WIZARD WORLD CHICAGO: WILDSTORM PANEL

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Gen13 will be relaunched as part of WildStorm's rededication to its core titles, Jim Lee announced Friday at the WildStorm panel at Wizard World Chicago.

The series will be written by Gail Simone and drawn by Talent Caldwell, with covers by Lee and original Gen13 artist J. Scott Campbell.

"We're going back to the original roster and explore the ineraction of those characters," Lee said.

Lee, who will be drawing the WildStorm launch of Wildcats to be written by Grant Morrison, said that Morrison will be a sort of creative director for the new books.

Wetworks will return, courtesy of Mike Carey and Whilce Portacio. Lee said it would "make logicial sense to bring back StormWatch at some point" and that The Authority plays "a huge role" in the revival of these characters.

In other news from the panel:

* Skye Runner, a six-issue series by Adam Warren and Ale Garza, is kicking off a new line of fantasy books under the Storm & Sorcery umbrella.

Garza said that Skye Runner will exist in the same world as Ninja Boy. "You never know who's going to show up," Garza said.

Here's how WildStorm describes the book:

"In an age of tyrannical gods and powerful giants, young Azadeh dreams of following her warrior spirit and exploring the world, but is stuck at home... until a horde of monsters kidnaps her niece and nephew, forcing her to take action in a world thatıs far bigger than she ever imagined.

* Claw the Unconquered will return in a crossover with Dynamite Entertainment's Red Sonja next year before getting his own ongoing book. "Hopefully, it will lokk different from another dark-haired barbarian character," Lee said.

* WildStorm's Hank Kanalz said there will be three more fantasy books.

* Danger Girl: Back in Black, by the Army of Darkness team of Andy Hartnell and Nick Bradshaw, is scheduled for a November release. "The Danger Girls infilitrate a biker gan in the West on a trail of an artifact that his Native American ties," said Campbell, who is doing cover work. "We're bringing back a lot of the core villains and hitmen."

* Planetary editor Ben Abernathy said the series will wrap up consecutive issues from January through April. An epilogue will follow later in the year, Abenathy said, depending on the schedules of creators Warren Ellis and John Cassaday.

* Garza is drawing The Intimates #12, the series' final issue.

* A softcover of Astro City: Local Heroes is targeted for release this year. Abernathy said that specials featuring such single characters as Samaritan and Winged Victory will fit in between arcs of the Astro City: Dark Ages series.

* Team Zero is a six-issue miniseries beginning in December, written by Chuck Dixon with art by Doug Mahnke and Sandra Hope. Set in World War II, Team Zero features the original agent codenamed Deathblow, who's been put in charge of a seven-man team on a mission into the heart of Germany.

* Abernathy said that Ex Machina #15-16 see Mitchell travelling away from New York City to visit a person from his past. Next is an arc in #17-20 dealing with a protest about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and how that impacts New York.

* Lee said that the Captain Atom: Armageddon mini-series will show the differences in the DC and WildStorm universes. "It's basically his search to get back home," Lee said. "There will be a lot of repercussions for the entire WildStorm Universe."