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DC To Release Zero Issues?

Another day, another massive DC Comics rumor.

It’s long been rumored that DC Comics planned to write some miniseries or one-shots meant to fill in the gaps between when Justice League #1 occurred five years ago and when the rest of the New 52 took off.

It now appears as though that plan has changed somewhat, as gossip site Bleeding Cool is reporting that the publisher will roll out #0 issues for all 52 of its ongoing monthly titles in September of next year, pushing the regularly-scheduled #13 issues off until October.

The article speculates the the #0 issues could be used to delve into the revised character histories of the new universe, as well as speculating on the prospect of some books seeing creative changes; we might go a step further, pointing out the earlier news about Ethan Van Sciver as a basis.

It would, after all, make perfect sense for the creator who drew Green Lantern: Rebirth to draw a Green Lantern #0 set in the past. At the same time, we speculated that The Fury of Firestorm may be in danger of cancellation following his departure. Many fans and critics have supposed that a “third wave” of New 52 titles might be timed to coincide with the end of The New 52′s first full year of storytelling, to accommodate the trade paperback market. Additionally, a theoretical zero issue seems like a great jumping-off point for a title featuring a new character, or one whose past in the new DC Universe has not yet been revealed at all.

So if this turns out to be true, and September sees a round of #0 issues for DC, expect a number of creative changes to accompany them and likely a handful of new books and cancellations of underperforming old ones.

The fact that ComiXology had a Zero Hour sale last weekend, dropping DC’s last round of #0 comics to onl 99 cents, along with other tie-ins and the main Dan Jurgens/Jerry Ordway miniseries, could go either way on this score. While it makes sense that such a sale might come up as an idea while DC is talking about doing another round of them, it equally seems plausible that discussion in the offices over preparing the full line of zero issues (for digital distribution) could have been misinterpreted by Bleeding Cool’s anonymous source.