Long thought lost to the impending DC relaunch, it looks like Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Batman: Earth One has popped up on Amazon.com, giving a release date of May 8th, 2012 for the graphic novel, as spied by Robot 6.
The description for the product reads as follows:
Geoff Johns, the writer of BLACKEST NIGHT, GREEN LANTERN and INFINITE CRISIS re-teams with superstar artist Gary Frank, his collaborator on SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN, SUPERMAN:BRAINIAC and SUPERMAN & THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, to create this original graphic novel that gives new insight into Bruce Wayne’s transformation into Batman and his first year as The Dark Knight. This follow-up to the # 1 New York Times bestseller, SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE, by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis is the latest in the series that features the industry’s top writers and illustrators and their unique takes on DC’s characters. It’s the perfect book for new readers of graphic novels as well as longtime comic book fans.
It is curious that there has been no formal announcement from DC (that I’ve seen) about this, but it is notable that the book stresses less that this is an “alternate universe” thing but rather Bruce’s first year. This is a curious element, given the DC relaunch that supposedly renders a lot of DC’s previous history mute and given that the major audience of Superman: Earth One were people that weren’t regular Superman readers due to it being an alternate universe story, but c’est la vie. It is actually possible at this point that this could be the new “Year One,” but I think I speak for fans everywhere when I say “Thanks, but no thanks” on that one.
It should also be said that this comes out a little bit before the final Nolan movie (at least, right now – it could get delayed), which seems like a smart way to capitalize on the impending Bat-mania to come.
Either way, look for more information on the graphic novel as we find it.
