DC Comics has announced not only will the superheroes get a relaunch in September, but so will Swamp Thing and other supernatural characters of the DCU.
UPDATE: This story has been updated from the 9:00 edition that includes cover images, and more supernatural characters, including vampires, and VOODOO by Ron Marz.
SWAMP THING #1
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Yannick Paquette
ANIMAL MAN #1
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Travel Foreman and Dan Green
Buddy Baker has gone from “super” man to family man – but is he strong enough to hold his family together when Maxine, his young daughter, starts to manifest her own dangerous powers?
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #1
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Mikel Janin
This book will feature John Constantine, Deadman, Shade the Changing Man, and Madame Xanadu. No word if Bill Willingham’s Shadowpact team will be featured in this book or not. My guess… probably not.
DEMON KNIGHTS #1
Writer: Paul Cornell
Artist: Diogenes Neves and Oclair Albert
From what we’ve heard, this is a series that will be set in medieval times. That’s the time period, not the all you can eat banquet/ren-fair eatery.
FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF SHADE #1
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Alberto Ponticelli
Frankenstein and his network of strange beings work for an even stranger government organization: The Super Human Advanced Defense Executive. It’s the breakout hero of Seven Soldiers as you’ve never seen him before in FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF SHADE #1
It’s interesting that Lemire (of Sweet Tooth fame) is getting to work on this project. Word has it that DC went to their top teams and let them pick and choose what titles they wanted to work on. If Morrison doesn’t want to do this, and Batman, Inc is put on hold, what could Grant be working on? I bet we have the answer by Friday, if not sooner.
RESURRECTION MAN #1
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Artist: Fernando Dagnino
I, VAMPIRE #1
Writer: Josh Fialkov
Artist: Andrea Sorrentino
Tortured by his centuries-old love for the Queen of the Damnned, Andrew Bennett must save humanity from the violent uprising of his fellow vampires, even if it means exterminating his own kind.
VOODOO #1
Writer: Ron Marz
Artist: Sami Basri
Priscilla Kitaen has just found out she’s a monster. A half-alien hybrid, the woman known as Voodoo must confront the secrets of her past to make sense of the nightmare her life has suddenly become.
Well, it looks like we know why Ron Marz left Witchblade…
32 Comments
What, no Tim Hunter?
All I have been waiting for is to see some Vertigo characters being touched, that was all I needed to see for me to write off DC. This fan of comics is done with DC. Having spent nearly 15 years supporting the Vertigo line, I have collected full runs of almost every title, and will be rereading those, when I want to read a bit from that character history.
Where is Zatanna? It’s on of the 3 or 4 tittle that I still buy from DC.
Take one “supernatural shotgun”, aim at one of more feet… pull trigger!
That is what DC has done to themselves as far as I am concerned.
You don’t need to burn down your entire house to get rid of a few cockroaches.
I’ll be watching (Not buying) from a safe distance, at what I fear will be the “DC House” going down in self induced flames.
Like I said… I’ll watch from afar for a while… and eat crow PUBLICLY if they actually pull it off.
Spectre, Deadman, Demon, Zatanna, Phantom Stranger, and Dr. Fate are all good enough to show up on DC TV cartoons as needed. And, new origins were never needed.
New origins? Nothing in this says their origins are changing. DC has been pretty explicit that they weren’t concerning themselves with retelling origin stories in this relaunch. I think you may be overreacting.
Are the Vertigo titles getting touched? Because I really don’t want them to restart Hellblazer, I like it how it is.
Also whats Happening with The Spirit?
No, no changes to Vertigo books have been announced or hinted at so far. Just a new DCU.
I’m a littel concerned about Zatanna’s book as well.
Could that be her on the JLD cover?
Resurrection Man? Wooooow. Can we expect new Chase and Chronos titles soon too?
Also, I just realized thats Voodoo from WildC.A.T.s. What is she doing here?
Because DC is out of ideas, why their rebooting their universe, to make it more hip to people still reading comics. All superheroes in that universe will be mentioning, the internet, Ipad, Ipod, twitter, Android, as often as they can, to bring cache to their new line. Get ready for the cheese. Wont be watching from a distance, or caring. I used to buy a little from Marvel, a little from DC, a little from Dark Horse, and then a very few from the independents. I take any money or interest that I was giving to DC, and put that energy to what the other publishers are doing.
Yeah, I’m a little curious how they’re going to mash the Wildstorm universe into the DC universe, too …
Aw, man!
I was hoping to stay away from the “new DC” as a rule and just live in my Vertigo corner.
However, I am a huge sucker for all things Animal Man. I’ve been waiting for such a plot line for years.
Also, Constantine in a team series? That bears some attention.
Well played, DC. Well played.
More and more hyped with every batch of announcements.
Wow, DC. You have my sense of wonder nocked up to 11. :)
Come on do you really think all or even most of the above titles are going to work? I cant believe it.
I haven’t read them yet. As I said, my sense of wonder is piqued. Sales are DC’s problem, more than mine. ;)
DC is pulling out all the stops on this one. Will Xanadu have her eyesight back? It is interesting but are they all going to last. I mean really how? Is the interest going to be there really. If you gonna do resurection man why not put them on the Justice League. Maybe this will give us great writing and actual looking into the characters without just flopping a story into it.
Doesn’t look it from the cover art.
Why would cover art matter? Usually has zero to do with the actual story. I read for the story more than the covers.
You can choose to be positive and open or negative and closed. It’s up to each person, really. After you read the books, form an opinion and decide which books to buy.
No, I meant it doesn’t look like Xanadu will be able to see, based on the cover art.
Ah misunderstanding then. I’d say it’s definitely Xanadu, Constantine, Shade, Zatanna, Deadman and probably the Enchantress.
The white eyes on Xanadu could be blindness or an effect from using her cards. =)
Is that the Mitch Shelley Resurrection Man?
I honestly don’t understand the throwing up of hands, here. Some points:
1. A reLAUNCH is not necessarily a reBOOT. Booster Gold has been relaunched half a dozen times. His origin has stayed pretty much constant.
2. Given the news about digital releases, it could be DC’s looking at small print runs or *gasp* a few digital-only series here. An increase in the number of titles won’t necessarily translate into the implosion of a 70 year-old company that’s backed by one of the largest mega-conglomerates on the planet.
3. I have heard from nowhere that Vertigo will be cannibalized at all for this. Even if it is, it isn’t as though Vertigo characters haven’t appeared in the mainstream DC universe before. Constantine and Swamp Thing were around before Vertigo even existed. And let’s not forget Death and Dream floating around out there.
I am surprised that they took a chance on so many supernatural titles, since it’s been awhile since their mainstream “spooky” books had significant impact. Nevertheless, I take it as a great sign that this digital reLAUNCH has emboldened DC editorial to try new things.
Well…newer things…
I, Vampire??? Now that’s a blast from the past. Last time I saw that character was in the old Doctor Fate series.
Would have loved a House of Mystery/House of Secrets
Absolutely!
House of Mystery… House of Secrets
Maybe rotating Spectres or Phantom Strangers or Black Orchids or Doctors of FATE!?!
I would buy that every month!
(I damn sure did in the 70’s!)
Where is Dr.Thirteen?
I’ll be buying Animal Man and Justice League Dark. That much is certain.
TIM HUNTER!!!!!!! Where art thou?
Ron Marz is still writing Witchblade. I believe he stated from the start that his goal was to hit at least issue 150 which will becoming out in the near future. Regardless the Artifacts series going on right now is amazing and I’m sure his transition to DC may be one of the few positive things to occur during this DC reboot (that is if it can survive the reboot (52 new titles all at once spells trouble for any new characters or semi popular ones)).
Honestly I don’t see a lot of these series on this list making it to issue 20 some might be lucky to hit 12 or 13. not when everyone will be scrambling to pick up the 4 or 5 batmans, the new supermans, and green lanterns (that’s only to name a few that will probably overshadow these titles, especially to new readers which this whole ploy is aimed at).
looks like bleeding cool is confirming that Zatanna is part of the JLA Dark:) Here is the link: http://www.bleedingcool.com/forums/showthread.php?43772-DC-Relaunch-Zatanna-Still-To-Wear-Fishnets…-On-Her-Arms/page3 . KInda like her new look. Just add Dr.fate to that lineup please:) . SO REJOICE Zatanna fans and least she’s in the rebirth. I’ll miss her series and old look. Stephen and gang run a top notch site and podcasts here:)
I wonder if they’re just pumping out a bunch of different titles with no real intentions of making them all ongoing titles, but a quick way to make some money on everyone wondering what they’re going to be about. They can gauge which books are selling more across the board on a wider scale, and it establishes what these characters are in this new DCU (or DCnU) so that going forward we know what to generally expect from them and where they fit in this new relaunched universe.