The DC Reboot: “Detective Comics” Relaunches

This morning, DC announced more of their reboots, this time covering the Batman line of comics. The early information confirms that, yet again, Bruce Wayne will be the only Batman in the DC Universe, though Batman Inc. evidently has not ended, returning in Early 2012 with Grant Morrison still writing and Chris Burnham handling art chores.

Batman himself headlines 4 titles, so don’t look for the relaunch to reduce your cluttered up buy pile too much. First up is Batman #1, with Scott Snyder writing and Greg Capullo on art chores. No information aside from the title was made available at this time, but judging by the guy with the green question mark mohawk, the title might be dedicated to ensuring The Riddler is never usable again. Meanwhile, over in the relaunched Batman and Robin #1, Bruce and Damian finally team up as the Dynamic Duo with Peter J. Tomasi and Pat Gleason on the creative team. More disappointing is the relaunch to Detective Comics #1, where Tony Daniel’s spearheads the relaunch of the company’s flagship title as it’s sole writer/artist, effectively ending decades of Batman history and reducing the second longest running title in the company to single digits. If this is any indication, the similarly long running Action Comics should be announced with a new #1 soon as well. We’ve also learned that the oft-delayed The Dark Knight will relaunch with a new #1, and will retain it’s current creative team, adding Jay Fabok as a penciller.

Dick Grayson finally makes his return to the Nightwing persona fans have been clamoring for in Nightwing #1, but holy shit, that’s a terrible costume redesign, losing everything that was great about the Nightwing costume.  DC has since confirmed that it is indeed Dick Grayson back in the Nightwing identity, not Jason Todd as some fans were speculating, and listed Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows as the creative team. Selina Kyle returns in a solo Catwoman series once more by Judd Winnick and Guillem March, likely ending Gotham City Sirens, while the long delayed Batwoman #1 by J. H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman is also solicited as finally launching.

Batgirl #1 hits stands as well, written by Gail Simone and drawn by Ardian Syaf and Vicante Cifuentes, with Adam Hughes doing covers. Really happy with that team, but the Batgirl on the cover looks suspiciously like Barbara Gordon, which is kind of disappointing. Steph as Batgirl was amazing, and Cass Cain is….uhm, anywhere?  Gail’s former series, Birds of Prey, takes on a whole new direction under Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz. The new team includes Katana, Poison Ivy, what appears to be a heavily redesigned Black Canary, and a character who doesn’t appear to be reocgnizable. Sasha Bordeaux, perhaps? They’re being solicited as Gotham’s covert ops team.

Jason Todd is also getting a title, teaming up with Roy Harper (now sporting two arms) and Starfire for Red Hood & The Outlaws by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort, which sees The Red Hood leading a team of anti-heroes. Meanwhile, Batwing #1 from Judd Winnick and Ben Oliver focuses on the popular Batman Inc. character known as the Batman of Africa.

Finally (and most surprising), Swamp Thing #1. For those of you playing at home, we now know 23of the 52 relaunched titles; 25, if you count the implied but not yet official inclusions of Superman and Action Comics.

Aside from the Batman and Detective Comics relaunches, no information on creative teams is available at this time.

[nggallery id=48]