Well well, Dynamite is putting together quite a collection of creators, aren’t they? Here’s a big one: Warren Ellis will take over the Project Superpowers universe later this year. Just what that means isn’t entirely clear, but according to senior editor Joe Rybandt, Ellis will be given “carte blanche to reimagine these characters and this world.” A reboot revamp then.
Project Superpower, you may recall, is a relaunch of a bunch of public domain Golden Age superheroes originally revamped (in 2008) by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger. Among the heroes, the Black Terror, The Owl, the original Daredevil The F-Troops and so on. Dynamite has been publishing various mini-series since then, but this would seem to be a clean break from the last version.
Just imagine Warren Ellis writing something called The Black Terror—the possibilities are endless.
In a statement, Ellis wrote, “I’ve long been fascinated by the period in comics that produced these characters, and I’m very much looking forward to working out the strange, atmospheric take on the weird thriller that they inspired. Also, it’s going to be a pleasure to finally do a job through the good offices of my old friend Nick Barrucci.” ”I’ve wanted to work with Warren for many years, and have approached him more than a few times,” Dynamite CEO / Publisher Nick Barrucci added. “I can honestly say that when his schedule allowed for us to work together, I was speechless. We’ve been waiting for the right creative vision to bring back Dynamite’s Superpowers Universe, and I can’t think of anyone better than Warren to do so. I was elated that both came together. He will make this series his own and will bring a larger audience to Dynamite’s Super Powers universe. This is truly an honor to be working with him, as Warren elevates Dynamite to a new level.”
If you’ve been following Ellis’s mailing list, he’s been gallivanting all over the world on a bunch of secret projects, some of hem seemingly showbiz related. His novel Gun Machine is being developed for television, and his Wildstorm mini RED formed the basis of two films. Plus he has a new image series, Trees, coming out later this year, drawn by Jason Howard.
Dynamite sent along some art by Ross, Jae Lee and Steve Sadowski from previous versions of Project Superpowers.
Well, this has got me curious. I read the first few issues of Project Superpowers, but I found it to be a dull, tangled mess and dropped it soon afterwards. I hope that Ellis is given full reign to do his own thing rather than continue anything from the earlier series. There are many very eccentric, very interesting public domain superheroes in that roster and I think that Ellis could make excellent use of them.
I’d rather see Ellis write one good original title than see him “revamp” a whole line that other writers will write.
Ellis’ writing is too grim for me. I won’t be picking this up. I do hope that the previous series will get some sense of closure, since this appears to be a reboot?
I remember when Ellis revamped new universe (newuniversal) for Marvel. Wrote 8 issues in 2 years, magically lost his files and revamp ended. Sure, maybe this revamp will be different but I’d rather wait till we have a couple of arcs done before I pick it up.
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