DC announces ‘Absolute Power,’ DC Finest and a return to Wednesdays

DC made several announcements during the ComicsPRO industry meeting this week.

If you’re wondering why so much comic news broke today, it’s because ComicsPRO, the Comics Professional Retail Organization, is hosting its industry meeting over the next three days. As a part of that meeting, comics publishers are presenting some of their future plans to attendees and, in many cases, releasing that news into the wild.

DC was one of many publishers on hand to talk to retailers, and gave several updates on their future plans. But let’s not bury the big news — DC announced at the conference that they plan to move the release of their new issues back to Wednesday. DC moved the release date of their comics from the traditional Wednesday to Tuesday back in 2020, when they moved away from Diamond to Lunar Distribution and other distributors. It was, and remains, a controversial move, and from what I’ve heard retailers gave this news a standing ovation at ComicsPRO today. The shift will occur in July.

In other news …

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Taylor + Redondo’s final Nightwing arc begins in May

‘We wanted to show how high this flying Grayson could soar. Now, it’s time for him to fall.’

It’s been almost three years now since Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo took over Nightwing, taking an approach that wasn’t “Not Batman,” as my colleague Tom Bondurant put it when reviewing their first issue, but instead, was “Fun Batman.” I think the title has stuck to that ideal pretty well, and now we’ll see if they can stick the landing.

DC has announced that Nightwing #114 is the first of a five-part arc that will wrap up their run on the title. And thanks to the villain Heartless, it could be the end of Nightwing’s career as a superhero.

“When Bruno Redondo and I first took on this series, we felt it was the perfect time for a big Nightwing story,” Taylor said. “We wanted to show the world why Dick Grayson was an A-lister in our eyes. It was the right time for a charming, entertaining, positive force for good pushing back against corruption and greed. It was also time for Dick and Babs to get a puppy.”

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Juni Ba’s ‘Boy Wonder’ series will launch in May

The DC Black Label series will feature Damian Wayne teaming up with the other Robins.

Juni Ba, creator of the wonderful Djeliya from TKO Studios and Monkey Meat for Image Comics, will take Robin in a fun direction this May in Boy Wonder, a Black Label series from DC that kicks off in May.

Ba is joined by colorist Chris O’Halloran and letterer Aditya Bidikar on the five-issue series.

“There‘s a real drive here to capture some adventurous fun as well as heartfelt humanity,” Ba said on social media. “The story of a kid who was hurt a lot, raised wrong, and who has to learn to navigate conflicting sets of expectations from both his families, with fear of not being good enough for either.”

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Marvel + DC announce two omnibus editions collecting their crossovers, including the Amalgam titles

The forbidden door opens again.

There was a time in comics history when Marvel and DC’s characters would regularly meet on the printed page, bringing together the likes of Superman and Spider-Man, the Teen Titans and X-Men, and even Galactus and Darkseid. It’s been a minute since we’ve seen the two companies cooperate like that, but it looks like the forbidden door may be opening once again. Both companies today announced plans to release omnibus editions collecting a lot of that material from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

DC Versus Marvel Omnibus and DC/Marvel: The Amalgam Age Omnibus will both arrive on Aug. 6, collecting stories by Dennis O’Neil, George Pérez, Dan Jurgens, Chris Claremont, Walter Simonson, J.M. DeMatteis, Mark Bagley, Gerry Conway, John Romita Jr. and many more.

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Slugfest | Dark Horse will release Sergio Aragonés’ ‘Louder Than Words, Actions Speak’

Plus: LEGO Ninjago, free ‘Barbaric,’ 350 issues of ‘Spawn’ and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Dark Horse has announced plans to collect Sergio Aragonés’ Louder Than Words and Actions Speak miniseries into one volume appropriately called Louder Than Words, Actions Speak.

Both volumes came out about 20 years ago and were previously collected by Dark Horse. The collection will have a new cover by Dark Horse by Aragonés and colorist Carrie Strachan.

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Slugfest | Dark Horse resurrects ‘Lester of the Lesser Gods’

Plus: The Winx saga continues, Usagi turns 40, the Dreadnoks return and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Lester of the Lesser Gods, which was originally published by Albatross Funnybooks, is finding new life at Dark Horse this year.

Written by Eric Powell and Lucky Yates, and featuring artwork by Gideon Kendall, Lester began life as unproduced animated short before finding its way to comics.

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Slugfest | ‘Masters of the Universe’ starts a ‘Revolution’

Plus: Check out news and announcements on Ghost Machine, Spider-Man, Archie Horror, Dr. Frederic Wertham and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Dark Horse has announced another miniseries tie-in to the Masters of the Universe Netflix show, which returns to the streaming platform on Jan. 25.

Masters of the Universe: Revolution is written by show producers Tim Sheridan, Rob David and Ted Biaselli, with illustrations by Daniel HDR, inking by Keith Champagne, coloring by Brad Simpson and lettering by AndWorld Design. The first issue features a variant cover by Tyler Boss:

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DC will publish YA takes on Wonder Woman, Blue Beetle this year

DC will collect ‘Young Diana’ by Jordie Bellaire and Paulina Ganucheau, and publish a Blue Beetle OGN by Julio Anta and Jacoby Salcedo.

DC has announced two projects coming later this year aimed at the young adult market, which include a Wonder Woman collection and a new Blue Beetle graphic novel.

Up first is Wonder Woman: The Adventures of Young Diana, written by Jordie Bellaire and drawn by Paulina Ganucheau. These stories originally ran as a back-up in the regular Wonder Woman title starting 2021, and featured a look at Diana’s early life on Themyscira.

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Slugfest | Superman’s ‘House of Brainiac’ begins + more new comics coming from DC in April

Read about DC’s Free Comic Book Day plans, the 300th issue of Nightwing, DC’s Spring Breakout and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition focuses on DC’s April 2024 announcements. Hit the links for more information.

DC’s solicitations for April 2024 arrived this past week — you can find them on The Beat or on Newsarama — and I thought I’d pull out some of the highlights. There aren’t many new first issues, but there is a big Superman-themed crossover event launching, several annuals, some graphic novels and listings for three of their four Free Comic Book Day titles for this year.

So let’s begin …

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Jurgens + Perkins bring ‘The Bat-Man’ to Black Label

‘The Bat-Man: First Knight’ will kick off in March.

Dan Jurgens and Mike Perkins will revisit the earliest version of Batman — The Bat-Man — in a new three-issue miniseries kicking off next year. The Bat-Man: First Knight looks at one of Batman’s earliest cases “through an acutely modern lens.”

While this is Jurgens’ first Black Label title, it isn’t the first time he’s tackled tales of the 1930s-era Batman, as he worked on Generations: Shattered, which featured that early version of the character.

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Slugfest | Martinbrough + Greene take Red Hood back to ‘The Hill’

Plus: News and announcements on Marvel’s Godzilla series, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, Ultimate Spider-Man, Sinister Sons and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Shawn Martinbrough will return to write Jason Todd again next year with Red Hood: The Hill, a miniseries that follows his work on the character’s previous series. Sanford Greene will draw the six-issue series.

Here’s how DC describes the series:

In Gotham City’s early days, The Hill was one of Gotham City’s most dangerous neighborhoods, one that required the residents to band together to keep themselves safe when the police – and sometimes even Batman – wouldn’t.

Now, as the Hill finds itself gentrifying, old habits die hard as the vigilante known only as Strike works with her team to keep the town safe—but she’s not alone. Jason Todd, one of the Hill’s newest residents, is more than happy to don the visage of Red Hood to help Strike keep his new home safe. But a new villain is emerging from the shadows. Will Red Hood, Strike and the Hill’s small militia of vigilantes be able to keep their home safe? This series features a main cover by series artist Greene, with a variant cover by Tirso Cons.

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Question everything you know about the Joker in ‘The Joker Year One’

‘Batman’ goes weekly in February as DC delves into the Joker’s past and future.

DC promises to reveal untold secrets about the origin of the Joker in an upcoming Batman story next year, titled “The Joker Year Zero.,” which will run through three weekly issues in February.

The new storyline is by writer Chip Zdarsky, artist Giuseppe Camuncoli, inker Stefano Nesi, and colorist Alejandro Sánchez, with artist Andrea Sorrentino and colorist Dave Stewart drawing a “juxtaposed” story. It’ll follow the current Batman arc, “Mindbomb,” which also features the Joker.

Here’s a look at the two different art styles, starting with Camuncoli, Nesi and Sánchez’s tribute to The Killing Joke:

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