Hello and welcome back to Upcoming Comics! I hope you’ve all had a good week! It’s been a really long week for me, so I’m going to keep things short and sweet this time. And without further ado, let’s take a look at what’s coming up this week!
Upcoming Comics
Nightwing #101
After the events of Dark Crisis, Superman has a talk with Nightwing, letting him know that now is Dick’s time to lead…so Nightwing gathers a group of friends to be the premier league in the DC Universe and moves their base of operations to Blüdhaven. Meet the new Titans! Then, following the events of the Nightwing 2022 Annual and the Superman and Nightwing crossover, Nightwing continues to mentor Jon Kent in ways that Dick learned from being trained by Batman…but in his own more encouraging way.
- Written By: Tom Taylor, C.S. Pacat
- Penciled By: Travis Moore, Eduardo Pansica
- Inks By: Travis Moore, Julio Ferreira
- Colors By: Adriano Lucas
- Cover By: Bruno Renondo
Thoughts: With the Titans series announced, this issue looks like more a back door to that upcoming comic than anything. Still it’ll be good to see how the team works together under Taylor’s hand.
Batman News Critic: Michael
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #12
The secret behind the Supergirl-Robin feud, revealed! On a day not too long ago, a meeting between the Boy Wonder and the Girl of Steel began sweetly, became awkward, and ended so catastrophically, horrifically, jaw-droppingly, car-crashingly disastrously that, among the Superman and Batman families, it is now enshrined as the world’s finest example of How Not to Team Up!
- Written By: Mark Waid
- Penciled By: Dan Mora, Emanuela Lupacchino
- Inks By: Dan Mora, Wade von Grawbadger, Norm Rapmund
- Colors By: Tamra Bonvillain
- Cover By: Dan Mora
Thoughts: A chaotic, disastrous team up between Supergirl and Robin sounds like it could be quite the fun little adventure!
Batman News Critic: Casper
Batman: One Bad Day – Clayface #1
All Basil Karlo ever wanted to be was an actor…no…one of the greatest actors there’s ever been. However, his life went off course when he became the shape-shifting monster known as Clayface. After years of doing battle with Batman in Gotham City and distancing himself from his dream, Clayface goes out west to Los Angeles. Creating a new identity, he pursues his dream of acting only to find that Gotham City isn’t the only place with an overwhelming sense of dread to it, and that he might not have what it takes to make it in the City of Angels. So he’ll reshape the city to fit his needs in a deadly pursuit of stardom. From the rising-star creative team of Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing (Batman Beyond: Neo-Year, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty) and Xermánico (Flashpoint Beyond), this is an epic tragedy not to be missed!
- Written By: Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing
- Pencils & Inks By: Xermanico
- Colors By: Romulo Fajardo
- Cover By: Xermanico
Batman News Critic: Jackson
Lazarus Planet: Omega #1
FATE AND FURY. The Devil Nezha and his son are at war-with all of humanity caught in the middle! The Lazarus storms are intensifying worldwide, Earth’s superheroes are on the ropes, and Batman is living on borrowed time. It’s up to Zatanna, the Spectre, the Demon, Klarion, and the rest of the DCU’s magic users to join Damian Wayne and set things right-but to do that, they’ll have to uncover Nezha’s final, explosive secret! Plus: Dreamer has rescued Doctor Fate’s helmet from destruction…but why does it keep glowing like that? The Dawn of the DCU begins as the Lazarus Planet saga crashes to a close!
- Written By: Mark Waid, Gene Luen Yang
- Penciled By: Mike Perkins, Billy Tan
- Inks By: Mike Perkins, Billy Tan, Riccardo Federici
- Colors By: Brad Anderson, Sebastian Cheng
- Cover By: David Marquez, Alejandro Sanchez
Batman News Critic: Aaron
Catwoman #52
Looks like cat is the new black in Gotham jail as Selina quickly finds herself clawing her way up as the queen cat behind bars by making friends with all the wrong types (which are of course also exactly her types). Meanwhile, Eiko Hasigawa continues to prowl the Gotham streets as the Catwoman keeping the mob bosses in check, with a little help from…Tomcat.
- Written By: Tini Howard
- Penciled By: Sami Basri
- Inks By: Sami Basri, Vicente Cifuentes
- Colors By: Veronica Gandini
- Cover By: David Nakayama
Thoughts: I loved Sami Basri’s work on Harley Quinn back when I was reviewing that title, so I’d consider checking this out just for another look at his work on Catwoman.
Batman News Critic: Michael
DCeased: War of the Undead Gods #6
The galactic war has reached Earth-2 and the battle to save the last bastion of hope! With an unstoppable army of infected New Gods, Yellow Lanterns, and more…does humanity have any hope of survival?
- Written By: Tom Taylor
- Penciled By: Trevor Hairsine
- Inks By: Andy Lanning
- Colors By: Rain Beredo
- Cover By: Howard Porter, Rain Beredo
Batman News Critic: Aaron
Titans United: Bloodpact #6
All is lost! Raven rules supreme, and one of the Titans has become a killer. Hunted and alone, the heroes-turned-fugitives must face Brother Blood and the Dark Daughter for the final time.
- Written By: Cavan Scott
- Pencils & Inks By: Lucas Meyer
- Colors By: Tony Avina
- Cover By: Eddy Barrows, Marcelo Maiolo
Thoughts: I’m never really a fan of evil Raven story lines, so this solicit as intense as it reads, isn’t all that enticing to me.
Batman News Critic: Jeremy
GCPD: The Blue Wall #5
Life has a way of slipping through our fingers when we least expect it to. It’s happened to GCPD Commissioner Renee Montoya before, and despite everything she’s fought for, it’s happened again. A domino has been tipped, and Renee is about to go through her most harrowing test yet.
- Written By: John Ridley
- Pencils & Inks By: Stefano Raffaele
- Colors By: Brad Anderson
- Cover By: Reiko Murakami
Batman News Critic: Casper
Harley Quinn The Animated Series: Legion of Bats #5
The Bat-Fam, Black Mask, and Lady Marabunta finally face off, while Ivy, Knockout, Bella, Livewire, and Nightfall break Porcelain out of Blackgate Penitentiary! Meanwhile, Harley visits an incarcerated Bruce Wayne for an unscheduled therapy-and-venting session. How much longer will Harlivy keep their secrets from each other before it’s too late?
- Written By: Tee Franklin
- Pencils By: Jon Mikel, Shae Beagle
- Inks By: Jon Mikel, Shae Beagle, Roberto Poggi
- Colors By: Lee Loughridge, Andrew Dalhouse
- Cover By: Yoshi Yoshitani
Batman News Critic: Jackson
Beyond the Bat
Welcome to Beyond the Bat where we go over the rest of the titles out this week that don’t fall under the Batman banner. Most notably, Superman gets a new #1 this week as Williamson takes over, and Clark settles back into the role of Superman. I’ve enjoyed Williamson in a few titles, specifically Robin, so it’ll be interesting to see his take on the Man of Steel. What do you think about this shift? Drop a couple thoughts in the comments.
Ratings
Most Excited: Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #12- A messy team up could be a fun way to switch up the traditional team up dynamic, especially between Robin and Supergirl.
Least Excited: Titans United: Bloodpact #6- Like I mentioned, I’m not too thrilled by the idea of evil main characters, especially when it comes to Raven. It feels a little cliche at this point.
Wild Card: Nightwing #101– A Titans story in Nightwing could go either way, especially if it’s here to set up the greater series but I do hope it’s fun.
That’s it for this week’s Upcoming Comics. Let me know your thoughts on the line up down in the comments and have a great week!
