At High Five! we’re usually more into goofing off than reporting industry news, but the DC news out of Baltimore is pretty awesome, so I’m going to chatter about it a bit.

From CBR’s article on the Diamond Retailer Summit in Baltimore:

DC Comics took the stage to wrap the event with VP of Sales and Marketing Bob Wayne quickly announcing that the publisher would take advantage of its “Blackest Night” skip month by resurrecting a slew of former DC titles which will pick back up at their previous numbering. Some of these comics will feature the original writers who were behind the titles back in the day like “Suicide Squad” #67 by John Ostrander and “Starman” #81 by James Robinson, while others will include new writers continuing the stories of classic characters. Those included “The Atom and Hawkman” #46 by Geoff Johns, “The Question” #37 by Greg Rucka, “Phantom Stranger” #42 by Peter Tomasi, “The Power of Shazam!” #48 by Eric Wallace, “Catwoman” #83 by Fabian Nicieza, and “Weird Western Tales” #71 by Dan DiDio.

What a great way to keep things interesting (read as: get our money) in a skip month! Still, I can’t help but wonder just how long these resurrected titles will stick around. The first relaunch issue sales will be decent, I’m sure, but I imagine a lot of these titles will have HUGE sales drops as they continue. That said – Hurray! Renee’s going to have her own book! I’m curious as to how this will affect the Detective Comics Question second feature. Perhaps we’ll end up with TWO Question & Batwoman-heavy books? Hopefully the relaunch succeeds, Renee’s book stays afloat and Kate gets to have her very own solo ongoing title when Bruce gets back from being dead (sort of) and wants Detective back.

So. Which relaunches one-shots are you guys jazzed for?

UPDATE: More clarification! Looks like commenter Kelson was right! These issues are just going to be one shots! Kind of a bummer, but makes WAY more sense. Now, to decide which ones to pick up…

Wayne also announced that DC would release a book to be sold on December 30th: “Blackest Night” #6. Since the comic would have to ship a week before its on-sale date, Wayne told the retailers that threaten future opportunities like this with death if anyone breaks the set street date for the highly-anticipated book.

I honestly think they’re just testing everyone. If I were a retailer, I’d be a terrified. Odds are that someone, somewhere is going to leak the book. Comics fans are on the whole a pretty loyal lot, but with an event this huge? Yipes.

Even with the risk of a leak, this is wonderful for retailers. Blackest Night will bring the regulars in during a week that they’d normally stay at home, and we’ll all be swimming with Christmas cash. Way to support the direct market!