Mother Panic

Mother Panic, by Jody Houser and Tommy Lee Edwards, is about a new character who fights criminals as a high-tech masked vigilante in Gotham City. She wears a cape and a helmet with pointed ears, but her outfit is white, and she's clearly unaffiliated with Batman and his allies. In fact, when the premise was initially revealed, nobody was really sure if this was the Gotham of DC's Batman books, or a whole different take on that world. However, it's been set-up since the first issue that the Bat-Family have become aware of Mother Panic's activities. And in this third issue, she and Batwoman come face to face, leading to a fight and some weird angry flirting.

Last week was tough for a lot of people, and as the US election results came in on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, a lot of us just didn't want to read comics or do much of anything as we adjusted to a changing world. Last Wednesday wasn't New Comic Book Day so much as "What Do We Do Now?" Day, and a lot of comics got lost in the shuffle. However, last week was packed with some really stellar comic debuts and new #1s, and many of them might not have got the attention they deserved due to the omnipresence of the election results. It was a bad week to launch a new book, and a weak launch can be very bad news for a book's future. With that in mind, we've gone back to highlight six new comics from last week that are worth picking up this week.

Gerard Way's pop-up imprint Young Animal has only been alive for a couple of months but it's already proved to be one of the most exciting and innovative platforms in superhero comics in recent memory. Way as a creator has always been one to wear his influences on his sleeves, so it's not too surprising that as part of Young Animal's presence at November's NC Comicon, the imprint will host a film festival with picks curated by its creators.

Every month, comic publishers release their solicitation announcements to provide information to readers and retailers on comics that are coming out in three months’ time, but there’s so much information dropped at once that a lot can slip through the cracks. This month in DC's January solicitations, we've got some surprising guest stars, some surprising guest artists, and the debut of one of the most ambitious books DC has published in a decade.

Mother Panic #1, by Jody Houser and Tommy Lee Edwards, tells the story of an idle Gotham City millionaire who dons a costume to fight crime, but this hero is like nobody we've seen before, if she even is a hero at all! Check out a preview.

DC's upcoming "pop-up" boutique Young Animal is one of the most anticipated projects of the year, and its debut is right around the corner. Curated by The Umbrella Academy's Gerard Way, it seeks to capture the spark of classic Vertigo while forging a bold new path of its own in the industry. Ahead of the November solicitations, DC has provided us with an exclusive first look at November's Young Animal releases, including the first issue of Jody Houser and Tommy Lee Edwards' Mother Panic.

DC has made some interesting moves since its relocation from New York City to Burbank, California, last year, including the upcoming line-wide relaunch DC Rebirth, and a notably uneven line of Hanna-Barbera-inspired comics. Perhaps the most surprising announcement came at Emerald City Comicon earlier this month, when DC unveiled Young Animal, a new line of superhero comics masterminded by Umbrella Academy writer and musician and My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way. Described as a "pop-up imprint," Young Animal includes a new Doom Patrol series by Way and Nick Derington; a Shade relaunch, Shade the Changing Girl, by Cecil Castellucci and Marley Zarcone; Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye, by Way, Jon Rivera and Michael Avon Oeming, and the Gotham-set Mother Panic, concceived by Way and written by Jody Houser, with art by Tommy Lee Edwards. But that's just the start. ComicsAlliance sat down with Way to find out how Young Animal came to be, what his longterm plans are for the imprint, and how involved he is with all the books across the line.

This summer, DC Comics aren’t just relaunching their entire line, they’re starting a whole new imprint headed up by The Umbrella Academy’s Gerard Way. The imprint, Young Animal, will be overseen by Way who will also write or co-write several of the titles which will take place in DC Universe continuity, but with a mature readers edge. Described as “comics for dangerous humans”, DC referred to Young Animal in their announcement as a “pop-up imprint” and Way cited the influence of experimental comics from the eighties and nineties as guides for how to take classic characters and concepts to new places.