Smash Pages Playlist: Happy Batman Day

Get ready to dance — Batdance! — with a list of songs about your favorite millionaire vigilante.

Break out your cape and cowl and get ready to do the Batusi — it’s Batman Day, as declared by the fine folks at DC and Warner Bros., so we’re back with another Smash Pages playlist featuring songs about the Dark Knight, his partners and even his villains.

So maybe skip going to the movies with your parents today and instead stay in and jam to songs about Bill Finger and Bob Kane’s most famous creation. Enjoy, and let us know if we missed any of your favorite Bat-tunes in the comments below.

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DC + Webtoon’s first collaboration, ‘Wayne Family Adventures,’ is now live

The new comic focuses on the family life of Bruce Wayne and all his various vigilante kids.

DC and Webtoon, who announced a partnership last month, have launched their first webcomic just in time for Batman Day — Batman: Wayne Family Adventures.

The new comic, which you can read right here, focuses on Batman’s role as a father to all of his vigilante children. Three episodes went live today and feature Duke Thomas, aka The Signal, moving into the Wayne mansion; a family dinner featuring all the various Robins; and a Barbara Gordon-centric episode that has her bonding with her dad.

The comic is by the creative team of writer CRC Payne, lead artist StarBite, storyboard artist Maria Li, background artist Lan Ma, letterer Kielamel Sibal, and colorists C.M. Cameron, Camille Cruz and Jean Kim.

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UK’s Royal Mail will issue DC stamps later this month

Jim Cheung’s artwork will grace envelopes across the United Kingdom starting Sept. 17.

After battling Darkseid and saving the multiverse multiple times over, the Justice League’s next task should be somewhat easier — ensuring mail is delivered across the United Kingdom.

Royal Mail provides mail service across the UK, and beginning Sept. 17, they will issue stamps featuring artist Jim Cheung’s renditions of several Batman characters as well as the Justice League. Characters range from Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman to Shazam!, Supergirl, Batwoman, Joker and even Alfred.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Jason returns this week with ‘Good Night, Hem’

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Joshua Cotter, Jeff Lemire, Chuck Brown, Valentine de Landro, E. Lockhart, Manuel Preitano, Zac Thompson and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital this week.

Check out a few highlights below, or visit Diamond’s website for this week’s almost complete list of new comics arriving in stores. You can visit Lunar Distribution’s home page to see DC’s releases, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.

I should also add that the list of what is actually arriving at your local shop can vary from what’s on anyone’s official website for a myriad of reasons — so always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.

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DC’s ‘Whistle’ OGN will introduce a new hero to Gotham City

The new hero Whistle will encounter the Riddler, Poison Ivy and Killer Croc in her debut graphic novel.

DC Comics has revealed more details on their upcoming YA graphic novel Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero by author E. Lockhart and artist Manuel Preitano.

As the title suggests, it’ll introduce a new hero to Gotham, Whistle, who fights crime with her dog, Lebowitz. It will also feature several Gotham villains, like Killer Croc, Poison Icy and the Riddler, who is a “family friend” and plays a big part in the story.

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Williamson + Molina to pit Batman against the new villain Abyss in December

Williamson takes over the flagship Batman title following the departure of James Tynion IV.

Following the departure of James Tynion IV from Batman, Joshua Williamson has announced on Twitter that he’ll write the title beginning with issue #118, with Jorge Molina on art.

“As Batman leaves Gotham, I’m starting a new storyline called ‘Abyss’ drawn by the awesome Jorge Molina,” he said. “We’re honoring the plan that the other books in the bat-line are doing while telling a brand-new story for Bruce Wayne as Batman in the DCU.”

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Danny DeVito returns to the Penguin — in the pages of a comic

The actor will write a new story featuring the character he played in ‘Batman Returns’ for the upcoming ‘Gotham City Villains Anniversary Giant’ anthology.

Actor Danny DeVito brought the Penguin to life on screen in the film Batman Returns, and now almost 30 years later he’s returning to the character — in the pages of DC’s Gotham City Villains Anniversary Giant.

DeVito will write a Penguin story for the anthology, which also features contributions from Wes Craig, G. Willow Wilson, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Joshua Williamson, Stephanie Phillips, Dan Watters, Mairghread Scott, Dan Mora, Emma Rios, Riccardo Federici, Max Raynor, Max Fiumara, Skylar Patridge, Ariela Kristantina, Khary Randolph, Jill Thompson, Christian Ward and Gabriel Walta.

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Nguyen + Lemire team up for a tale about Dick Grayson’s early career

‘Robin & Batman,’ a three-issue, prestige-format miniseries, kicks off in November.

The creative team behind the hit creator-owned titles Descender and Ascender are trading space operas for street crime, as they team up for a new miniseries focused on the Boy Wonder and his bat-themed mentor.

Robin & Batman, a three-issue, prestige-format miniseries by writer Jeff Lemire and artist Dustin Nguyen, will debut in November. As the title suggest, the story will focus Robin, in this case Dick Grayson early in his career as a crimefighter.

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Mail Call | ‘X-Men: Inferno’ teasers say ‘Trust No One’

Check out news, announcements and previews from DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.

Marvel has released three teasers for X-Men: Inferno, the upcoming X-Men crossover event that shares a name with a 1989 X-Men crossover event (not to be confused with The Trial of Magneto, another X-Men event that kicks off in August and also shares a name with a 1980s X-Men storyline.)

The teasers all build on the concept of trust, suggesting that you pretty much can’t trust anyone on Krakoa these days:

“An homage to the original house ads for 1989’s milestone X-Men crossover Inferno, Silva’s artwork presents all the major players of the upcoming saga and teases the day of reckoning that will soon be upon them,” Marvel.com says about the teasers. Inferno is written by Jonathan Hickman with artwork by Valerio Schiti, R.B. Silva and Stefano Caselli.

“I’m very excited that we’re finally getting to share with everyone the follow-up to House of X/Powers of X,” Hickman said. “The story is 160 pages over four issues drawn exquisitely by Valerio Schiti, R.B. Silva and Stefano Caselli. I cannot wait for people to read it.” 

Inferno #1 arrives Sept. 29.

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‘Batman: Earth One’ Vol. 3 ‘reframes a number of classic elements in an entertaining way’

Tom Bondurant reviews the latest in DC’s line of Earth One graphic novels, the long-awaited third part of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Batman trilogy.

This week I read a lot of Batman, which sounds stereotypical, but it’s kind of unavoidable. The new issue of Detective came out this week, along with the third issue of Batman: The Detective; and both featured Bruce Wayne battling overmuscled man-mountains with handlebar mustaches and crazy glints in their eyes. There was also issue #3 of The Batman/Scooby-Doo Mysteries, plus a decent amount of the Darknight Detective in issue #2 of Justice League: Last Ride. And I’m still in the middle of a New 52 Batman re-read, getting into the “Zero Year” epic.

All that said, I’m going to talk about Batman: Earth One Volume Three, written by Geoff Johns, pencilled by Gary Frank, inked by Jon Sibal and colored by Brad Anderson.

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‘Fables’ returns from DC Black Label for a crossover + a new 12-issue run

Bigby Wolf will meet Batman in a six-issue series this September as ‘Fables’ returns for a 12-issue run next May.

Fables, the long-running Vertigo series by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha and many others, will make its return later this year and in 2022 with several new projects.

First, September brings Batman vs. Bigby! A Wolf in Gotham, a six-issue miniseries featuring Fables’ resident detective, Bigby Wolf, teaming up with Batman for a case in Gotham. It will be released under DC’s Black Label imprint. Willingham will work with Brain Level, Jay Leisten, and Lee Loughridge on the project.

“I’ve wanted to do this since the very first year of Fables,” Willingham said. “Why? Because Batman is a detective, and Bigby is a detective, and I love a well-crafted story crossing over characters from two different fictional worlds. It’s automatically a fish-out-of-water story for at least one of the main characters, and that sort of story always works. Plus, I knew from the very beginning of Fables that my fictional universe would allow for many ways to get Bigby Wolf into the DCU and Gotham City. Even though those cosmic story structures wouldn’t be introduced in the Fables books for a year or more, they were baked in from the very beginning.”

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What Are You Reading? | What the heck is ‘Spy Hunter & Paper Boy’?

See what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.

Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been checking off their “to read” list lately. This week we look at the newest iteration of Green Lantern, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman, and one beginning and one ending from Larry Hama.

Let us know what you read this week in the comments or on social media.

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