Dark side of the DCU

DC has announced several titles that will feature their dark side. As with previous posts, links are to creators' pages where they are available, or to their Twitter accounts. Particularly if a creator's name appears linked more than once in the entry, the second link is likely to be to a Twitter account.

Animal Man: Animal Man for a while was one of DC's most interesting books under Grant Morrison's guiding hand. He was a part of 52, out of his element travelling through space with Starfire and a blind Adam Strange, dying and coming back to life an issue later, leading to a role in Blackest Night and Brightest Day. He has often been on the fringe of most of DC's super heroic world. When last we saw him, he was concentrating on being a husband and father, but this series, written by Jeff Lemire and with art by Travel Foreman and Dan Green, takes a look at what happens to that family life when his daughter Maxine develops dangerous powers of her own. This is the first of two books that Lemire is writing that has Morrison's stamp on it, see Frankenstein below. Great to see a Canadian touch on DC's New DCU!

Demon Knights: "Gone, gone, o form of man! Rise the Demon, Etrigan!" Sorry, had to get that out of my system. Paul Cornell will be writing this series, set in the Middle Ages, featuring the Demon leading a team trying to defend civilization and "preserve the last vestiges of Camelot against the tide of history." I do love that DC is publishing more than your standard big city American super hero fare with this launch. And it will certainly have a strong British flavor with Cornell writing it. I'd give it a chance just based on his having written the "Family of Blood" episode of Doctor Who featuring the tenth Doctor. The art of Diogenes Neves and Oclair Albert is just further incentive. That cover is gorgeous. No indication if anyone we might have heard of is going to be on this team, but I'll give it a shot anyway. Hopefully the Demon is Etrigan, and he is still speaking in rhyme back then. (In current continuity, he is part of caste called rhymers, and always has, but this is a New DCU after all.)

Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE: Jeff Lemire is writing this book along with Animal Man above. Frankenstein was a breakout character from Morrison's Seven Soldiers metaseries. In this series, he is working for a government organization called the Super Human Advanced Defense Executive. Alberto Ponticelli is handling art duties. This sounds like it could be interesting stuff. Shades of Mr. Bones, only a lot more vioient. Ponticelli has done some work for Vertigo, so he certainly does know how to handle the darker side of comics. This one could be interesting, but I don't feel drawn in enough to give it very long to get there.

I, Vampire: Writer Josh Fialkov and artist Andrea Sorrentino bring us this story of a vampire who has to defend the DCU against his kind, even if it means going his love, the Queen of the Damned. I've not read anything by Fialkov, but he has gotten good reviews from good people for several of his previous series. Andrea Sorrentino's work is gorgeous. This one has definite potential, and I am looking forward to it. I do enjoy vampire stories, and have always rather enjoyed horror-themed comics. It makes sense to try something like this in the wake of the success of the Walking Dead. It will be interesting to see how this one works out. I am not sure if this idea will lend itself well to an ongoing, but then they haven't been specific if this is destined to be an ongoing or just a limited series.

Justice League Dark: Okay, some people are going to hate this one. This comic is going to put John Constantine, Deadman, Shade the Changing Man and Madame Xanadu together, to "stop the dark things the rest of the DCU does not see." It seems likely to me that if this crosses over with the standard JLA at all, it will be a big disappointment to fans of this corner of the DCU. That said, I like Constantine and Xanadu, and I have always been kind of fascinated by Shade the Changing Man. Peter Milligan, no stranger to Shade, will be writing this and Mikel Janin will be the artist. I like Janin's work, and Milligan has written some good titles. I was almost going to refer to this book as the "trenchcoat brigade" but realized they have managed to find several mystic characters who don't wear them, at least the cover by Ryan Sook looks like Constantine will be wearing one.

Resurrection Man: DC is going to bring this character back from the dead. Yeah, I know... I couldn't help it. The creative team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning who created Mitch Shelley and wrote his original adventures return to this character with a great concept. Every time he dies, he comes back with different powers. Abnett and Lanning will be joined by artist Fernando Dagnino, whose art I really enjoy. This one feels like it might well be migrating close to the top of my read pile. Cool character written by his talented original creators, with great art? What's not to love. And I'll never forget the time that Resurrection Man appeared with Hitman, and Tommy kept killing him until he got the powers he wanted. That flashback alone makes me want to love this book.

Swamp Thing: Apparently, this is the 40th anniversary of the creation of the character, and he is coming off of his big role in Brightest Day. Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette will be working on this title. DC's nature elemental, looking to divorce himself from his history in that role. DC is launching titles to explore some directions that mainstream comics have not been going in lately, and the new Swamp Thing series is to be a horror title. Snyder has shown an ability with horror, having previously written American Vampire. This title will likely be DC's flagship dark title, and looks like it will be a gorgeous book. I am really interested in seeing how these books exemplifying new directions for DC go, and will be watching this one very closely.

Voodoo: This title features Ron Marz writing with Sami Basri doing the art. I've loved some of Marz' work, particularly on Silver Surfer way back when. Basri's artwork is great. Voodoo is a character who existed in the Wildstorm Universe, and is now in the mainstream DCU. This brings up interesting possibilities regarding some of the other Wildstorm characters, like seeing the Authority or Planetary in the mainstream DCU. I'm really looking forward to seeing if they keep Voodoo's origin, which was strongly tied in to much of the Wildstorm universe's mythology, or if they introduce a new angle that makes her a little more stand-alone. Either way, this is a great indicator that we could see Majestic, Grifter and more in the DC Universe, and it could be great.

Next: Looking at the teenagers in the DCU. Tim Drake is back! And one title that may supplant even Gail Simone's Batgirl as the top book on my to-read list.