If the DCU was shrunk down to just 12 ongoing titles ...

[Timothy Hunter]

Justice League (published monthly with rotating artists every four issues)
(Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern John Stuart,) Written by Mark Millar and drawn by Frank Quitely, Jim Lee, and Art Adams

Batman (Published bimonthly)
Solo Batman title, will feature more of the super heroic aspects of the character and will heavily feature the Batman Family (Dick Grayson Nightwing, Flamebird Cassandra Cane, Tim Drake Owl Man, Kathy Kane Batwoman, Stephanie Brown, Selina Kyle Catwoman)
I'd have Joshua Williamson be the writer and Ethan Van Sciver on art duties

Batman Detective Comics (bimonthly)
This will be a Batman title that will for the majority of the part, be grounded in the real world, and will have heavy noir qualities, I'd have Brian Azzarello on writing duties and Sean Philips and Duncan Fegredo on art duties. Also there will be a 7 page backup feature anthology showcasing a member of the Bat-Family (The Batman supporting characters who will star in the Batman solo title, but also Renne Montoya The Question, Barbara Gorden Batgirl, Jean Paul Valley Azrael, Michael Lane Azrael, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Helena Bertinelli Huntress, Alfred, Commissioner Gorden will also be in the anthology)

Superman Action Comics (bimonthly)
Superman's premier title, will be very action and science fiction oriented, like something Jack Kirby would create, but would also celebrate the character's legacy and history. (Supporting characters include Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen who is reincarnated as one of the New Gods, Superboy Jon Kent, Kon El [I know he's currently dead in the comics, but whatever], Supergirl, Bepo the Supermonkey, Comet the Superhorse, Streak, the Supercat, and Krypto the Superdog. Like how Action Comics was originally, this Action Comics is also an anthology. I'd have Dave Gibbons on writing duties and Steve Rude on art duties. Features 20 pages of non Superman material, a recurring feature in the anthology is Doom Patrol (Young Animal iteration) but the other 10 pages features a one off story reinventing a character from the DC Universe.

Wonder Woman (Bimonthly)
Like Brian Azzarello's take on the character, this series will be heavily rooted in Greek Mythology, but also Roman, Egyptian, Christian and Hindu mythology. I'd have Peter David on writing duties and Phil Jiminez on art duties.

The Flash (Bimonthly)
This book will feature The Flash (Wally West) exploring the DC multiverse. I'd have Grant Morrison on writing duties and Sean Gordon Murphy mainly on art duties, although there will be a new artist for every earth featured. (Supporting characters should include Linda West, his kids whose names I forget, Barry Allen, Bart Allen, Nix Uotan)

Aquaman (Bimonthly)
Will be more comedic than previous runs on the character. written and drawn by Kyle Baker.

Adventures of the Green Lantern Corps Monthly
Ideally, it should be a fifty page anthology chronicling various members of the Green Lantern corps, each series ten pages. The following stories will be Hal Jorden by Kurt Busiek and Yanick Paquette, John Stewart by Joshua Dysart and Cliff Chiang, Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz by Sam Humphries and Ivan Reis, that Green Lantern that happens to be an alien horse by Jim Woodring, Jack T Chance by Pat Mills and Bryan Talbot.

Justice Society (Published monthly)
Good ol' JSA (Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, Wildcat, Zatanna, Black Canary (Dinah Lance), Green Arrow, Hawkman, and the original Crimson Avenger.) Written by Mark Waid and drawn by George Perez.

Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad. (Bimonthly)
I don't really care about this character but she sells like hotcakes. Written by Paul Dini with art by Amanda Conner and Jill Thompson.

The Titans (Bimonthly)
This will be a combination of the Rebirth Titans and Teen Titans teams. The team will include, Dick Grayson Nightwing, Barbara Gordon Batgirl, Cyborg, Beastboy, Aqualad, Red Arrow, Starfire, Donna Troy, Raven) Written by Tom King and art by Chris Burnham.

[SJNeal]

How DC Would Do it in the Real World:

Batman
Batman & Robin
Detective Gomics
Shadow of the Bat
Batman / Superman
Trinity
Batman / Flash
JLA
Harley Quinn
Nightwing
Batman & the Green Lantern Corps

Sad but true...

Choosing from what we already have (and maybe retooling a few), I'd want:

1. Superman
2. Action Comics
3. Justice League
4. Wonder Woman
5. Aquaman
6. Hal Jordan & The GLC
7. Titans
8. The Flash
9. Nightwing
10. Green Arrow
11. Batman
12. Detective Comics

[daBronzeBomma]

NAILED IT.

Only thing I'd add is rename Justice League to just League and make it anthologies of every league+jsa.

Thanks!

I knew there was a way to further tweak this. Ok, instead of Justice League, we get:

All-Star Comics, anthology, featuring Justice League, with 2 back-ups, one for Justice Society and one for Legion of Super-Heroes (premiere teams of today, yesterday and tomorrow in one book).

Showcase, anthology, 3 equal-time stories, strictly for characters who do not regularly appear elsewhere in the other 11 titles (i.e. Adam Strange, Challengers of the Unknown, Doom Patrol, Monitors, etc).

Kinda miffed I couldn't find an old Golden or even Silver Age DC title for the Green Lantern Corps to revive ...

[lucius121]

12 books - based on what sells and how DC operates.

1. Detective Comics
2. Batman
3. Nightwing
4. Redhood and the outsiders
5. Super sons
6. Dark Knight XIIII
7. Superman
8. Action Comics
9. The Flash
10. Wonder Woman
11. Harley Quinn and the suicide squad
12. Damien and the teen titans

[JBatmanFan05]

1. Batman
2. Superman
3. Action Comics (featuring members of Super-Family)
4. Detective Comics (featuring members of Bat-Family)
5. Wonder Woman
6. Aquaman
7. Flash
8. Green Lantern
9. Justice League (nobody with a solo book would be a regular cast member; main members would be Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Vixen, Firestorm (Jason/Ronnie), Captain Marvel, Zatanna, and Booster Gold)
10. Titans
11. Swamp Thing
12. History of the DC Universe (anthology series mainly focusing on the JSA and the Legion, plus stories from Anthro to Jonah Hex to Sgt Rock).

This is a good one: Some changes, some just changing the titles slightly:

1. Batman
2. Superman
3. Action Comics (featuring members of Super-Family)
4. Detective Comics (featuring members of Bat-Family)
5. Wonder Woman
6. Green Arrow (nixing Aquaman, sorry Aquaman)
7. The Flash
8. Green Lantern
9. Justice League of America (solo book characters would be allowed in this too, my twist)
10. Teen Titans
11. Captain Marvel (sorry Swamp Thing)
12. Showcase (anthology series mainly focusing on the JSA and the Legion, plus stories from Anthro to Jonah Hex to Sgt Rock and other characters who do not regularly appear elsewhere in the other 11 titles).

[Clairaudient Freedom Soldier]

Twelve (12) titles to make everyone happy ...

1. WONDER WOMEN Nubia and Cassie by W/A Sara Pichelli
2. TEAM FLASH Danica, Wally, and Tanaka Rei by W/A Elizabeth Torque
3. GREEN ARROWS Roy and Connor by W/A Emanuela Lupacchino
4. BATMEN Jean-Paul and Richard by W G Willow Wilson and A Clayton Henry
5. SUPERMEN Chris Kent and Lex by W Amy Wolfram and A Alan Davis
6. AQUA FAMILY Mera, Koryak, and Kaldur'ahm by W Marjorie Liu and A RB Silva
7. EARTH-13 LEAGUE OF SHADOWS by W R Remender and A S Gordon Murphy
8. YOUNG JUSTICE by W G Weisman and A F Manapul
9. GREEN LANTERNS Kyle and Jessica by W/A Nick Bradshaw
10. FORAGER by W/A Mike Allred
11. MARVEL FAMILY Mary, Freddie, and the Whiz by W/A Russell Dauterman
12. KAL-EL by W Gail Simone and A I Reis
* W = writer and A = artist

[KC]

1) Action Comics (starting the Superman family)
2) Superman
3) Detective Comics (Staring the Batman family)
4) Batman
5) Wonder Woman
6) Flash (Starring Barry Allen)
7) Green Lantern Corps
8) Aquaman
9) Teen Titans
10) Titans
11) Justice League
12) Showcase (A double length book that has two equal length stories about characters and concepts that couldn't fit into the 12 book structure like the JSA, Legion of Superheroes, Swamp Thing, Harley Quinn, Cyborg, the Suicide Squad etc)

[CRaymond]

I love the idea of genre anthologies.

1. Action Comics
2. Detective Comics
3. Sensation Comics
4. The League, superhero procedural
5. Mystery in Space, interstellar adventure
6. House of Secrets, horror
7. Young Justice, teen drama
8. More Fun Comics, comedy and humor
9. Flash, romance
10. DCU Showcase
11. Titans
12. Outsiders, villains

[Brian Adkins]

Action Comics-the Superman "family"

Aquaman

Batman

Deathstroke

Detective Comics-Batman "family" and others-Elongated Man,Detective Chimp,etc.

Green Arrow

Green Lantern

Harley Quinn & the Suicide Squad

Justice League

Teen Titans

The Flash

Wonder Woman

[dr-brainwave]

As a fan, i'm interested mainly in JSA related stuff but if i were a publisher i would do the following titles:

1- Action Comics
2- Detective Comics
3- Wonder Woman
4- Flash (Barry)
5- Green Lantern (Hal)
6- The power of Shazam (Captain Marvel and Black Adam)
7- JSA (the original JSA)
8- Justice League (satellite era lineup but focusing on the characters who do not have solo titles)
9- Teen Titans
10- Legion of Superheroes
11- Adventure Comics
12- The Brave and the Bold

[Incognito]

If I was thinking as a business instead of a fan then this is how I do it.

1) Superman (stories focusing on Superman; Lois Lane and Jon Kent as supporting characters)
2) Batman (stories focusing on Batman; The Bat-Family occasionally guest stars)
3) Wonder Woman (stories focusing on Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor as a occasional guest star and back up stories showing either Cassie, Donna or Artemis)
4) Aquaman (featuring Mera; Garth, Jackson, Lorena and Dolphin are recurring stars, and back up stories showing either Mera, Jackson or any character from the DC Universe)
5) Green Lantern Corps (ft. Hal, John, Guy, Kyle, Simon and Jessica, back up stories featuring space-themed characters showing either Lobo, The Omega Man, Hawkman, Adam Strange, Space Cabbie, Red Lantern Corps, Sinestro Corps or Saint Walker)
6) The Flash (One story focusing on Barry Allen and the other on Wally West I and other speedsters in a multiversal story)
7) Justice League (focusing on the Justice League and back up stories showing other heroes such as Shazam, Constantine, Vixen, The Atom, Swamp Thing, etc.)

8) Suicide Squad (focusing on the Suicide Squad; Back up stories showing other villains/anti-villians/anti-heroes such as Harley Quinn, Deathstroke, Gotham City Sirens, Katana, Red Hood, Deadshot, etc.)
9) Titans (Cyborg - still a member of the League, teams up with Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven - members of the Live-Action Titans Roster - back up stories featuring either Deathstroke or other young characters such as Blue Beetle, Ravager, Firestorm, Amethyst, Stargirl, etc.)
10) Green Arrow (ft. Black Canary as the deuteragonist; Emiko as the tritagonist, characters such as Roy Harper and John Diggle occasionally guest stars and a back up story featuring any member of the Arrow Family)

11) Action Comics - Super-Family Anthology (Four different stories: The first shows Superman, second shows Supergirl, the third shows the Legion of Superheroes and fourth is any member of the Super-Family - e.g. Superwoman, Superboy, Kon-El, Steel, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen & The New Gods)
12) Detective Comics - Bat-Family Anthology (Four different stories: The first shows Batman & Robin, second shows Batgirl, the third shows Nightwing and the fourth is any member of the Bat-Family - e.g. Batwoman, Catwoman, Red Robin, Lark, Bluebird, Orphan, Batwing, Red Hood, Spoiler)

Honourable Mentions:
Nightwing, Constantine, Brave and the Bold, Showcase, JLA, Shazam, Swamp Thing, Young Justice

[stephens2177]

1. Batman
2. Superman
3. Action Comics (featuring members of Super-Family)
4. Detective Comics (featuring members of Bat-Family)
5. Wonder Woman
6. Aquaman
7. Flash
8. Green Lantern
9. Justice League (nobody with a solo book would be a regular cast member; main members would be Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Vixen, Firestorm (Jason/Ronnie), Captain Marvel, Zatanna, and Booster Gold)
10. Titans
11. Suicide Squad
12. History of the DC Universe (anthology series mainly focusing on the JSA and the Legion, plus stories from Anthro to Jonah Hex to Sgt Rock).

[EmeraldGladiator]

1) Green Lantern (starring Hal Jordan)
2) Legion of Super Heroes
3) Justice Society of America (amalgamation of Roy Thomas' and Geoff John's versions)
4) Justice League of America the original big 7
5) Titans (New and Teen) with Cyborg returned and Wolfman history re-established
6) Batman
7) Superman
8) Flash
9) Green Lantern Corps
10) Wonder Woman
11) Detective Comics featuring the Batfamily like right now
12) DC Comics presents to allow tales of non A-list type characters to be written.

[phantom1592]

Tough Cuts needed here... For me it would be iconic and classic and a lot of people wouldn't be happy

1. Superman: Because Naturally!

2. Action Comics Weekly: I think Action comics is such a staple it has to stay in print... I remember a few of these weekly that had Blackhawk and Green Lantern in the old days, and I think that's what I would do here. This would be a good place for shorter stories with a bunch of lesser tier characters who got cut when things were whittled down. Firestorm, Atom, Blue Beetle... Characters with fan bases, but not enough to make the top 12. Run kind of like '52' was after infinite Crisis. That grabbed a lot of people's attention and introduced some new fans to characters like Animal Man and Booster Gold.

3. Batman: Again, because Naturally

4. Detective Comics. Another classic that should never go out of print. I think I would use this similar to Action with characters like Elongated Man, Tim Drake, The Question... J'onn Jonz the more detectivey side of DC. Power level is unimportant if the stories are more character and clue driven

5. Flash: Personally I would go with Barry, but I could equally see this being a Wally book

6. Green Lantern. Sorry guys, but I'm a Hal man all the way. The other lanterns would be around but Hal would have the book and he'd split his time between cosmic and earth adventures

7. Wonder Woman: I don't think it ever sells well... but I hate the idea of WW being out of print.

8. Brave and the Bold: I think this would be a team up book like they tried a while back. Maybe Batman + someone else... or maybe just two A/B listers in a short arc.

9. Legends of the DCU. Honestly, I loved this book in the 90's, and it satisifies my 'out of continuity' and 'silver age' itch. Stories that just don't fit in the modern stories but still 'classic' characters. Alex Ross' Justice would be the feel of it I think. I loved that world he had there. Classic characters in the Iconic costumes. I would also field it as people telling stories, so they may or may not actually be true, freeing up any continuity issues or power level issues. If you want Superman and his super dog hurling the moon out of orbit... This is the book for that.

10. Justice League of America: Original 7 or maybe Satellite lineup. If Wally got the Flash Book, then Barry absolutely gets the JL book.

11. Advemture Comics: A place for the Space heroes to hang out. Hawkman, Adam Strange, Various other Green Lanterns, Legion of Superheroes.

12. I'm not sure here... My first instinct is Birds of Prey or Teen Titans. Maybe Green Arrow, though he could really fit in with Green Lantern, Detective, or JLA... so he probably doesn't get his own book. Nightwing is a favorite that I can't find a place for. I'd love for a Classic JSA book... Maybe Supergirl? I'm not sure if despite her age she's consistent enough to get a book... Maybe a place for some Elseworld stories set on other random worlds... maybe that could tie in with Legends??

Twelve is hard...

I like the anthology books; Action, Detective, and Adventure because it gets a rounder cast of characters without wasting books on characters that are too new or too divisive. It also keeps the books focused on a theme. Mystery/street crime, Space opera heroics and then I guess 'traditional super-hero'. I'm not sure how well they'd fly,

[Stanlos]

Which crucial dozen titles would you choose to publish?

For me:

1. Action Comics starring Superman
2. Detective Comics starring Batman
3. Wonder Woman
4. The Flash
5. Green Lantern
6. Aquaman
7. Green Arrow & Black Canary
8. Shazam!
9. Justice League
10. Titans
11. Legion of Super-Heroes
12. Showcase

Hmmmmm.

The Trinity solos and Justice League are duh. After that:
Aquaman
Flash
Green Lantern Corp
Titans
JSA
The Marvel Family
Brave & the Bold
Legion of Superheros