The first issue of the series - Buck Rogers #0 - is actually a 25-cent preview of the series proper, allowing curious readers a cheap way of sampling what the future holds for the revived hero. Series writer Scott Beatty previewed the series, and the preview, to Newsarama.com:

Buck's not the same old laconic square jawed hero. He wants to see new places. He wants to experience all the universe has to offer. He's full of ideas and keeps a journal so that he doesn't forget anything important. In many ways, he's a stranger in a strange land in his own time, so sling-shooting him into the future isn't quite as bad for him as it would be for someone less inclined to see the potential in finding himself a half-millennium forward in time. Buck assumes that technology has caught up with his own fabulist ideas. That may not necessarily be the case... Earth hasn't exactly "evolved" in 500 years. There have been some technological upgrades, but the planet has been through some harsh times. Buck is an oddity because he's allegedly from the past. He's hard-pressed to prove that idea. But he arrives at a crucial point in time and makes some tough choices others are unwilling to make. And he deals with a problem that he may have inadvertently failed to prevent in the first place. If I say any more I risk spoiling the conceits of the opening arc...

While Beatty promises appearances from many familiar faces in the opening storyline - including Colonel Wilma Deering - he's got some bad news for those expecting the return of Twiki:

Biddi-biddi-biddi-no.

Buck Rogers #0 is released in May.

Back to the Future: Barrucci and Beatty on Buck Rogers [Newsarama.com]

The problem isn't that I have no faith in Frank Miller to be the man who updates Buck for a 21st century audience (Although, now that you come to mention it, I'm not sure that I do), but that I don't think that you can successfully update him. Even moreso than his brother in awesome/stupid name space herodom, Flash Gordon, everything special about Buck Rogers seems such a 20th century idea that I'm not sure what, beyond name recognition, would make people want to update the series as is.

To start with, there's his name: "Buck"? Who's seriously called Buck in this day and age? The era of heroes with ridiculous names has, much to my sadness, passed; now we prefer our heroes to have more realistic, common names like "Nathan Petrelli," "John Connor" or "Buffy Summers" (Okay, maybe that last one's a throwback). Gone are the days when Buck, Flash or even Adam Strange could wander around our subconsciousness without ridicule, or at least writers trying to explain away the name in an awkward and unconvincing manner.

And, if anything, the name of his love interest has dated so much more: "Wilma Deering" was something that sounded like the set-up for a punchline that never came even when I was seven years old, and I was a naive and easy to dupe seven year old. Would any actress really want to play a character with that name today? And if not, will we see some lame updated version take its place? "My name's Wilma - but you can call me Willow." Or maybe she'll be an alien: W'Ilma De'ering, perhaps?

(In general, many of the names from Buck Rogers have dated appallingly. Could anyone really get away with calling an alien race "Mongols" now, for example? Or a space pirate "Black Barney"? Even later additions to the series, like the 1980s TV show's C3-P0/R2-D2 hybrid "Twiki" sounds like it came from the end of a writer's coke binge at Studio 54. What is it about this particular character that brought out the worst in writers?)

More importantly, the idea of Buck waking up in the 25th century seems curiously quaint now. It seemed more of a milestone when he was created - It's 500 years away! Half a millennium! - and there's something just... well, less impressive for him to find himself "only" 400 years later, for some reason. You could, of course, keep the 500 year mark, but then he becomes "Buck Rogers In The 26th Century" which doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

And yet, I can't deny that there's something irresistible about the basic, original, Buck concept - which is why I'd like to see someone try to do something that didn't just reboot a franchise, but start from scratch altogether, with all new characters. Give someone who isn't stuck in the past (Hi, Frank) the basic pitch of "a fighter pilot falls into a coma and wakes up five hundred years later in a world at war with aliens" and let them go wild. No Wilma, no brainy scientist Dr. Huer and definitely no Twiki, but something new, a world that's as alien and unfamiliar to us as it is to not-Buck (Seriously, that name has to go. Even ironically).

There's so much potential in the idea at the root of Buck Rogers that's completely buried under all of the Buck that we know. It'd be nice if someone who's taking on one of the revamps could just throw away everything that doesn't work - up to and including the name of the title character - and make it shine for a new audience.

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• Wilma Deering first appeared in the August 1928 "Armageddon 2419 A.D." story that ran in Amazing Stories magazine, and she is depicted as heroic and beautiful. In the story, she encounters Anthony Rogers (not yet "Buck" Rogers) in the during a war in the far future. Anthony joins her team of fighters, and at end of the story, they get married. *sniffle*
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• in the late 20s to the mid 60s, Wilma also appeared in the Buck Rogers comic strip, although she was much more of a stock female character instead of the spunky adventurer from the pulps.
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• In the Buck Rogers serial that ran in 1939, Lieutenant Wilma Deering encountered a thawed-out Buck Rogers and Buddy Wade, and together they fought the oppressive regime of Killer Kane.
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• In the 1979 television show Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Wilma was played by Erin Gray, and had made it all the way to Colonel. However, she was now a near-emotionless soldier with little interest in Buck. Although as time went by she opened up and tossed her shiny hair more, while continuing to dazzle as a pilot and a fighter.
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• In the Buck Rogers XXV Roleplaying Game, Wilma is described as a strawberry blonde with a fiery temper, and as an "8th level Terran warrior and a freedom fighter." But, she still serves as a love interest for Buck.
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• Princess Ardala was one of Buck's enemies in the comic strip, along with her sidekick Kane. However, she didn't appear in the 1939 serial at all.
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• Ardala became the vampiest scifi television show vixen on the airwaves when she appeared in the first season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, although they didn't bring her back for season two.
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• She was portrayed by actress Pamela Hensley, and she frequently wore very little clothing. In most of her episodes, she puts Carrie Fisher's Slave Girl Leia bikini to shame. Fairly racy stuff on television for 1979.
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• Buck finds himself in the episode "Awakening" from the 1979 television series, and is first discovered by a Draconian fighter. He's brought aboard the flagship Draconia, where he meets the Draconian emperor Draco extremely briefly, and is then left with the Draconian Princess, Ardala. These people really need to buy a book of baby names or something.
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• Surprisingly, Ardala only made four actual appearances on the show, but it's impossible to think of it without remembering her slinky cattiness.
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• In one episode of the show, Ardala holds her own "shotgun wedding" where she points a massive orbital weapon at New Chicago, and threatens to blow it off the map if Buck doesn't consent to being her consort. He thwarts her, and she lets him go... looks like she's a fan of captive men.
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