DC Ink and Zoom Titles Updated Release Schedule

Dear Justice League

Launching a new imprint, particularly to target a market you’ve had trouble approaching in the past, is hard. That’s why I’m not surprised, now that we’re in 2019, to see that the DC Ink and DC Zoom schedules have changed a bit. I wrote about the planned first releases last summer, but now that the first books will be out in just a couple of months, I thought I’d check back into the scheduled titles.

With DC Zoom, for middle grade readers (ages 8-12), the first two titles are on track. Super Sons: The Polarshield Project, by Ridley Pearson and Ile Gonzalez, will be out April 2019 as planned.

Super Sons: The Polarshield Project

Jon Kent and Damian “Ian” Wayne are opposite in every way except one — they are the sons of the World’s Greatest Heroes! To uncover a global conspiracy, this unlikely dynamic duo will need to learn to trust each other and work together to save the Earth. But who is the mysterious Candace, and what secrets does she hold that could be the key to everything?

The polar ice caps have nearly melted away, causing devastation to coastal cities. Erratic, deadly weather forces everyone inland, tearing families apart. Earth is facing its greatest crisis–and Superman and Batman are nowhere to be found.

It’s being billed as first “in an epic new series”, which I didn’t know before. That’s followed by DC Super Hero Girls: Spaced Out, by Shea Fontana and Agnes Garbowska, delayed a little from the original May to June. (Since this ran digitally from October 2017 to April 2018, they can put it out any time.)

DC Super Hero Girls: Spaced Out

Earth’s new Green Lantern, Jessica Cruz, learns that she must report to Oa and introduce herself to the Green Lantern Corps — as if learning new powers and being the new girl at Super Hero High weren’t enough! Luckily, some of her new friends are willing to accompany Jessica. But when they arrive, instead of the Green Lantern Corps they find General Zod, Faora, and Non. While the spacefaring girls take on this intergalactic threat, the Earthbound students are faced with their own challenge — pet-sitting Krypto! It’s Kryptonian chaos across the universe!

However, the third book, out in August, was going to be Batman: Overdrive, by Shea Fontana and Marcelo Di Chiara. One book site is now listing this as indefinitely postponed. In its place is coming Dear Justice League by Michael Northrop and Gustavo Duarte.

Dear Justice League

The greatest heroes in the DC Comics universe, the Justice League, answer mail from their biggest fans–kids! Does Superman ever make mistakes? What was Wonder Woman’s eleventh birthday like? Does Aquaman smell like fish? In this new middle-grade graphic novel, iconic heroes are asked questions both big and small, and when they are not busy saving the world, the Justice League even finds time to respond. Their honest and humorous answers will surprise and delight readers of any age, as it turns out that being a superhero is not too different from being a kid.

No word either way on the fourth launch title, Black Canary: Ignite, due in October by Meg Cabot and Cara McGee.

Moving to DC Ink, the young adult imprint for ages 13 and up, they’ve also lost one of their first books. The first two are still as planned, with the launch title, Mera: Tidebreaker out in April, by Danielle Paige and Stephen Byrne.

Mera: Tidebreaker

Princess Mera is teenage royalty and heir to the throne of Xebel, a penal colony ruled by the other no-so-lost land under the sea, Atlantis. Her father, his court and the entire kingdom are expecting her to marry and introduce a new king. But Mera is destined to wear a different crown….

When the Xebellian military plots to overthrow Atlantis and break free of its oppressive regime, Mera seizes the opportunity to take control over her own destiny by assassinating Arthur Curry — the long-lost prince and heir to the kingdom of Atlantis. But her mission gets sidetracked when Mera and Arthur unexpectedly fall in love. Will Arthur Curry be the king at Mera’s side, or will he die under her blade as she attempts to free her people from persecution?

An astonishing graphic novel that explores duty, love, heroism and freedom, all through the eyes of readers’ favorite undersea royalty…. a Mera and Aquaman origin story that explores Mera’s first steps on land, and her first steps as a hero or villain, forcing her to choose to follow her heart or her mission to kill.

That’s followed in May by Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale, by Lauren Myracle and Isaac Goodhart.

Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale

When fifteen-year-old Selina Kyle, aka the future Catwoman, becomes homeless, she must confront questions of who she is and who she will become. She rejects human cruelty, but sometimes it seems as though brute force is the only way to “win.” And if Selina is to survive on the streets, she must be tough. Can she find her humanity and reconcile toughness with her desire for community … and love?

The third book (originally a launch title) was supposed to be Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh. That’s now moved to September.

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass

… a coming-of-age story about choices, consequences, justice, fairness, and progress and how a weird kid from Gotham’s poorest part of town goes about defining her world for herself. Harleen is a tough, outspoken, rebellious kid who lives in a ramshackle apartment above a karaoke cabaret owned by a drag queen named MAMA. Ever since Harleen’s parents split, MAMA has been her only family. When the cabaret becomes the next victim in the wave of gentrification that’s taking over the neighborhood, Harleen gets mad.

When Harleen decides to turn her anger into action, she is faced with two choices: join Ivy, who’s campaigning to make the neighborhood a better place to live, or join The Joker, who plans to take down Gotham one corporation at a time. Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass is at once a tale of the classic Harley readers know and love, and a heartfelt story about the choices teenagers make and how they can define — or destroy — their lives.

So before it, in July, will be Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo.

Teen Titans: Raven

When a tragic accident takes the life of seventeen-year-old Raven Roth’s foster mom — and Raven’s memory — she moves to New Orleans to live with her foster mother’s family and finish her senior year of high school.

Starting over isn’t easy. Raven remembers how to solve math equations and make pasta, but she can’t remember her favorite song or who she was before the accident. When strange things start happening — impossible things — Raven starts to think it might be better not to know who she was in her previous life. But as she grows closer to her foster sister, Max, her new friends, and Tommy Torres, a guy who accepts her for who she is now, Raven has to decide if she’s ready to face what’s buried in the past… and the darkness building inside her.

This will be first in a series exploring various of the Teen Titans. The only other book from the original list of planned titles I could find was Batman: Nightwalker, by Marie Lu and Christian Wildgoose, which is due out in October. She previously wrote a prose novel of the same name, so I’m assuming that’s an adaptation.



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