Toon Tumbers, the company responsible for producing many of the screen printed glasswares one finds as collectors items, recently released an image upon which one of their new glass designs is based. That image shows fifteen heroes in a very red white and bluish image, drawn by Jim Lee.
The seven in the foreground are the previously announced core of the new League, Superman, Wonder Woman – in her awesome new costume, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg.
In the side-panels we see the faces of eight more heroes, who will likely be support for the new team. We can clearly make out Hawkman, Green Arrow, The Atom, Deadman, Firestorm, and the newly introduced Element Woman.
The two remaining characters are more difficult to pick out. One of them seems to be Mere, Aquaman’s wife, but I could be wrong on that one, the other – second from the bottom on the right-hand side – is a complete mystery to me. It could just be Lee’s illustration style, but she just looks like a generic woman, and with all the recent costume changes, and hair-style changes, that face could be anyone from Barbra Gordon to Black Canary. I’m sure we’ll see lots of better guesses pop up around the internet over the next few days.
I’m personally most excited about the inclusion of Green Arrow. You might already have noticed that I’m bit of a Green Lantern Fanboy, but beyond that, my absolute favorite line of DC superhero comics was the Green Lantern/Green Arrow crossovers, in which the two Green-decked heroes would fight the seediest crime, and meet the most interesting background DC characters, while they commented deeply on the society around them.
The comic was so dark and bright at the same time, and came just right when we needed it most, presenting the perfect themes for an emerging culture of comics where real human issues could be explored. The two characters were used as a sort of experiment in social commentary, and because of it, were brought back into the foreground of comics.
Green Lantern has since undergone a lot of changes, but that crossover line made me a permanent fan of both characters. I was happy to see Green Arrow #1 on the list of relaunch titles, but seeing that he’s going to be a part of the JLA , despite his non-conformist attitude, is even better. I hope he runs support for Green Lantern, and that they get some of their old spark back.
The entire DC relaunch is coming this fall.
