Batwing gets a helmet, plus more comic book news

ComicBookResources had quite the exclusive yesterday with their big interview with DC Comics Editor-In-Chief and Bob Harras and Editorial Director Bobbie Chase. In the interview we learned that a few books will be getting scrapped this May and that some of our Bat-titles will be getting annual issues and entirely new creative teams.

Who’s Getting Canceled?

No Batman titles are getting canceled, which is no surprise since they are among the most DC’s top sellers. But here’s a list of the six titles that are going bye-bye.

Deathstroke
Fury of the Firestorm
The Savage Hawkman (I gave this book a chance at launch and it was terrible)
Ravagers
Sword of Sorcery
Team 7

I’m pretty surprised to see the last three get cut so soon. Those are all fairly new titles that weren’t really given much of a chance. However, they also were books that didn’t exactly look that appealing and I hadn’t heard much buzz about them either so I guess it’s not a huge loss. Still no word on a Shazam solo-title either, which is a shame.

Proving that they have their finger on the pulse of America…if the year is still 2011, DC announced two books that are centered around the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Better late than never I suppose. “The Movement” is by Batgirl scribe Gail Simone with artist Freddie Williams II and “The Green Team” is being written by Art Baltazar and Franco with artist Ig Guara.

Batwing’s New Look & New Creative Team

Surprisingly, Batwing will be getting a new creative team just a few issues after Fabrizio and Fabian took that title over. The new team is made up of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.

Yeah so Batwing. Who cares? Please care.

— Justin V. Gray (@JVGray) February 8, 2013

Artist Ken Lashley also showed off his artwork for the issue #20 cover which confirms my suspicions after reading issue #17 this week and the latest Channel 52 News segment– Batwing is getting brand new armor. Now, Batwing in essence has always been an Iron Man/Batman hybrid (I’m talking about the hero, David isn’t anything like Tony Stark) but with the major difference of looking really, really lame. This new design by Lashley may make the Iron Man parallel a bit more obvious but I think we can all agree that it looks a hell of a lot cooler. Plus, Batwing is now protecting his face!

You can check out more of Ken Lashley’s artwork at THIS LINK.

Who’s Getting an Annual

A few more Bat-titles are also getting annual issues just like Batman, Batgirl, and Batman & Robin have. Oddly enough, Nightwing isn’t one of them (Speaking of which, Nightwing artist Eddy Barrows will be moving over to Teen Titans and Teen Titans artist Brett Booth is going to Nightwing).