Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero delayed five months

Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero
(Image credit: Manuel Preitano (DC))

If you're for waiting for DC's new Gotham City hero to debut,  you're going to have to wait a bit longer.

(Image credit: Manuel Preitano (DC))

DC has informed retailers that their Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero OGN has been delayed five months, and is now scheduled for release September 7. The publisher didn't give a reason for pushing it off its originally-announced May 11 release date, but as part of the rescheduling they've given retailers additional time to pre-order the books before setting the book's print run.

"Set in a reimagined Gotham City, Whistle follows 16-year-old Willow Zimmerman as she struggles to make ends meet during her mother's cancer treatments," reads DC's description of the series from when it was announced last summer. "A series of odd jobs leads to a life-altering accident that leaves Willow with a 'sixth sense' that is as much a blessing as a curse."

Willow will be joined by an orphaned dog she adopts, Lebowitz. 

Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero is written by first-time comics writer E. Lockhart, who comes from a successful career as the prose novelist behind the bestselling books Genuine Fraud, We Were Liars, and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. 

"Whistle is a hero like me. Like you, maybe. She's an ordinary person who sees what's wrong in her city and feels powerless to right it - until she isn't," said Lockhart. "Whistle is a social activist, a secular Jewish person, and a teenage girl working to support her mother through sickness - all elements I haven't seen so much in superhero comics. The story explores the dark, ethically compromised side of a superhero's life as well as the empowerment. There's the thrill of corruption and the lure of riches on the one hand, versus an activist's belief in the rights of her community members on the other."

Manuel Preitano, who recently finished another DC OGN (The Oracle Code), is drawing Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero. 

Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero goes on sale September 7.

Whistle will be available simultaneously in print and digitally. Check out Newsarama's list of the best digital comics readers for Android and iOS devices.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)