As announced at everyone’s favorite comic book website Entertainment Weekly, DC has announced two brand new ongoing Batman Family books — because if there’s one thing the comic market can never get enough of, it’s books with Batman!
Ostensibly taking the spotlight away from Batman, though, the two new books are “Arkham Manor” and “Gotham Academy.” “Manor” will find Wayne Manor turned into a new psychiatric ward apparently in place of Arkham Asylum, and will focus on a new mystery when some inmates turn up dead. “Academy,” on the other hand, will focus on a school to which Bruce Wayne is a patron, and will be a teen drama set within the walls of the prep school. And while the article is not entirely clear, it does seem to imply that Batman will not be a major part of both titles, but rather an omnipresent figure — perhaps akin to “Gotham Central,” which is arguably DC’s best Batman comic book of the past decade (and, of note, the inherent inspiration for Gotham, among other things).
While putting out more Batman books makes sense for DC’s commitment to publish All Batman, All The Time™, it could be interesting to see what happens when you take the Bat out of the Batbooks. And not only that, but what actually makes this new and different from the standard New 52 announcements is the creative teams.
For one, “Arkham Manor” will be written by Gerry Duggan and illustrated by Shawn Crystal. Duggan has become a Marvel staple with “Deadpool,” “Nova” and “Hulk,” while Shawn Crystal was last seen drawing “Fantomex MAX,” also at Marvel. To my understanding, this book will be both of their first forays into the world of DC Comics as Marvelites, and that should make for some interesting reading.
Meanwhile, “Gotham Academy” is co-written by Becky Cloonan and “Brendan Fletcher” (more on him in a bit) and drawn by Karl Kerschl, which perhaps makes this the most indie-darling title of all of DC’s line-up. Cloonan was the first woman to illustrate the main “Batman” title and is an incredibly popular artist, but while we’ll miss her illustrations on the series it stands worth noting that Cloonan is an Eisner-nominated artist and writer for her mini-comics. Meanwhile, Karl Kerschl, while having worked for DC in the past, has just about exclusively been working on his webcomic “The Abominable Charles Christopher” for the past few years, so it’ll be very interesting to see him come to DC with Cloonan to work together.
And while Entertainment Weekly credits the co-writer seat to “Brendan Fletcher,” most known to comic fans as the actor of Parasite on Smallville, I believe they mean Brenden Fletcher who wrote and illustrated a short for DC’s “Wednesday Comics” and worked on the Assassin’s Creed graphic novel “Brahman” with Cameron Stewart and Kerschl, which is another check in the win column for “Academy.”
There is certainly no lack for Bat-Family titles in the market from DC, but both titles here seem like they want to basically coast on the legacy of the Bat while exploring different aspects of Gotham, which is of course a) DC’s most profitable area in their universe and b) the setting for an upcoming show on FOX. It’s a very logical move comics wise, but both creative teams are really strong showings towards actually trying something different here. It’ll be interesting to see if that is accomplished.
Both books hit in October.
