Dynamite Entertainment has made a couple of big announcements about upcoming projects – the kind of thing normally reserved for panels at San Diego Comic-Con, which starts this week. However, given how much Big Two news will likely glut the nerdscape once the SDCC officially kicks off, it makes sense that Dynamite would want to make a splash early to get the word out.
FIrstly, they’ve signed Peter Milligan – writer of Shade The Changing Man, Hellblazer, X-Statix and, more recently, Stormwatch and Red Lanterns – for a new series called Terminal Hero.
“I’ve watched with interest how Dynamite has expanded both physically and creatively over the years,” says Milligan. “During that time, [Dynamite CEO] Nick Barrucci and I have discussed working on a project on and off, but due to a number of reasons, things never quite worked out. Now I have a project which demands a certain kind of publisher — one who’ll give me a lot a creative latitude and is willing to go to some dark, edgy, and honest places. Terminal Hero is about one poor bastard’s rollercoaster ride through a world that he’s trying to make sense of. It’s about how far you’d go to stay alive. Okay, it occasionally plays with the classic comic book ‘hero’ genre, but I aim to push it to places that normal comic books don’t go. Luckily, Dynamite isn’t afraid to go there!”
Another big “get” for Dynamite is the abruptly-departing writer of Earth 2 (and also writer of Starman and The Shade, among many others), James Robinson. His sudden, hasty exit from DC may be one more log on the fire about editorial micromanagement or just mismanagement, but it looks like Robinson is already on to greener pastures and other passions – most notably, a new book called Grand Passion.
“I’m thrilled to be working with Nick Barrucci and Dynamite Entertainment on a series I think will surprise a lot of readers,” Robinson said. “Grand Passion is definitely a departure from what I’ve been doing in the last few years. This series is about two wayward characters, Doc and Mabel — one a cop, the other a crook — who are fated to fall in love at first sight even as Mabel swears she’ll kill Doc if it’s the last thing she does. It marries elements of a Harlequin romance with hard-boiled crime and takes it off in a direction that’s surprising, funny, violent, and sexy. I’m very excited to roll up my sleeves and immerse myself in writing this tale.”
No artists have been announced for either project yet, but that certainly looks like a Jae Lee piece there for Terminal Hero.
Other tidbits from the flurry of Dynamite news:
– Steve Niles will be giving their “flagship comic book series” an overhaul with the new ongoing Ash and the Army of Darkness. “What I’m doing with Ash and the Army of Darkness is a complete reboot,” says Niles. “We start and the last frame of the film and then go right to the next. It’s a wild ride and I think fans of the film will be very happy because I am bringing back a lot of what made the movie so fun. My run of Ash and the Army of Darkness takes place almost entirely in the 1300’s setting. That was what made Army of Darkness stand apart. I’m hoping readers agree.”
– Tony Lee will be doing a Starbuck miniseries based on the classic 1978 Battlestar Galactica. “I’ve always liked the scoundrels,” says Lee. “Han Solo and Starbuck taught me a lot about life between them, so I probably owe a whole load of broken relationships and split lips during my teen years to them both. When Dynamite came to me with a suggestion to do a Starbuck story, I jumped at the opportunity. Bar the fact that he was an amnesiac child after the attack on Umbra, we don’t know much about Starbuck’s history, mainly because we only had thirteen episodes (and a flashback Galactica 1980 special) to learn about him. I wanted to fill in these gaps. I wanted to see the Starbuck that existed before the show. How did he meet Apollo? Why does Adama treat him like a surrogate son? Who taught him to smoke and gamble and womanize? What shaped the man we know, and more importantly, why did the Cylons attack Umbra that fateful day? That right there was when I knew the story I wanted to tell.”
