DC announces new Batman/Superman book

They made him a Godfather like offer, to write batman and Superman in the same book, an offer Greg Pak couldn’t refuse.

Marvel fans know Pak from everything from Incredible Hulk to X-Treme X-Men. His Planet Hulk is a personal favorite and brought me back to the jade giant after a long time. The man certainly knows how to switch teams! Pak makes his DC Comics debut one for the ages with the company’s two biggest icons in the upcoming ongoing series Batman/Superman. The books launches in June and will be drawn by Jae Lee (Inhumans, The Dark Tower).

The enormity of it all is not lost on Pak:

“Working in comics, almost every project you do for DC or Marvel deals with these amazing characters that are so much fun to work with,” Pak says. “But, wow, Superman and Batman? That kind of lifts your hat and spins it around in the air a bit.

“It is a real thrill, and it’s particularly a thrill because we’re being given some real leeway to do some really important storytelling with these characters. It really defines some great things and to depict some really key moments for them.”

Pak has been given the task of filling in a key untold story in the New 52 Lore: The first ever meeting between the two. No pressure though, huh? Bruce Wayne is new to putting on a cape and cowl and patrolling the rooftops of Gotham, while Superman, when not at his day gig, is saving the world in jeans, S-logo Tee, and a cape. Obviously they could not be come from more different backgrounds.

“We’ve been given the incredible opportunity to show these two icons meeting for the first time at this very early and raw stage in their careers,” Pak says. “Neither one of them has ever heard of the other guy.”

“What would your reaction be if you saw a guy running around in a bat costume in the dead of night attacking people for the first time? And what would your reaction be if you met an alien who could crush steel in his bare hands for the first time?” the writer says. “These guys are going to have very different immediate impressions of each other than we’re used to seeing with these characters.

“There’s an element of danger to the book that I think is very real and very exciting.”

To Newsarama Pak said:

“Each of these guys has come up in isolation, finding his own way, figuring out his purpose and methods. The remarkable thing is how similar they are and how similar their missions are. But it’s their differences that define each to the other.”

“I’ll go ahead and say it: Each man sees the other as the most dangerous person on the planet. And each man might be right.”

Yeah, that’s pretty spot on.

Superman/Batman by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness debuted in 2003, and the title lasted until DC’s “New 52” relaunch in August 2011.

Batman/Superman will be the first time Jae Lee and Pak will be working directly together. (Lee had done covers for the 2005 Marvel mini Marvel Nemesis: The Imperfects, one of Pak’s earliest comics.)

To Newsarama he also spoke of his new artist:

“I’d just like to add that Jae Lee’s drawing the book, and I’m crazy excited. Jae brings such a special atmosphere and depth to his books, and I think that’s particularly key for characters like Batman and Superman, who are so closely identified with their very distinct cities and worlds. Jae’s going to blow all our minds.”

He doesn’t reveal any villains yet, or his plans on showing the origin of the trust Bats and Supes now share in Justice League. But this next lines should reveal all you need to know.

“It’s a real privilege and I am real grateful to get my feet wet with them.”

Batman/Superman is “a really exciting place to discover who these guys are, and the things we’re going to discover particularly in this first story arc will have ramifications later on down the line,” he adds. “We’re going to start in the past but it’ll reverberate through. It’ll be big and crazy and tons of fun.”

Take Batman and Superman, add a great writer who is honored, throw in a atmospheric artist in Jae Lee. I think I have DC’s next movie idea right here!