The August-debuting Sword of Azrael #1 is written by Dan Watters and illustrated by Nikola Čižmešija. If that creative team sounds familiar, it should - Watters and Čižmešija paired on the 'Sword of Azrael: Dark Knight of the Soul' three-part serialized story from Batman: Urban Legends #8-10 that leads into the new Sword of Azrael six-part series.
And despite picking up the sword again, Jean-Paul is doing so reluctantly. But hey, this is comic books. Retirement, like death, is usually only a temporary gig.
"The warrior angel of St. Dumas returns!" reads DC's description of the new series. "Jean-Paul Valley does not want to be Azrael ever again. All it has brought him is pain, violence, and misery. He has sequestered himself away at a monastery in Europe to find peace. But when a young woman who claims to have the same System programming that made Jean-Paul into Azrael arrives at the monastery, he won't have a choice but to don his violent mantle of Azrael once more to protect her from the deadly assassins who wish her harm."And in case any Azrael fans missed the Batman: Urban Legends serialized story, DC is collecting it in the 40-page one-shot Sword of Azrael: Dark Knight of the Soul #1 also by Watters and Čižmešija with a cover by Čižmešija and a variant cover by Juni Ba.