DC Comics is reportedly eyeballing the success of Marvel’s Ultimate Comics, with plans to launch its own similar publishing line.
With Ultimate Spider-Man cleaning up the sales chart, it was surely only a matter of time before someone else took a stab at the concept. Now, reports are coming in that DC Comics will be doing just that.
As reported by Bleeding Cool, DC is planning to launch a new line, Absolute Comics, which will serve a similar function to Marvel’s Ultimate Comics line.
The line is expected to be led by writer Scott Snyder, who notably steered the Batman books to critical acclaim during DC’s linewide reboot, ‘The New 52.’ While not confirmed by DC, speculation is Absolute Comics will spin out of this summer’s event, Absolute Power, which will be first previewed in an upcoming Free Comic Book Day release.
DC has made a few attempts at their own Ultimate line in the past, but with mixed to poor success. The All-Star Comics imprint resulted in the all-time classic ‘All-Star Superman,’ but it also gave readers the universally panned ‘All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder.’
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A later attempt produced a number of graphic novels under the ‘Earth One’ banner to mixed reception, although the consensus was mostly positive. ‘Earth One’ consisted of 13 graphic novels released between 2010 and 2021 that starred updated, edgier versions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Teen Titans, and Green Lantern.
Ultimately (no pun intended), DC just hasn’t had that much need for a proper Ultimate Comics-adjacent line. While Marvel needed the line to present an alternative to readers who were tepid about decades of continuity, DC’s own regular line refreshes and universe resets prevented it from becoming a problem in the first place. And while some of those reboots–like ‘Flashpoint’ and ‘New 52’–didn’t get the warmest reception from fans, others, like ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ and its ensuing reboot, have been heralded as the greatest stories of all time and led to boom periods for DC superheroes.
Absolute Power #1 by Mark Waid and Dan Mora releases July 2.
