DC had been promising for a while that this would be a big week of news for their company, and they haven’t disappointed. They started the week with a lot of news revolving around the follow up series to Blackest Night titled Brightest Day (natch), and they’ve continued pouring it on with even more exciting news. While some of it is incredibly exciting, such as Gail Simone’s return to Birds of Prey, some of it is…unintentionally hilarious.
Like Andy Kubert’s cover to the first issue of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne.
See what I find funny and what I find fantastic after the jump.
The Return of Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey
If you never read it (you probably didn’t), Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey was one of the best series in the past ten years of regular continuity DC. It turned Oracle (Barbara Gordon), Black Canary, Huntress, and others into not just decent support characters but stars in their own right. Simone’s writing on this title was as good as her current work on Secret Six is, except with less violence and less animosity amongst the cast. When this title was canceled I was distraught, and to see it return is a boon for myself and you, even if you hadn’t read it before.
Also, while I’m not a huge Ed Benes fan (I’ve seen Jim Lee before…and you sir are not Jim Lee), he did do a fine job on Birds before, so perhaps his work will be easier to swallow than it has been in recent memory. Of course, the title could be illustrated by Rob Liefeld and Larry Stroman in tandem and I’d probably still read it, because Gail Simone is the (wo)man. Welcome back Birds!
The cover to Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1 (Seriously)
Umm.
So…
Batman is wearing a Man Bat hat and fighting neanderthals with a rock axe?
Umm.
Yeah…this is pretty hilarious.
Get back to me when Andy Kubert draws the real cover.
This is the real cover?
Umm.
This is going to be a weird series.
JLI: Generation Lost
While Keith Giffen and Judd Winick aren’t exactly Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, I can say that Giffen is the man and Winick can do funny write if given the chance (see: Barry Ween, Boy Genius). Plus, anyone working with the cast from JLI has a head start on the funny even if Ted Kord, Bruce Wayne, and Maxwell Lord are out of the picture (my guess is Martian Manhunter returns post Blackest Night and he’s the blacked out figure on the cover, and that is why this ties into Brighest Day).
Also, I have to wonder if Guy Gardner will be making an appearance in this series and how they’ll work Booster Gold into it given his own current series (and its secretive nature), but either way, sign me up. I love the JLI series and this will be a very welcome return.
