It’s the week before San Diego Comic Con, so things are getting…a little crazy. Let’s dig into a very busy week of comics news, as I explore ten things I liked or didn’t like from the week of comics in another edition of Comics Disassembled.

1. All-In! On Something!

This week featured an insane amount of news from DC Comics, all centered on one core idea: what’s next. That included details of its upcoming Absolute line, the overall All-In initiative it seems to be a part of, and what that entails, as the view of that started to take shape. My immediate reaction to it was perfectly encapsulated by a random person on Twitter who replied to a tweet from Scott Snyder about the topic and its complexity. Here’s what they said:

That’s what I felt I needed as I tried to determine the differences between the Absolute and regular DC universes. The publisher seems to be trying to do everything at once while having separate tracks of comics, and in a way that was a little hard to follow. It feels like the comic publisher equivalent of Golden State Warriors’ owner Joe Lacob gleefully telling people that the team was existing on two timelines, except everyone at DC has to hope that it goes better than that did.

The good news is, DC drafts better than the Warriors. This whole effort will be kicked off by a one-shot in October called DC All In Special #1 from co-writers Snyder and Joshua Williamson with artists Wes Craig (!!) and Daniel Sampere bringing the visuals to life. It has a long solicit, but the gist seems to be that this issue will lead to a Darkseid created new universe — the Absolute universe — where new comics featuring new versions of familiar characters will exist, while the regular DC line will keep going but with each of its titles having a new jumping on point. To understand all of that better, here’s what Snyder said in response to the person who asked him to explain the whole thing more simply:

“In the main universe, every continuing book will have a jumping on point. There will also be some new books! There will also be a brand new universe with new takes on the characters – more jumping on points! So every book, new & continuing will be a jumping on point for you.”

Got it?

This will result in a bevy of big books featuring a bevy of big names, and in both universes. The headliners are the first three Absolute titles, which are Absolute Batman from Snyder and artist Nick Dragotta, Absolute Superman from Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval, and Absolute Wonder Woman from Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman, all of which launch in October and November. There’s plenty more to follow. The list of creators that will be involved is a who’s who of typical DC heavy hitters and some from outside that space, including Al Ewing, Ram V, Nick Robles, and more.

Not to be outdone, the regular universe is getting some reinforcements as well. Dan Mora will join Joshua Williamson on Superman, Tom Taylor and Mikel Janin are taking over Detective Comics, Mark Waid and Clayton Henry are on Action Comics, Chris Condon and Montos are collaborating on Green Arrow, and more. It’s a lot, with even more creative teams staying the same as they were before.

This is a fascinating and massive piece of news, and there are two wildly different sides to it. One is the appeal of the actual comics and the creators involved. That’s at a very high level, as both are quite alluring and pretty hard to resist if you’re eager to read good comics. That it starts with a one-shot kicking the whole thing off with an ace like Wes Craig onboard tells me there’s a lot of thought going into the quality of this initiative. This will likely do quite well with shops and readers, just on its potential for quality and because of how much attention it will generate.

The flip side is this all seems needlessly complex, like the publisher is trying to do too much at once. Giving simultaneous jumping on points to two universes that may or may not connect in some way featuring a whole lot of big creators working on big characters is an interesting plan, but it’s also a lot to wrap your head around. More than that, it’s a lot to promote at once. After all, if everything is a focus, nothing is a focus. There’s a reason Marvel didn’t relaunch its Ultimate universe while its also relaunched the main 616 one. It would have been a mess!

That’s the weird thing about this Absolute/All-In business. It’s quite simple — great creators making great comics, theoretically! — while also being a bit of a jumble. As a reader, this is all interesting, but as an analyst of this kind of thing, it feels like like its roll out could limit its potential for success. Here’s hoping I’m wrong, because it should be a big hit if handled right. This should be a mixture of the ideas that made Ultimate Marvel and the New 52 a success. They just have to communicate that clearly.

2. Omnibus, Closing Up

In news that’s much more of a bummer but far more straightforward, Omnibus — the digital comic book store — is closing its doors after two years. The reasoning is pretty simple and understandable, as the platform’s leadership said on its own site, “We aren’t growing fast enough and would require a significant amount of external funding to proceed and become sustainable. This is a tough business to achieve that within the current landscape.” That’s a shame, but sometimes reality is just that.

That continues one of the strangest parts about comics in 2024, which is that digital — outside of the larger streaming service type platforms — just doesn’t seem to generate much interest from readership. Comixology/Amazon has been kneecapped, GlobalComix is a big unknown, Omnibus has closed, Marvel’s VeVe Comics partnership has seemingly went nowhere, and the landscape is certainly not in a place that’s incentivizing more investment or development. Maybe this just isn’t how readers want to read comics? I have no idea, but it’s a bummer to see Omnibus go, and to see how difficult digital has proven to be when it feels like it should both be the present and the future of comics.