Over the weekend at WonderCon, DC announced that they are going to be throwing some big, juicy nostalgia bones to the audience this July and August in the form of Retro-Active.
Retro-Active brings classic writer and artist teams back together with Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Justice League of America to tell one more story in the style and manner of their original runs in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. As, writer Keith Giffen explained to CBR, "The way [DC Comics] put it was, look at your run back when you were doing Justice League International, find a moment there and tell an untold story. It’s one last blow-out. It’s one last hoorah for the characters.”
DC has announced all of the writers on each issue, but so far only two of the artists.
DC RETRO-ACTIVE – 1970s:
Superman by Martin Pasko
Wonder Woman by Dennis O’Neil
The Flash by Cary Bates
Justice League of America by Cary Bates
Green Lantern by Dennis O’Neil
Batman by Len Wein
DC RETRO-ACTIVE – 1980s:
Superman by Marv Wolfman
Wonder Woman by Roy Thomas
The Flash by William Messner-Loebs
Justice League of America by Gerry Conway
Green Lantern by Len Wein
Batman by Mike W. Barr
DC RETRO-ACTIVE – 1990s:
Superman by Louise Simonson & Jon Bogdanove
Wonder Woman by William Messner-Loebs
The Flash by Brian Augustyn
Justice League of America by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis & Kevin Maguire
Green Lantern by Ron Marz
Batman by Alan Grant
Each issue will cost $4.99 which gets you 26 pages of new story plus 20 pages of classic story.
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This is a pretty neat concept and if it works I’ll be glad to pay more of them.
Definitely excited for one more JLI story by Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire.
That’s a hefty price tag for nearly half a book of reprints. Did DC poach Marvel’s promotional department?
The price and reprints don’t thrill me, but I’ll probably pick up one or two of each of these decades. Neat idea!
I wasn’t reading when most of this was out. I can see long time and silver age fans totally digging this. I’ll probably pass on it.
i didn’t really read DC comics back in the 80s or 90s so i don’t have much nostaligia for these writers on these books. i’ll have to wait and see what the word on the street is and buy them on a case by case basis
@ActualButt There are four more pages of original material than you get in a normal book PLUS 20 pages of classic story. For $4.99 that’s not a bad deal at all.
So will the 80’s stories be Pre or Post Crisis?
OMG – the 70s deal is amazing. What an unexpected treat.
I’m Definitely picking up the 90s GL book by Marz.
AMAZING!
Pretty cool idea. I’ll flip through em. I’ll probably get the 90s one at least.
Norm Breyfogle mentioned on Facebook that he’d be doing one of these…I imagine the Alan Grant Batman 90’s book.
It would have been interesting to make the price point 5.99 (which is probably too expensive), but put two reprints in the issue. The issue before and directly after the new story.
The talent is top flight, to be sure, but who does this appeal to? Fanboys, exclusively? I’m ambivalent about this, because it seems like a ton of fun while being firmly in line with the Big Two’s policy of shaking extant fanboy readers by the ankles for the last few quarters in their pockets rather than come up with a new idea.
I just recently got into DC so not sure how many of those I will pick up but I love the idea and those logos are fantastic.
THIS is my kind of event!
I think the big question is who is drawing these books. If Neal Adams is drawing batman. Whew, if neal adams is drawing batman….
Not bad. I’m on.
Fingers crossed its Darryl Banks doing the Green Lantern 90’s issue with Ron Marz
And I just checks my calendar an July and August have 5 wednesdays. ITS A FIFTH WEEK EVENT!
Wow, many of these look really promising. I was in for all until $4.99. So much for holding that line! I’m sure I will pick up a few: Wonder Woman by Messner-Loebs, Justice League of America by Giffen and DeMatteis, Green Lantern by Marz. I loves me some Denny O’Neil too. I’ll alt least LOOK at all of them.
@ActualButt I thought the same thing!
@kennyg They were holding the line on a (now) standard sized 22 page comic book. These are double sized comics.
@g0ofgnewt
Good one!
Man, if they are breaking the “holding the line at $2.99” thing for something, you’d figure it would’ve been Spencer’s Jimmy Olsen or Detective.
@NawidA They’re not breaking the $2.99 pledge, these are double-sized comics.
Definitely on the JLA/Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire issue. If the 90s Batman one is Grant paired with Breyfogle, then that will make me very happy.
They should price these as if they came out in that time period too. How about a $1 70s issue, if it’s double-sized, that was the era of the $1 giant size issue.
Can never get enough JLI!
90s batman sounds great, the rest… Meh. Breyfogle on Batman again is exciting though
Will happily pay $4.99 for batman by grant
Seems like the 80s Flash is going to be Wally West. They should make it a Barry Allen Flash with Carmine Infantino drawing it. The Messner-Loebs Wally West stuff was in the late 80s, Barry Allen was the Flash for most of that decade.