Tom King will leave Batman at the end of 2019 and move over to a Batman/Catwoman 12-issue series with Clay Mann, DC announced Friday.  The new series will alternate with Batman, which will move to monthly from its current twice-a-month frequency in 2020.  This move will allow DC “to incorporate the monthly Batman title into the larger DC universe and continuity,” the company said.  The schedule for other Batman family titles is unaffected.

It was only last week that King was talking about the major changes he would be bringing to the character in Batman #90-#105 (see “Tom King Says Change Is Coming to Batman”), changes so dramatic he says he was surprised when his plan was approved at the highest levels of DC, and by parents Warner Bros. and AT&T.

King described his goal for the new series as “a chance to do what Morrison and Quitely did in Batman and Robin: launch an ambitious, accessible, beautiful, thrilling new series that concludes years of stories and defines what Batman is, can, and will be,” in a comment posted on Twitter (embedded below).

This year’s finish to King’s Batman run will include a longer-than-planned “City of Bane” story, now running 11 issues, beginning in #75 and ending in #85, rather than the originally planned eight issues.  The team on that storyline will be King, Tony S. Daniel, Mikel Janin, and Clay Mann.