Continuing what is hopefully not a trend (most recently noticed with Matt Fraction and Pascual Ferry’s much-hyped run on Thor), the much anticipated post-Return of Bruce Wayne run on BATMAN AND ROBIN, under the masterful team of Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason (Green Lantern Corps)…has been delayed three issues, until February.  Paul Cornell and Scott McDaniel will be doing a three-part storyline to fill the gap.

The cause for the delay?  Apparently (per IGN) these guys were trying to pull double duty on Brightest Day and Batman and Robin, and the workload was a bit too much.  Which, you know, I can buy, considering Brightest Day is a weekly book.  I’d like to think that it could have been noticed in the planning stages, before having to pull a last minute switcheroo, but hopefully it’s just for three issues.

But this spells bad news for the Bat-relaunch.  Batman: The Dark Knight appears to be suffering from major delays, and the book hasn’t even started.  According to Bleeding Cool, writer/artist on the new series David Finch hasn’t finished drawing issue 1 yet, due out on November the 24th. He also still hasn’t written the script to issue 2, solicited for December, and issue #3, which you’d expect to see in January, wasn’t solicited at all for the month.  Not a good sign at all, and I’d anticipate delays in the first two issues as well…

This is just disheartening that this planned relaunch (much like the last relaunch, which saw delays and shifting creative teams also) seems to be stumbling before it even begins.  Here’s hoping the other titles involved, Batman and Detective Comics, both under creative teams who’ve suffered from delays in the past, stay on course.