Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition focuses on DC’s May 2026 titles. Hit the links for more info.
The creative team behind Marvel’s Deadpool reunites at DC for Tales of the Green Lantern Corps: Guy Gardner #1, a 48-page one-shot arriving May 6.
“Guy Gardener has always been one of my favorite comics characters, so working with Paul Kaminsky, Jillian Grant…and I couldn’t be more excited about reuniting with one of the stars of my Deadpool days, Matteo Lolli. He’s got everything you need for an action packed comic with some laugh out loud beats — and Matteo can break your heart,” writer Gerry Duggan said on his Substack.
Duggan and Lolli’s story, titled “Light Club,” pits the Corps’ most abrasive member against Manhunter androids, space apes, the Guardians and fellow Lantern John Stewart.
Variant covers are by David Aja, Ethan Young and Ariel Olivetti.
Superman: Father of Tomorrow #1, by writer Kenny Porter and artist Danny Earls, reimagines the Superman mythos with a twist: it’s Jor-El, not Kal-El, who escapes Krypton’s destruction and lands on a Kansas farm, discovering his powers and using both his strength and his scientific intellect to become a hero.
Variant covers are by Riley Rossmo and Gabriel Hardman, and it arrives May 27.
As announced at ComicsPro, DC Comics will launch two six-issue Absolute Universe limited series this spring. Absolute Green Arrow #1, by writer Pornsak Pichetshote and artist Rafael Albuquerque, arrives May 20. The series takes a slasher-horror approach to Oliver Queen’s mythos: a serial killer is murdering corrupt billionaires and leaving green arrows in the victims, and executive protection specialist Dinah Lance — the Absolute Black Canary — is assigned to track down the killer from a list of suspects all connected to a recently murdered Oliver Queen. The series spins out of the recent Absolute Evil storyline.
Absolute Catwoman #1, written by Che Grayson and Scott Snyder with art by Bengal, follows on June 10. Selina Kyle has built herself into the greatest thief in the world using high-tech gear and her own considerable skills, but when someone from her past resurfaces, everything she’s built begins to unravel. The series picks up threads from Absolute Batman, including secrets about Selina’s past and her ties to Black Mask.
Also announced at ComicsPro, DC Comics will launch two new Next Level titles this spring. Barbara Gordon: Breakout #1, by writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Amancay Nahuelpan, arrives May 13. The series finds Barbara Gordon framed, arrested and shipped off to Supermax, Commissioner Vandal Savage’s prison for Gotham vigilantes, where she must survive without Batgirl’s tools or Oracle’s tech.
The Deadman #1, by W. Maxwell Prince and Martín Morazzo, follows June 3. Spinning out of DC K.O., the series finds the balance between life and death thrown into chaos, with souls trapped in a loop of ghostly derangement. Boston Brand must possess the living and the metahuman alike to uncover the source of the disruption before the world slips into spiritual freefall.
DC also confirmed additional Next Level titles that are still to come, by creators like Deniz Camp, Javier Rodríguez and Michael Walsh, among others. Titles announced but not yet fully detailed include Legion of Super-Heroes, Doom Patrol, Jonah Hex, The Demon and Batman: Shadow of the Bat.
MAD Magazine #50 is also MAD Magazine #600, as the publication returns to legacy numbering with its June 10 release. The 56-page issue kicks off the lead-up to MAD’s 75th anniversary in 2027 and features “50 percent new content,” including new installments of “MAD Look At…” by Sergio Aragonés, Spy vs. Spy and a new Fold-In by Johnny Sampson, alongside a 75th anniversary Spy vs. Spy poster by Peter Kuper and content from Chip Zdarsky’s DC Goes MAD. The wraparound cover is also by Aragonés.
Then looking toward the end of the summer, Teen Titans: Together, the next installment in the YA graphic novel series from writer Kami Garcia and artist Gabriel Picolo, arrives Aug. 4. The story finds Kori Anders and the rest of the Titans questioning whether H.I.V.E., the shadowy organization with “alleged” ties to abduction and experimentation, might actually be their greatest ally in the fight against Raven’s demon father Trigon.