Power Girl, Fire & Ice to headline a pair of new Dawn of DC series in September

Next month, DC Comics will release Power Girl Special #1. The one-shot spins out of the Power Girl back-up stories that recently ran in Action Comics, which have found Power Girl adjusting to new telepathic abilities following Lazarus Planet and using those abilities to help other heroes throughout the DCU. Today DC announced that the forthcoming one-shot will itself spawn two new titles set to debut in September: a Power Girl solo series from the creative team of writer Leah Williams and artist Eduardo Pansica, and Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville, from writer Joanne Starer, artist Natacha Bustos, colorist Tamra Bonvillain, and letterer Ariana Maher.

Here’s DC’s description for Power Girl Special #1’s main story by Williams and artist Marguerite Sauvage, as well as for the one-shot’s newly-announced Fire & Ice backup story by Starer, Bustos, Bonvillain, and Maher:

With new powers and a new mission, Power Girl faces a challenge unlike any she’s experienced before in this shocking one-shot rising from the events of Lazarus Planet and Action Comics!

Power Girl Special #1 also features a 10-page backup story about Fire and Ice, written by Joanne Starer (The Gimmick, Sirens of the City), and illustrated by artist Natacha Bustos (Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Miles Morales: Spider-Man) and colorist Tamra Bonvillain (Wonder Woman, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest), and lettered by GLAAD-award winning letterer Ariana Maher. In the introductory tale, Fire and Ice respond to a natural disaster in Baltimore, debating whether to involve Ice’s old flame Guy Gardner. When Guy causes some major drama at the scene, Superman gets involved to stop the fight.

In addition to previously-revealed variant covers by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau (open-to-order), Amanda Conner (open-to-order), Tula Lotay (1:25 incentive), and Taj Tenfold (1:50 incentive), Power Girl Special #1 will also sport the above new featured variant by David Nakayama, which will come in regular and foil versions.

Following the conclusion of July and August’s Knight Terrors event, the two new series will launch the first week of September. Here’s info on both Power Girl and Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville, as well as covers for each respective first issue by Jonboy Meyers and Terry & Rachel Dodson:

After the events of “Knight Terrors,” a long dormant Kryptonian threat has returned to take down Superman and his family. Who could possibly stop it? Well, according to Superman, it’s Power Girl. You won’t want to miss this roadtrip race against time as Paige reconnects with her roots and strives to save her newfound family.

Williams & Sauvage’s Power Girl backup stories in Action Comics have been maybe the most entertaining and interesting the character has ever been, so it’s nice to see we’ll be getting more of her in her own series. Hopefully Lilith Clay, aka Omen, will be joining her in the new series as well.

In Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #1, Superman sent the former Justice Leaguers packing for Smallville to lie low following their extremely public and utterly disastrous mission in Baltimore, and in doing so doomed them to a fate worse than death: irrelevance. Ice finds herself drawn to the quiet life and dreams of planting roots. But Fire…well, Fire will do just about anything to get the hell outta dodge and back on the Super Hero circuit—including challenging the DC Universe’s biggest villains to a knock-down, drag-out, live-streamed brawl in the streets of Smallville! The series is crafted by writer Starer, artist Bustos, colorist Bonvillain, and letterer Maher.

The description of Starer & Bustos’s take on Fire & Ice is intriguing, and it sounds like readers should expect a cavalcade of big DC villains to pop up in this series. 

Look for both Power Girl #1 and Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #1 to arrive in stores and digitally on Tuesday, September 5th.