DC Rebirth Creative Teams
I know there’s not usually talk of single issues but it’s kind of hard not to talk about stuff when new creative teams are being announced, especially when we can speculate how that might affect upcoming collected editions. I’m just going to run down these that were recently announced and give some thoughts about them.
Action Comics by Dan Jurgens - Jurgens has been writing the Superman: Lois and Clark series, and as far as I’ve heard this will be continuing from there. I haven’t read that one yet, but I’ve heard some cool things so I’ll have to check it out soon. Also notable is what looks like Lex in Superman style armor on the covers fighting alongside and against Superman.
All-Star Batman by Scott Snyder and JRJR - This also features Sean Murphy and Jock on the teaser. I believe this is to be an in continuity anthology type book with self contained stories. With his main Batman run concluded one has to hope DC will begin plans for Omnis or Deluxes in the near future.
Batgirl by Hope Larson and Rafael Albuquerque - I’m always down for more Rafa, so hopefully the written side of this turns out positive. I haven’t read anything from Larson before so I cannot pass any judgement.
Batgirl and the Birds of Prey - Batgirl teaming with Huntress and Black Canary for a new book by Julie Benson and Teela Brown, both writers of The 100… which I haven’t watched before so I cannot comment about at all.
Batman Beyond by Jurgens and Chang - Same creative team, so I’m assuming it’ll just continue on with what they’ve been doing. I haven’t been reading the current series, though.
Batman by Tom King - Okay, here’s one I’m particularly excited about. Tom King has been slaying on Grayson, Omega Men, Vision, Sheriff of Babylon, and anything else he’s written in the short time he’s been in comics and he was definitely at the top of my list for creators to take on Batman. Glad this is happening, and I’m really hoping we’re going to see some Deluxe Editions of his other work.
Blue Beetle by Ben Percy - Not only with Jaime, but Ted Kord will also be in this book. I know lots of people have been waiting for Kord to come back into the DCU so this is a dream come true for many.
Cyborg by John Semper Jr - Semper worked on the Spider-Man animated series, so I am more than willing to try out this Cyborg series based on that alone.
Deathstroke by Chris Priest - Another creator I’m stoked about. Priest seems like a really interesting choice for Deathstroke so I’d love to see what kind of work he brings to the Terminator.
Detective Comics by James Tynion IV - Tynion is a student of Snyder’s and has been delivering some great work with Batman here and there in Annuals, special issues, and in backup features, so it’s about damn time he got to take over an ongoing Batman book.
Flash by Josh Williamson - Williamson is a star in comics at the moment, being responsible for a ton of awesome books over at Image. He briefly got to write Illuminati at Marvel (the series is wrapping soon, I believe), which has been fun, but I’m curious to see what he can bring to Flash. I really haven’t been enjoying Venditti’s run on the character so I’m just glad there’s new blood, and it looks like he’ll be bringing some focus to Iris and Wally, which is awesome.
Green Arrow by Ben Percy - Percy has already been writing Green Arrow for a little while and has been doing a pretty decent job of it too, so do not have negative feelings about him returning to the character. Hopefully he takes him into some interesting directions!
Green Lanterns by Sam Humphries and Geoff Johns - It looks like Johns will only be cowriting the opening issue from what I’ve seen. The book will focus on the newest two Earth lanterns, Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz (Power Ring). Also, I haven’t looked into it to confirm it one way or another, but with Sam Humphries going to DC I have to wonder if he’ll be going exclusive and leaving his Marvel books (i.e. Star Lord).
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps by Robert Venditti and Ethan Van Sciver - I’ve been pretty lukewarm about Venditti’s GL work, and though I do think it’s gotten much better post-Convergence I’m surprised he’s still the writer on the title. Hopefully he has some good ideas up his sleeves but at least we’re seeing Van Sciver return to the franchise!
Harley Quinn - Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner are continuing along with this series, so no changes here.
The Hellblazer by Simon Oliver and Justin Moritat - ANOTHER relaunch for Constantine, this time going back to the classic title for the series. Simon Oliver was awesome on FBP for Vertigo and is already familiar with the Hellblazer universe as he wrote the Chas - The Knowledge miniseries back in 2008. I’ll miss the current series, but I’m sure this one is going to be great.
Justice League by Tony Daniel and Fernando Pasarin - While I do enjoy his art, he’s not the best writer by far so I’m really surprised that they decided to put him on a headlining book like Justice League. Oh well, maybe he’ll surprise us. Interesting though is that both Baz and Cruz are on the team while Hal is, I guess, just doing his thing with the Corps.
Justice League of America - This one has been announced for September but has no creative team. The rumor is DC wants Jonathan Hickman on the book as he tweeted earlier in the week that he has been contacted by DC and is willing to work with them. If all this is true then that would be HUGE.
New Superman by Gene Luen Yang - Yang has been working on Superman after Johns’ short run ended, but he really hasn’t gotten much of a chance to establish himself as a writer on the series as it was constantly part of crossovers which I believe really fell short. It looks like he’s establishing a new character here, and I have no idea how that is going to work, but I’d be interested in seeing how he does on a mainstream book not hampered by all those crossovers.
Nightwing by Tim Seeley - Back in Blue! Tim Seeley has been a co-writer with King on Grayson and has done some writing for plenty of Batman titles the past few years so I know he’s an excellent choice to take over on Dick’s new ongoing series. It’s already been mentioned that this will spin out from the events of Grayson, so again… give us a Deluxe Edition of that series, DC!
Red Hood and the Outlaws by Scott Lobdell and Dexter Soy - I’ve not been a fan of this series since it started with the beginning of the New 52 and I’m just surprised it’s still going on… I guess there’s an audience somewhere.
Suicide Squad by Rob Williams, Philip Tan, and Jim Lee - I believe Lee is on as a cowriter, maybe doing a bit of pencil work, but the series will mostly be from Williams and Tan. Willaims current Maritna Manhunter series is awesome, and he’s done a lot of good work before that as well. I hope this continues that trend. I also hope this series can maintain a creative team for more than a year.
Supergirl by Steve Orlando - Orlando’s been killing it on Midnighter. This character is a big change from that one, so I’m wondering what he has in store for her…
Superman by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason - On of the books I’m admittedly most excited about. Tomasi and Gleason are both favorites of mine, and pretty much everything they’ve done is A+. Recently Tomasi has been doing some Superman work on various titles and it’s all been pretty good stuff, so I’m excited that he’s getting the reigns of the ongoing title.
Super Sons - No creative team on this one yet, so I don’t have much to say about it, but it’s got Damian in a starring role so I’m interested.
Teen Titans - I’m not sure if this one has a creative team yet either, but it’s also got Damian so again, I’m at least a bit interested.
Titans by Dan Abnett - Abnett has been writing Titans Hunt recently, and apparently that goes into this new series. I’ve heard good things so I’m going to have to check that one out to get ready for the new series (which looks nice from the preview images)
Trinity by Francis Manapul - At the very least this is going to be an incredibly pretty book, and that’s enough to interest me.
Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka - I believe Margueritte Bennett was originally to take over Wonder Woman but it looks like DC reached out to Rucka who said he’d never work for the publisher again. I guess if you give a creator the right property… I’m excited because I love Rucka and while I’ve never read his WW run I know it’s supposed to be great. It does make me sad Bennett got kicked off the book before it even began, but hopefully they find another project for her soon because she’s got major talent up her sleeves. And again… give us an Azzarello and Chiang Omnibus, DC.
So I believe that’s all we’ve got at the moment. Lots of Superman and Batman related titles. I think there are a few other books as well that might be missing from this list (like Aquaman continuing along by Dan Abnett), and some might be solicited soon, but this is the majority of it. Lots of interesting new creative teams, to say the least, and I’m glad that they’ve shied away from that focus on maintaining 52 monthly titles because that seemed to be one of the major reason for editorial problems early on. A lot of these are shipping twice monthly, and DC has said they’re bringing books back to $2.99 each issue. I do really hope that sticks around and possibly gets Marvel to bring back more $2.99 books.
Bolded titles are those I’m most interested in, italicized titles are those I’m interested in, and everything else I’m either not interested in or don’t have enough information as of yet to completely tell how I feel.
Re: Justice League - it appears to be Bryan Hitch doing the writing, and Daniel on art. If that helps?
I think Snyder only has one book, which surprises me. I expect him and Capella will be taking over JLA. Hackman would be interesting. And I stress - 'interesting'
