DC Comics has announced that their monthly online preview magazine DC Connect will be available in print starting in September — and in doing so, revealed several new projects slated for that month as well.
As luck would have it, today is also the day DC released their September solicitations, so let’s break down some of these new announcements …
First, here’s the cover to DC Connect, which spotlights the upcoming “Fear State” event that will run through the Batman titles, as well as the debuting I Am Batman by John Ridley and Olivier Coipel. The print version of Dc Connect will “give fans all the great tools to know what to order from their local comic book stores, including breathtaking cover art, preview pages from upcoming stories, behind-the-scenes looks at projects in development and more.”
Deathstroke Inc. is a new series written by Joshua Williamson with art by Howard Porter. Not surprisingly, it stars Deathstroke, who will work with “an ages-old secret organization called T.R.U.S.T.” who supply him with a new team, new resources and a new partner — Black Canary. She gets the variant cover treatment, courtesy of Dima Ivanov:
And here are a few more variant covers, by Francesco Mattina, Adam Hughes and Gerardo Zaffino:
Next, we have a couple of Aquaman-related projects …
We’ve already mentioned Aquaman: The Becoming, a six-issue monthly limited series from Future State: Aquaman writer Brandon Thomas, with art by Diego Olortegui and Wade Von Grawbadger. It features Jackson Hyde, the former Aqualad, shown on the above variant cover by Khary Randolph, and here’s the description of the first issue:
Jackson Hyde finally has it all. Mentors who support him, a community that loves him, an honest relationship with his mother, a cute new guy in Amnesty Bay who’s caught his eye, and access to Aquaman’s private training facility in Atlantis. Well, he had it all—until that training facility and half of the Atlantean palace got blown to kingdom come with Jackson in them. Now Jackson stands accused of wrecking the life he worked so hard to build. Aqualad’s going to need all of his skills, wit, and cunning just to prove his own innocence, let alone graduate from sidekick to Aquaman!
And there’s a second character from the Aquaman mythos getting his own limited series — Black Manta, by Chuck Brown and Valentine De Landro. Here’s the solicitation info:
Following his appearance in the Aquaman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular, the scourge of the seas now gets his own series. Black Manta is chasing a rare metal with incredible powers, and he’s not the only one who wants to get his hands on it, friend and foe alike! Torrid is a former ally who has escaped hell (literally!) to answer the call of the metal, but can Manta trust her? Hopefully so because he might need her help to fend off Devil Ray, a new competitor for the role of the biggest villain underwater.
Both Aquaman: The Becoming #1 and Black Manta #1 feature a connecting variant cover by superstar artist Francis Manapul!
INTRODUCING NEW HERO TORRID AND VILLAIN DEVIL RAY!
Let’s take a look at those two connecting covers by Manapul:
Nice, right?
DC has revealed their Halloween special for this year, the cleverly titled Are You Afraid of Darkseid? It’s a prestige format anthology of scary stories from across the DC Universe, and it’s actually an October book, as it comes out Oct. 5. The cover’s by Dan Hipp, and it will feature stories by Ed Brisson, Jeremy Haun, Terry Blas, Max Dunbar, Mike Norton and many more.
In the spirit (I guess?) of the Batman Adventures titles, which are based on Batman: The Animated Series, comes Harley Quinn: The Animated Series-The Eat, Bang. Kill. Tour #1. It’s by the inspired creative team of Tee Franklin and Max Sarin, as Harley and Ivy hit the road after Poison Ivy dumps Kite Man at the altar.
Titans United #1 is by Cavan Scott and Jose Luis, and the seven-issue miniseries will focus on several legacy Teen Titans, including Nightwing, Donna Troy, Superboy, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy and Red Hood.
The original Milestone line gets a much-needed, much-appreciated compendium in September, collecting a whole bunch of early issues from the 1990s. The collection includes Blood Syndicate #1-12, Hardware #1-12, Icon #1-10, Static #1-8, Xombi #0-11 and Shadow Cabinet #0.
Finally, September brings Batman Day, the day we celebrate all things Dark Knight. In addition to Batman: The World, DC will also celebrate Batman Day with a special version of Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point #1 and Batman – Knightwatch/Bat-Tech Special Edition #1, pictured above.