Announced this afternoon via Twitter, Jeff Lemire (“Sweet Tooth,” “Old Man Logan”) and Keith Giffen (“O.M.A.C.,” “Legion of Super-Heroes”) are bringing the Inferior 5 back to DC Comics. The series will co-written by both, with Giffen illustrating, and with Lemire writing and drawing backups. The first backup will feature Peacemaker.
I am doing a new INFERIOR 5 series drawn and co-written by Keith Giffen! And I'll be writing AND drawing back up stories in every issue. pic.twitter.com/IiNKSPxvyU
— Jeff Lemire (@JeffLemire) October 8, 2017
The Inferior 5 series by Keith Giffen and I will be set in the continuity of DC in the late 80's and feature many characters published then! pic.twitter.com/mLORA6Bjrw
— Jeff Lemire (@JeffLemire) October 8, 2017
My Sweet Tooth partner Jose Villarubia will be contingent my Peacemaker back-ups in the new Inferior 5 pic.twitter.com/sYl5DQZGqr
— Jeff Lemire (@JeffLemire) October 8, 2017
Keith Giffen is one of my all time heroes. Can't tell you how exciting it is to be writing and co-plotting a book for him to draw.
— Jeff Lemire (@JeffLemire) October 8, 2017
If you’re wondering who the Inferior 5 are, that’s not a crazy question to ask. Despite debuting 51 years ago, the team has appeared fewer than 40 times, not counting things like “Who’s Who” or other resource material. Essentially a parody of a superhero team, the team was made up of members Merryman, the Blimp, Dumb Bunny, White Feather, and Awkwardman. They had one series, which ran for 12 issues, in the late 60. Most recently, they showed up in an issue of “Bat-Mite,” the out of continuity miniseries from 2015.
The fact that the book is set in late-80s continuity is something really different for DC, who rarely publish new material set in the past. The most recent example coming to mind is “New Teen Titans: Games,” which was started many years ago but not completed until 2011. This is an era that Giffen is intimately familiar with, as he was co-writing “Justice League International” at the time, and the Inferior 5, at least as we’ve seen them in the past, would fit in well with the “Bwahaha” era. This would also be a time when a young Lemire might have been buying comics.
Lemire’s first backup will feature Peacemaker, another relatively obscure DC character who ‘fights for peace.’ I can’t possibly summarize part of his fictional biography better than Wikipedia already did:
Smith later learns that his peace-through-violence efforts were the result of a serious mental illness brought on by the shame of having a Nazi death camp commandant for a father. He believes his father’s spirit haunts him continually and criticizes his every move, even as he tries to live down his past.
Becoming a particularly deadly vigilante who would kill at the slightest notice, he begins to believe that the ghosts of the people he killed, or who were killed in his vicinity, are collected inside his helmet and can offer him advice and commentary.
The two did co-write together in the past, as part of the four-man “New 52 Future’s End” weekly series, alongside Dan Jurgens and Brian Azzarello. While Lemire’s work often has subtle humor in it, he is not the first creator to come to mind of a series like this, which is part of what makes the announcement so surprising and exciting.
For longtime DC fans, this sounds like an incredibly fun series and, with the high profile talent on it, it has a good chance to be the most successful comic to feature either properties.
UPDATE: The series will be 12 issues long and will launch in June 2018. There is also a preview of Lemire’s Peacemaker backup available here.
