...learn a new word, DC.

 

The Batman/Superman: World's Finest book is the only upcoming thing I’m looking forward to.

As a Justice League fan, I don’t know why I would want to read a story where the “selling” point is that they all die, so that’s a no for me, Dark Crisis.

 

Batman fends off an alien invasion while Superman is MIA in Batman - Fortress | GamesRadar+

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story screenwriter Gary Whitta and fan-favorite artist Darick Robertson are teaming on a new "brutal and shocking" May-debuting eight-issue series called Batman: Fortress.

Global power and communications are disrupted and Earth is plunged into chaos when an unknown alien ship enters Earth's atmosphere, but the world is left wondering where Superman is.

Not bad for a bunch of dead guys, right?)

It also looks like part of Batman's plan might be to take over Superman's arctic headquarters as the titular "Fortress" as DC says Whitta and Robertson "join forces to raid the Fortress of Solitude!"

But wherever his base of operations, Batman must also contend with quelling a crime wave on the streets of Gotham City that is blacked out without power.

Whitta and Robertson worked together recently on the creator-owned series Oliver, for Image Comics.

"This has been my first opportunity to collaborate with my Oliver co-creator Gary Whitta for DC, on a character that is one of my all-time favorites to draw," says Robertson. "I'm having the best time creating the art for this series and with my pal and original The Boys editor, Ben Abernathy at the helm, it's been a dream project, with a lot of fun twists and surprises ahead for the readers!"

According to the publisher, those fun twists and surprises wind up turning "everything you think you know about Superman upside down."

"It's always been my dream to write a truly epic Batman story, one that draws inspiration from some dark and unexpected corners of the DC universe," says Whitta. "The opportunity to once again collaborate with my friend Darick Robertson makes this all the sweeter. I hope that together we’ve done justice to some of DC's most iconic characters, while at the same time reinventing everything you thought you knew about them…"

Batman: Fortress #1 will feature a cover by Robertson and variant covers by Doaly and Robertson, and goes on sale May 24.

 

MAD Magazine alums reunite for a new venture in 'MADvertising'

 

Aquaman: Andromeda - Aquaman Joins DC's Adults-Only Black Label with a Psychological Horror Series

 

DC cancels Teen Titans Academy after first year | GamesRadar+

Teen Titans Academy writer Tim Sheridan has announced that the series will be ending in May after 15 issues. The writer revealed the news in response to a fan question about upcoming storylines.

"Alas, I’m afraid there won’t be time for any further story arcs, as DC has planned for Titans Academy to end with issue 15 in May," Sheridan tweets. "But thanks for asking and for reading!!"

The penultimate issue, April's Teen Titans Academy #14, was solicited as a "fresh start" with the in-story school being redubbed simply 'Titans Academy', with no 'Teen' notation at all.

DC's Milestone Universe Expands With Earth-M Line of Comics | CBR

DC is expanding its rebooted Milestone imprint with Earth-M, an all-new lineup of comics set to kick off in May with the six-part limited series Duo, which comes from writer Greg Pak, artist Khoi Pham and inker Scott Hanna.

"Last year, the world of Milestone Media made its long-awaited return to comic shelves," DC said in its official announcement. "Static, Icon, Rocket and Hardware live again in a shared universe of their own, living the kinds of stories they were created to tell. In 2022, Milestone is only getting bigger. Make way for Earth-M."

The Burbank-based publisher describes the Earth-M line as "a collection of new concepts and characters created by original Milestone co-founder Denys Cowan and current Milestone relaunch shepherd Reginald Hudlin, both inspired by and nestled within the Milestone universe. In time, these new heroes may meet their Milestone forebears, but now is the time for Milestone to do what it was always meant to through Earth-M: broaden perspectives on the superhero genre as a whole with ideas you've never seen before."

DC and Milestone get the ball rolling on Earth-M later this year with Pak, Pham and Hanna's Duo, which is set to release its debut issue on Tuesday, May 17. The series tells "the story of two lovers, both alike in scientific accomplishment, merged into one body through a nanotechnology experiment. While this has granted them extraordinary powers, it has also erased the boundaries between them." Duo #1 features a main cover by Dike Ruan, as well as a variant cover by the aforementioned Cowan and a 1:25 variant cover by Nimit Malavia.

The Burbank-based publisher describes the Earth-M line as "a collection of new concepts and characters created by original Milestone co-founder Denys Cowan and current Milestone relaunch shepherd Reginald Hudlin, both inspired by and nestled within the Milestone universe. In time, these new heroes may meet their Milestone forebears, but now is the time for Milestone to do what it was always meant to through Earth-M: broaden perspectives on the superhero genre as a whole with ideas you've never seen before."

DC and Milestone get the ball rolling on Earth-M later this year with Pak, Pham and Hanna's Duo, which is set to release its debut issue on Tuesday, May 17. The series tells "the story of two lovers, both alike in scientific accomplishment, merged into one body through a nanotechnology experiment. While this has granted them extraordinary powers, it has also erased the boundaries between them." Duo #1 features a main cover by Dike Ruan, as well as a variant cover by the aforementioned Cowan and a 1:25 variant cover by Nimit Malavia.

Written by Greg Pak and penciled by Khoi Pham with inks by Scott Hanna, Duo #1 goes on sale May 17 from DC.




Tom King plumbs the depths of DC obscurity for new series Danger Street | GamesRadar+

DC and the reunited Rorschach creative team of writer Tom King, artist Jorge Fornés, and colorist Dave Stewart are digging deep into the publisher's catalog for the May debut of a bi-monthly, Black Label 12-issue series Danger Street.

The "multicharacter, deeply layered crime drama" starring "reimagined" versions of characters like Starman (the blue one), Metamorpho, and The Warlord is inspired by the mid-1970s DC's 1st Issue Special series.

Yeah, we looked it up so you don't have to.

The 13-issue series published between April 1975 and April 1976 was based on legendary DC editor and publisher Carmine Infantino's idea of an ongoing series of nothing but first issues, which sold better than subsequent issues.

The result was a baker's dozen issues of unrelated, sometimes obscure concepts like the Jack Kirby creations Atlas and the Dingbats of Danger Street, for which the new series takes its title.

Danger Street follows the Mikaal Tomas Starman, Metamorpho, and the fantasy character The Warlord as they vie for membership in the Justice League.

Their plan: summon Darkseid to Earth to defeat him, apparently to prove their mettle.

Sure, what could go wrong?

Their boneheaded plan puts the Earth on a path to a "crisis," and according to DC their quest to save the day will be a "treacherous one filled with princesses, knights, and all kinds of monsters."

The main heroes encounter other supporting characters also culled from the pages of DC's 1st Issue Special including Doctor Fate, Manhunter (Mark Shaw), Lady Cop (a police officer that is female appropriately enough), the Green Team (teen millionaires who offer cash for adventures), and the Creeper.

They all play a crucial role in what DC calls a "sprawling yet gripping narrative that is a little bit silly, a whole lot dark, and completely cool."

Danger Street Book One (of 12) goes on sale May 3 with a main cover by Fornés. Variant covers spotlighting characters featured in both Danger Street and the original DC 1st Issue Special series include an Atlas cover by Steve Rude, a Lee Weeks cover featuring The Creeper, Metamorpho, and The Warlord, and a Dr. Fate cover by Ben Oliver.

"No one will see it coming, but everyone will want to see where it goes!" says DC.

Probably right about not seeing it coming, we'll have to see about the rest.




Nubia is coronated Queen and gets an origin in May DC special | GamesRadar+

While the seven-part Wonder Woman crossover event 'Trial of the Amazons' doesn't begin until March, Newsarama can reveal something that won't be changing during the storyline - Nubia will retain her crown as queen of the Amazons. And in May, DC is making it officially official.

"A new era for these warriors has dawned," reads DC's description of the post-'Trial of the Amazons' special. "Amazons from around the world have come to Themyscira to witness history and the crowning of their new leader. She stood between Man's World and the dangers of Doom's Doorway for centuries; when she was called upon to serve her people, she stood strong and clear-eyed, unafraid to look certain death in the face; she has united peoples on the brink of war…All hail Queen Nubia, champion of the three tribes!"

According to the publisher, the special celebrates the "mysterious past, thrilling present, and promising future" of Nubia and will influence stories "for years to come."

The special will also reveal Nubia's origin for the first time.

Nubia: Coronation Special #1 goes on sale May 3 featuring a cover by David Mack and variant covers by Mack, Joshua "Sway" Swaby, Crystal Kung, and Reina Koyano.

"A new era for these warriors has dawned," reads DC's description of the post-'Trial of the Amazons' special. "Amazons from around the world have come to Themyscira to witness history and the crowning of their new leader. She stood between Man's World and the dangers of Doom's Doorway for centuries; when she was called upon to serve her people, she stood strong and clear-eyed, unafraid to look certain death in the face; she has united peoples on the brink of war…All hail Queen Nubia, champion of the three tribes!"

According to the publisher, the special celebrates the "mysterious past, thrilling present, and promising future" of Nubia and will influence stories "for years to come."

The special will also reveal Nubia's origin for the first time.

Nubia: Coronation Special #1 goes on sale May 3 featuring a cover by David Mack and variant covers by Mack, Joshua "Sway" Swaby, Crystal Kung, and Reina Koyano.

 

May 2022 DC Comic Solicitations - The Comic Book Dispatch

Edit: another website that has all of the comics:

DC's May 2022 comics revealed | GamesRadar+

 

So disappointed that the current Suicide Squad comic is also ending...

 

Shit! I hadn't heard that. But hopefully it gets replaced with a new Suicide Squad series where Waller isn't a straight up bad guy with a cockamamie supervillain plan.

 

One problem I've had with pretty much every Suicide Squad series since the New 52 is how evil Waller has become. I really miss how she was in the original Ostrander run...

 

Even in the Timm cartoons, there was nuance. Current DC doesn't seem to get that if she's an outright villain, there's no point to any of it. The current series takes it the furthest, with Waller having a full-blown world conquest plan, and preemptively murdering Squad members even though they were obeying, to make them undead slaves who will never earn release, even in death.

It's the same kind of evil-creep that's been going on all over DC the past couple decades. It's not enough for Joker to be a murderous clown, now he has to murder on the scale of tens of thousands. Not enough for Black Adam to go bad. They had to make him murder every man, woman and child in an entire nation. Then they want to do some kind of half-redemption arc for Lex Luthor or something, and it's like, do you not remember what you had him do a few months ago? You've taken this kind of story completely off the table. It can't work now.

Anyway, yeah, I miss original Waller.

 

I think that's because the Suicide Squad doesn't have any definitive or long-term villains and any government official that forces criminals into suicide missions for reduction of their sentences can't really be portrayed as good or to morally gray.

I remember the last Suicide Squad run where they revealed her kids were alive and well and she only faked their deaths after her husband was murdered in the home invasion and that traumatized her enough into be a by "any means necessary" type.

There was also the last animated Suicide Squad movie and tie-in comic that revealed Waller was going to Hell for all the people she has had killed even if they deserved it.

I think the recent live-action movies and Peacemaker show has given us the best version of Amanda Waller, besides the DCAU.

Then you should be glad DC reboot, because most of those events have been completely undone. If anything Joker has traumatized and deformed more people than he has outright murder and as the Joker ongoing has shown there are worse people than him in the world that are just better at hiding their evil deeds.

I also don't think current Lex Luthor has killed that many people, yes he has lost his mind and attempted to take over the world or remake the universe, but then again what villain hasn't?

I mean in Deathstroke Inc. Slade has become the leader of the secret society and its acting like the king of the supervillains and murdering other villains on a whim. His daughter Rose even says that he goes on power trips and loses himself sometime.

 

Batman gets a new writer as Chip Zdarsky joins up "for the long haul"

Chip Zdarsky is taking over as writer of DC's ongoing Batman title starting with June's Batman #125, an oversized issue that will kick off a six-issue story arc titled 'Failsafe' that introduces a mysterious new threat to the Caped Crusader.

Joining Zdarsky as he takes over Batman from writer Josh Williamson will be artist Jorge Jiménez, who has plenty of experience on the core Batman title having worked with Williamson's predecessor James Tynion, IV on his run. Zdarsky himself is no stranger to Batman, having recently launched the DC Black Label title Batman: The Knight, which explores a different aspect of Bruce Wayne's journey to becoming Batman than has been shown in comics before.

Appropriate to Jiménez's Batman experience, Zdarsky states in his Substack that he's working closely with the artist on crafting a somewhat different visual take on Batman and Gotham than his previous work alongside Tynion.

"Early on in the process I let him know I’d be going a little darker with the scripts and Jorge immediately grabbed onto that and turned in pages that were gritty and intense, but still had the bigger-than-life energy of a Jorge Jiménez drawing," Zdarsky explains. "He’s the best! Truly the best."

As for what's in store in Zdarsky's Batman run, the writer says he's in it "for the long haul," saying that, much like his current Daredevil run at Marvel Comics, he plans to stick around for an extended stay on the title. What's more, his plans will ripple out across DC's Batman line into other titles.

"I’ve been cooking up plans that will be felt through all the bat-titles, which have an amazing roster of talent on them, and I think readers will be pretty happy," states Zdarsky.

The writer also expanded somewhat on where his 'Failsafe' arc will take readers in an interview with ComicBook (who also first published three of the four Batman #125 images) accompanying the announcement, with the story apparently revolving around Bruce Wayne having nightmares of a dark future with his name on it - with a new villain Zdarsky compares to Doomsday, the Kryptonian monster who once killed Superman.

"When DC approached me to write Batman, I immediately thought about things that could really challenge the character mentally, physically, and in terms of his relationships," Zdarsky explains. "Failsafe is his Doomsday. When I started mapping out the story I got really excited about where it could take the title."

Of course, Zdarsky's June Batman run launches just after Justice League #75 in May, in which the story 'Death of the Justice League' supposedly kills Batman and the rest of the League (or at least makes everyone else think they're dead), leading to an absence of the team and its lead heroes in the DC Universe during the subsequent Dark Crisis event story.

How does that fit with Zdarsky taking Batman on a new ride? Well, the way DC has framed how 'Death of the Justice League' and Dark Crisis fit into the publisher's overall continuity suggests that there's room for more Bruce Wayne stories set somewhere in the narrative gaps of the upcoming event - even as he's presumed dead.

Though many well-known creators from Frank Miller to Ed Brubaker and many more have worked on both Daredevil and Batman, Zdarsky may be the first writer to write both DC's premiere urban vigilante and Marvel's at the same time.

 

Flash and Aquaman leave the rest of the Justice League behind for a two-way team-up this June | GamesRadar+

Two classic Justice League members who have rarely worked together directly will team up starting in June, as DC brings together Barry Allen and Arthur Curry for a three-issue limited series titled Aquaman & The Flash: Voidsong, which pits the two heroes against a bizarre alien invasion.

In Voidsong, from writers Colin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing and artists Vasco Georgiev and Rain Beredo, Flash and Aquaman find themselves the only two people on Earth who are not affected by the strange attack of an alien species, who freeze the rest of Earth's population in place with the power of a musical note that paralyzes all who hear it.

Aquaman escapes the effects in the deepest ocean depths, while Flash avoids the sound while in the Speed Force - but when they both discover what's afoot, they'll have to team up to overcome the alien invasion before the attackers can drain Earth of all its kinetic energy, leaving the planet and its population frozen in place forever.

"These heroes have little in common. They've rarely even fought side by side without their fellow Justice League members," reads DC's announcement from ComicsPro 2022, where the news was broken.

Now the heroes will have to find a way to work together to save the world.

Interestingly enough, DC paired Aquaman up with another of his less-partnered Justice League members in 2021's Aquaman/Green Arrow: Deep Target, which marked the 80th anniversary of both characters, who made their debut in the same comic, 1941's More Fun Comics #73.

Aquaman and The Flash: Voidsong #1 clocks in at a whopping 56 pages, featuring a main cover from Jay Anacleto and an open order variant from series co-artist Vasco Georgiev, and goes on sale June 21.



The Justice League meets mecha anime in DC Mech | GamesRadar+

Elseworlds titles are great for how they redesign iconic heroes' looks, and soon, the Justice League is going to look bigger and tech-ier than ever. In DC Mech, Earth-0's mightiest heroes (so what, it's lowercase?) are ditching their traditional superhero garb for massive, anime-inspired robot battle suits.

(If that sounds just a little bit familiar, you may be thinking of Marvel's 2021 limited series Avengers Mech Strike and its related merchandise, in which Earth's Mightiest Heroes got their own giant robo battlesuits).

But the series doesn't stop at just giving heroes new duds, it will also introduce readers to a "whole new version of the DC Universe," according to writer Kenny Porter (Batman: Urban Legends). Artist Baldemar Rivas (Unearth) joins Porter in creating the tale of this alternate DCU.

DC Mech begins in the aftermath of WWII, as the Justice Society of America defends the planet against an invasion from Apokolips. Unfortunately for Earth's heroes, the Parademon soldiers use mecha technology, and the JSA is soundly defeated. Earth survives by a thread when the invading forces retreat, but it's clear to its citizens that superheroes can't fend off another attack.

Humanity's only hope is in creating mecha weapons of their own, and eventually, a new breed of giant robot-operating heroes emerges with a plan to fight Apokolips with its own weapons.

However, that plan is thrown off course when a different mecha-suited alien arrives on Earth, one who goes by the name Kal-El.

Porter, who pitched the idea to DC along with editor Dave Wieglosz, excitedly cited his inspirations in an interview published on IGN. "I've been a fan of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise since middle school," Porter says, "and I wanted to create a world with Baldemar that completely restructured the world around augmented pilots instead of superheroes."

Baldemar gave us a window into that world, saying he put a lot of thought into "the functionality of each unique mech, how they enhance their specific pilot's strengths and finding design elements that say something about each character as well." The artist says he wants "these mechs to feel at home in the DC Universe and introduce something new and exciting, but familiar."

DC fans will get to explore that new but familiar world when DC Mech #1, the first of six issues, hits comic book shelves June 26th, 2022.

 

Great news, imo.

 

I mean he’s been killing it with Daredevil, if he brings that same heat to Batman that’s a winning formula.

 

Can Aquaman please get a shave and a haircut? I like the character, but I prefer his classic "clean cut" look.

 

Tom Taylor on Twitter: "“This is not just survival. This is more.” #DCeased @DCComics @thedcnation https://t.co/6QqveEhfKl" / Twitter

 

If the comic doesn't at least have a 3D cover with doofy 3D glasses then that's an opportunity missed.

~L~

 

Well, I was enjoying Justice League Incarnate. And honestly I still enjoyed some stuff from the last issue.
But now it feels bogged down by being a lead-in for the next big event...And you know? I knew it was part of the lead-up for Death of the Justice League. There was no way it wouldn't be.
I just wish it hadn't been. That stories could be told without all being stepping stones on the path to next Crisis.