Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition focuses on DC’s September 2024 announcements. Hit the links for more information.
DC’s September 2024 solicitations arrived at the end of last week, offering crossovers, variant covers, Lobo and more. I thought I’d pull out some of the highlights and hit the stuff I haven’t talked about here yet. You can read about Plastic Man No More elsewhere on the site.
Absolute Power continues in September with its third issue and several tie-ins. First, Absolute Power #3 by Mark Waid and Dan Mora finds DC’s heroes on the run after Amanda Waller, Failsafe and the Brainiac Queen attack the Fortress of Solitude. They flee to Theymscira, home of Wonder Woman and the Amazons, which explains all the Wonder Woman-themed variant covers on the third issue:
Absolute Power #3 features a main cover by Mora, with variant covers by Ivan Talavera, Carla Cohen, Mike Deodato Jr., Stephen Bliss and Marc Aspinall, plus a raised UV variant cover by Trevor Hairsine, the seventh of 12 connecting covers by John Timms, and a “Power Participation” variant cover by Mark Spears.
Jonathan Kent will star in a one-shot tie-in, Absolute Power: Super Son by Sina Grace, Nicole Maines, John Timms and Travis Mercer. It promises to be a tale of self-discovery for the son of Kal-El, as the younger Superman takes the fight to the Trinity of Evil. It features a main cover and foil variant cover by Timms, with additional variant covers by Lucio Parrillo and Reiko Murakami.
Absolute Power: Origins wraps up in September with its third issue by John Ridley, Alitha Martinez and Norm Rapmund. After exploring Waller’s past, it sounds like this one ties into current events:
Now, with the clock ticking on ultimate victory over the metahumans of Planet Earth, the origin of DC’s most methodical menace draws to a close. But what secrets lie within the terrifying alien mind of the Brainiac Queen—and will the Wall survive the very seeds she herself has sown?
The final issue of Absolute Power: Origins features a main cover by Edwin Galmon, with a variant cover by Ken Lashley.
Absolute Power: Task Force VII also wraps up in September; it’s more a series of one-shots focused on different DC characters and their battles with the Trinity of Evil, with different creative teams handling each issue. The sixth issue by Stephanie Williams and Khary Randolph features, appropriately, Amanda Waller coming for the Amazons after the events of Absolute Power #3, with Queen Nubia and her sisters stepping up for a fight.
Pete Woods provides the main cover, with variants by Leirix, Randolph and Stephen Platt, plus the 10th of 12 connecting variant covers by Timms and a foil variant by Mora.
Then the seventh and final issue of the series is by Dan Watters and Fran Galan, and it features the Martian Manhunter and a team of superheroes from around the world fighting the robotic Global Guardian. The cover is by Pete Woods, with variants by Rahzzah, Tom Raney and Stephen Platt provide variant covers, with the 11th of 12 connecting variant covers by John Timms, plus a foil variant cover by Dan Mora.
Finally, several of the ongoing DC titles will feature tie-ins to the event, including Batman #152, Superman #18, Wonder Woman #13, Green Lantern #15 and Green Arrow #16.
DC announced The Last Halloween earlier this month, a sequel to Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s The Long Halloween that will feature Loeb working with several different artists to complete the story he and Sale wanted to tell. DC’s solicitations reveal that there will be a The Last Halloween #0, which will reprint The Long Halloween Special from 2021, the final collaboration between Loeb and Sale.
Hot off his appearance in the House of Brainiac crossover, Lobo will return in a one-shot by Kyle Starks and Kyle Hotz — the Lobo Cancellation Special. It promises to be “the most skull-crunching, crotch-punting, and excrement asteroid-filled comic of the year.” It’s not billed as a Black Label title, but maybe it should be?
Speaking of one-shots, DC will release a horror-themed anthology in September, titled DC’s I Know What You Did Last Crisis. Each story is “set during the events of crises past,” from Flashpoint to Infinite Crisis to Zero Hour, and of course Crisis on Infinite Earths. Creators involved include Dan Didio, Rex Ogle, Sid Kotian, Adam Graphite and more. Dan Hipp provides the main cover, with variants by Ejikure and Nicola Scott.
Multiversus, the Warner Bros, video game that lets you smack around everyone from Superman to Bugs Bunny to Arya Stark in Super Smash Bros. style, is coming to comics in September. Multiversus: Collision Detected is by Bryan Q. Miller and Jon Sommariva, and it will feature all your favorites from the game colliding in comic book form. Mora provides the main cover here, with variants by Sommariva, Mikel Janin and Riley Rossmo.
Poison Ivy #25 is an extra-sized milestone issue, which is good to see — what started as a miniseries and graduated to an ongoing series has continued to reach its 25th issue. The anthology issue will feature G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara being joined by Dan Watters, Joanne Starer, Brian Level and more for stories about Ivy’s past, present and future. Jessica Fong provides the cover, with variants by Brian Bolland, Noobovich and Takara.
Nightwing #118 wraps up Tom Taylor’s run on the book, with artist Bruno Redondo returning for this final arc. This last issue will feature Dick Grayson returning to Blüdhaven for a final face-off with Heartless and Tony Zuccio. Redondo did the cover and a variant, as did Jamal Campbell, Serg Acuna and Tirso.
And along with that comes …
Nightwing Uncovered will collect various covers used on his solo comic over the years — with a main cover of its own by Dexter Soy, and variants by Salvador Larroca, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Vasco Georgiev.
Finally, speaking of covers, DC has a series of variant covers by Nicola Scott that will appear on various DC titles in September. With a theme of “Through The Ages,” the covers feature various DC characters in their various costumes across multiple decades of publication. The covers will appear on Action Comics #1069, Batman #152, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #31, Birds of Prey #13, Catwoman #48, Green Lantern #15, Harley Quinn #43, Nightwing #118, Superman #18, The Flash #13, Wonder Woman #13, and Zatanna: Bring Down The House #4.