DC’s Rebirth Line Revealed

This morning at WonderCon, DC comics outlined their ‘Rebirth’ initiative, along with the full creative teams for all the books.

Some of the rumored books/creators wound up being true, like Greg Rucka on “Wonder Woman” and Tom King on “Batman,” but there were a number of legitimate surprises, like “All-Star Batman,” a new Scott Snyder-penned Bat book, and the Superman line, in particular, showing off a healthy stream of new ideas.

The presentation started with Jim Lee and Dan DiDio already pivoting away from Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, with Lee talking about how, despite all the other media opportunities, he and DiDio are ‘comic guys.’ DiDio piped in to say that ‘Rebirth’ is all about the commitment to the fans – he admitted that DC might have ‘lost their way’ a bit in the past, and that ‘something was missing from the New 52.’

From there, the creative teams came out by grouping (Bat, Super/Wonder, Justice League, Harley/Suicide Squad), and each creator on stage talked about what they had in store. See the table below for the full listing, but here are some of the standout announcements:

– “Detective Comics” is now a Bat-team up book, featuring Batman, Red Robin, Cassandra Cain, Spoiler, Clayface, and Batwoman.

– The writers of “Batgirl and the Birds of Prey” are new to comics, but currently write for The 100 on the CW.

– Both Scott Snyder and Amanda Conner are now DC exclusive, and part of Conner’s contract is that she must draw three books for DC over the life of the contract.

– Snyder is writing “All-Star Batman” with a series of star artists, beginning with John Romita Jr. The book will focus on some of the Bat-villains he never got to play with, including Two-Face and Catwoman. The title will ship twice monthly started in August.

– “Action Comics” will focus on both Lex Luthor, who declares himself the Superman of Metropolis, as well as the pre-Flashpoint Lois and Clark.

– “The Super Man” is a Gene Luen Yang book that tells the story of a young Chinese man who somehow gets the powers of Superman.

– “Wonder Woman” is telling two stories concurrently – in the odd issues, Liam Sharpe is illustrating a modern day story called “Lies,” and in the even issues Nicola Scott is illustrating “Wonder Woman: Year One.”

– “The Flash” involves many, many new speedsters after an incident in Central City.

– The “Suicide Squad” lineup is (partially) Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Deadshot, Katana, and Captain Boomerang.

– “Titans” is all about legacy characters ‘that are friends,’ which sounds great, but is illustrated by Brett Booth, which is not.

– “Teen Titans” are led by Damian Wayne, and features the New 52 Wally West, Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy.

– “The Hellblazer” involves both Constantine and Swamp Thing.

– Green Arrow and Black Canary will “finally meet” in “Green Arrow.”

– Both “Green Lanterns” and “Justice League” will feature Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz.

– Red Hood’s new Outlaws are Bizarro and Artemis.

– Of note is that “Earth 2” and “Gotham Academy: Second Semester” were not mentioned once, not even at the end of the presentation, when “Justice League of America” and “Super Sons” were presented sans-creative teams. However, “Academy” co-writer Brenden Fletcher did tweet this out shortly after the presentation:

GOTHAM ACADEMY WILL RETURN!! #DCRebirth pic.twitter.com/EM5XYfu3Fq

— Brenden Fletcher (@brendenfletcher) March 26, 2016

We will be digging in deep to this in a few places this week, including a special “DC3cast” and a “Soliciting Multiversity: DC” piece. Stay tuned for more, and let us know what you think in the comments.