written by JAMES TYNION IV
art by JORGE JIMENEZ
cover by DAVID FINCH
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ON SALE 09/01/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
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“The Joker War” part four of six! Batman is at his most vulnerable following a massive dose of an experimental new Joker toxin. With the Dark Knight haunted by demons and visions, it’s up to Harley Quinn to protect him while he recovers—because Punchline is on her way!
I can certainly see the mercenary, marketing logic in attempting to create a "new" Harley Quinn, given how many comics and how much merchandise the character has sold in the last five years or so, and I guess DC making the attempt with this new Punchline character is therefore probably worth their effort. Although given that it took Harley so many years after being introduced in Batman: The Animated Series (1992) and then into canonical DC Universe comics (1999), it's not like you can predict these things. In fact, when Harley became a relatively hot commodity in 2015, it seemed to have more to do with Margot Robie and the Suicide Squad film than anything else. But, again, if so much of creating new corporate super-comics characters is a matter of throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks, I suppose Punchline has some "sticky" elements that have worked in the past, like being female, being "sexy" and being connected to The Joker.
Put her in a future Suicide Squad movie though, too. It couldn't hurt her prospects.
I just bought The Joker 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 featuring a brief origin of the character (which, somewhat depressingly, just took the lamer elements of Harley's origin, that she's a Joker fan girl, and lost the more compelling elements, like her being a psychologist who fell under his spell). Does...does that mean I'm rich now...?
written by ALAN BURNETT and PAUL DINI
art by TY TEMPLETON
cover by JAMES HARREN
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ON SALE 09/01/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | 4 of 7 | FC | DC
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A new type of vengeance comes to Gotham City! The flaming sword of Azrael burns through the city in search of a stolen artifact from the Church of St. Dumas. Can Batman protect his home from Azrael’s fury? And who would be looking for the resurrecting powers of the Shawl of Madelyn in the first place?
I have to confess to some curiosity about how Burnett, Dini and Templeton would adapt the very '90s character of Azrael into the specific look and feel of The Animated Series milieu...especially since I didn't even recognize him based on Harren's cover art. The mask looks quite Reaper-esque, which is why at first glance that's who I thought this character was supposed to be.
written by CHUCK DIXON
art by GRAHAM NOLAN and others
cover by GRAHAM NOLAN and TOM PALMER
ON SALE 09/29/20
$39.99 US | 392 PAGES | FC | DC
ISBN: 978-1-77950-669-6
After a tumultuous period—including being replaced by Azrael and a deadly contagion hitting Gotham City—Batman’s back to business in this collection of stories by the fan-favorite creative team of Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan, the creators of Bane! As Batman reels from the aftermath of the Final Night, the Riddler and Cluemaster unite for a uniquely vexing attack—and then Gunhawk and Deathstroke come to town! After all of that, if anything’s left of Gotham, Firefly might just burn it to the ground. Collects Detective Comics #703-718.
Well, ask and you shall receive. I just ordered two issues from Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan's run on Detective from Sterling Silver Comics recently; #714 and #715, which told the story of Denver P.I. John Jones coming to Gotham City (discussed here, along with a bunch of other comics).
The only Dixon/Nolan issues that are missing from this collection are #687-689 and 697-699, the former featuring Cap'n Fear and the latter introducing Lock-Up. Immediately following this batch of Dixon/Nolan issues is the start of "Catacylsm," which, of course, leads right into "Aftershocks" and the "No Man's Land." I kind of wish they made room for those six missing Dixon/Nolan non-crossover issues, even if it meant splitting this book into two volumes, but oh well.
I'm totally going to buy this, and am excited to read it, as the only issues I've read of these are the two I just recently read. Despite finding Dixon's opinions on politics and policy pretty abhorrent, there's no arguing the guy knows how to write plot-forward, action-oriented street-level crime-fighter comic, and this was when he was completely on top of his game (These issues contain a lot of Robin Tim Drake, and a few appearances by Oracle). Nolan, similarly, was doing some of the best work of his career here, being mostly inked by Tom Palmer or Bob McLeod, with a few exceptions (like Bill Sienkiewicz!).
In addition to the villains mentioned in the solicitation copy, these collected comics also feature the introduction of Gearhead (not to be confused with Metalhead), a character that didn't quite catch on the way that, say, Bane did. But! Props to Dixon and Nolan for creating a new villain!
SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN: WHO KILLED JIMMY OLSEN? TP
written by MATT FRACTION
art and cover by STEVE LIEBER
ON SALE 10/13/20
$29.99 US | 320 PAGES | FC | DC
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Jimmy Olsen must die! Wait, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Jimmy Olsen lives! Superman’s best friend and Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen tours the bizarre underbelly of the DC Universe in this new series featuring death, destruction, giant turtles, and more, combining Silver Age energy with a distinctly modern sensibility! It’s a centuries-spanning whirlwind of weird that starts in Metropolis and ends in Gotham City. Award-winning writer Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Hawkeye) makes his DC debut with Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, an irreverent, hijinks-filled journey across the weirdest and wildest corners of the DCU, illustrated by Eisner Award-winning artist Steve Lieber. Collects Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #1-12.
Aha! The one I've been waiting for!
written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
art by DALE EAGLESHAM, CLAYTON CRAIN, and GLEB MELNIKOV
cover by GABRIEL RODRIGUEZ
ON SALE 09/29/20
$4.99 US | 48 PAGES | FC | DC
On a dark and stormy night in the fifth dimension, two mortal foes meet to settle an age-old question once and for all: In a fight between Batman and Superman, who would win? The combatants? Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite. And in this battle for the ages, you will find out if a fifth-dimensional imp can bleed. It’s all in this, the ultimate slugfest between the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel—plus a whole lot of magic!
Okay, yes, this sure sounds like a story I've read multiple versions of before, including in the Evan Dorkin-scripted World's Funnest and, most recently, Scooby-Doo Team-Up (in which Scooby-Mite took the role of Mxyzptlk and Scooby that of Superman), but I'm a sucker for DC's 5th Dimensional imps. I asked my shop to order this one before I even finished writing this post (the only other comic book-comics from this batch I ordered were Detective #1,027 and Batman: The Joker War Zone #1).
BATMAN: THE JOKER WAR ZONE #1
written by JAMES TYNION IV, JOHN RIDLEY, and JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
art by GUILLEM MARCH, DAVID LAFUENTE, JAMES STOKOE, and others
cover by BEN OLIVER
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ONE-SHOT | ON SALE 09/29/20
$5.99 US | 48 PAGES | FC | DC
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Gotham City is a battleground as The Joker takes over the Wayne fortune and wages a street war against the Dark Knight and his allies! Enter the “war zone” with short stories featuring characters like Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, and Luke Fox and see how they’re fighting back in a city under siege! Also, the brutal full debut of the mysterious new anti-hero known as Clownhunter!
Wait, I'm sorry. Does that say James Stokoe? As in, James Stokoe? The man responsible for Aliens: Dead Orbit, Godzilla: The Half-Century War, Orc Stain and Won Ton Soup...? That James Stokoe? Doing a Batman comic? Why is this not bigger news? That should be the biggest news! (I'm going to assume its Clownhunter, as that's the easiest of the four characters named to imagine in Stokoe's style, but I'd love to see what he could do with all of those characters. And Batman and Batman's other allies. And all of Batman's villains. I hope this sells a billion copies and DC gives Stokoe a million dollars to do a Batman miniseries or to take over one of the monthlies.
And the other artists mentioned are Guillem March and David LaFuente, two others I like a whole bunch. I hope this is good. At the very least, it should look good...
written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
art by EDDY BARROWS and EBER FERREIRA
cover by HOWARD PORTER
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ONE-SHOT | ON SALE 09/22/20
CARD STOCK COVERS
$5.99 US | 48 PAGES | FC | DC
It’s the drag race from hell in this one-shot tie-in to Dark Nights: Death Metal! Taking place after the events of Dark Nights: Death Metal #3, the Darkest Knight is after Wally West and his Dr. Manhattan powers. Thankfully, Wally has backup in the form of Barry Allen, Jay Garrick, and Wallace West! It’s a knockdown, drag-out race through the Wastelands as the Flash Family tries to stay steps ahead of the Darkest Knight and his Lightning Knights!
I suppose once they announced Death Metal as the sequel, it was inevitable that sub-genres of metal would start being incorporated into titles. I'm assuming that if Scott Snyder and Capullo do a third Dark Multiverse-related event series, they'll go with Black Metal or possibly the more mundane Heavy Metal, but there's a whole Crayola 64-pack of metal sub-genres to play with. Just imagine Dark Nights: Teutonic Thrash Metal #1 featuring Enemy Ace, Dark Nights: Mathcore #1 featuring Doc Magnus, Dark Nights: Doom Metal--Sludge Metal #1 featuring Swamp Thing, Dark Nights: Black Metal--Screamo #1 featuring Plastic Man, Dark Nights: Black Metal Viking Blackgaze #1 featuring Etrigan, The Demon, Dark Nights: Symphonic Unblack Metal #1 featuring Zauriel and OH MY GOD YOU COULD DO THIS FOREVER.
written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, KELLY SUE DeCONNICK, MATT FRACTION, TOM KING, GRANT MORRISON, GREG RUCKA, SCOTT SNYDER, MARIKO TAMAKI, PETER J. TOMASI, JAMES TYNION IV, MARV WOLFMAN, and others
art by CHRIS BURNHAM, JAMAL CAMPBELL, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, EMANUELA LUPACCHINO, DAVID MARQUEZ, DAN MORA, IVAN REIS, EDUARDO RISSO, JOHN ROMITA JR., RILEY ROSSMO, BILL SIENKIEWICZ, WALTER SIMONSON, BRAD WALKER, CHIP ZDARSKY, and others
wraparound cover by ANDY KUBERT
BATMAN FRIENDS AND FOES VARIANT COVERS
Batman and Nightwing variant cover by LEE BERMEJO
Batman and Batgirl variant cover by J. SCOTT CAMPBELL
Batman and Batwoman variant cover by STANLEY "ARTGERM" LAU
Batman and Robin variant cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
Batman and Superman variant cover by TBD
Batman and Bane variant cover by JIM CHEUNG
Batman and Harley Quinn variant cover by OLIVIER COIPEL
Batman and Scarecrow variant cover by GABRIELE DELL'OTTO
Batman and Catwoman variant cover by ADAM HUGHES
Batman and The Joker variant cover by MARC SILVESTRI
blank variant cover
ON SALE 09/15/20
$9.99 US | 144 PAGES | FC | DC
Light the Bat-Signal, because Detective Comics #1027 is here! In honor of Batman’s first appearance in Detective Comics #27, this special, book-size celebration brings you the biggest names in comics as they chronicle the most epic Batman adventures Gotham City and the DC Universe have ever seen! The World’s Greatest Detective has a mountain of cases to crack: Who murdered Gotham’s most corrupt police officer? What does The Joker’s annual visit mean for Bruce Wayne? And most importantly, what WayneTech mystery will sow the seeds of the next epic Batman event? All this and more await you within the pages of the biggest Batman issue of them all!
Oddly, none of those variants sound appealing to me...like, they picked 10 artists, and none of them are ones I'm particularly fond of, which strikes me as odd, given the fact that I like all of the contributing artists. Actually, the contributing writers are a real who's who too, including a couple of surprises. I hope its pages are filled with stories of Batman teaming-up with the various characters who starred in Detective Comics for the first 26 issues, but something tells me that is not going to end up being the case.
written by JEFF LOVENESS
art and cover by BRANDON PETERSON
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ON SALE 09/22/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
FINAL ISSUE
After a night battling robots across the globe, Billy Batson finds out not everyone loves superheroes when one of his teachers unleashes a lecture on the ethics of unchecked power and privilege. It’ll take more than just the wisdom of Solomon for the teen hero to figure this one out.
This is simultaneously surprising and unsurprising. It's always struck me as insane that DC hasn't been able to keep a Captain Marvel/Shazam book on the shelves for very long in, what, 30 years now...? He is, at base, Superman with a great supporting cast and a far better rogue's gallery. I don't really like Geoff Johns' approach to the character, and hated much of what he changed for the New 52 reboot of the character, who was still nameless last time I read a comic featuring him (Hollywood sure seemed to like it though!), but it's genuinely shocking that Geoff Johns can't keep a monthly DC comic on the shelves (That said, it seems like something hinky's been going on with the book, as a trade collection from this series has yet to be released and it sure seems like there have been some delays on it; additionally, Johns doesn't seem very present as a writer in DC Comics anymore, with just a couple of easy-to-ignore projects on the margins of their superhero line).
Strange too that they would have a new writer come in just to end the series.
Poor old Captain Marvel is in kind of a rough spot right now too because not only was he one of the characters more radically rebooted post-Flashpoint/The New 52 (and in a form that established the template for the movie, which means that's the Captain Marvel/Shazam that DC's probably somewhat stuck with for a couple more years), but, like almost all of the comics that preceded this one and his strip from Justice League were also attempts to rejigger the character.
DC might be best off ignoring the last 15 years of Shazam comics and just publishing a new monthly by Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart (2015's Multiversity: Thunderworld Adventures) or Jeff Parker and Evan "Doc" Shaner (2015's Convergence: Shazam #1-2). That, or perhaps we'll start seeing Shazam Giants mixing new, original stories with reprints, or a kid-friendly original graphic novels in the vein of Zatanna and The House of Secrets (I'm actually kind of surprised we haven't seen The Marvel Family in one of those or, I don't know, a Sandy Jarrel-drawn YA ogn).
written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
art by IVAN REIS, JULIO FERREIRA, and DANNY MIKI
cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
variant cover by BRYAN HITCH
1:25 card stock Synmar variant cover by IVAN REIS
ON SALE 09/08/20
$5.99 US | 48 PAGES | FC | DC
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New Villain Alert: Introducing Synmar!
A colossal new threat to Superman, the planet Earth, and the DC Universe arrives on the scene in this special issue! The unique warrior called Synmar was created to represent an entire alien race. He’s trained his entire life—but for what purpose? As the antithesis of everything Superman stands for, Synmar launches his aggression toward Earth—to destroy the Man of Steel and every being on the planet! This is what Superman was born to protect us from!
"Synmar"...? Huh. Synmar. I don't know. Maybe I'll get used to it, eventually...?
Anyway, from the creator of Ultimate Marvel villain Geldoff comes...Synmar.
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Hmmm...nope. Still not used to it.
written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS and DAVID F. WALKER
art by SCOTT GODLEWSKI and MICHAEL AVON OEMING
cover by JOHN TIMMS
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ON SALE 09/01/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
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At last, the coolest couple in the DCU gets the spotlight! Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown have sacrificed so much. For each other. For their families. For Young Justice. Now, Tim and Stephanie must take control of their destinies as Young Justice gathers together to help overcome their criminal pasts!
I'm sorry, but Tim Drake can't be part of "the coolest couple" in the DCU, as he is no longer cool, nor will he ever be cool as long as he's wearing that lame costume and insists on calling himself "Drake" instead of Robin, Red Robin, Redwing, Redbird or anything less dumb than his own last name, really. Was this Drake phase he's going through all just an attempt to test Stephanie's love for him and loyalty to him? To prove to himself that she must really love him, if she's willing to to stay with him no matter how dumb his costume and codename are...?
The description in that Shazam solicit definitely sounds to me like it's a story they had lying around, and ending the volume gave them a place to put it.
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