Here we are. The final moments of calm before the storm of Rebirth is actually upon us in full force. Next week is Wondercon, and DC’s scheduled press event to unveil the Rebirth creative teams and details. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been making yourself sick with anxiety over the whole affair so having a light at the end of the tunnel is both welcome and a little bit horrifying.
So far, the only solid Rebirth news we’ve been given creative team wise has been an announcement that Rob Williams (Martian Manhunter) will be joining Jim Lee on the new Suicide Squad book. William’s has impressed me with Martian Manhunter, but the choice struck me as odd considering that Steve Orlando (Midnighter) has been working with the Suicide Squad cast in Midnighter’s solo book for the past few issues. It felt like it could have been a sort of “trial run” for the Midnighter team to make the hop over to Suicide Squad this summer. Apparently not.
And speaking of Steve Orlando, it was announced today that he is among the next group of writers and artists to sign exclusive contracts with DC, along with Doc Shaner, and Jesus Merino. That brings the total of announced exclusive contracts up to 6 with the previous three being Tom King, Clay Mann, and John Timms.
It’s a pretty safe bet that even more exclusive contract announcements are going to be coming leading up to, and immediately following the Rebirth announcements and that everyone on the exclusive list is going to be handling one of the (probably one of the many bi-weekly) titles at Rebirth’s initial launch phase.
Steve Orlando’s issues of the currently running weekly Batman & Robin: Eternal have been some of the strongest in the series so here’s hoping that Orlando gets his hands on the new Red Hood & The Outlaws book.
Also in the realm of bi-weekly books, it was announced today that The Adventures of Supergirl, the digitally released CBS Supergirl tie-in book is scheduled to actually go to print and hit shelves as a bi-weekly 6 issue run before it’s collected edition release in the fall. The bi-weekly print run is scheduled to start on May 11th.
In weirdly well timed news, both Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill were announced as the voices of Bruce and the Joker in the upcoming animated incarnation of The Killing Joke. This announcement comes pretty hot on the heels of some Killing Joke discussion I spoke about last week. While I think it’s great that Conroy and Hamill are going to be working in the DCAU again, I could not be less enthused about the prospect of an animated Killing Joke movie.
Just in case anyone forgot about the upcoming Telltale Batman game (hopefully they haven’t, because my excitement could fuel a thousand suns), here’s the teaser we were given a couple months back:
I bring this up because it’s time to set your set your alarms and shovel even more coal into the hype train engines. TODAY at 4:30 PM central time, Telltale will be simulcasting their panel from SXSW called “BATMAN: Telltale Unmasked” where we will finally be getting some concrete info about the game and the studio’s plans.
Maybe even a real trailer!
Information about how and when to tune in can be found here.
And finally, to cap off a pretty slow week before we gear up for Rebirth mania, in the realm of “Oh my god, are you serious?” there’s been an eruption of talk about a Lobo movie getting put into the big Hollywood machine. Rumor has it that Wonder Woman screen writer Jason Fuchs has been tapped to start working on a script.
The future is a really weird place, you guys.
So get some rest, strap yourselves in and prepare to weather the Rebirth storm next week because it’s happening, for better or for worse. We’re doing this.
The bi-weekly thing just pisses me off to no end.