On July 17, DC Comics officially announced their brand new publishing initiative called “All In.”

Although fans have been divisive over the constant rebranding and events causing these rebrands to occur, this time it seems that DC won’t be changing much of their current comics at all, with the exception of new creative teams such as Tom Taylor, writing for Detective Comics instead of Ram V, and Elliot Kalan, writing for Harley Quinn instead of Tini Howard. Current writers such as Joshua Williamson and Chip Zdarsky will still be writing for their respective Superman and Batman comic runs.

What also has fans talking is the new creative universe led by Scott Snyder called “Absolute Universe.” What this absolute universe entails is similar to what Marvel has done in the past and has recently brought back called “Ultimate Universe.” This is where well-known characters are reimagined and portrayed in a way that stands out from the character’s initial ideas and traits while also having similarities to what that character stands for.

For example, casual fans and avid readers of Batman know the character to be wealthy with an arsenal of tools and weapons to take down the bad guys of Gotham City. However, in the upcoming absolute universe, Bruce Wayne will not be the brooding billionaire we all know him to be. He will be a blue collar worker, built like a brick and have no Alfred or gadgets to aid him in his war on crime.

Other characters will be added on to this absolute universe as well and will be disconnected from the main “canon” universe, which means that this will not be the status quo for these characters going forward. The absolute universe is more of an experimental fun “what-if” scenario if anything.

In addition to this “All In” era, many new DC Comics titles have been announced such as “Plastic Man No More!” by Christopher Cantwell and an all new “Creature Commandos” comic by horror and DC actor David Dastmalchian ahead of the comic book team’s upcoming animated series releasing in December.

All of these new titles as well as current published titles such as “Zatanna: Bring Down the House” by Mariko Tamaki and the return of the fan-favorite team Birds of Prey, which is currently being written by Kelly Thompson, are all made to highlight some of DC’s lesser-known characters to new readers and to remind fans what makes them stand out.

This new initiative is dedicated to not only cater to long-time fans but to newer readers as well. DC Comics advertises this new era to be the perfect jumping-on point for new readers, which is a blessing since most new readers have no clue where to start when it comes to American comic books.

This era also debuts the return of the Justice League with “Justice League Unlimited” by Mark Waid and Dan Mora. A fan favorite creative duo with the most prominent DC Comics team of all time promises excitement from fans new and long-time due to the concept of a rotating team as well as just the return of the Justice League in general.

The only con about this new era that DC is producing is that having context and knowledge about DC’s big event going on, “Absolute Power” is needed because it concludes the current Dawn of DC era while also opening the door to the new All In rebranding. This can be very confusing and irritating for new readers since catching up on crucial events is one of the biggest struggles that new readers come to find when getting into comic books.

For readers considering jumping into DC Comics, I would advise reading Absolute Power, and for context for that event, I would say to check out Joshua Williamson’s Superman and Green Arrow comic runs as well as Chip Zdarsky’s Batman comic run, as those have the biggest influences on this event.

This “All In” era starts in October of this year and kicks off with “DC All In Special” featuring the writers of the upcoming absolute universe as well as what’s to come for the all-in initiative.