DC’s October solicitations arrived this week, showcasing all the new storylines and changes to creative team that Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson promised in their video earlier in the week. Yes, the sun has set on the Dawn of DC, and now we’re moving into the All In era.
I pulled out some of the highlights below. To see DC’s full solicitations, you can find them over on The Beat.
The Creature Commandos have been on people’s minds since James Gunn announced they’d be getting their own animated series as part of his new plans for DC’s properties on the big and small screen. In October, the team returns to comics in a new series by David Dastmalchian and Jesus Hervas in the aptly titled DC Horror Presents: Creature Commandos. Tirso did the cover, shown above, while Charlie Adlard provides a variant.
Interestingly, this isn’t the only DC Horror Presents title debuting in October …
There’s also a DC Horror Presents … anthology, which includes stories by Dastmalchian, Leah Kilpatrick and the Boulet Brothers, with covers by Tyler Crook, Francesco Francavilla and Dave Johnson. The solicits don’t share many details, just that it’s “a new collection of gruesome tales set in the DCU;” it doesn’t even list any of the artists who are working on it, nor did DC do any advanced PR for it — or for the Creature Commandos comic, for that matter; I’m not even sure if it’s a one-shot or the first of an ongoing series. Hopefully they’ll release more details soon, maybe at SDCC?
As part of their rebooted Elseworlds line, DC returns to the Tangent Universe for Green Lantern Dark. Artist Werther Dell’Edera and writer Tate Brombal, who have been working in James Tynion IV’s Something Is Killing the Children universe for awhile, present a post-apocalyptic Earth overrun by monsters where Green Lantern’s light might be humanity’s only hope.
I’ve posted about the new Absolute Universe and the DC All In special a couple of times this week already, so I won’t repeat myself here. But before DC’s new publishing era can begin, the old one must end — and the final issue of Absolute Power seems to mark that occasion. The final issue by Mark Waid and Dan Mora will see the DC heroes face off with Amanda Waller’s forces on the island of Gamorra, where “justice is reborn” from the ashes. Oh hey, it is about time for the Justice Legaue to come back, isn’t it?
Mora does the main cover for this issue, which features variants by John Timms, Simon Bianchi, Stephen Bliss, Derrick Chew, Guillem March, Juliet Nneka and Yasmine Putri.
Following Absolute Power comes the DC All In special; the launch of a new Absolute Universe with three titles featuring Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman; and new storylines and/or creative teams for several core DC titles. The publisher shared some of the new teams earlier in the week, but the solicits revealed more of them.
We know that Action Comics, which has been featuring rotating creative teams this year, will kick off with a new Superman story by Mark Waid and Clayton Henry and a Supergirl story by Mariko Tamaki and Skyler Patridge. What I don’t think we knew until the solicits came out, though, is that Action Comics is going weekly in October, with issues 1070-1073 all coming out during the month. The story will feature Superman, Mon-El and the Phantom Zone.
Following the end of Tom Taylor’s run on the title, Nightwing gets a new creative team with issue #119. Dan Watters comes on board as writer and Dexter Soy provides art on a new story arc that features rival gangs trying to fill the void left by the events of Taylor’s run.
Soy provides the iconic main cover, which mirrors the other covers we’re seeing on DC’s books in October, while Dan Panosian, Gleb Melnikov and Ethan Young provide variant covers.
Comedian Elliott Kalan is taking over the writing on Harley Quinn, joined by artist Mindy Lee. The new storyline will feature a gentrified Gotham neighborhood and Harley’s attempts to un-gentrify it. Elizabeth Torque drew the main cover, which features colors by Dave McCaig, while Jorge Fornes, David Nakayama and Sarah Baslaim.
Catwoman‘s new creative team, Torunn Grønbekk and Fabiana Mascolo, will debut in October with a story that finds Catwoman returning to a “sinister international syndicate” that helped train her as a cat burglar. Sebastian Fiumara did the main cover, while Homare, Frank Cho and Noobovich drew the variants.
DC seems to be gearing up for something big in the Green Lantern titles, as the solicits revealed Green Lantern Civil Corps Special #1, by Green Lantern writer Jeremy Adams and Green Lantern War Journal writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson, and art by Salvador Larroca. The plot centers on John Stewart’s Dark Star Ring and an attempt by the United Planets to retrieve it. This one features covers by Brad Walker, Salvador Larroca and Riccardo Federici.
As Tom Taylor leaves Nightwing, it looks like he’s leaving Titans as well. John Layman of Chew fame will team with artist Pete Woods for a new storyline in October. Woods did the main cover, with John Giang doing a variant.
Joshua Williamson mentioned in his newsletter that he’d be leaving both Green Arrow and Batman and Robin, and we know that Green Arrow #350 is his last issue as writer of that title before Chris Condon takes over. But also out in October is a Green Arrow Annual, by Williamson and Sean Izaakse. The solicits call the annual a “final celebration of the Emerald Archer and the Green Arrow family” by the creative team. Izaakse did the main cover, withPhil Hester drawing a variant.
Batman and Robin, meanwhile, gets a new creative team in October in the form of Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Javier Fernandez. They’ll have Damian Wayne explore who he is “outside of the crusades his family has tasked him with fighting since birth.” This one features a cover by Fernandez and variants by Simone Di Meo, Yanick Paquette, Christopher Mitten and Christian Duce.
Birds of Prey will get a new artist, Sami Basri, in October, who joins Kelly Thompson for a new storyline and a new line-up. Joining Black Canary, Big Barda, Megaera and Cassandra Cain are Onyx and Grace Choi. Issue #14 will feature a main cover by Leonardo Romero with variants by Sozomaika, Serg Acuna and Rian Gonzales.
In addition to continuing to write Poison Ivy, G. Willow Wilson will team with Mike Perkins for Poison Ivy/Swamp Thing: Feral Trees. It’ll feature the Parliament of Trees enlisting Poison Ivy and Swamp Thing to investigate a feral presence within the Green. Jason Shawn Alexander will do the main cover, which isn’t shown here, but above are the variants by Perkins, Clayton Crain and Ashley Wood.
And finally, I’ll end with another edition of DC’s Uncovered series, which collects cover artwork from various series. This one focuses on Wonder Woman, and has a main cover by Daniel Sampere and variants by Jeff Spokes, Drew Johnson and Dani.
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