There are a lot of reasons people love Starman, but I don’t think that I’m speaking out of turn when I say that one significant one is the Shade.Ī Golden Age Flash villain, in fact one of three that faced off with Jay Garick and Barry Allen in “Flash of Two Worlds”, The Shade was little more than a standard crook until James Robinson got a hold of him. James Robinson’s Starman is a rightly respected piece of comics history: a sprawling, airtight, creator-owned epic spanning an unheard of 80 issues. A touch of horror and a dash of alternate history set this title apart, and I have just the writer in mind for this one. While he’s never held his own ongoing series, the Shade brings something very different to the New Year’s 52. I’d love to hear your thoughts, on why I’m right, why I clearly screwed up, who should be illustrating the series, etc. Finally, while an actual relaunch might do well to include some new books, I limited myself to preexisting titles and IPs for this project. Second, I tried not to put a writer on the same book that they’ve already worked on, though some were moved to similar concepts or allowed to expand short work they’ve already done. First, as I don’t have the same knowledge of the creators’ availability and timeliness as an actual editor, I decided that I would allow myself access to any writer currently working in comics, but that I could only assign a creator to one book. As such, I made a couple of rules for myself. I also recognize that this is a dramatically simplified version of what DC actually has to do. I tried to consider the actual feasibility of these titles, not only in the sense of immediate sales but in their ability to expand DC’s brand long-term. These are the 52 books I would publish if DC’s offerings were up to me and, as my friends and I have had a good time discussing them, I thought I would share them with you.

In the course of talking to comic creators this year, I started to think about their unique talents and what I think they would be best suited to. Inspired by all kinds of wonderful ideas I’ve seen online and heard from creators, I’ve put together my New 52.

The shade james robinson