Tonight at the Batman Family panel at San Diego Comic Con, it was announced that Peter Tomasi (“Green Lantern Corps,” “Superman”) and Doug Mahnke (“Final Crisis,” “Green Lantern”) would be the new creative team on “Detective Comics,” starting with December’s #994. DC made clear that this is the team that is building to “Detective Comics” #1000, due to hit in March, which will be the second superhero title to reach one thousand issues in the past year at DC.
Tomasi and Mahnke are no strangers to Batman comics, both having handled the character across a variety of titles. Tomasi, most notably, wrote 39 issues of “Batman and Robin” during the New 52, while Mahnke handled the ‘Under the Hood’ story in “Batman,” which brought Jason Todd back from the dead. Tomasi and Mahnke have worked together in the past a fair amount, on “Superman,” “Superman/Wonder Woman,” and “Batman/Superman.”
Since James Tynion IV finished his run on the title with #981, there have been a number of fill-in arcs, including the current Black Lightning-guesting run from Bryan Hill, and an upcoming arc by James Robinson. Tomasi recently wrapped up a nearly 2-year run on “Superman.”
Little information has been revealed about the story that Tomasi and Mahnke will be telling, but this is clearly a team that DC feels strongly about, because they wouldn’t put just anyone on the ramp up to this milestone issue.
The December solicitations should reveal more information in October.