own thing. Which is fine but I don’t see why they’re making a new label for it if so.
For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/
You forgot Joker/Joker.
May have already been posted here and I missed but on his Word Balloon appearance a few weeks ago Mark Russell mentioned that he would like to do a Wonder Woman book with Mike Allred in the same vein as Superman: Space Age and Batman: Dark Age though nothing has been greenlit yet.
So, we have Black Label, Elseworlds and now this? I don't really get what they're trying to achieve here.
Eh, I think whether Black Label stuff is in continuity is very much a gray area, sometimes they are, sometimes they're not - and when they are it's typically a writer saying I consider this to be in continuity with my past work rather than DC firmly referring to those stories as canon.
On the other hand, maybe Snyder will finally write his Dick as Batman story he wanted.
Marketing. Keep in mind that readers that look at solicitations or talk about books on forums are in the vast minority, assuming the Bleeding Cool report is correct this sounds more in line with New Age of Heroes and whatnot, you see some books with big names and a banner on it and maybe you're tempted to pick up an additional book or two you otherwise wouldn't.
Sounds cool, but will the ABSOLUTE initiative be comprised of stand-alone series, continuity-wise (a la All Star) or a separate universe of stories that exist in the same continuity (a la Ultimate). If the former, then how is that not just a re-skinned Black Label?
Rich Johnston: The latter, but with more of a bleed through to the main.
https://twitter.com/richjohnston/sta...80971455602861
Hold that thought, seems like Absolute DC is just a new line of mainline comics. As in, no new universe or continuity.
Rich Johnston: It is its own continuity/new universe. Researching how much that will bleed through.
https://twitter.com/richjohnston/sta...86094172962870
Really don't know how to square that with this from the article...also by Rich:
Also rather than something separated from the main line like All-Star, the Ultimate Universe, or even Jim Shooter's New Universe back in the day, this will be something published in conjunction with the main line, part of a larger initiative that aims to spotlight DC's entire lineup
I do like the "part of a larger initiative that aims to spotlight DC's entire lineup." part. We'll see how far it will really go. If they give The Creeper a book we'll know they're serious.
That's my impression as well. Characters that aren't really doing much anyway, so test the waters with stories that may or may not end up in continuity depending on how well they're received.(which is kinda what happens anyway, but with this, it will officially exist in a "limbo" space of non-continuity until people decide if they like it or not and want to see more) Which is a fine way to do it, imo. It'll give creators an opportunity to maybe take characters in interesting new directions, but if it doesn't hit DC can say it was never canon anyway.
Obviously, the reason for it is that it's "new and exciting" which will provide a sales bump moreso than something marketed as Black Label, which I think to a lot of people means "stories that don't matter." Now we'll have "stories that might matter."