DC Comics is taking a bold gamble with its upcoming "New Age of DC Heroes" lineup, comprised of either entirely new characters or bold new spins on beloved properties that have struggled to find a place in modern comics. To promote the initiative, the publisher has gone all in by assigning the biggest names in its stable to these new concepts to help them get off the ground. However, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking it’s not quite a “New Age” at all -- because while many of the characters might be new, the concepts in many cases seem all too familiar and the creators, for the most part, are the same veterans who have called DC Comics home for the past decade.

PREVIEW: Damage #1

The first thing that jumps out is that across these eight new titles, there are no women involved as either writers or artists. That isn’t an accident, and it isn’t innocent either; it’s representative of an industry that passes over talented women for opportunities and makes them work twice as hard for half as much recognition. It’s true that the creators on The New Age of DC Heroes are some of the biggest names in comics, but it’s important to note the circumstances that lead to eight brand-new titles without a single woman among the primary creators.

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Comic critic J.A. Micheline made an excellent point that DC’s continued employment of veteran editor Eddie Berganza, who was fired last month after years of sexual misconduct complaints, is likely related to the seeming lack of A-list female creators at the publisher. Since the publication of the BuzzFeed article that confirmed one of the most shameful open secrets in comics, multiple women, including Amy Chu and Sophie Campbell, have discussed how they were uncomfortable at the idea of working under Berganza, and BuzzFeed's reporting revealed that when forced to choose between confronting Berganza’s behavior or taking editorial duties away from Liz Gehrlein Marsham, DC’s Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras chose Berganza, which ultimately led to her leaving the publisher.

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If women in comics aren’t given the same opportunities as men, they aren’t going to become superstar creators. Then, when it comes time to launch a new initiative, there are no women to hire because they either don’t want to work with the publisher because of its reputation, or women creators aren’t seen as big enough names because they were never given those opportunities. (It’s also worth noting that Berganza had been the lead editor on Dark Nights: Metal, out of which the New Age of DC Heroes -- formerly known as “Dark Matter” -- will launch.)

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The lineup of characters also features an abundance of white men in comparison to people of color, which is, again, something that doesn’t just happen by accident. The Akira Yoshida controversy at Marvel is proof of how the comics industry is heavily weighted toward white men and against everyone else and, outside of publishers like Milestone and Lion Forge’s Catalyst Prime imprint, it’s rare that writers and artists of color get to tell the stories that represent their lives and experiences. When asked about the Yoshida controversy, Sana Amanat, Marvel's director of content and character development, pointed to Brian Michael Bendis’ writing of Riri Williams because he has a black daughter, but that’s the exact problem. There’s no replacement for those lived experiences, and historically comics has done an incredibly bad job of giving creators of color those opportunities.

It's important not to discount that the New Age of DC Heroes does feature two titles written by queer men, as well as a number of artists of color, but on the whole the initiative feels like a whole lot of the same superhero comics we've got from the past 30 years. Quality aside, there's nothing considerably new about the art of Jim Lee, Tony S. Daniel or Philip Tan, and that's reflected in the character design. Damage kind of looks like the Hulk, Sideways resembles Spider-Man (or Grendel), Brimstone kind of looks like Ghost Rider; The New Age of DC Heroes looks more like Image Comics circa 1996.

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While DC (and the entire comics industry) has prioritized straight white men for nearly a century, the New Age of DC Heroes could have been used as launching pad to build new stars. It’s something that Scott Snyder -- one of the key figures behind the initiative -- is fond of. He's helped launch the careers of James Tynion IV and Marguerite Bennett, both of whom were his students. Similarly, the upcoming Batman and The Signal miniseries features the perfect formula that the New Age of DC Heroes should have also adopted: It has a plot by Snyder and art by Cully Hamner, but the script is by Tony Patrick, a graduate of DC’s Talent Workshop. Batman and The Signal has the big names and veteran career acumen of Snyder and Hamner, but it also features a fresh voice in Patrick, allowing him to gain some name recognition with fans.

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The same formula could work for the artists of DC’s Talent Workshop, just as it did for Babs Tarr when she debuted on Batgirl with Brendan Fletcher and Cameron Stewart. When the "Batgirl of Burnside" era began, Tarr was still new to sequential storytelling, so the first few stories feature Cameron Stewart, an Eisner-winning veteran, on breakdowns with Tarr working from his guides. Eventually, Stewart stepped away from from that role, allowing Babs Tarr’s style to fully emerge, and together the creative team went on to launch Motor Crush at Image Comics, with Batgirl playing a large part in building up all three creators to a new audience.

It’s way past time to give everyone the opportunities that a select few have had for decades, and to accurately reflect the real world -- not just on the comic page, but behind the scenes, too. The more viewpoints that have room to express themselves then the further reach a publisher has. It’s quite simple: You get back what you put in, and comics has been way too much into straight white men for as long as anyone can remember -- at the cost of everyone else. It’s time to make a concerted effort to even the playing field.