By Albert Ching, Newsarama Staff Writer
DC’s “The New 52” revamp is scheduled to grow by six series in May, USA Today reported Thursday morning.
The six new monthly titles include the return of the Grant Morrison-written Batman Incorporated, along with Earth 2, World’s Finest, Dial H, G.I. Combat and The Ravagers. According to the USA Today piece, Batman Incorporated will be Morrison finishing “his six-year run of Dark Knight stories,” so it appears to be what was previously titled “Batman: Leviathan,” as DC called it as recently as last month.
“The New 52 was about showing the new world,” DC editor-in-chief Bob Harras said in USA Today’s piece. “Now we’re just expanding on that world and furthering the story.”
The article did not reveal full creative teams for each of the series, but disclosed that Earth 2 “features the return of the fan-favorite Justice Society,” suggesting that it may be connected to the Justice Society project by James Robinson and Nicola Scott that was announced last year. World’s Finest was also said to take place on a parallel Earth, and star The Huntress and Power Girl.
Dial H, an updated version of Dial H for Hero, will be written by English fantasy novelist China Miéville, known for his “Bas-Lag” series. G.I. Combat features rotating creative teams presenting new versions of existing DC war comic properties like The Haunted Tank and The Unknown Soldier, and The Ravagers was simply described as “four teen superheroes on the run from an evil organization.”
USA Today’s piece did not state if any current New 52 titles would end to make room for the six new series. Keep reading Newsarama for more as it develops.
Update: In a second article, USA Today has provided more details on the six new DC “New 52” series starting in May, along with the names of six titles ending in April with issue #8.
Men of War, Mister Terrific, O.M.A.C., Hawk and Dove, Blackhawks and Static Shock are all coming to a close, with DC editor-in-chief Bob Harras quoted as saying, “These characters’ stories will continue. It’s all part of that world building we’re very keen on here.”
The relaunched Batman Incorporated was dubbed in the piece by Grant Morrison as “a big emotional story,” taking place directly after recent one-shot Leviathan Strikes! and depicting the conflict between Batman and Talia al Ghul. Art will be from previous Batman Incorporated artist Chris Burnham.
The Earth 2 creative team is James Robinson and Nicola Scott, seemingly confirming that this is the Justice Society series by the pair announced last August. World’s Finest will be written by Paul Levitz and illustrated by the rotating art team of George Perez and Kevin Maguire, and depict Huntress and Power Girl as Earth 2 exiles stranded on “our world.”
The Ravagers was described as a spinoff of Scott Lobdell’s Superboy and Teen Titans, and is written by Howard Mackie, who, like Lobdell, was prominent during Harras’s tenure at Marvel. Ian Churchill is on board as artist of the book, about four metahuman teens on the run from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.
G.I. Combat will have a main “The War That Time Forgot” story written by J.T. Krul and illustrated by Ariel Olivetti, with “rotating backup stories” including “The Unknown Soldier” written by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Dan Panosian, plus “The Haunted Tank” written by John Arcudi and illustrated by Scott Kolins.
Novelist China Miéville’s Dial H was billed as blending superheroics with horror, science fiction and “lots of psychological ramifications” for the main character. Brian Bolland was said to be involved (as evidenced by the image accompanying this article) though whether that’s strictly on covers or a rare interior art appearance isn’t clear. In 2010, Miéville confirmed that he was hired to write Swamp Thing, but the series was canceled before an issue was released.
Update 2: The news is now confirmed on DC’s blog The Source, though few new details were included in DC’s own update. These six new series are being billed as the “Second Wave” of the New 52, with E-i-C Bob Harras saying “The excitement of the initial launch of DC COMICS-THE NEW 52 was in seeing the re-imagining of these classic characters and concepts. The ‘Second Wave’ is all about world-building.”
“Many of the characters from our canceled books will appear in DC COMICS-THE NEW 52 titles, and in some very surprising ways,” said Harras on The Source. “We’re developing stories that reach from cultures around the globe to parallel worlds. We’re just getting started.”
Harras also reiterated on The Source the desire to keep the characters from the canceled books around.
