The DC Reboot: Mystic Titles Announced, “Resurrection Man” Returns

It’s day 3 of DC’s announcements of new titles. So far, three things are conspicuously absent: the final annoucement of Superman titles (though we know that Perez is doing Superman #1 and Grant Morrison will be doing a book of some kind), and the Martian Manhunter. However, we got more than a few surprises today, as DC announced a line of supernatural books and other surprises.

First off, we reported yesterday about Swamp Thing #1, and it’s now officially announced with a creative team of Scott Snyder and Yannick Paquette. The release of Swamp Thing #1 also commemorates the 40th anniversary of the character.

The biggest surprise right out the gate is Resurrection Man #1, brought back to life by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Abnett and Lanning spearheaded the previous Resurrection Man on-going, a cult classic series about a man with no memory who would resurrect from death with a new super power. Mitch is an amazing character with a really cool super power who was relegated to random guest star for the past decade, as seen in our legendary “Supergirl Is Probably An Idiot” article. I am easily the most excited for this title than anything, as I’m a huge fan of Mitch Shelley, and cannot wait to see him be relevant to a story again. Hopefully he’ll also return to his wandering amnesiac roots for a time.’

Also getting a new title is Animal Man #1, a return to form for Buddy Baker, who has been mostly absent from comics for the past year or so. Picking up on a story point from the Vertigo years of the title and written by Jeff Lemire with art by Travel Foreman and Dan Green, Buddy must struggle to hold his family together when his daughter begins to manifest powers of her own. If Animal Man can capture the tones of the Vertigo years, it could very well be the surprise hit of the relaunch.

Etrigan the Demon will also be appearing in a comic set during the middle ages; Demon Knights #1 sees Etrigan leading a team to protect Camelot’s legacy in the Middle Ages. Written by Paul Cornell with art by Digogenes Neves and Oclair Albert, no other team members have been revealed at this time, but after Cornell’s amazing The Black Ring story in Action Comics, I’m definitely on board.

There are, of course, plenty of other supernatural characters. DC is actually making a bold move to get the ones you may not know about in the public eye; under the pen of Peter Milligan and artist Mikel Janin, John Constantine, Deadman, Shade The Changing Man, and Madame Xanadu appear in Justice League Dark #1, forming a team of supernatural heroes you probably don’t know much about who will fight the things that go bump in the night. There’s also Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE #1, written by Jeff Lemire and artist Alberto Ponticelli, which sees the breakout Creature Commandos star break out into his own to combat the strange and dangerous and I, Vampire #1, written by Josh Fialkov and illustrated by Andrea Sorrentino. A revival of a classic vampire title from DC, Andrew Bennet is a vampire determined to save humanity from his own kind.

Wrapping up today’s annoucement (or, if yesterday is any indication, the first batch of announcements) is the super surprising Voodoo #1 from Ron Marz and Sami Basri. The book focuses on the former WildC.A.T.S. character and her dealing with the revelation that she’s half alien. It’s a huge surprise, considering that none of her WildC.A.T.S. cohorts are anywhere else to be seen at this point in the reboot.

We’ll be sure to update as more titles are announced today. Also, when making our counts yesterday, we forgot to include the Green Lantern reboots. Sorry! As of right now, there are 35 titles officially announced; again, 37 if you include the repeatedly mentioned but not yet official Superman and Action Comics. You can read about those titles here, here, and here.

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