Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. With the 2026 San Diego Comic Con wrapped up, this edition covers news and tidbits from the weekend I haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.
Following several DC Next Level reveals and their big Eisner wins on Friday night, DC continued to roll out announcements and previews over the weekend. Here’s a rundown of what they shared …
The Metropolis & Beyond Panel held on Saturday brought news of the October debuting DC All In Saga: Darkseid vs. the World. This one is by Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson, Sanford Greene and Yasmine Putri, and will “present the hidden past of the being called Uxus, his descent into Darkseid, and his plans for the fate of all creation.” Yes, it is a Darkseid origin story, and we’re getting a pre-teen Darkseid out of it:
Might we also get to see baby Darkseid? One can hope!
That same panel brought news of another new title, as they revealed writer Morgan Hampton will write a Steel comic:
If you’ve been following the fallout from DC K.O., you know that the participants in DC’s big King Omega tournament all left with some sort of vision for the future. Mark Waid and Nicole Maines will explore those visions in Justice League Unlimited #24-25, which will feature Dreamer:
Then at the DC Absolute Universe panel, they revealed a couple of new projects, the first being an Absolute Black Canary one-shot:
This one is by writer Pornsak Pichetshote and artist Belén Ortega, and it’ll “bridge the gap between arcs in Absolute Green Arrow, taking place specifically between issues #6 and #7,” according to a panel report from The Beat.
They also announced another one-shot tied to Absolute Batman: Absolute Batman: Beyond Ark M. This one’s by Scott Snyder, Frank Tieri and Francesco Francavilla, who shared the cover on social media:
And DC also shared some concept art for Absolute Professor Pyg:
Finally, they shared a preview of a connecting cover for October’s Absolute Batman #25:
The issue will be oversized and will feature a knock down, drag out fight between Batman and the Joker.
Dark Horse
Switching now to Dark Horse, they teased an upcoming license they’ve signed — Barbie comics are coming, as noted by this teaser by Natalie Nardozza:
REKCAH Comics
REKCAH Comics, the publishing arm of cybersecurity firm Black Hills Information Security, used its ComicsPRO presentation at SDCC to announce that Stray Bullets creator David Lapham is joining Fred Van Lente on The Future Is ****** as interior artist, starting with issue #20 in December.
Image Comics
Image Comics and Sanford Greene shared plans this weekend to release a black-and-white edition of Bitter Root, following in the footsteps of Daniel Warren Johnson’s recent Do a Powerbomb Black and White Edition.
Lucasfilm/Mad Cave Studios
Lucasfilm’s SDCC publishing panel brought several Star Wars comics updates. As part of their licensing deal with Lucasfilm, Mad Cave Studios showed the first cover for Star Wars: A New Hope – Triple Take, written by Kim Shearer and Chas! Pangburn and slated for February 2027. Two middle-grade graphic novels are also on the way this fall: Race for Jabba’s Bounty by Cavan Scott and Christian Colbert, and The Legend of Beggar’s Canyon by Greg Pak and Brent Schoonover.
Star Wars isn’t the only science fiction movie from my childhood that Mad Cave is making comics about — they also have The Last Starfighter, and at SDCC, they announced a new one-shot: The Last Starfighter: Beta #1.
It’s by The Last Starfighter screenwriter Jonathan Betuel, producer Paul Davidson, writers Benjamin Raab and Deric A. Hughes, artist David Cutler, colorist Francesco Segala and letterer Rob Jones, with covers by David Lopez, and Jessica Fong.
If you remember from the movie, Alex Rogan, the video game-playing hero, went off to space to fight the Ko-Dan Armada, and an organic robot called Beta was left in his place, so no one suspected he was gone. Beta was killed in the film, or so we thought — the one-shot will show us what actually became of the replicant. It comes out Oct. 21.
Marvel
Marvel share details on March to Hulk War, the series of one-shots spinning out of Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Nic Klein’s Infernal Hulk and leading into next year’s Hulk War event. Written by Johnson with art from Jonas Scharf, Cian Tormey, Javier Pina and others, the Infernal Hulk Vs. one-shots follow the Infernal Hulk as he battles Marvel’s heroes and assembles his Infernal Avengers, a team of corrupted, monstrous champions. The previously announced Infernal Hulk Vs. Wolverine #1 kicks things off in September, followed by Infernal Hulk Vs. Fantastic Four #1, Infernal Hulk Vs. Spider-Man #1 and Infernal Hulk Vs. Avengers #1 through December.
All the covers are by Nic Klein.