What to Expect in the DC Relaunch

You may have heard that come September, DC is planning to relaunch its entire line of 52 titles and reset the numbering to #1. BleedingCool.com's been frantically keeping track of all the news as it emerges, such as Jim Lee working with a team of artists to contemporize costumes (roughly translating to Superman losing his red briefs and DC females wearing more practical outfits instead of the fetish gear most of them currently flaunt!).

Aside from these superficial changes, what does a relaunch of the entire DC line really mean?
I doubt the creatives think things have gotten so bad and DC is so far behind Marvel that the DC Universe actually needs completely rebooting. This would be particularly counter-productive given the continuing story-arcs and relative successes in books like Batman Incorporated and Green Lantern. So what's going on? DC co-publisher, Dan DiDio, told USA Today:

"If we can convince the people here we're doing something brand-new and fresh, we have a good chance to really get the people outside on board,"

It's a good objective to have and it's the same desire that spawned Marvel's Point One line. That's why I have high hopes for all DC is doing here. I expect they're sensibly not throwing out the baby with the bathwater but reinvigorating some tired or lesser-knwon characters, maybe doing something a little sensational to start a buzz, and creating jump-on points for new readers while maintaining some semblance of universal continuity. A complete reboot would just be boring wouldn't it? There are only so many times you can update and retell the origins of Superman et al before nobody cares any more (Superman Secret Origins feels like it only just happened!). But really, I wouldn't fuss that much - that's for the uber geeks and trolls to do.. and when they do, because let's face it, that's what they enjoy more than anything, we can rely on the old comics switcheroo to put things back on track if necessary. The problem is if the trolls defeat the purpose of the whole thing before it's even started. I'm sure I too have been guilty of it in the past but it strikes me as ironic that the vocal few comics "fans" are so conservative. Roll back to the early days of comics and these would probably have been the people campaigning against this "degenerate trash".

Come on, the DC relaunch might just be something to get excited about!