Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition focuses on DC’s August 2024 announcements. Hit the links for more information.
DC released their August 2024 solicitations at the end of last week, offering a smorgasbord of vampires, crossovers, variant covers, graphic novels and more for the last month of summer break. I thought I’d pull out some of the highlights. I’ll hit the stuff I haven’t talked about here yet; you can read about Jenny Sparks and Gotham City Sirens elsewhere on the site.
So let’s begin …
DC vs. Vampires: World War V
Vampires, I hear, are all the rage in comics this summer, so there’s no better time to return to the world of DC vs. Vampires. The storyline that kicked off in 2021 continues with DC vs. Vampires: World War V by returning writer and artist Matthew Rosenberg and Otto Schmidt. This is also part of the bigger Elseworlds line that DC announced at New York Comic Con last year.
If you missed the previous series or its sequel, DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War, both are available (across two volumes each) as trade paperbacks. The new series will pick up where they left off, with a vampire queen, an Oliver Queen and a certain Bat prince who is fighting back:
It’s the dead of winter, and any hope for a fragile truce between the Green Arrow-led human heroes and vampire queen Barbara Gordon’s army has been dashed by Damian Wayne and his guerrilla fighters. Damian is the only one fighting back against the bloodthirsty hordes, leaving Green Arrow with a choice: Does he stand and fight or sacrifice the boy in the name of peace? Not only will this new Elseworlds series build upon the compelling storylines from the previous DC vs. Vampires series, but readers can also expect to see reimagined versions of current DC Super Heroes in this dark and terrifying world.
Here’s a preview:
And the variant covers for the first issue, by Steve Beach, Jae Lee, Riley Rossmo, and Nikola Čižmešija, plus a foil variant cover by Homare:
The first issue of the 12-issue series arrives in stores Aug. 14.
Absolute Power
The Absolute Power crossover event continues in August with its second issue, a bunch of tie-ins and, oh yeah — a ton of variant covers. Above you can see the main cover for Absolute Power #2 by Dan Mora, along with variants by John Timms, Stephen Bliss, Lucio Parrillo, Tyler Kirkham, Nathan Szerdy, Ben Oliver and Salvador Larroca.
After Amanda Waller and her allies in the Trinity of Evil have depowered Earth’s superheroes, she sends a team after the gathering resistance that has taken up residence at the Fortress of Solitude. But Mark Waid and Dan Mora have a surprise for the heroes, as one of their own as turned on them and leads Waller’s troops.
Absolute Power: Task Force VII continues in August with two issues; this is the tie-in series that’s really a bunch of one-shots by different creative teams focused on different Amazo robots who have stolen the powers of various heroes.
Issue #4 is by Pornsak Pichetshote and Claire Roe, and it features Batman’s current headache, Failsafe, hunting Nightwing and his allies. Above you can see the main cover by Pete Woods, along with variants by Mora, Steve Beach, Belen Ortega and Timms.
Absolute Power: Task Force VII #5 also sports a main cover by Woods, with variants by Larroca, Mora, Taurin Clarke and Timms. This issue, as you can see, focuses on the Flash and his Amazo counterpart Velocity. It’s by writer Alex Paknadel with Woods on interior art as well.
Absolute Power: Origins #2 by John Ridley and Alitha Martinez continues the origin story of Amanda Waller, with this issue focusing on the birth of Task Force X. It has a main cover by Edwin Galmon with a varaint by Mateus Manhanini.
Finally, several of the ongoing DC titles will feature tie-ins to the event, including Batman #151, Superman #17, Wonder Woman #12, Green Lantern #14 and Green Arrow #15.
Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special
Yeah, it makes sense that Zero Hour happened 30 years ago, but do we need to call that out? I feel old enough already …
In any event, if you don’t remember or (gasp) weren’t born when the original miniseries came out, Zero Hour was a 1990s event written and drawn by Dan Jurgens, which featured a showdown between the DC heroes and the villainous Parallax — aka Hal Jordan, who went mad after the destruction of Coast City (but we’d find out much later was actually possessed). Continuity wise, it was used as an opportunity to reconcile some differences between the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths and post-Crisis on Infinite Earths versions of characters, although how successful it was is a question best left to my buddy Tom Bondurant.
Anyway, the Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special arrives in August, featuring the work of Dan Jurgens, Ron Marz, Jerry Ordway, Darryl Banks and many more. Green Lantern Kyle Rayner discovers “Parallax and his vision have survived, and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to make sure their world prevails.”
Here’s a look at the special’s variant covers by Alan Quah, Ken Lashley, Dan Hipp and Jon Bogdanove:
SUPER-PETS SPECIAL: BITEDENTITY CRISIS
The Super-Pets are back with a new anthology that features, among other stories, Bitewing, aka Haley, aka Nightwing’s dog, showing up at Kent Farms to join the team. Super-Pets Special: Bitedentity Crisis features stories by Tony Fleecs, Alexis Quasarano, Michael Conrad, Dan Watters, Kyle Starks, Mike Norton, PJ Holden, Sami Basri, Chris Mitten and more.
Variant covers
Finally, we’ll end with two sets of variant covers you’ll find on DC’s August titles. First, new seasonally-appropriate swimsuit variants:
They feature Batman by Olivier Coipel, the Gotham City Sirens by Rahzzah, Nightwing by Belén Ortega, Superman by Elizabeth Torque, The Flash by Mirka Andolfo, the Titans by Saowee Variant, Wonder Woman by Guillem March, and Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman by Frank Cho.
And finally, here’s a round of variant covers by artist and toy sculptor Jason Geyer featuring “what could have been” versions of unmade Super Powers action figures from the 1980s. As DC noted in their press release, these aren’t real figures, but considering Todd McFarlane Productions has been making new Super Powers figures recently, I’m not sure what’ holding them back. These variants will appear on Batman #151, Gotham City Sirens #1, Green Lantern: War Journal #12, Nightwing #117, Power Girl #12, Superman #17, The Flash #12 and Titans #14
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