Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's
Death Metal sequel,
Dark Nights: Death Metal will reach its halfway point in October, and it is a positively
sprawling event. In addition to the fourth issue of the seven-issue main series, there are two more one-shots solicited for this month
—Dark Nights: Death Metal Rise of The New God #1 and
Dark Knights: Death Metal Robin King #1—and two more issues of
Justice League's ongoing tie-in arc. I'm curious how the event will ultimately be collected. The
Justice League arc will be its own discrete collection, I'm sure, and I suppose the main series will be its own collection as well, but then there's the matter of the many one-shots. Will they all be published together in something with a title like
Dark Nights: Death Metal Companion, or will perhaps a couple of them be collected along with the main series, or...?
At any rate, I'm trade-waiting, so I'll be reading the event however DC decides to curate it in trade format.
Aside from
Death Metal, the month brings a
lot of Batman content, with lots of in-continuity stories and a few prominent out-of continuity comics, and more Wonder Woman than usual, thanks, no doubt, to the movie...whenever that will actually be released.
Anyway, here's what jumped out at me this month...
BATGIRL #50
written by CECIL CASTELLUCCI
art by EMANUELA LUPACCHINO, MARGUERITE SAUVAGE and ANEKE
cover by JOSHUA MIDDLETON
...
ON SALE 10/27/20
$5.99 US | 48 PAGES | FC | DC | FINAL ISSUE
Series finale! All good things must come to an end, as we wrap up this run of Batgirl with one final oversized celebratory issue! In the aftermath of “The Joker War,” Gotham is left in pieces that need to be picked up by Barbara and Alejo’s team—but is Gotham a city worth saving anymore, and how much longer does our girl have it in her to keeping fighting for it as Batgirl? Then, if Barbara is to ever give her relationship with Jason a chance, she knows she has to face him and finally make amends with the act that crippled him.
I can't remember the last time I read an issue of Batgirl...it was well before her new costume...but seeing "Marguerite Sauvage" in the credits sure makes me interested in this one. I kinda like the cover too; in fact, I think I prefer Middleton's sketches in the background to his finished head shot of the title character.
BATMAN #100
written by JAMES TYNION IV
art and wraparound cover by JORGE JIMENEZ
backup stories art by GUILLEM MARCH, CARLO PAGULAYAN, and DANNY MIKI
wraparound cover by JORGE JIMENEZ
...
ON SALE 10/6/20
$6.99 US | 56 PAGES | FC | DC
,,,
“The Joker War” comes to a city-shattering conclusion as Batman battles The Joker in a brutal, no-holds-barred duel! This is a fight 80 years in the making, and its outcome won’t just change Batman’s life—it will change Gotham City for years to come! Plus, catch the first glimpse of the new villain known as Ghost-Maker! And after the senses-shattering conclusion of “The Joker War” come a pair of short stories that will chart what’s to come in Gotham City and Batman. Don’t miss the first showdown between Batman and Clownhunter!
I haven't read a page of Tynion's
Batman run yet, but, based on his
Detective Comics run, I am not expecting much. So much of that run just seemed to adapt '90s Batman comics by Chuck Dixon, Marv Wolfman, Alan Grant, Denny O'Neil and others into current continuity that it made me feel
extremely uncomfortable, and I wasn't sure if his new stories were falling far enough away from the line between homage and appropriation (
especially for readers who aren't middle-aged men like me, and therefore might not be aware of how often that run played with the characters, stories, scripts and even particular panels of past comics by other creators).
That said, I'm impressed that Tynion has apparently been creating new characters during his
Batman run. One of my biggest criticisms about modern Batman comics—say, the last 20 years—is how the writers just cycle through the same dozen or so rogues ad nauseum. I like, even love, a lot of those characters, but unless you have something incredibly fresh, new and compelling to say about The Joker, Scarecrow, Two-Face, The Penguin, Ra's al Ghul, Talia al Ghul, Bane, Mister Freeze, Man-Bat, The Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Clayface and company, then chances are I've already read your story. Ten or twenty times.
While Tynion's
Tec was
extremely guilty of this, even if he did reintroduce some lesser-known and more rarely used villains like Anarky and The General, I've been impressed that in
Batman he seems to be adding characters: The Designer, Punchline, Clownhunter and now Ghost-Maker.
Punchline is the only one I've read any of so far, and that story presented her as the Harley Quinn-style Joker groupie character minus Harley's charm, but hell, at lest he's trying!
BATMAN #101
written by JAMES TYNION IV
art and cover by GUILLEM MARCH
card stock variant cover by FRANCESCO MATTINA
...
ON SALE 10/20/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
...A new day dawns in Gotham and the horrors of “The Joker War” are just being realized. A bold new direction for Batman begins as Bruce Wayne’s circumstances are forever changed. How did the Joker’s rampage affected the citizens of the city? And why does Cole Cash—a.k.a.—Grifter, now work for Lucius Fox?!
The fuck is Grifter doing in
Batman...? I thought DC gave up on trying to integrate the WildStorm characters into the DCU back during
Futures End...? I guess the latest reboot/s aren't actually going to put WildStorm character back in their own universe after all...?
BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #17
written by BRYAN HILL
art by DEXTER SOY
cover by TYLER KIRKHAM
...
ON SALE 10/13/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
FINAL ISSUE
Series finale! The war with Ra’s al Ghul reaches its end, and none of the Outsiders will ever be the same. And none of them might ever be a team again! Did Batman choose the wrong allies to assemble to fight Ra’s? Or did those allies make a mistake in believing in Batman? The critically acclaimed series comes to its end!
They're
still fighting Ra's al Ghul? Jesus. And this is the final issue, so I guess Batman's own super-team has been battling one of his archenemies for, what, about a year and a half now?
That's a large part of why I haven't read a single issue of this series yet, despite for my fondness for Batman, Black Lightning, Cassandra Cain (but not Orphan) and Duke Thomas (but not The Signal). I think there
are a couple of good Ra's stories to be told now, given the character's one-time focus as an environmental terrorist with the goal of saving the world by killing off much of its human population and that, decades after he was introduced with that motivation, we're literally years away from rendering the world uninhabitable, but the last, I don't know, dozen or so stories have focused more on Ra's as the leader of a ring of assassins and just one more guy who doesn't like Batman. I don't know for sure that's the tack Hill took with him, but the character seems so exhausted to me at this point that his presence generally repels rather than attracts me to a Batman comic.
If this book is canceled, then I
do hope they find a place to use Duke and Cass in the near future, though...and that they give them both better code names (and the latter a better costume).
THE BATMAN’S GRAVE #11
written by WARREN ELLIS
art and cover by BRYAN HITCH
...
ON SALE 10/13/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | 11 OF 12 | FC | DC
Scorn’s plan is revealed, and it is nothing less than the reshaping of the structure of Gotham City. Where the Batman imagines a city without crime, Scorn wants a city built on it. The Batman can’t think like him, though—he’s half-dead already!
I was wondering if DC was going to cancel this book or not following all
these revelations about writer Warren Ellis of late, particularly given that they apparently decided to remove a short story contribution of his to a
Death Metal anthology special.
I guess they decided against cancelling his maxi-series with Bryan Hitch so close to the conclusion of it.
Ellis puts the publisher in a pretty shitty position, because, on the one hand, being associated with Ellis now seems like something a decent publisher would want to avoid, but, on the other hand, you don't want to punish Hitch for Ellis, right? And DC's back catalog is just full of comics by Ellis and artists who, as far as I know, don't deserve the sort of boycott that one would expect to see Ellis' books getting in the future.
Gah. I'm so glad I'm just a consumer and occasional writer-about comics, rather than, like, actively participating in the field. For me, it's simply a matter of deciding whether or not to buy or read (and/or write about) a book or not. It's easy enough for me to skip one of the 25 new Batman comics available in a given month because I don't want my money going to support shitty people.
BATMAN: THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE #5
written by PAUL DINI and ALAN BURNETT
art by TY TEMPLETON
cover by PAOLO RIVERA and JOE RIVERA
...
ON SALE 10/6/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | 5 OF 7 | FC | DC
Batman is scrambling as he learns the true identity of the man who’s been stalking him and the rest of the Bat-Family. As Batman and Alfred reel from the revelation, Tim demands answers! Batman’s greatest shame is finally revealed!
Hmm, I'm not sure how exactly they can squeeze Jason Todd into the continuity of
Batman: The Animated Series; if there was another Robin who had had died (or "died"), he would have had to either predate Dick Grayson, which seems unlikely, or to have had a very short career during the gap between Dick's quitting and Tim Drake taking up the mantle when the show jumped forward in time. I guess it will be interesting to see how Dini and Burnett can retroactively squeeze Jason Todd into that history, and how they will portray him, given the fact that Tim was assigned Jason's origin story on the show.
Curiosity aside, my enthusiasm for this series is waning in light of this solicitation, which sure seems to suggest that this is actually some sort of adaptation of Judd Winick's "Under The Red Hood" story arc in
Batman, which I loathed...
Ian Bertram should draw Batman.
That is all.
DC THE DOOMED AND THE DAMNED #1
written by KEN PORTER, JOHN ARCUDI, SALADIN AHMED, ALYSSA WONG, TRAVIS MOORE, MARV WOLFMAN, and more
art by RILEY ROSSMO, MIKE PERKINS, LEONARDO MANCO, TRAVIS MOORE, TOM MANDRAKE, and more
cover by KYLE HOTZ
PRESTIGE FORMAT | ONE-SHOT
ON SALE 10/13/20
$9.99 US | 80 PAGES | FC | DC
It was a dark and stormy night when the creatures of the DC Universe began to emerge from their lairs into the cool evening air. Tales of the macabre, the murderous, and the morbid abound in this spine-chilling special about monsters and mayhem! What happens when Batman encounters a true urban legend after speaking its name three times in a mirror, or when Madame Xanadu enlists the help of Man-Bat to take down a shadowy specter? And who can stop an intergalactic demon from turning people into frog beasts? Only the unlikely team-up of Green Lantern and Etrigan! All this and seven more fang-tastic tales to trick your treats and bob your apples.
Okay, I could say something here about how awesome that Kyle Hotz cover is (I don't see him listed as an interior artists though, and that's sad), and what a great regular Batman artist he would be. Or I could say something about how much I enjoy reading DC's holiday and anniversary anthologies, and how, along with the YA and kids ogns, they seem to be the primary way I engage with DC Comics now. Or the more standard, "Hmm, I like some of these creators a whole lot (Riley Rossmo! Tom Mandrake!), but that I will need to know more about the "and more" before getting too excited.
But instead I would like to focus on "the unlikely team-up of Green Lantern and Etrigan!" Now, it doesn't say
which Green Lantern, which usually means they are referring to the
worst Green Lantern, Hal Jordan.
But that's okay. Because it allows me to hold out hope that this story will be set during the Silver Age, or at sometime before the impurity in the power rings was taken away, and they could not affect the color yellow. And that, like most good superhero team-ups, this one will start with Hal and Etrigan fighting one another before teaming up against their common foe. And that Hal will fire a barrage at Etrigan that evaporates the Demon's red and blue clothing, only for Hal to be faced by a grinning, nude Etrigan, whose yellow flesh is invincible to the greatest weapon in the universe. And thus Hal will have no choice but to either fight Etrigan hand-to-hand (and, one would hope, get struck on the head a lot, as is Hal's wont), or somehow trick Etrigan into getting dressed, so that Hal's powers can affect him.
I guess we'll find out in a couple of months. Fingers crossed!
DARK KNIGHTS: DEATH METAL ROBIN KING #1
written by PETER J. TOMASI and TONY PATRICK
art by RILEY ROSSMO
backup story art by DANIEL SAMPERE
cover by RILEY ROSSMO
...
With a utility belt filled to the brim with weapons designed to kill every hero in the DCU, Robin King is the most sadistic soldier in the Darkest Knight evil army! Can anyone stop him from laying waste to Earth’s last line of defense? And how did he become one of the Batman Who Laugh’s groblins in the first place? And in the backup story, can the Robins liberate Gotham City from the Darkest Knight’s control?
I don't have anything much to say here (wait, have they
always been called "groblins"...?), just that I love Riley Rossmo, and I'm glad to see he's getting to draw a whole
—or at least most
—of an issue tied into this
Death Metal event business.
Rossmo's one of those artists with such a distinct style that I kind of want to see him draw the whole DC Universe, just to see what his version of each character looks like, so if this story includes some or all of the heroes piled up on this cover beneath the title character's feet, well, that's good news.
DETECTIVE COMICS #1028
written by PETER J. TOMASI
art by NICOLA SCOTT
cover by KENNETH ROCAFORT
...
Spinning out of the events of “The Joker War” and Detective Comics #1027 comes a tale of the beginning of the end for Gotham City’s status quo. With tensions flaring and a new mayoral candidate making his anti-hero agenda known to the city, Batman and his allies are stretched thin to keep the peace. But just as things couldn’t look any worse, a string of gruesome murders has left a trail of the most corrupt in Gotham City losing their heads...literally. If Batman doesn’t quickly find the killer—the Dark Knight will be next.
Nicola Scott! Say,
there's a female artist who could draw a Batman monthly! Despite Becky Cloonan's issue of
Batman a few years back, and Joelle Jones drawing a few issue of the title during Tom King's run, there
still hasn't been an actual run on one of the main Batman titles by a female artist yet...and
Detective Comics and
Batman have been published for just about as long as comic books
have existed. That really seems like the sort of oversight DC should correct. Pronto.
I've liked Scott's art since I first saw it, and while if I were, like, The Boss of DC Comics, I don't think she would be the first, third or seventh female artist I would assign
Batman or
'Tec for a year's run or so, I
do think she's an artist DC could hand either book to, like,
tomorrow and their average fan
and editor be perfectly, 100% totally okay with it.
Her style is within the safe aesthetic range of the majority of the DCU comics, sufficiently so that I doubt anyone would freak out if they saw it on one of the publisher's top five books, and she is, at this point, an extremely known quantity at the publisher. It's easy to imagine her having a healthy, popular run as the artist on either of the two main bat-books.
On the subject of ladies doing Batman comics, is Devin K. Grayson still the only female
writer to have a run on one of the main Batman books...? I know
Gotham Knights wasn't
Batman or
'Tec, but, when it launched, it basically replaced
Shadow of The Bat as the tertiary Batman title...
DETECTIVE COMICS #1029
written by PETER J. TOMASI
art and cover by KENNETH ROCAFORT
...
ON SALE 10/27/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
...
After the City of Bane, the Riddler’s takeover, The Joker War, and more, the people of Gotham City have had enough. The world is changing for Bruce Wayne, and the question he must ask himself is: What role does the Batman have in a city that rejects him? As the year barrels forward into what will become a turning point for the Dark Knight, Batman must grapple with the very citizens he has sworn to protect...while a familiar face looms large as a new threat on the horizon: Damian Wayne!
Okay, assuming that the guy in the chair there is
not Facade from 2006's
Tec #821, then that must be a new villain of some sort, whose secret identity I am, at this point, guessing is the same guy who is running for mayor on an anti-superhero platform...?
I spent some time trying to match all of the masks to various characters, but the red one on the far left has me stumped. Whose mask is that...?
Say, who's the new Doctor Fate in that image...? Is it the Khalid Nassour version from Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew's rather short-lived 2015
Doctor Fate series, or is it
another new Doctor Fate...?
RED HOOD: OUTLAW #50
written by SCOTT LOBDELL
art by PAOLO PANTALENA
cover by DEXTER SOY
...
ON SALE 10/27/20
$5.99 US | 48 PAGES | FC | DC
Jason Todd’s downward spiral began when he was murdered by The Joker. But deep in his heart he blamed himself for charging headfirst into deadly danger. His rage and self-loathing caused him to lash out at those around him—keeping friends and family alike at arm’s length. Until the Outlaws. First Arsenal and Starfire, and later, Artemis and Bizarro, saw through his defenses. Now it’s time to pay it forward to the one person who represents all the mistakes he’s made in his own life: Duela Dent. But can he save The Joker’s Daughter...when he couldn’t even save himself? Don’t miss the end of the Outlaw era!
Like Jason Latour, mentioned in the previous post, and Warren Ellis, Scott Lobdell was among the handful of men mentioned in the latest round of comic book Twitter's ongoing discussion of shitty men in comics. I guess DC is also still publishing Lobdell though, although I suppose it's worth noting that while there's no "FINAL ISSUE" attached to this solicitation, as there are with so many other titles being published this month, the solicitation copy sure make it sound like it's the final issue of the series.
I kind of hope so. I've only read a handful of issues of any of Lobdell's Jason Todd comics since late 2011, but it's been ongoing under various titles and directions, and with various artists, ever since the New 52 launch. It's been a frankly rather bizarrely stable presence in DC's line-up. It's obviously not been so successful or so popular that it
hasn't been repeatedly canceled and relaunched, with various tinkering with the precise title of the book, the supporting cast, the main character's costume and the over all premise, but DC has continued to publish it regardless.
Maybe there's just some baseline popularity to post-Robin Jason Todd comics that any book at all starring him sells well enough to justify its own existence, just so long as it is relaunched or refreshed on a regular basis...? Even so, it's strange to think that
this character/title, over all the other New 52 characters/titles, would be the one that would keep its original writer for almost the full decade...
RORSCHACH #1
written by TOM KING
art and cover by JORGE FORNéS
...
ON SALE 10/20/20
$4.99 US | 32 PAGES | 1 of 12 | FC
...
DC BLACK LABEL | AGES 17+
It’s been 35 years since Ozymandias dropped a giant interdimensional squid on New York City, killing thousands and destroying the public’s trust in heroes once and for all. And since that time, one figure in a fedora, mask, and trenchcoat has become a divisive culture icon.
So what does it mean when Rorschach reappears as an assassin trying to kill a candidate running against President Robert Redford? Who is the man behind the mask, and why is he acting this way? It’s up to one detective to uncover the true identity of this would-be killer—and it will take him into a web of conspiracies involving alien invasions, disgraced do-gooders, mystic visions, and yes, comic books.
Writer Tom King joins forces with artist Jorge Fornés for a new miniseries that explores the mythic qualities of one of the most compelling characters from the bestselling graphic novel of all time, Watchmen.
This is gross, and shame on everyone involved with it.
Rather than going off into an essay-length tangent here, I'm just going to repeat what I said on Twitter:
Goddammit. There's two more prominent creators for my do-not-buy-stuff-from-these-guys list.
This is actually kind of depressing because while I've probably read more than enough King comics in the past few years, Fornes is a great up-and-coming talent.
I mean, for God's sake, just do a Question comic. DC does own the rights to the Question, that character's creator might also not have liked people doing comics based on his creation, but that creator has passed away.
I honestly will never understand the mentality of a creator who has to decide between A) Doing something the creator of the IP you're profiting off of would prefer you not to do and B) Doing something else, and chooses the latter.
My feelings on the existence of yet another
Watchmen sequel by people who should know better haven't changed any since I originally tweeted about it ten days ago, with the possible exception that I've even more greatly annoyed about King's participation today than I was then.
SUICIDE SQUAD #10
written by TOM TAYLOR
art and cover by BRUNO REDONDO
...
ON SALE 10/27/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
The world knows Ted Kord as Blue Beetle, superhero. But the members of Task Force X know him as something else entirely—the violent and vindictive puppet master who rigged them to blow. With Deadshot murdered and Kord finally at their mercy, will the Suicide Squad get their revenge once and for all?
Wait,
does the world know Ted Kord as Blue Beetle? Since fucking
when? I know I'm not all that up-to-date on DC's monthly comics, but the last few times I have seen Ted Kord
as Blue Beetle was 1) the out-of-continuity
Tales of The Dark Multiverse, 2) The out-of-continuity
DCeased and 3)
Heroes In Crisis, which had so many continuity errors and was all-around so poorly-made that I just assumed it would be retroactively knocked out of continuity.
In the post-
Flashpoint/New 52 continuity, I thought Jaime Reyes was the first Blue Beetle, and that we were first being introduced to Ted Kord as Jaime's kinda sorta mentor in
DC Universe: Rebirth #1...?
Did...something happen somewhere to change all that--
Doomsday Clock?
Young Justice? Taylor's own
Suicide Squad run?-- and I just haven't caught up yet...?
I can't tell you how irritated DC makes me with the publisher's constant, continuity-obsessed reboots occurring simultaneously with their writers' continuity-based storytelling.
UNDERWORLD UNLEASHED: THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY TP
written by MARK WAID, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ALAN GRANT, ROGER STERN, and SCOTT PETERSON
art by HOWARD PORTER, PHIL JIMENEZ, J.H. WILLIAMS III, BRIAN STELFREEZE, and others
cover by HOWARD PORTER and DAN GREEN
ON SALE 11/17/20
$29.99 US | 304 PAGES | FC | DC
ISBN: 978-1-77950-578-1
The devil gets his due as demonically powered super-villains wreak havoc in this 25th-anniversary edition of the classic DC event! Neron, the ruler of hell, makes DC’s villains—and heroes—an offer they can’t refuse, dangling serious power upgrades at the cost of their souls. Who will say yes? Who will say no? And will the DC Universe ever be the same? Collects Underworld Unleashed #1-3, Underworld Unleashed: Abyss—Hell’s Sentinel #1, Underworld Unleashed: Apokolips—Dark Uprising #1, Underworld Unleashed: Batman—Devil’s Asylum #1, and Underworld Unleashed: Patterns of Fear #1.
Oh, hey! This is a comic I have literally been asking for! I read the original, core miniseries, as well as
Hell's Sentinel and
Devil's Asylum, but not
Dark Uprising and
Patterns of Fear, so I'm really rather looking forward to this. If I recall correctly, this is not only the main Mark Waid and Howard Porter series, in which new villain/actual devil Neron visits various heroes and villains and offers to grant them powers or wishes in exchange for their souls, generally cursing them in the process by giving them exactly what they want, but in a way they will immediately wish they hadn't gotten it, in true devil's fashion.
Hell's Sentinel, written by Scott Peterson and drawn by J.H. Williams III, Phil Jimenez and Mick Gray (this was my first introduction to Jimenez's work, by the way), featured Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott, then going by Sentinel, and a super-group of DC's magical heroes: The Spectre, Deadman, Fate, Zatanna, Phantom Stranger and Etrigan. In that respect, it seemed somewhat inspired by Alan Moore's seance sequence from
Swamp Thing's tie-in arc to
Crisis On Infinite Earths, and was also an origin of sorts for the group of magical heroes referred to as "The Sentinels of Magic," who prefigured The Shadow Pact and the eventual Justice League Dark. (I've always sort of regretted no monthly ongoing spun out of
this; I liked the use of Scott as a superhero POV character who would try to navigate the cosmic and mystical forces of the DC Universe in the company of various sorcerers and demonic figures. His being a long-time member of a superhero team working with a bunch of people and creatures unaccustomed to teamwork seemed an additional selling point to the never really realized
Sentinels of Magic series).
As for
Devil's Asylum, my strongest memory of it is seeing it as I would occasionally reorganize my longboxes, as opposed to anything within it, so I'm afraid it didn't make much of an impression, despite the fact that it was written by my favorite Batman writer at the time (Alan Grant), and featured the unusual art team of Brian Stelfreeze and Rick Burchett, the former doing layouts for the latter to finish.
It seems
Dark Uprising is a Paul Kupperberg-written story set on Apokolips, in which Neron tempts the various villains of Darkseid's court, and
Patterns of Fear is a hybrid story/profile comic, in which Neron tempts Oracle Barbara Gordon with the restoration of her spine and legs, by Roger Stern and Anthony Williams, interspersed with profiles of some 25 villains drawn by the likes of Porter, Burchett, Jimenez,
Oscar Jimenez, Flint Henry, Kelley Jones (!) and one of my '90s favorites, Vince Giarrano.
I wouldn't mind if DC decided to collect the entire event in a series of trade collections, personally, but I just looked it up on Wikipedia, and I guess there was something like 70 tie-in issues, some of which were extremely loose, so I'm not sure that will ever happen. I suppose it's possible they could do something akin to what they did with
Zero Hour tie-ins, though, and collect, like, the ones featuring Batman and Superman...
It would probably also be possible to just cherry-pick the most relevant tie-ins, as when I reviewed the list of tie-ins, I saw some that I remember reading but had forgotten were even meant to be tie-ins to
Underworld Unleashed, as sometimes all they needed was to prominently feature a villain and to have the
Underworld Unleashed logo on the cover to qualify as a tie-in.
WONDER WOMAN #764
written by MARIKO TAMAKI
art by STEVE PUGH
cover by DAVID MARQUEZ
...
ON SALE 10/13/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
...
Wonder Woman and Max Lord are on the hunt for some missing and extremely dangerous weaponry from Lord Industries, and the search has brought this unlikely duo to…Miami? Fun in the sun will have to wait—because if Diana and Max can’t uncover this illegal arms trade, the entire city could be blown sky high! But we’re sure Max Lord will be nothing but helpful…right?
Steve Pugh!
Oh, um, that's all I had to say about that. I've gradually lost interest in the DCU Wonder Woman after the interesting but weird New 52 reboot and some extremely, disappointingly lackluster runs by some quite talented writers, but hey, I wouldn't mind seeing what Pugh does with Wonder Woman. (Max Lord in
Wonder Woman, though? Not so much. I...don't even know how he fits into DC continuity anymore; I remember seeing him in
Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad but, like the previously complained-about Blue Beetle, the history that
that story and perhaps this one are trading on is also history that was pretty explicitly un-written, so the strongest emotions I can attach to the character appearing in DCU comics these days are confusion and apathy
WONDER WOMAN 1984 #1
written by ANNA OBROPTA, LOUISE SIMONSON, and STEVE PUGH
art by BRET BLEVINS and MARGUERITE SAUVAGE
cover by NICOLA SCOTT
...
ONE-SHOT | ON SALE 9/29/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
In these tales that tie in to the upcoming Warner Bros. movie Wonder Woman 1984, when a failed burglary attempt causes a hostage situation at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Diana Prince is forced to leave her teenage tour group behind so that Wonder Woman can save the day! But will Wonder Woman be able to bring 10 gunmen to justice and get back to her tour group in time? And in a second story, it’s the eighties, and greed is good—as long as you already have it all! Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor hunt down the reckless mastermind who makes the ultimate power move by stealing Diana’s golden lasso!
Such movie tie-ins are generally not very good, but dang, that's a lot of talent assembled for this particular one, and I would very much like to see Bret Belvins' Wonder Woman, and I'm always, always,
always interested in seeing what Sauvage is up to (see above).
WONDER WOMEN OF HISTORY TP
written by VITA AYALA, CECIL CASTELLUCCI, AMANDA DEIBERT, SARA FARIZAN, KAMI GARCIA, SARAH KUHN, MARIEKE NIJKAMP, EMILY X.R. PAN, TRACI SORELL, LILAH STURGES, and others
art by NATASHA DONOVAN, CARINA GUEVARA, NICOLE GOUX, IGZELL, ROBYN SMITH, O’NEILLJONES, CAT STAGGS, LYNNE YOSHII, and others
portraits by COLLEEN DORAN, AGNES GARBOWSKA, WESHOYOT ALVITRE, and more
cover by TK TK
ON SALE 12/1/20
$16.99 US | 208 PAGES | 6" x 9" | FC
ISBN: 978-1-77950-378-7
Not all heroes wear capes! Wonder Woman has been an inspiration for decades, and while not everyone would choose her star-spangled outfit for themselves, her compassion and fairness are worthy of emulation. This book presents tales of the real-world heroes who take up Diana’s mantle and work in the fields of science, sports, activism, diplomacy, and more!
New York Times bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson brings together an all-star cast of authors and illustrators in this anthology of contemporary Wonder Women—and how they’ve changed our world.
This could be interesting, although we don't have a whole heck of a lot to go on here, aside from the names of the contributors, many of whom are familiar to me and, excitingly, many more who are not. It certainly sounds like it will be the sort of encyclopedia of accomplished women that is fairly common in prose (and a few comics; I thought
this one by the great Pénélope Bagieu was particularly excellent, for example), so I'm certain it will find a receptive audience in libraries and bookstores (or online booksellers, I guess). The big question mark will be how strong its ties to Wonder Woman are. Like, will there be a story of Wonder Woman teaming up with Marie Curie to fight Doctor Poison? Will Susan B. Anthony ride a kanga on her way to vote for the first time? Will Wonder Woman pose for Betsy Ross as she sews the American flag, the famed flag-sewer taking inspiration from Diana's butt? It remains to be seen.
YOUNG JUSTICE #19
written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS and DAVID F. WALKER
art by SCOTT GODLEWSKI
cover by JOHN TIMMS
...
ON SALE 10/6/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
Wonder Girl calls Young Justice together to help her with a family problem. Seems the pantheon of Greek gods is having a hard time with some of Cassie’s choices. She’s taking a stand to change rules as old as the heavens! And she is going to need her team by her side to do it.
I don't want to get my hopes up, because this is just a cover and might have been in a metaphorical drawer for a long time before they decided to publish it, but Tim Drake is definitely wearing his Robin costume rather than his Drake one, and I see no mention of the name "Drake" in the solicitation copy. So maybe, just maybe, someone in charge realized that "Drake" is the worst possible superhero code name for someone named Tim Drake, and the name and costume are the
opposite of what anyone reading
Young Justice might want, and thus they changed him back to Robin/Red Robin (although it seems like Damian has, or is in the process, of temporarily giving up the Robin identity for a bit, at least based on the clues I've seen in the solicits).
