DC New 52 Hardcovers, Green Lantern The Animated Series And Superman Continuity

Last night saw the world premiere of Green Lantern: The Animated Series on both Cartoon Network and Teletoon. Both treated it as a special televised event, with the former referring to the two-part pilot as a one-hour TV movie called “Green Lantern: Beware My Power” (which is actually the name of the first episode). Teletoon, on the other hand, simply treated the special as it is: a preview of the upcoming series that will air early 2012. Prior to the special, Teletoon aired a re-broadcast of the DC Universe direct-to-DVD feature Green Lantern: First Flight.



Fans were very sceptical of Green Lantern: The Animated Series on account of how, well, terrible the initial teaser trailer looked. However, take a look at the above video and you can see for yourself just how good of a job Bruce Timm and co. have done. The animation style is a beautiful mesh of Bruce Timm’s DCAU (home to several TV series such as Justice League Unlimited) and Disney’s The Incredibles. On top of this, the show didn’t suck. It’s not as gritty as the Geoff Johns run of the comic, but that’s to be expected considering this is aimed at kids. However, the show doesn’t come off as childish at all. Instead, it’s just more of an adventure story instead of a character-driven drama. Think Green Lantern Corps instead of Green Lantern, starring Hal and Kilowog over Kyle and Guy.

In some other DC news, last week the publisher announced through their blog what the release schedule will be for the first wave of DC New 52 hardcovers and TPs will be like. It’s a mixed bag, depending when you want what. Justice League is slated to be the first, arriving in May (most likely the first week of) and consisting of the first six issues. All collections will follow this trend of comprising either the first six or seven issues, depending on the individual title.

Each month will see either seven or eight titles, with the tentative suggested retail prices for the hardcovers being $24.99 and the trade paperbacks listed at $14.99. Such a release schedule means that the first wave of trades will run up until November of 2012 (hope you’re not waiting for the first Flash HC to see if it’s worth picking up). DC Comics: The New 52 is a special collection that will contain all 52 first issues and drops next month on the 13th in time for Christmas.

In related news, Action Comics #3 contained some more info pertaining to the Superman continuity and its related titles. Surprisingly, it seems that neither of the titular comics actually takes place in the present. Fans have been aware from the get-go that Action is set in 2005, as it takes place one year prior to Justice League, which in turn is set “5 Years Ago” (plus, Morrison himself confirmed that it’s set in 2005 during several interviews). However, Superman isn’t a comic set in today’s time as initially believed. It’s actually set five years after Action Comics, meaning it takes place a year ago. No reason has been given as to why it is scheduled the way that it is.

Superboy is set in present-day DC times, as it takes place at the same time as Teen Titans which definitely is. There’s no information as to when Supergirl takes place, but it is generally assumed that it is set in the present, as well. All we know for a fact is that it takes place after Superman got his armoured costume, meaning at some unknown point in Action Comics’ future.

On a final note, it has been announced that Action Comics will be receiving back-up stories, just as Justice League will be having a back-up Shazam story. The back-ups focus on secondary characters, such as the Kents and to give additional information pertaining to the story arc. This will begin with issue four, which will feature the debut of The New 52’s Metallo and Steel.