By Zack Quaintance — Writer Ram V. and artist Rafael Albuquerque will take over Detective Comics in July with issue #1062. Billed as the new ongoing creative team, the duo will be joined by colorist Dave Stewart, as well. Meanwhile, writer Si Spurrier will be doing back-up stories for this new run, joined by a rotation of artists, the first of which will be Dani.

They are taking over the book from writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Ivan Reis. Reis, however, will be rejoining the title for at least one upcoming story arc, specifically running in Detective Comics #1066 to #1069. Perhaps most interesting about all of this, however, is that the first story arc for the new run is largely inspired by opera music, fittingly being dubbed Gotham Nocturne, with its first part being called overture.

The last bit of news in DC’s announcement of the new team is that Detective Comics is returning to a monthly release schedule as of issue #1062, which is slated to go on sale July 26. This marks a significant slow down for the book, which had been on a twice-monthly release schedule for some time before becoming weekly for the 12-part epic Shadows of the Bat storyline, which while not the last arc Tamaki wrote for the book will certainly be remembered as the peak of her own excellent run. You can find more promo artwork for the new run below, with a pair of intriguing variant covers after the jump.

What’s also interesting to note is that the flagship Batman title — Batman — is also getting a new creative team in July, making this summer the start of essentially a new era for the Caped Crusader. Josh Williamson had written a few fill-in issues for that book, taking over after writer James Tynion IV departed the title to focus on his creator-owned work. DC Comics announced in February that writer Chip Zdarsky would be taking over Batman, joined by artist Jorge Jimenez, who’d also been the primary collaborator on the Tynion run. Zdarsky has told other comics outlets (he’s never talked to us…) that he’s in it for the “long haul.”

Ram V. and Rafael Albuquerque are an exciting team for ‘Tec. Ram is no stranger to Gotham City, having penned an excellent run on Catwoman that ended late last year, and Albuquerque is a fantastic and versatile artist. I don’t know exactly what a brooding, opera-inspired comic drawn by Albuquerque will look like, but that’s part of the fun. It’s all very intriguing. Here’s a bit more about the upcoming story arc direct from DC:

Starting with Detective Comics #1062, on sale July 26, Batman finds himself in a strange, dark Gotham City as he’s pulled into a high Gothic story like nothing he’s seen, or heard, before.
The story starts with “Gotham Nocturne” part 1 of 4: “Overture.” Something is terribly wrong with Batman. No matter the tests Bruce takes, nor the numbers he counts, the greatest detective in the world can’t pin down the source of this creeping dread—of his own inner demons and a looming mortality. He’s not alone in the grips of this terror, as it seems real demons are creeping through the shadows of Gotham City, answering the clarion call of a strange melody that’s haunting Gotham…and seems to be turning its denizens into something else.
The curtains are rising on a new, terrifying mystery as Batman tries to figure out what’s happening to both the city he protects and his own mind in this lush, operatic mystery.

Also intriguing are the Spurrier-written back-ups. The DC Comics announcement noted that Spurrier’s work will “exploring other stories of Gotham City”, the first of which will feature Jim Gordon, who has featured prominently in one of my favorite DC Comics of this year, The Joker, which is about to conclude. The first artist being Dani for the Spurrier back-ups bode well (just see Arkham City: The Order of the World as to why).

Issue #1062 will have main cover drawn by Evan Cagle, with variant covers by Lee Bermejo and J.H. Williams III, as well as a 1:25 variant cover by InHyuk Lee, and 1:50 foil variant by J.H. Williams, the last two of which you can find above.

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He has written about comics for The Beat and NPR Books, among others. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.