HYPE!

Vampirella wasn't the only reoccurring character from the old Warren comic magazines. One of the supporting characters in Vampirella was the shape shifting Pantha. In June, Pantha will be spinning off into her own book, written by Brandon Jerwa (G.I. Joe, the Shield) and illustrated by Pow Rodrix (Justice League).

Last time out, I was only half-right. We got the Superman redesign today (and another priceless editorial quote), but DC went back to Worlds' Finest yesterday for the Supergirl/Power Girl redesign. Which is to say, we've yet to see an Official redesign sketch of anything that wasn't already on a previously released cover.

Looks like this really is Earth 2's "New Costume Week." I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Superman and Alan Scott/Green Lantern are going to appear in the next two days, although Jay Garrick/The Flash was mentioned in the solicitation.

Oh, we all knew the Watchmen sequel was coming. The art leaked and DC's lawyers went wild -- unusual enough to know something was close to an announcement. Then the last round of announced reprint books included The Art of Amanda Conner (some of her art was in that leaked batch) and a HC reprint of Dave Gibbons' Green Lantern work (more on that in bit) made it clear an announcement was imminent. What do we get with the actual announcement? Comedy. And more comedy from the PR than from the reactions, if you ask me.

After announcing a book for Free Comic Book Day and a lot of teasing, the relaunched Valiant has announced it's first title. X-O Manowar is launching on May 2nd. That's actually the Wednesday BEFORE Free Comic Book Day. X-O's high concept is, roughly stated, Conan in Iron Man's suit. Essentially, a Visigoth warrior/barbarian is abducted by aliens and ends up with the aliens' most advanced weapon in the universe suit of armor. It's also been a popular concept a couple times around, particularly during the first Valiant run. Between the two previous Valiant launches, here's a quick partial list of creators who've worked on X-O: Jim Shooter, Steve Englehart, Barry Windsor-Smith, Bob Layton, Bart Sears, Jackson Guice, Mark Waid, Dwayne McDuffie and Scot Eaton. Which is to say, "no pressure."

The rumor that's been making the rounds is true: Garth Ennis is the writer when Dynamite launches their ongoing revival of the classic pulp franchise, The Shadow. Joining him as the artist is Aaron Campbell, who's been doing Green Hornet: Year One and Dark Shadows for Dynamite.

A little more information on the various crossovers has emerged over the week. Batman/Night of the Owls Over at Newsarama, Scott Snyder has shed a little light on this Batman Event that's spawned its own backup feature.

By Todd Allen DC has just announced Carlos D'Anda as the fill-in artist for Justice League #8.  They describe D'Anda as a "fan favorite," but...

You can't accuse Rob Liefeld of shying away from work. While his old Extreme characters are getting relaunched over at Image, Rob's just been announced as taking over no less than three titles at DC.

You may recall that Dynamite laid hands on the comic book license for The Shadow, a little while back. Come to find out, they also laid hands on the reprint rights for the previous Shadow comics. You know how Dark Horse reprints Marvel Star Wars and Conan comics? Dynamite's going to be doing something similar with DC Shadow comics, and they're starting out with Howard Chaykin's "Blood and Judgement" reboot of the franchise from the mid-80s.

For the moment, it looks like the rumor mill was wrong on the Bat-book backups being linked. At least if they are, it in't in an obvious way. DC has announced the backup in Detective Comics will be a 10-page feature about Harvey Dent, A.K.A. Two-Face. Since this is going to highlight Dent's history, I suppose it's possible the Court of Owls (the backup in Batman) will pop up in Dent's past, but that's not the first thing that comes to mind.

Before we get into the Bat-office's announcements, it has come to my attention that Detective Comics #1 has made the December Top 300 List for Diamond. When #4 is coming out, #1 is still charting? With an index of 3.01, that means Detective #1 sold about 3% of Batman #4. Figure Batman #4 is selling roughly 140-150K, then Detective #1 probably had ~4200-4500 copies order THREE MONTHS after it debuted, if my rough math holds up. I know Animal Man is the fashionable pick for surprise title, but it seems like a lot of people are jumping on the Detective band wagon after the fact. Tony Daniel seems to have hit a nerve.