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Batman, Detective, Batman and Robin, Batman: The Dark Night, Batwoman, Batgirl, Catwoman, Birds of Prey, Nightwing, The Red Hood and the Outlaws, Batwing. 11 titles. And I am looking forward to almost all of them. They've given us a little less detail on these ones, but I will share my thoughts. Links to creator pages where I could find their official pages.
Batman: Loving the look of this cover. Glad to see Croc back, and that looks like Riddler with a question mark shaved onto his head and Two-Face who is lying there. The short guy could be the Mad Hatter? Regardless, they are certainly not hesitating to bring the traditional Bat Rogues back into the New DCU. And unlike the situation with Flash, I am glad to see this. Batman's villains have always been a good match for him, so it is good to see them still around. Written by Scott Snyder, a Batman veteran, and art by Greg Capullo. 
Detective: Wow... Detective #1. Batman wasn't even IN this book the first time around. He didn't show up until Detective #27. Not true this time, though. From the cover, it looks like this is where the Joker will show up, but according to supplied with the cover online, it looks like he is on the trail of a serial killer known as the Gotham Ripper. I hope that they don't take Joker down as an afterthought in getting ready for this one. I had enough of that back when they were trying to prove that Hush was a bad ass. "When criminals want to scare each other, they tell each other Joker stories." Tony Daniel is handling writing and art.
Batman and Robin: Peter Tomasi and Pat Gleason are looking at the relationship between Bruce Wayne, the one and only Batman and his son Damian, who is serving as Robin. While I loved Batman: Son of the Demon, where Damian was conceived, born, and hidden from Bruce, I'm not a fan of the Damian character. He reminds me of a caricature of Jason Todd back when he was Robin. That said, it will be interesting to see how the harder, less forgiving Bruce deals with him. I am definitely looking forward to seeing if this brings out a more human side of Bruce. 
Batman: The Dark Knight: David Finch is handling writing and sharing art duties with Jay Fabok on this story of Batman heading deep into the halls of Arkham Asylum. On this cover, Batman has his fins back - a little smaller and more subtle, but they are there. This is my selection for the book that might end up being a limited, to be replaced in early 2012. This book has a tough act to follow after the amazing Baman: Arkham Asylum video game. But the Asylum is so rich with story possibilities that I am sure there are other angles to be taken. 
Batwoman: It's great to see Batwoman still around. Not to mention that it is nice to see a mainstream lesbian hero. The cover of her new book looks great, and the creative team is J.H. Williams III, Haden Blackman and Amy Reeder. She is one of the best things to come from all of the recent Crises, and it is great to see her still around as part of the New DCU. This book will not be hard to drag me into. Batwoman has been a very practical, kick-ass kind of hero, and hopefully she will continue that into this new series. I'm also interested in how much interaction there might be between Batwoman and Batgirl. Two red-headed bat-females swinging around Gotham? That might be too much even for this city to handle.
Batgirl: What? Barbara Gordon back in the tights? Nice. Written by Gail Simone? Amazing! This comic is going be right near the top of my read pile. Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes are sharing artistic duties on this book. Gail did such a great job with this character as Oracle in Birds of Prey, it will be great to see how she writes Babs as Batgirl. This one is definitely "don't miss." According to the DC website, "Batgirl’s going to have to face the city’s most horrifying new villains as well as dark secrets from her past," which should be interesting - really looking forward to some new villains by Gail Simone,and particularly to see how those characters are realized by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes. This book holds the promise of being a well-written, beautiful title. Interesting that the image name for this cover (from the DC website) has "solicitation only" in the name... Not sure if this means anything.
Catwoman: Still a thief in the night - still obsessed with Batman. Judd Winick and Guillem March bring this take on DC's top thief, and frequent anti-hero. I'll be honest - this character has never held my interest in her own series, and I have tried a few times. I've enjoyed Winick's work, in the past - he was great on Exiles - and hope that he can break my streak with this one. I think that Winick's history of exploring gay issues in his books will lend itself well to the more diverse look that DC is going for with the New DCU. Guillem March's art style should lend itself very well to sensuous Catwoman, as it did in Gotham Sirens. 
Birds of Prey: Well, I guess that isn't Black Canary on the cover of Justice League International. A new take on the birds, featuring Black Canary, Katana (I think), Poison Ivy, and... Grace? Realy not sure who that last character is, but it could be Grace Choi from the Outsiders. Could be someone new. Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz are doing this one. I hate to be negative before I even see the book, but I do not like the look of Katana here. A little too much like Marvel's Silver Samurai. Nor do I like the new Black Canary costume. I appreciate the attempt to keep the fishnets, but that outfit just isn't working for me. Still the writing could well carry it. It will be weird after all this time to read a BoP book without Gail Simone writing it, but change can be good. I'm definitely going to give Swiercynski and Saiz the chance to wow me here. 
Nightwing: Dick Grayson back where he belongs - not as Batman, but as his own man - Nightwing. Not that he didn't make a great Batman. And I loved the way that Two-Face figured out he wasn't the original - because he actually has fun being a hero. Kyle Higgins writes and Eddy Barrows handles the art on this book. I kind of like the latest take on the Nightwing costume. There are fins on his gloves now. Maybe Batman lent him half the length of his fins? Do I seem fin obsessed? He looks bad ass on this cover, and I hope he stays that way, and retains the sense of fun that he has always had, whether it be as a wise-cracking Robin or as Nightwing.
The Red Hood and the Outlaws: Arsenal, less of a mess than when I last saw him and Starfire being led by former Robin Jason Todd as the Red Hood. This one looks like it might be a little dark for my preferences, but the art by Kenneth Rocafort looks great, and Scott Lobdell is a solid writer. I will definitely be checking this out. I likely won't be staying with it. But I can certainly see how others would really enjoy it. I've always liked Arsenal. With luck, he will retain some of his wise cracking womanizing ways we used to see from him, before he entered a crap spiral that cost him his daughter, his arm and sent him off in some weird directions.
Batwing: Justice over Africa. the first black Batman will be featured in this series by Judd Winick and Ben Oliver. This is a series that comes from Grant Morrison's current work on Batman, Inc. in which Batman is spreading out, franchising the mantle of the bat to make the whole world safer. This one will definitely be worth checking out, though I am not optimistic on how long it will be lasting. I haven't seen too many books based outside the US perform very well, but I admire DC for trying this again. I also think this will be a great platform for Winick to look at the impact of AIDS in Africa. Some really interesting books here, but I cannot help but notice the lack of a certain member of the Bat Family - Tim Drake. Here's hoping they announce a Teen Titans or Young Justice-style book with him in it as the leader. It'll also be interesting to see what (if anything) has happened to Cassie Cain as Batgirl.
The twelfth book is the return of Grant Morrison's Batman, Inc. promised for early 2012. I find Morrison to be very hit or miss. I love his work on All Star Superman, and Animal Man. His Doom Patrol work was out there, in a great way. JLA: Earth 2 was a great read. But at the same time, had to force myself through Final Crisis, and didn't like his modern take on the Seven Soldiers and re-invention of the New Gods.
If my counting is right, there have now been 26 books announced for the September release - half way there. Next - The dark side of the DCU.
1 comment:
Interesting to hear about all these Bat titles, though I guess I still have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth from a return to active comic collecting some years back. As you may recall, my collecting was on indefinite hiatus because I got tired of the ongoing "Story continued in [some other title I didn't collect]" issues - and the first title I bought upon my return was an interesting Batman story that, sure enough, had a "story continued in [some other title I didn't collect]" teaser at the end. With 11 titles, there's going to be A LOT of crossover stories here. If you can keep up with them all, more power to you. If you'd want to read only a handful of them, as I would, I suspect you'd be pretty hosed pretty quickly.
I didn't know that Bruce was franchising out the Batman concept. That's a kinda cool idea, and I like that while those who don the cape will of course need to meet certain criteria, they'll each be their own individuals, as well, which has a lot of potential with headbutting.
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