The creative team behind DC’s Rorschach series will reunite in December for Danger Street, a new DC Black Label miniseries featuring a variety of DC characters in a “deeply layered crime drama.”
Tom King, Jorge Fornés and Dave Stewart are pulling their line-up for this one from an obscure 1970s title, DC First Issue Special. This was an oddball series where every issue was a first issue, introducing a brand new concept or re-imaging a dormant one that, conceivably, could then be spun off into its own series (although that only happened in a couple of cases).
In a video trailer for the new series, King calls the concepts introduced in First Issue Special “the weirdest stuff DC ever made.” He’ll bring all of them together into a huge crime story, including the better-known characters like The Creeper and Doctor Fate and the lesser-known Green Team and Dingbats of Danger Street.
“What if all these people existed in the same world?” King said, who added that the redesigns by Fornés will be “classic but modernized.” Here’s the trailer:
And here’s the description from DC’s press release:
Joining the Justice League is a goal for any superhero, but what happens when a quest for membership takes a sinister turn? Join Starman, Metamorpho, and Warlord as they look to prove themselves worthy by summoning and defeating Darkseid in battle. Soon they’ll learn that calling upon a New God never ends well, and their world is headed for disaster as a result! The journey to save the day will be a treacherous one filled with princesses, knights, and all kinds of monsters. Each person the heroes encounter plays a crucial role in this sprawling yet gripping narrative that is a little bit silly, a whole lot dark, and completely cool.
The first issue features variant covers by Steve Rude, Lee Weeks and Ben Oliver:
Part of the fun here will be in seeing how each concept featured in First Issue Special will show up in this story. Those concepts include:
- Atlas, who appeared in the first issue in a story by Jack Kirby and D. Bruce Berry
- The Green Team, Boy Millionaires by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti
- Metamorpho by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon
- Lady Cop by Robert Kanigher, John Rosenberger and Vince Colletta
- Manhunter by Jack Kirby and D. Bruce Berry
- Dingbats of Danger Street by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer
- The Creeper by Michael Fleisher, Steve Ditko and Mike Royer
- The Warlord by Mike Grell
- Doctor Fate by Martin Pasko and Walt Simonson
- The Outsiders by Joe Simon, Jerry Grandenetti and Creig Flessel … not to be confused with the team that included Batman, Black Lightning, etc. This was a different concept entirely.
- Codename: Assassin by Gerry Conway, Steve Skeates, The Redondo Studio and Al Milgrom
- Starman by Gerry Conway, Mike Vosburg and Mike Royer, featuring the Mikaal Thomas version of the character
- Return of the New Gods by Gerry Conway, Denny O’Neil and Mike Vosburg
Here’s a look at some pages that feature the Creeper:
The first issue of 12 (they should have made it 13!) will arrive Dec. 13.