DC Comics has announced that their series of comics within the DC Universe, including Batman and Superman, will begin again with issue #1.
From a piece in the New York Times...
From one standpoint this move looks like a stunt or a last gasp for the comic book industry, which has been dealing with reader attrition thanks to event fatigue, insular story lines, higher prices and the immersive world of video games. In 2006 Civil War, a tremendously popular event story line involving all of Marvel Comics’ heroes, had first-issue sales of more than 350,000 copies. This year the first-issue sales of its latest event, Fear Itself, were estimated around 130,000. (Expect more such stunts from Marvel. Last week the company announced that in October its long-running Uncanny X-Men series will publish its last issue, No. 544, and while no restart has been indicated, it’s not difficult to imagine a “new beginning” somewhere around the corner.)
The move by DC also includes making the comics available for digital download on the same the day they arrive in stores. That is certainly no slam dunk for the publisher or the larger industry. “The main risk here is that if the digital delivery takes a big chunk out of comic book shop grosses, it could doom a lot of retail outlets,” Mark Evanier, a comic book historian, said in an e-mail exchange. DC needs those stores, he added, “to sell hardcover collections and action figures and other merchandise.”
And while this renumbering is meant to offer fans a point at which to jump on the ride, for some it may be a place to jump off. “A certain part of the readership is put off by the nonpermanence of their comics. They know that a dramatic change — the hero getting married or killed, say — will be undone before long,” Mr. Evanier wrote.
Grant Morrison talks about the reboot, here:
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