Today, DC announced that they’d be releasing six new series this May. Some of them were books we knew were coming, like the continuation of Grant Morrison‘s Batman Incorporated, while others, like the Dial H For Hero reboot coming from fantasy writer China Miéville, are a lot more surprising. The full list of titles are as follows:
Batman Incorporated will be picking up right where last month’s Batman: Leviathan one-shot left off, which puts readers in a pretty exciting place. While the series will still feature the extended Bat family, it’s Bruce’s son Damian that will be at the heart of this tale. Over the years, Morrison’s turned Damian from someone I loathed to one of my favorite characters in all of comics, and I’m really excited to see him develop him further here. Chris Burnham has done terrific work with Morrison so far, and I’m excited to see more of his art. Morrison has promised that this story will be an emotional one, and I’m looking forward to crying like a baby as I read my comic books.
Dial H for creepy, folks.
Dial H will update the classic series – in which children were able to become superheroes thanks to a device called the H-dial – in an interesting way. It looks like the series will focus on older protagonists the way H.E.R.O. did, and will offer a darker take that explores the psychological ramifications of using this sort of device. China Miéville is wonderfully enthusiastic about the series, saying “I cannot believe that I get to just make up superheroes. It’s what you did as a kid”. I get caught up in the excitement of others pretty easily, and I’m definitely interested to see Miéville entering the comic writing world. The series will feature art from Brian Bolland, who is best known for his work on The Killing Joke.
Originally billed as Justice Society of America, Earth 2 will feature beloved JSA characters in the Earth 2 universe. James Robinson, who’s currently writing the excellent Shade miniseries will be writing the title, and fan favorite Nicola Scott will be providing the book’s art.
Superhero friendships are the best friendships.
We still don’t know what characters we’ll be seeing in Earth 2, but we know two who we won’t- Power Girl and Huntress, who will be co-starring as exiles of Earth 2 in World’s Finest. Paul Levitz will be writing the heroines, and George Perez and Kevin Maguire will be trading off art duties from story arc to story arc. I’m a huge Power Girl fan, so I’d be reading this book no matter what, but I’m really interested in seeing her paired up with Huntress. PG and Huntress were best friends in Earth 2, and I’m glad to have a chance to see that friendship explored. World’s Finest is a title classically associated with Superman and Batman, and I’m glad to see two awesome ladies carrying on the name. My only real concern for the book is that I don’t know what this will mean mean for the Huntress of this DCU. Whatever the case, I can’t wait to see what Power Girl’s costume winds up looking like.
G.I. Combat will feature a variety of war-based stories as well as a variety of creative teams. We’ll be getting an Unknown Soldier tale from Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, a Haunted Tank story from John Arcudi, and a War That Time Forgot inspired story from J.T. Krul. Artists confirmed to be working on the comic include Scott Kolins, Ariel Olivetti, and Dan Panosian. I’ve been dreaming of a Haunted Tank revival for ages, and this creative line-up should be able to put out some really interesting stuff.
The last of May’s new comics is The Ravagers, a teen team book that will be spilling out of Teen Titans and Superboy. It’ll be written Howard Mackie- who I believe will be working with DC for the very first time, and will be penciled by Ian Churchill. We don’t know who the book’s cast will be yet, but we do know it’ll star teens on the run from Scott Lobdell‘s N.O.W.H.E.R.E. organization.
Will we be seeing these two battle again?
Sadly, the arrival of these new books means some of the original new 52 titles will be concluding. I knew the second that G.I. Combat was announced that Men of War and Blackhawks weren’t long for this world, and Hawk and Dove, Mr. Terrific, O.M.A.C., and Static Shock will be ending their runs as well.
I’m especially sad to be losing O.M.A.C., which is one of my favorite titles. However, editor-in-chief Bob Harras has promised that we’ll still be seeing most of these characters, and that they’ll simply be appearing in different titles. Dove is already making frequent appearances in Justice League Dark, and after their awesome crossover tale, I expect O.M.A.C.‘s Kevin Kho will be showing up in the pages of Frankenstein: Agent of Shade. Static was a Teen Titans member before the relaunch, and my guess is that he’ll be rejoining that team. The nature of G.I. Combat would allow Men of War and Blackhawks to continue their tales in a shortened form, and I can see Mr. Terrific showing up anywhere from new books like Earth 2 and World’s Finest to titles like Stormwatch and Justice League.
While it hurts to see some of these books end, I’m looking forward to see where the characters go next.
(via USA Today)