WHEEE! My friend Lucas Seigel wrote that. Just sayin'.

This is just rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. No one is buying monthlies; everyone is just getting TPBs off of Amazon for half the price of the brick'n'mortars.

Didn't DC already reboot everything in the 80s?

@Chris: Yes, and at least twice since, by my count.

Crisis on Multiple Earths
Zero Hour
Infinite Crisis
maybe more

Drop issues to .99 cents. That's my sweet spot for buying something without thinking about it.

This move is less about DC and more about Warner. I'm sure some comic types at DC still care about local retailers. And they know their current sales come from the Grahams mailing money to Seattle or dorks like me picking up issues on Wednesdays.

But Time Warner has long wanted a crack at middle Americans hopped up on Iron Man 2 and Thor and iPads but highly unlikely to step into The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop. Hey Mr. McMansion, why not download Batman #1 while you're waiting for your table at PF Chang's? Kindle owners, these are your peers.

So someone at Time Warner along with Diane Nelson held a one-way meeting with Dan DiDio explaining how this was going to work, with Dan speaking directly to the unwashed hordes.

Warner's corporate policy has long been to champion e-books, hoping to cut out pesky local middlemen and pocket the difference. Dazzle the natives with a shiny toy that siphons money out of communities.

But maybe it doesn't matter. Unless you rely on local advertisers or like to keep your money in the community or prefer the intrinsic investment in a physical item or are a budding comic writer trying to get a title off the ground, you probably don't need a local shop.

As a comics reader I'm used to these reboots. I don't really care about continuity as long as I can read a good story with good artwork. Sadly those are things all but a very few of DC's books have been providing me recently. Hopefully they can wrangle up some better writers. Grant Morrison and Greg Ruka shouldn't have to carry all the water.