Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week Bennett looks at this summer's Marvel and DC relaunches.

Well, Convergence is finally over and while there are still plenty of leftover copies of its spin-off titles clogging the shelves of our stores, DC has begun their new "DC You" initiative. Which as brand names go doesn’t go all that far, at least with me, as it kind of sounds like a soft drink slogan.  But they're not likely to identify it as "The New DC Universe," not with "The New Marvel Universe" waiting in the wings.

I know I've had plenty of time to get used to the idea but now that the moment is actually upon us, I’m still a bit agog at the thought that DC will be releasing 25 (!) new titles this month.  Not to mention that an additional 25 other titles are going to be experiencing "status quo shifts."  DC is saying all the right things to the mainstream press about "DC You," like in a piece on the PopMatters website ("DC Comics' universe shifts as it moves from Manhattan to be near Warner Bros. Studios").  Things like "fun" and "experimentation," and to quote DC co-publisher Jim Lee:

"When we did the 'New 52,' we knew it brought in a lot of new readers," Lee says.  "What we've seen in the four years since, is that there were a lot of readers out there who didn't necessarily have big voices in our industry."

"Female readers, the LGBT community… we have this big amazing universe to tell lots of diverse stories," Lee continues.  "We feel that it is the future of our business.  It's not going to just happen naturally… I think if our goal is to mirror the diversity that is our readership, we need to move with some speed and some sense of purpose."

I've liked what I've seen.  So far I definitely like "DC You" a lot more than I did "New 52," which always seemed to have a rushed, not-yet-ready quality, like the line didn’t have nearly enough development time.  In comparison all the "DC You" titles have seemed a lot more polished, not to mention more new reader-friendly.  Right now Bat-Mite and Bizarro top my list but I found, much to my amazement, that I actually enjoyed Midnighter, a well done superhero comic about a superhero who just happens to be gay.

I was especially impressed with the Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder first issue of Action Comics. The "New 52" chilly alien Superman desperately needed some humanity pounded into him and Pak has literally done just that by dragging him back to his early rockabilly roots.  I am historically pretty fussy about my Superman comics but this, this is like…  This is good.

That certainly seems like an awful lot of comics, that is until you compare it to the number of comics Marvel will be launching.  According to a piece on the MovieWeb site it's been estimated at somewhere between 55 and 60 new comics, all starting with #1 ("Marvel Comics' 'All-New, All-Different' Relaunch Changes Everything").  They're promising the expected "jumping on point" and "big shake-up" for Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk somewhere along the lines of the gender swap Thor underwent.  All of which is fine by me.

About the only thing I have qualms about in the "All-New, All-Different" Marvel is the inclusion of Red Wolf.  You know, I'm the kind of guy who's always there to champion a B or C level hero, the same way I’ve always championed racial diversity in comics.  I'm hoping against hope that Marvel's "New Universe" will include a version of Grant Morrison’s Xorn who's actually Chinese.  So it's not that I'm uncomfortable with Red Wolf, I was there when he first appeared in the Avengers.  I'm even OK with them revising his original outfit; as Johnny Depp's Tonto from 2013's The Lone Ranger proved, nobody looks good with a dead animal on their head.

We know nothing about what Marvel plans to do with the characters, whether he'll get his own title, whether it would be a period Western or a contemporary title, or whether he'll be joining the Avengers.  Like DC, Marvel has been saying all the right things about adding diversity to their line, and I take them at their word.  But please, please, run your plans by some Native-American groups before you publish anything.  Because no matter how good your intentions are these things can go really, really wrong.  Like when the Native American actors walked off the set of Adam Sandler's Netflix movie The Ridiculous Six because it ridiculed their culture and they weren’t being listened to.

So, to wrap up, I'm ok with the New DC, the same way I'm ok with the New Marvel and the "New Riverdale" Archie #1's.  Whether we like it or not the revival, reboot, makeover and do over have become essential items in a publisher's toolbox.  But this over-reliance on rebranding things "new" is also in active overuse in animation US Weekly, of all places, has given us a first look at the new Powerpuff Girls series ("Powerpuff Girls Return to Cartoon Network: See the New Photos From the Reboot").

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Cartoon Network is also doing a new version of the Ben 10 series that reboots Ben back to a 10 year old ("'Ben 10' Returns to Cartoon Network As New Animated Series").  And according CBC News they’re even rebooting, that's right, ReBoot, ("Reboot of 'ReBoot' officially coming to TV with 26 new episodes").  Titled ReBoot: The Guardian Code, it'll be a mix of live action and animation featuring four teenagers who protect the digital world, which, yes, does sound more like a season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with a cyber-theme than the original series.

And, finally, in July there's both a new Dragon Ball anime, Dragon Ball Super, and a new live-action Ultraman series, Ultraman-X.  But then, Ultraman doesn't really count not because it's not animation but because every new season of Ultraman is a complete reboot of the show’s premise.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.