New John Ridley-written Batman series to have 'huge impact'

Variant cover to November 20202's Batman's Grave #12 by Kevin Nowlan (Image credit: DC)

DC has finally publicly addressed the major changes within their organization revealed earlier this week, but one thing that never changes at DC is their line-up being heavy with Batman titles.

Already the dominant part of a comic book line that publisher Jim Lee has confirmed will be contracting by 20-25% (including several cancellations in November), the publisher just announced (via The Hollywood Reporter) a new Batman limited series written by 12 Years a Slave Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley.

While light on details, Lee called it a limited series that "will have a huge impact on the rest of the line."

Batman or Batman-related characters appear in more than 20 comic book titles in DC's November 2020 solicitations.

This will be another DC project for Ridley as well. His long-gestating mature-readers The Other History of the DC Universe was just added to DC's schedule for a November 2020 debut, after being originally announced in 2018.

That five-issue series reframes iconic moments from DC history, exploring them through the eyes of DC superheroes representing traditionally disenfranchised groups, like Black Lightning.

Lee also confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter that the even-longer gestating return of Milestone - a whole label focusing on under-represented heroes and creators - is also still in the works.

Original Milestone Comics co-founder Denys Cowan recently updated readers on the upcoming return of the imprint through DC, a plan that was first announced at the 2015 Comic-Con International: San Diego, and which was delayed by a subsequent lawsuit that Cowan says has now been "resolved to all parties' satisfaction."

DC tells Newsarama more information about Ridley's new Batman series will be revealed at their Legacy of the Bat panel at DC FanDome next week.

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.