New Black Bat Material on the Way: Possibly, Eventually and Literally.

After a quiet spell, there has been a bit of news on the Black Bat / Miss Fury front in the last day or two.

Let's start with "possibly", because it's arguably the biggest one. It's not a huge surprise, but it was kind of a long time coming.

Dynamite Entertainment is proud to announce that comic book writer Cullen Bunn (Deadpool, Magneto) will tackle their wide cast of company-owned and licensed pulp heroes in Masks II. Following upon the success of the bestselling 2012 Masks miniseries, Masks II will unite iconic crime-fighters of singular purpose (if not diverse ideologies and techniques) in an epic miniseries event designed to appeal to both longtime fans and fresh newcomers. Dynamite plans to launch Masks II in late 2014. 

"I couldn't be more excited to be working on Masks II," says Bunn. "I've always loved these great classic characters that I will have the privilege of working with, and I'm striving to keep the tone of the pulps that have always been a big inspiration for me. I'll admit, this project is a little intimidating, because I've put together a very ambitious team-up story that readers will have to see to believe!" 

The original Masks series launched in 2012 with industry fanfare, with its #1 issue ranking among the bestselling independent comic books of the year and selling over 70,000 copies. Drawn to the premise by the work of superstar painter Alex Ross, writer Chris Roberson, and artist Dennis Calero, readers thrilled to an adventure that united classic characters like The Shadow, The Spider, The Green Hornet, and Kato against a cadre of corrupt politicians and their fascist police state. Masks II promises to follow the themes established within that first series, but in a way that's perfect for new readers. 

The presence of The Black Bat or Miss Fury's is not guaranteed but you'd think at least the latter would be included.  Neither character had a huge role in the first volume, but Fury has appeared in the Noir mini and had a digital-first mini in addition to her own book.  She seems to have Dynamite's support.

Over to "eventually".  The following wall message appeared on the Black Bat Facebook page yesterday.

Some very exciting Black Bat news on the way, BB fans. Stay tuned.

That page tends to focus on the work done by Airship 27 and Moonstone Books.  We already know about The Black Bat's team up with Domino Lady being prepared for Moonstone.  My guess then (and that's all it is) is that there'll be either a 3rd edition of Black Bat Mystery (and being that the first two are among Airship 27's best sellers, it's kind of a no-brainer) or a comic book specific to him from Redbud Studio.

Which leads me to "literally".  I ordered both volumes of Airship 27 / RedBud Studio' All Star Pulp Comics from IndyPlanet yesterday.  As mentioned in an earlier post, each book has a healthy page count (58 for volume one, 64 for volume two) but also feature several characters from the pulp era.  So the Black Bat content might be kind of light, but I'll enjoy the other stories and save the Bat for last.

I'll display a page or two from those books when they arrive, and I'll gleefully share the news referred to on Facebook when it's made public.  Looking forward to being able to do both!