DC announced on its Source blog today that writer Tony Bedard, penciler Scott McDaniel, and cover artist Stanley “Artgerm” Lau will be taking on the Great Ten!
This series will look at the ten “super-functionaries” of the Chinese government, including August General In Iron, Supreme Accomplished Physician, and Celestial Archer. Created by Grant Morrison, these heroes have previously been seen in comics such as 52, Checkmate, and Green Lantern.
“When I went off to college, I really got into Eastern philosophy — Taoism, Buddhism, Zen, etc. Around the same time, I picked up ANIMAL MAN and I’ve been a hardcore Grant Morrison fan ever since,” Bedard explained to the Source. “So I leapt at the chance to do a GREAT TEN series, to flesh out these characters Grant dreamed up and tap the amazing storytelling potential in both them and their country. It’s a chance to do a different take on super-heroes, and just like my R.E.B.E.L.S. series, I think THE GREAT TEN is going to take a lot of people by surprise.”
The book is due out on November 4. You can click here for more preview art.
August 11th, 2009 at 8:44 am
finally. I wish they got another artist to do interiors though. Hopefully McDaniel will change his style to fit these characters
August 11th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I think Mr. McDaniel is an odd and unfortunate choice to pencil this. His artwork works best on single-character books, e.g., Nightwing. (He seemed like a very strange choice for that 52 tie-in book a while back.)
Furthermore, the art style of the cover artist is tremendously different. Usuanlly it’s good to have a sympathetic style on the innards + the cover.
Nothing against Mr. McDaniel, just don’t think this is the right book for him.
August 11th, 2009 at 10:12 am
McDaniel? Ugh, no, thanks.
August 11th, 2009 at 11:32 am
I am a huge fan of Scott McDaniel since his run with Dixon on Nightwing, but he is an odd choice for this title to me. I hope they pull it off!
August 11th, 2009 at 11:40 am
I just checked out the preview art on the DCU Blog. Better than you might expect.
August 11th, 2009 at 11:43 am
I’ve been longing for this series since the characters were first revealed. However, I’m not sure I’ll buy this. McDaniel just seems WRONG for it.
McDaniel is perfect for a book full of energy, with simple stories and lots of action (like his Nightwing was), but Great Ten should be more like an evening drama than a morning cartoon. Great Ten’s art style should look like Checkmate or Captain America, right? I just don’t trust McDaniel to draw tense political situations, spiritual character journeys, or advanced technology.
Mother of Champions shouldn’t really be leaping rooftop to rooftop
August 11th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
I WILL buy this. I’m loving R.E.B.E.L.S even though I’m finding it tough to locate some months. I reckon the art will be fine if they find a sensitive colourist.
August 11th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
The first thing Scott said to me when we discussed doing this book was, “I have a bit of a polarizing style” — acknowledging that either ya love him or ya hate him. But I was already in the “Love” column ever since NIGHTWING. The guy is brilliant. And please believe me, this book is a better fit for him than you might imagine. He’s already drawn the first issue, and I couldn’t be happier with it. And I won’t write a scene with Mother of Champions leaping from a rooftop. The Ten have enough dynamic characters (Seven Deadly Brothers, Celestial Archer, Ghost Fox Killer, etc), but they also cover a wide variety of genres. Ghost Fox is a Pulp hero like The Shadow, Accomplished Perfect Physician is like Dr Strange, Thundermind is like a Silver Age hero, Seven Deadly Brothers is like Iron Fist. This book is turning out to be a treasure chest of genre fun. It’ll have politics and intrigue, but also history, philosophy, and wall to wall action. I hope you’ll give it a chance.
August 11th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I am honestly confused.
Scott McDaniel mentioned this in an interview at Newsarama with Rik Offenberger that was posted July 7th. Why is this news now, but wasn’t then?
August 12th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Dead on arrival.
DC cant sell this kind of series anymore ,just check Warlord ,Sgt Rock , Strange Adventures numbers.
August 12th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Don’t you mean “Great Wall to wall action”?
…
September 13th, 2009 at 6:33 am
I wanna see Samurai retconned into the DCU. This would be a great place to bring him in at.