10 Things To Know About DC Comics Zero Month

If you are a reader of DC Comic’s New 52 and you’ve been following along and slowly putting together which parts of previous comic book continuity still apply and which parts of have been thrown out (example: Batman still had 3 previous Robins, but now Bruce is younger, so how long they all worked with him is unknown), then you will be interested in “Zero Month”. When DC recently released their preview for the comics that would be coming out in September, they announced that all of the New 52 comics would be a #0 issue, that is, an origin issue.

In a couple of instances, new titles will be spun off of their #0 issue. In other cases, they’ve connected books to feature more details. I read through all the solicits for you and picked out what I thought was most interesting.

Here’s My “10 Things to Know About DC Comics #0 Month”

1. Four New Titles! Talon #0 will feature Calvin Rose, the only Talon to escape the Court of Owls. This ties into the current storyline running in the Batman Family comic books. It is written by Scott Snyder, who has been writing (very well!) the current volume of Batman books. I’m a fan of his, so I might be picking this one up. Phantom Stranger, Sword of Sorcery and Team 7 will also be new ongoing’s after their origin issues.

2. Shazam’s Origin! Justice League #0 will be the (former Captain Marvel) New Shazam’s origin story, as well as the origin of Pandora. She’s the purple hooded woman who ushered in the New 52 after Flashpoint.

3. Superman Begins! Action Comics #0 will be Grant Morrison’s story of Clark Kent’s early days in Metropolis.

4. Krypton’s Back Story! Superman #0 is the story of how Jor-El (Superman’s dad…the one who sent him to Earth as a baby in a rocket ship) learned of Krypton’s impending destruction. Both of those books are straying away from just retelling Superman’s origin for the 100th time (not really 100, but still).

5. Building Batman Inc! Batman Inc. #0 retells the story of how Batman recruited the major players for his “war” with Leviathan. I feel like we already read that…last year…in Batman Inc. Vol. 1. They must be planning on changing things if they feel they need to revisit that.

6. Batman Begins 52 Style! Batman #0 picks up with Bruce Wayne returning from his journeys and beginning his vigilante career. They’re going to reveal how he assembled his headquarters, his vehicles and his gadgets.

7. Bat-Geeks rejoice! Detective Comics #0 will be about young Bruce learning to master martial arts and introduce a villain.

8. Batman’s Origin! Batman: The Dark Knight #0 will be introducing us to the Wayne’s murderer, Joe Chill as Batman tries to figure out who murdered his parents.

9. Why is Jason Todd Alive Now?? Red Hood and the Outlaws #0 will be about how Jason Todd came back to life after being killed by the Joker. Hopefully we get something better than Superboy punching the walls of reality. Personally, I hope it is close to the Red Hood animated movie, it was a pretty well written story.

10. Cancelled Books! Okay, so the exclamation point isn’t needed here, but look on the bright side: If you are collecting Captain Atom, Resurrection Man or Voodoo, you will now have some extra month every month.

There, I did my job (I was a geek so you didn’t have to be) and sifted through over 52 solicits to bring you the good parts. Now do your part, tell me what you’re picking up from DC’s “Zero Month”. (If you want to look through the new previews yourself, head over to DC’s blog and find them)

[Edit 07/14/12]: I just found out that they are going to be collecting all the DC Issue Zero comics into one hardback book. You can pre order it here: DC Comics: The New 52 Zero (The New 52)