“The Culling” crossover event is coming this May – but what is The Culling? What are Ravagers? What is N.O.W.H.E.R.E., and how will it threaten the heroes and would-be heroes of DC COMICS_THE NEW 52? You’ll find out soon enough, but in the meantime THE RAVAGERS writer Howard Mackie discusses how the DC COMICS-THE NEW 52 “Second Wave” series was born from the game-changing events of the crossover.


Nine o’clock on a Monday morning. The phone rings. I answer.

A voice on the other end of the line says,“Hey, Howard, how would feel about a group of teens that are snatched from their real lives, tortured and experimented on, forced to fight every day for food, water, and shelter—“

“Er…I…who IS this?” I ask, while pouring myself a second cup of coffee.

“Wait! It gets better! Periodically the kids are all thrown into this huge pit, and have to use their Metahuman powers to fight to the death… to thin the heard… it’s called THE CULLING.”

“You know… I just woke up… and yeah my refrigerator is running, and I will let Prince Albert out of the can. I’m going to get back to my cereal, so…”, I said while assuming that someone was trying to punk me.

“It’ll be part of the SECOND WAVE of the NEW 52. You’ll have to coordinate things with Scott Lobdell and Tom DeFalco. We’re thinking Ian Churchill is going to be the artist, and—“

“I’ll do it!” I screamed into the phone, and hung up.

Which turned out to a small mistake, because I was never sure who called me—maybe I was punked, but I am getting the last word, because I got to work with two of the top creative minds in comic books today-- well, actually Scott Lobdell has two of the top creative minds in comic books today, but Tom DeFalco was involved too—in fine tuning the CULLING from which THE RAVAGERS springs.
 
Ian Churchill was the icing on the cake.  The energy, and excitement his artwork(and story insight) bring to this book is extremely motivating to me as a writer. We, and the kids in the group, hit the ground running… and THEY are going to have keep running N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is on their tails, and they have NOWHERE to turn.  

The nightmare scenarios that sprung out of the creative back and forth between Scott, Tom and myself is the foundation of all that Ian and Churchill and I will be exploring in the pages of THE RAVAGERS. Things done to the kids to prepare them to survive the Culling will have long term ramifications in the pages of our book and far beyond. That’s right, Beast Boy, I am looking at YOU!