Stranger DC titles announced UPDATED!

 Things are taking a stranger turn in the mysterious side of the DCU...

DC Comics continues to roll out announcements of new first-issues featuring famous characters and creators in striking combinations. This morning we start off with two highly intriguing combos: Scott Snyder, who’s been doing such strong work on American Vampire, will write a new version of Swamp Thing, and Jeff Lemire, author of one of comics’ finest current books, Sweet Tooth, is taking on Animal Man.

Since re-workings of Swamp Thing and Animal Man are so closely associated with other, earlier writers (Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, respectively), these re-re-imaginings are bound to be both fascinating and, perhaps inevitably, subjects of debate.

Other new supernatural/fantasy/horror-themed books that will be announced by DC Comics today and scheduled to publish in September include:

• Justice League Dark, what DC terms “a band of supernatural heroes” — John Constantine, Deadman, Shade the Changing Man and Madame Xanadu (wouldn’t it be cool if they really were supposed to be a band?) – written by Peter Milligan.

• Demon Knights, super-heroism set in medieval times, a premise that would have me yawning except that it’s being written by Paul Cornell, who did such a terrific job recently on Knight and Squire, and on Lex Luthor in Action Comics.

• Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE, which may be the most below-the-radar promising of all. The writer is again Jeff Lemire, taking the Frankenstein monster and turning him/it into an action hero alongside other fictional monsters in the service of a government organization: The Super Human Advanced Defense Executive. This giddy mish-mash has the potential for either delicious cleverness or disastrous offal. Either way, I’m in for issue #1.

DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio told me these new titles are intended to “shake up the status quo” and to take the company and its creators “out of their comfort zone,” to inspire “new, fresh” creativity.

Source: Shelf-Life

And more from the DC Comics Blog:

A cult favorite character returns in a new series written by his classic creative team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Joining them is JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST artist Fernando Dagnino. RESURRECTION MAN #1 is the story of a hero who wakes up with new powers each time he’s killed.

Vampires threaten to bring ruin to the DC Universe in I, VAMPIRE #1 by rising star Josh Fialkov and artist Andrea Sorrentino. Tortured by his centuries-old love for the Queen of the Damnned, Andrew Bennett must save humanity from the violent uprising of his fellow vampires, even if it means exterminating his own kind.

Priscilla Kitaen has just found out she’s a monster. A half-alien hybrid, the woman known as Voodoo must confront the secrets of her past to make sense of the nightmare her life has suddenly become. VOODOO #1 will be written by Ron Marz with art by Sami Basri.