Detective Comics as the Bat-Family Book
Creative team: James Tynion IV (writer), Eddy Barrows (artist), and Alvaro Martinez (artist)
This kind of seems what Detective Comics should have been for a long time. Even before the start of the New 52, it’s just been another Batman book. There’s been little to differentiate it from the main title, aside from the creative team. My excitement for what Tynion’s planning to do with Detective Comics comes almost solely from the fact that it’s something different. The Bat-Family has grown so large that it makes sense for a book to exist that puts them all together in an ensemble setting.
There’s definitely a lot of potential for some truly excellent character work to come out of this series. Having these characters bounce off and get to know one another is one of the best ways to create real character development. Plus, I have to imagine that the dialogue will be a ton of fun to read, considering the wide differences in personalities across these characters. Also, you know, it’s bringing Stephanie Brown, Tim Drake, and Cassie Cain back to the forefront of the universe, where they haven’t really been for a long time.
The Introduction of New Speedsters in Flash
Creative team: Joshua Williamson (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), and Neil Googe (artist)
Creating a bunch of new characters is not inherently a good thing. It doesn’t always work, but a lot of this is thanks to either the execution or a lack of follow up after their introduction. Considering there’s no reason to believe that the new Flash book will ignore the new characters after a single arc, and even less reason to believe the execution will be poor, I feel safe being excited for the book. The Flash family also isn’t all that large right now, and broadening that particular brand opens new avenues through which to explore the characters.
What’s so interesting about Williamson’s pitch for this book is that it sounds nuanced, with echoes of Astro City. Reading new characters grappling with new powers is fun enough, but they can’t all be superheroes or supervillains. Some of them, I assume, will just want to continue being people. And those stories are far more interesting to me than established characters just doing their things.
Wonder Woman Playing With the Double-Shipping Structure
Creative team: Greg Rucka (writer), Nicola Scott (artist), and Liam Sharp (artist)
Did I choose to include this on the list so I can gush about how excited I am for Greg Rucka to be coming back to Wonder Woman? I mean, sure, that definitely played a role. But how he’s choosing to approach the book is actually unique among DC’s new lineup. Of course, as anyone who’s been paying attention knows, all of the new DC books will be double shipping. Rather than just continue the same story every other week, Rucka is working on two separate stories simultaneously, Wonder Woman: Year One and Lies.
Now, there aren’t a ton of details about how this is going to work yet. And, in all honesty, I don’t see Rucka being anything but close-lipped about how the stories are going to connect, if at all. However, the fact that he’s doing using the shipping structure as a story telling tool is a touch that I can’t help but absolutely love. I mean, feasibly, you could probably only read the odd or even numbered installments, but why would you? It’s Greg Rucka on Wonder Woman.
Scott Snyder’s Batman Road Trip in All-Star Batman
Creative team: Scott Snyder (writer), John Romita Jr (aritst), Jock (artist), Sean Murphy (artist), and Tula Lotay (artist)
This is a story that I’m pretty sure Snyder has talked about before, but it was unclear that he would ever get to write it. It’s being pitched as a road trip story, with Batman and Two-Face being pursued across the United States by members of Batman’s rogue’s gallery. This is interesting for two reasons. First, it’s getting Batman out of Gotham. Obviously, this isn’t new. The character is a member of the Justice League, but in mainline Batman stories, he rarely leaves Gotham. All-Star Batman has the potential to be a different kind of Batman story, by removing his relationship with Gotham from the equation entirely.
Second, this is Scott Snyder writing a bunch of Batman villains he hasn’t gotten the chance to do full story arcs with yet. So not only is it a chance for him to do something completely new with Batman, he also gets to reimagine the rogue’s gallery. That’s an exciting prospect if I’ve ever heard one, and I’m excited to see what Snyder can come up with.
Aquaman‘s Foreign Policy Bent
Creative team: Dan Abnett (writer), Brad Walker (artist), Jesus Merino (artist), and Phil Briones (artist)
Look, maybe I’m just setting myself up for disappointment, but man, the potential to tell a really cool foreign policy story in Aquaman is definitely there. It sounds like they’re going for that, at least a little bit. It’s totally likely that I’m alone in my longing for a big two superhero book that puts a focus on politics, but they have to be going for at least some of that here, right? At any rate, that was my takeaway from the book’s pitch at WonderCon.
It also helps that creating the dichotomy between Aquaman’s responsibilities as a statesman and a superhero is a proven source for great material. Johns’ run had a bit of it, and that was my favorite part of the run. But man, if Dan Abnett can carry that part of the run over, and maybe take it a little bit further, this could easily become not only my favorite Aquaman story, and my favorite DC book. Not that there’s much competition, but hey, it has to count for something, right?
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