Comics: DC debuts first Asian-American Green Lantern; Black Hammer meets Justice League; more

In today's comics news, we bring you updates on a never-before-seen Green Lantern, an epic team-up between Dark Horse and DC, and, finally, a second home for the somewhat contoversial Second Coming.

DC Comics will be rolling out its first-ever Asian-American Green Lantern in a graphic novel by Minh Lê and Andie Tong, which is being published under the Zoom imprint — the banner for content aimed at younger audiences.

Titled Green Lantern: Legacy, the upcoming comic centers on Tai Pham, an artistic and comics obsessed 13-year-old living above his grandmother's store. Upon inheriting the jade ring, Tai (a Vietnamese-American) is introduced to the Green Lantern Corps and must face off against the racist bullies terrorizing his neighborhood, while also coming to grips with his own personal insecurities.

“One thing that I hope that readers walk away with is a greater appreciation for the heroes in our own lives, particularly those within our families," Lê told School Library Jounal, which first debuted the cover art. "When you come from a family of immigrants and refugees as I do, it can be incredibly humbling. Nothing puts your own problems into perspective like considering the harrowing journeys your loved ones took to get where they are today. So it was with a lot of humility that I set out to write a story that honored that kind of heroism."

Green Lantern: Legacy will go on sale next January.

Black Hammer, a Dark Horse comic created by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston, will be meeting DC's Justice League in a five-issue limited series this summer, writes The Hollywood Reporter.

Written by Lemire and drawn by Michael Walsh, Black Hammer/Justice League: Hammer of Justice will mash up the mainstream DC Universe with that of Rockwood via a combination of reality warping, mind control, and a villain known as Starro.

“Black Hammer/Justice League: Hammer of Justice is a project that I still can't believe is actually real, even though I've written the whole series already,” Lemire said in a statement published by THR. “Everyone who knows me and knows Black Hammer is aware of my love of the DC Universe. Getting this great opportunity to work with an artist like Michael Walsh to bring the Black Hammer and DC universes together for a special story was just too much fun. I'm incredibly excited about the story and think fans of both universes will enjoy reading it as much as Michael and I enjoyed creating it."

Issue #1 goes on sale July 10.

After losing DC's Vertigo imprint as a publisher, Mark Russell and Richard Pace's religion-inspired Second Coming series will now be sold by Ahoy Comics. Russell confirmed this on Twitter, adding that the book's first issue goes on sale this July.

Making Jesus Christ its main character, Second Coming finds the Son of God sent to Earth to find out what it's like to be a genuine messiah. To learn that lesson, he becomes roommates with Sun-Man, "the Last Son of Krispex!"—an obvious parody of Superman.

In mid-February, Russell and Pace parted amicably with DC, free to shop the book around elsewhere. Speaking to SYFY WIRE shortly after that news broke, Russell said:

"It wasn't because of any displeasure with DC or their editorial staff," Russell says. "It was just that they wanted to push the release date back to some undetermined point in the future and I had made some minor changes at their request, after which, I was warned that requests for more significant changes would probably be on the way. So I decided I would rather keep the story intact and remain true to the original vision and get into the hands of readers in a more timely fashion."

While the future of TNT's Snowpiercer series remains up in the stratosphere, you can explore a time before the world froze over in an upcoming prequel comic, THR confirms.

Published by Titan Comics via Statix Press, the graphic novel is written by Alex "Matz" Nolent (Triggerman) and drawn by Jean-Marc Rochette. The latter is one of the creators of the original comic that inspired Bong Joon-ho's 2013 film adaptation.

Part I of the comic, Extinction, will be released in September.