2001 Accord EX 2.3 4Cyl. 112K miles

Battery died first part of december and just now got around to getting a new one in it (its a second car I've put 500 miles on a year for the last 5 years). I put the new one in and the factory alarm starts going off (normal) so I use the key to unlock the car (don't have working key fobs) and it quits going off. Put the key in the ignition and I got power like I should (all the dash lights are on, clock is on etc). Go to start it and everything dies. No dash lights, no clock etc. Its like the battery gets disconnected as soon as I try to start it. Tried this 3 times with the same result each time. Only thing that gets power back is disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. Wut.....

Starter is less than a year old and car ran flawlessly before the battery died in early december. Any ideas as to what could possibly be happening here? This is unlike anything I've ever seen or heard of before.

 

Possible ignition switch issue.