DC Tries Again with Batman Digital, free of New 52 Continuity with LOST’s Damon Lindelof

It looks more and more like The New 52 fell short in its efforts to win back alienated fans.  Failing to purging its universe Damian Wayne, “Batman Incorporated” and other residue from Grant Morrison and Paul Dini’s catastrophic mismanagement  did not send the right message.  Perhaps this announcement of yet another “New” Batman series that will be free of New 52 Continuity is an attempt to try again, but it is hard to imagine it being received with anything but a “Too Little Too Late” after all the sturm und drang of The New 52.

If it is a fix, the comic shops that have been all but decimated by DC’s Campaign of Suck will not see a bit of benefit, for Batman is not only 52-free, Dini-free, Morrison-free and Damien-Free, he’s paper-free, part of a new series of digital offerings

BATMAN digital, launching in June, will take place outside of DC Comics – The New 52 continuity and feature a series of stand-alone stories by various creators that chronicle different cases handled by The Dark Knight.  Confirmed creative teams include Damon Lindelof (Lost, Prometheus) and Jeff Lemire;    More »

Other confirmed creative teams include:

• Jonathan Larsen & JG Jones
• Tom Taylor & Nicola Scott
• Ales Kot & Ryan Sook
• B. Clay Moore & Ben Templesmith (who drew the cover attached to this article)
• Steve Niles & Trevor Hairsine
• Joe Harris & Jason Masters
• TJ Fixman & Christopher Mitten
• Jeff Parker & Gabriel Hardman
• Joshua Hale Fialkov & Phil Hester
• David Tischman & Chris Sprouse

Maybe it’s a good strategy.  A disenfranchised reader can buy Batman Digital without having to pass all the other still-polluted Batman comics that drove them away from the store in the first place, but it’s a long shot that they will care to reward all DC’s unrepentant behavior with even that small a purchase, and either way, the failing comic shops can expect not one shred of benefit if the lost readers are won back.