The word coming out of the Toronto Fan Expo yesterday is that DC Comics is to launch two new comic book series, The Spectre written by Pete Tomasi and Hawk & Dove written by Steve Orlando. Artists are still a mystery.

The Spectre is one of DC's oldest comic book characters, created in 1940 by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily, Jim Corrigan, a policeman who is visited by the word of God and transformed into a supernatural being of justice – and vengeance.

The character has been reinvented over the decades and powered up and down. He was last seen in the DC Universe as working as a detective for Gotham's Detailed Case Task Force, a small precinct responsible for investigating supernatural events off the books. Including his own.

Hawk & Dove were created by Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko and Steve Skeates in 1969 as a superhero duo who had diametrically opposed political viewpoints. The characters have been recreated over the years, most recently in the New 52 by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld, and were most recently seen in the near-future-set Doomsday Clock, shown on TV being arrested by the Rocket Red Brigade for interfering with the Russian police.

Expect more- much more – at NYCC.