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DC announces 5 new comics for later this year: Batgirls, Swamp Thing, World of Krypton & more
DC Comics has rolled out a peek at its upcoming December slate of new comics titles, revealing five new series that will take us into Gotham City's future, Krypton's past, Swamp Thing's view from the end of the world, and more.
Each month, DC rolls out its next wave of solicitations for comics in the coming month in the pages of DC Connect, its free magazine previewing upcoming releases, and in September's edition it was time to put the spotlight on some new December comics. One of the key highlights of DC's December, writer Joshua Williamson's upcoming run on Batman, was already announced a few weeks ago — but that's not the only big news out of Gotham City.
Co-writers Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad, who've recently been crushing it on Wonder Woman, are teaming with artist Jorge Corona (We Are Robin) to launch Batgirls, a new all-ages ongoing series following the adventures of Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown across Gotham City. Described as a "pizza slumber party of a series, packed with energy, attitude, and friendship," the series will follow Steph and Cass as they work together under Oracle's mentorship, taking on villains like Seer and leaning on each other in the fight to make Gotham a better place.
But that's not the only major new Gotham development. Beginning with Detective Comics Annual 2021 in November, Detective writer Mariko Tamaki and a team of artists including Danny Miki, Ivan Reis, Max Raynor, Amancay Nahuelpan, and Jordie Bellaire will launch Shadows of the Bat, a 12-week event that will chronicle what happens in the wake of the Fear State event when Gotham's Mayor Nakano signs off on plans to rebuild Arkham Asylum as the gleaming Arkham Tower. Obviously the whole Bat-family will have their own ideas about what this means, but Batman and Nightwing in particular will find themselves on opposing sides of the Arkham debate. The event proper launches in January, but the buildup begins later this year.
Moving over to Superman's world, DC has assembled the superstar team of writer Robert Venditti (Green Lantern) and artist Michael Avon Oeming (Powers) for World of Krypton, a book that will leap back to the days when Kal-El's homeworld was still around. The six-issue series will follow several major Kryptonian figures, and offer a new look at Jor-El's efforts to save his planet as he notices something very wrong.
Then we move from a world that's about to end to a world that, seemingly, already has with a new DC Black Label series from writer Jeff Lemire and artist Doug Mahnke. Described as a "gory, gruesome monster mash," Swamp Thing Green Hell picks up on a world in which humanity is barely holding on, and all the major natural forces seem to agree that it's time to wipe the Earth clean. To make that happen, the Parliaments of the Green, the Red, and the Rot decide they need to summon a new avatar to basically unmake the world, and humanity's only hope might be the long-dead Alec Holland. Jeff Lemire doing a horror-heavy Swamp Thing book is definitely on a lot of wish lists, so keep an eye out for this one.
And finally, we have to talk about what's easily now one of my most-anticipated new comics of the year: One-Star Squadron. Written by Mark Russell (Wonder Twins) and drawn by Steve Lieber (Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen), this six-issue series follows Red Tornado's attempt to form a super-team where "heroism meets capitalism." Whether you need a superhero to show up for a birthday party or to save the world, just hit them up on their proprietary app, and they're on the way. Given the track record of both these creators when it comes to blend comedy, commentary, and style, I can't wait to see how this book turns out.
One-Star Squadron and World of Krypton both launch on December 7, followed by Batgirls on December 14 and Swamp Thing Green Hell on December 28. Shadows of the Bat picks up in Detective Comics #1047 on January 4.
DC Connect's latest issue arrives Friday.
