With the announcement that DC will, starting next year, publish a series of original graphic novels branded Welcome to Earth One, kicking off with Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, and Superman: Earth One by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis, I have a few questions for DC:

- Another origin story? Especially for Batman and Superman, who we revisit the origins of on a monthly basis, you have two distinct sections of thought, both negative. One is that their origins are so well retold that every single living being in existence already knows who Batman and Superman are, and we really just don’t need to hear it again. On the other hand, these are new continuities, free of decades of storytelling, so the creators are free to tweak the origins at will. Except…

There’s a reason Batman and Superman have their origins retold, ripped off, and copied ad nauseum: they’re iconic, and pretty much perfect origin stories. Simple, to the point, and easy to repeat in one sentence, you can’t really do better than the original. Does that mean Johns and Straczynski shouldn’t try? Sure, who knows, they could improve on perfection.

But I honestly doubt either of them are superhuman enough to completely wash Superman and Batman from their minds completely, and not in some way make either winky references, or sly, shocking changes that only matter to comic book fans – the audience this is, ostensibly, not for anyway. This isn’t a slam against the writers, by the way, it’s just the way of things. The more you try to get an idea out of your head, the more it sticks there. Example: maggots are gross. There, now try to stop thinking about maggots for the next five minutes. Checkmate, Zalben.

- Ongoing graphic novels? I’m emphasizing the ongoing part, which DC also emphasized, but didn’t elaborate on. This, if anything, gets more to the crux of my curiosity with this project, and what I don’t think has been satisfactorily answered. In fact, if anything, elaborating on this, and talking about the publishing plans would do far more to drum up interest from the mainstream than “Hey! We have people you’ve kind of heard of writing something you can find out literally anywhere!”

So what does that mean? They’ve announced Welcome to Earth One as an ongoing, but didn’t elaborate whether that means, come March, we’re going to see Aquaman: Earth One, then Snapper Carr: Earth One in April, and so on… Or if it means Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, who have trouble releasing a monthly, 20-24 page comic, are releasing a new graphic novel every month. I’d imagine not, but I’d also imagine DC wants Johns and Frank to release a second Batman book following up on the first. So when’s it coming out? How often?

- Page count? Similarly, at this point in the history of the phrase “graphic novel,” people sometimes use a 12 page mini-comic to mean “graphic novel.” So how long are these? Are they the slightly bigger than normal, double sized Batman Year 100 format? Or are they literally six issues long, collected into a trade? Or are they, as I suspect, Manga sized (meaning about 100-150 pages)?

- Printing Quality? This might seem like a small point, but tied into page count… Are these full color, glossy, trade quality books? Or again, as I’d like to suspect, are they more newsprinty, manga sized books? The reason I suspect this is because none of this was mentioned. Not to be all conspiracy minded, but mentioning the creative team and showing off some full color concept art is sweet, and will get curiosity and interest from comic book fans. However, you mention manga, and those same hardcore comic book fans will flip the f- out (for no good reason, but that’s an argument for another time).

However, what you do get are cheaply printed, easy to read books in a non-manga style, that still fit neater and nicer on book-store shelevs, with a bigger spine for reading the title.

- Price Point? This is going to be key for a lot of readers, including new readers, and is very much dependent on the previous two points. I can’t imagine a full color, glossy, original trade going for less than $15-$20, which will be a dealbreaker for a lot of readers. However, go with the manga style book (not art wise or writing wise, I’m just talking printing quality and shape), and you can easily price below $10, which is a much easier casual pick-up for… Well, everyone.

It all comes down to why DC is making these, and who they’re going to be selling them to. I hope… I really hope they’re doing this to reach out to a wider audience than just comic book fans. I hope its cheap, large, and comes out quarterly. And I hope they just steal the manga playbook and roll with it. And own it. Because DC, you may piss off the 50,000 people who read comic books, but you’re going to be reaching out to the same audience that bought over two and a half million copies of the latest volume of One Piece. And two and a half million? That’s more than 50,000.

This could change the comic book industry, forever, and for the better. But you can’t do it halfway, DC. Nut up, or… Well, you know the rest.

All pictures Via.