Over the past week, DC made several “announcements” (we say that in quotes because really, they just put pictures on the internet for people to react to), and rather than do a million posts about DC — which would be pretty grating for everyone — we’ve saved them up for one big post today, sure to inform you and tickle your funny bone accordingly.
So for starters, DC revealed the first look at the new Ravagers team a la the cover of the first issue. Spinning out of Scott Lobdell’s work on Superboy, the Ravagers will see release on May 30th by Howard Mackie and Ian Churchill, with a line-up consisting of “Caitlin Fairchild, a brother and sister named Thunder and Lightning, the “monstrous” Ridge, a red Beast Boy and a new version of Terra” (as revealed in an interview at Newsarama).
Ravagers will debut just in time for a new crossover called “the Culling” between it, Teen Titans, Superboy and Legion Lost, which is DC’s nice way of forcing you to check out the title if you happen to be reading any of the aforementioned. Pretty sneaky, guys.
Over on DC’s blog, the cover to World’s Finest was released, revealing a redesigned Power Girl costume for the DCnU. While Power Girl has appeared non-powered over in Mister Terrific under her civilian name Karen Starr as arm candy, fans have been hoping for her to see a proper return to comics after her rather big popular streak in the past few years, spinning from Palmiotti, Gray and Conner’s run on her solo title. DC has in turn given her her own book alongside the Huntress, written by Paul Levitz and featuring art by George Perez, Scott Koblish and Kevin Maguire.
Yet just as Huntress gained a new costume for the DCnU (in a mini written by Levitz and illustrated by Marcus To), so does Power Girl — and its most noticeable change to every guy on the internet is that the popular boob window has been thrown to the wind in exchange for an incredibly gaudy P in the style of the new Superman S — and pants.
Truly this is a shocking development, worth lots of discussion.
Finally, DC revealed a variant cover for their new Earth-2 book, Earth Two, rather than the regular title which might “explain something.” The variant, illustrated by Ivan Reis, features Flashpoint-esque versions of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman — aka, the main players in the Justice League — armored up and battling Parademons.
This is important if for only two things: 1) It shows that Earth Two is going to be somewhat of a reflection of the current New 52 line, given that the cover is clearly in reference to the first arc of Justice League, and 2) It changes pretty much everything about the perception of what the title was going to be. Fans had assumed that Earth Two would be more of a “back to basics” thing for DC, offering up something for fans that preferred elements of previous continuity (such as the Justice Society) while still making it all “new reader friendly” (after all, there had been rumors of a Robinson/Scott Justice Society book for some time). All the talk from fans had circled around this being another Golden Age, or even JSA: All Stars. Yet, while the book’s revealed solicit information reads “Starring ALAN SCOTT, JAY GARRICK and many others!”, it seems that things aren’t as simple as “Justice Society forms, begets all other superhero groups, everyone wins.”
Only time will tell, I suppose. But until then, fans can look forward to spending $3.99 for a 40 page comic where “you may think you know Earth 2…but this is DC Comics — The New 52, where anything can happen!”
