The Ukrainian Superhero Who Is Powering The E.U. (Stormwatch Spoilers)

This week sees the return of Stormwatch in Batman: The Brave And The Bold, in a story by Ed Brisson and Jeff Spokes. The international operations agency originally run by a United Nations body, overseen from a satellite called Skywatch by its director, the Weatherman, Henry Bendix. The series ran for a few years before Warren Ellis and Tom Raney took over the series, with artist Bryan Hitch joining and the remains of the killed off team reformed as The Authority, free from any kind of control (apart from Publisher Paul Levitz at DC Comics), and went out to change superhero comic books, and subsequent comic book films from Marvel and DC, forever. Bleeding Cool ran some gossip about the revived version for 2023, its thirtieth anniversary, last year,

We have recently had a revived Authority in the Superman books, alongside characters Midnighter and Apollo. Henry Bendix returned as a Superman villain, head of his own country experimenting on super soldiers in the island Gamorra. But what of Stormwatch?

Bleeding Cool ran gossip in November that Director Bones of the DEO, and former Stormwatch member Winter – Nikolas Kamarov, an ex-Russian Spetznaz officer and an energy absorber, were going to set up a new Stormwatch on their abandoned satellite station. And planning a proactive superhero force to do what the Justice League won’t do, go where the Justice League won’t go. While using the Justice League HQ to do it. And who would be joining Winter? I was told to expect the following;

• Shado from the Green Arrow books.
• Victoria N’Gengi, or Flint, former member of Stormwatch and invulnerable.
• Ravager, or Rose Wilson, the daughter of Deathstroke
• Core – Pavlov Stutka, a new Ukrainian character.
• Peacekeeper 01 – Sean Mahoney, the corrupt policeman-turned-hero of Arkham on A-Day in Batman and now a cyborg on the loose.
• And the return of Stormwatch character, The Eminence Of Blades, or Harry Tanner. No me neither, he won’t last long.
• No Midnight & Apollo, they will be far too busy in Dark Crisis On Infinite Earths to have time to worry with Stormwatch.

All this transpired in the Wildstorm 30th Anniversary Special. But in this Tuesday’s Batman: The Brave And The Bold #1, the same creative team are back for an ongoing story. And Bleeding Cool has a further advance look than you’ll find elsewhere as to who is in this team now. Because The Eminence Of Blades dod not make it this far…

Director Bones welcomes Phantom One onto the Stormwatch satellite and lays out his plans to replace the Justice League until they come back later in the year (as revealed by Bleeding Cool back in February.).

Shado from the Green Arrow books. Victoria N’Gengi, or Flint, a former member of Stormwatch and invulnerable, Ravager, or Rose Wilson, the daughter of Deathstroke, and Peacekeeper 01, Sean Mahoney, the corrupt policeman-turned-hero of Arkham on A-Day in Batman and then a cyborg on the loose are all in the mess hall.

And with Winter with us too, the oldest Stormwatch member, that’s almost the whole team. We just have a new member, Dr Xanto Zema, who is a hot mess of skin cells…

And finally Core, Pavlov Stutka, a new Ukrainian character, returns – and it turns out that he is the source of power for the whole system, and in an act of political satire…

…is selling spare energy to the European Union, which has had major issues as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupting the power supply. And here’s how they look in action…

Batman: The Brave And The Bold #1 is published on Tuesday and there’s a lot in it.

BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #1 CVR A SIMONE DI MEO
(W) Various (A) Various (CA) Simone Di Meo
Written by Tom King, Ed Brisson, Christopher Cantwell, and Dan Mora Art by Mitch Gerads, Jeff Spokes, Javier Rodriguez, and Dan Mora Coming off the spectacular success of Batman – One Bad Day: The Riddler, the Eisner Award-winning team of Tom King and Mitch Gerads reunite for a horrifying four-part retelling of the first bloody clash between The Joker and the Batman. A tale of loathing, lies, and laughter, this may be the most frightening Joker story in a generation. Everyone is going to be shocked. Everyone is going to be talking about it. The Justice League may be gone, but its enemies aren’t. Who’ll protect the world from the worst of the worst? Ed Brisson and Jeff Spokes pick up the story started in the Wildstorm 30th Anniversary Special as Director Bones and his new covert StormWatch team travel the globe on black-ops missions to take super-powered weapons of mass destruction off the board. But this is StormWatch, and as always, not all is as it seems. Down with the Kings starts here! Superstar artist Dan Mora (Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, Detective Comics) makes his writing debut kicking off a new series of Batman Black & White short stories. In a Gotham City overrun by the cybernetic henchmen of The Joker, the only person who can save us is the mysterious motorcycle-riding, bat-costumed hero of urban legend… In The Order of the Black Lamp—Part I, from writer Christopher Cantwell (Halt and Catch Fire co-creator, Briar, Iron Man) and artist Javier Rodríguez (Daredevil, Defenders), Superman finds a decoder ring with a secret message— Save me —which sends him on a quest to solve a mystery with ties to the Man of Steel’s past.
Retail: $7.99 In-Store Date: 05/16/2023