Today at BookCon, DC Comics revealed the covers to the Spring 2020 slate of its DC Ink imprint, targeted at Young Adult readers. The imprint, announced last year, recently kicked off with the publication of Mera: Tidebreaker and Under the Moon: a Catwoman Tale. Joining an already-announced list of titles including Teen Titans: Raven and Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass are four titles set in Batman’s corner of the DC Universe. These books star familiar fan-favorite characters including Barbara Gordon, Dick Grayson, and Bruce Wayne himself.
The Oracle Code will follow Barbara Gordon in the early days of her career as Oracle. While she might best be known as the high-flying Batgirl, there are have been multiple times in the history of her character where she has used used her photographic memory and genius level intellect to help save the world as a hacker and information broker. Most memorably, she performed this role for a time following the violent events of The Killing Joke, where an encounter with the Joker paralyzed her. After the events of that story, she used a wheelchair and became a prominent example of a comic book hero living with a disability. This book will be written by Marieke Nijkamp of This is Where It Ends and illutsrated by Manuel Preitano.
While Barbara Gordon won’t be performing the role of Batgirl in the DC Ink line, we are still getting a Batgirl book. Shadow of the Batgirl will focus on Cassandra Cain, a character who has historically been criminally underused but is now, at last, getting her due. This book will be written by Sarah Kuhn, whose novel I Love You So Mochi was just released by Scholastic, and illustrated by Nicole Goux (Jem and the Holograms: Dimensions 3).
Not much information is publicly known about Gotham High, but the characters showcased on the cover look rather boisterous and confident in a way only a teenager could muster, right? Could that be a young Bruce Wayne slumped at his school desk? And please, tell me more about the cat. This book will be written by Melissa de la Cruz of the Blue Bloods series and illustrated by Thomas Pitilli.
Finally, The Lost Carnival: a Dick Grayson Graphic Novel will be written by Michael Moreci and illustrated by Sas Milledge. Moreci is likely one of the DC Ink writers fans of mainstream comic books already know best, having done work on a variety of comics such as Detective Comics, Roche Limit, and Wasted Space. He also recently signed a multi-project deal with Vault Comics. The cover image below draws heavily from the Art Deco period and the title indicates a focus on Dick’s childhood background as a circus performer.
But before we get to all these books, there’s still a number of titles to come this year from DC Ink. At the panel, DC Comics shined a spotlight on the two authors whose books are already out: Danielle Paige and Lauren Myracle. Mariko Tamaki also got a chance to discuss her upcoming Harley Quinn title, illustrated by Steve Pugh. and finally, Kami Garcia, the author of the upcoming Teen Titans: Raven, got to unveil the offical trailer for hers and Gabriel Picolo‘s graphic novel.
Teen Titans: Raven follows a 17-year-old girl named Rachel Roth, who moves to New Orleans “to live with her foster mother’s family after a tragic accident.” Then, her “past and present collide” as mysterious things start happening during her senior year in high school. Teen Titans: Raven will hit shelves on July 2nd and kick off a multi-part Teen Titans series written by Garcia and drawn by Picolo.
As a bonus treat, panel attendees got to learn about the next installment of DC Ink’s Teen Titans series– Teen Titans: Beast Boy, also to be released in 2020 alongside the Bat-family books. A segment of this comic will be previewed in Teen Titans: Raven.
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