DC Relaunch: 11 New DC Titles Announced

Well, DC Comics just won’t stop, will they? After a brutal couple of days of teasing the comic book fan universe with “new” and “exciting” steps into the “future” of DC Comics, on Thursday, June 2, 2011, they actually started rolling out some of the details about the upcoming “relaunch” of the DC Universe. And regardless of what I may or may not have said regarding the initial announcement, I can’t help but be excited about the second wave of DC Relaunch news. On Thursday, DC released the names and creators of 11 of the 52 new number one comics that are coming out in September, along with cover art, and those are as follows (with added commentary and how excited I am for each):

Justice League #1: Written by Geoff Johns, with art by Jim Lee. I mean, this is a bit obvious, isn’t it? We found out that this was coming on Tuesday, so it’s no surprise to see it listed here. Geoff Johns can handle teams, and who can argue with Jim Lee’s artwork? You can criticize his character redesigns, but there’s no doubt that this book is going to be a heavy hitter from front to back each month. Let’s just hope these two executives are able to give The Justice League the attention it deserves, so it won’t be plagued with delays. Yeah, yeah, I’ll buy it!

Wonder Woman #1: Written by Brian Azarello, with art by Cliff Chiang. I am genuinely interested by this. Brian Azarello is an extremely impressive writer, although his superhero work tends to lean a little to the cynical side, so hopefully that doesn’t happen to Wonder Woman. But who knows? This could totally fall in line with the overall DC initiative to re-imagine the characters, but I know that the Cliff Chiang art is going to be absolutely gorgeous, as can be evidenced by every single time Cliff Chiang has drawn Wonder Woman, or any woman, or any person, for that matter. Yes, I will definitely be buying this.

Aquaman #1: Written by Geoff Johns, with art by Ivan Reis. Okay, so… I like to give Geoff Johns a hard time, as I’m not his biggest fan, and I don’t personally enjoy the direction he takes a lot of his stories, but the man can write an exciting story, that’s for sure. There’s no way he would have been running the past three big events in DC Comics if he couldn’t. He’s a blockbuster writer, and in my opinion he’s at his best when he teams with Ivan Reis. We already knew that Johns was working on an Aquaman book, and we know that Geoff Johns loves to write Rebirth stories, so it’s time that he does it with The Man of The Sea. A lot of people are judging this on preconceived notions on Aquaman, but the fact that Geoff Johns is going to write it means that it’s going to be a top title. Get ready for the Aquaman movie, because you know it’s coming. I’m in, as much as I don’t want to admit it, these creators make good, solid, exciting books.

The Flash #1: Writing and art by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellatto. This is interesting, isn’t it? I don’t think I’ve ever read a book written by Manapul, have you? Who cares, really? Based on his stint as artist on the recent Geoff Johns scripted Flash issues, there’s no way I won’t read this. His art is amazing, and it’s really the only way I can picture the Barry Allen version of The Flash anymore. I just feat that we’re going to see some delays, but hopefully the addition of Buccellatto will speed up the process. Yes, that was a pun.

The Fury of Firestorm #1: Written by Ethan Van Sciver and Gail Simone, with art by Yildiray Cinar. This rebirth of the character features both Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond as Firestorm and who better to take on these two characters than Ethan Van Sciver and Gail Simone? I can totally buy the split personality Firestorm with these two, and if any of the art I’ve seen from Cinar is a sign of things to come? Yeah, I’m onboard. I’m totally onboard.

The Savage Hawkman #1: Written by Tony Daniel, with art by Philip Tan. Okay, so I’m not the biggest fan of Tony Daniel, and I don’t really care about Hawkman that much, unless he’s in a team book, but I am a fan of Philip Tan, and he’s only been getting better with each issue that he turns in. I’m probably not going to stick around for the full run, but I will pick up the first issue to give it a try and see how things are going. If the first issue is decent, I’ll keep picking it up.

Green Arrow #1: Written by J.T. Krul, with art by Dan Jurgens. J.T. Krul picking up where he left off from his run on Green Arrow, so no big surprises here. I’m not really that interested in Green Arrow, but if I hear good things I’ll pick it up. I don’t really read a lot of Krul books because I don’t prefer his writing style, but he does come up with some cool stories, so if you like what you’ve seen from Krul and you want to read a book about a guy that totally wants to be Batman with an arrow, then pick up this book.

Justice League International #1: Written by Dan Jurgens, with art by Aaron Lopresti. Batman is in this book, so I’m totally buying it. It looks like they’re actually making this book live up to the name, so that’s certainly a good thing, and it’s cool that Jurgens is returning to the book, so everything seems to be lining up. But where’s Blue Beetle? Fans of the recent Justice League: Generation Lost should pick this up. Same for fans of the old JLI, pick it up, it’ll definitely be fun.

Mister Terrific #1: Written by Eric Wallace, with art by Roger Robinson. I LOVE Mr. Terrific, and I haven’t read much by these two creators, but I will definitely be buying this book. I’m really excited, and hopeful that this book will turn out well, because Mr. Terrific is an outstanding and interesting character, and he never gets a push, so it’s nice to finally see this. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.

Captain Atom #1: Written by J.T. Krul, with art by Freddie Williams II. This is in the same category as the Hawkman series. I’m not big on the writer, but I love the artist, but enough to get me to buy every book, so I’ll pick up this first issue and see how it goes. If it’s good, or picks up, I’ll be checking it out for the long run, I’m pretty much giving all of the issues a shot. It’s a new day in the DCU, so why not give everyone a new chance?

DC Universe Presents #1: Written by Paul Jenkins, with art by Bernard Chang. This is probably the most interesting to me, as it’s an anthology book that showcases different superheroes from DC’s wide line of characters with some interesting talent on the book as well. The first story arc will star Deadman. Currently, DC is doing an anthology book series calls DC Presents… that acts as a mini-trade paperback for approximately $7.99 that collects a single three-issue story arc, plus one other issue that showcases the main writer or artist on the book’s character. For example, DC Comics Presents: Batman – Dark Knight, Dark City consists of the Dark Knight, Dark City story arc, and another issue written by Peter Milligan. It seems like this could be an incarnation of that strategy, but it could also be something along the lines of DC’s Adventure Comics, or The Brave and The Bold, where it takes a character, tells a new story for about three issues, and then moves on to the next character, along the lines of the original intention of Detective Comics. I hope the latter is the case, because I’d really like to see some of the more obscure DC characters get their moment to shine in this book. And my dream would be to see Grant Morrison write and Bat-Mite story arc with art from Art Baltazar and Franco. That’s probably never going to happen, but a boy can dream, can’t he?

[Source: DC]