Y’know, this site’s made most of its bones covering X-Men comics over the years, but real talk? We’re more excited about what’s coming out of DC these days. We scoured the December solicits, and most of what we’re jazzed for is coming out from the Distinguished Competition: big creators taking big swings with characters who are overdue for a little more time in the spotlight. And Batman, because Batman is always there. Check out some of what we’re adding to our pull lists.
DC
New Gods #1: Screw Robert Downey Jr., this is the announcement that won San Diego: Ram V and his Dawnrunner partner Evan Cagle putting their spin on Jack Kirby’s Fourth World characters. After Ram’s 30-issue “Gotham Nocturne” opus in Detective Comics, his next great DC run starts here.
Metamorpho the Element Man #1: We already know that Al Ewing is a wizard. We know that he can take Silver Age characters like Ant-Man and the Wasp and find unique, meta things to say about them. And we know artist Steve Lieber already has a great handle on Rex Mason from his appearances in 2019’s Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen. Get ready for a trippy book that’ll be nothing but fun to look at.
Batman: Dark Patterns #1: A grounded, “Year One”-ish Batman solving cases using his detective skills, written by Dan Watters and drawn by Hayden Sherman? I checked in with the BatChat boys, and yup, they’re salivating.
Challengers of the Unknown #1: A Jack Kirby proto-Fantastic Four that predates the Silver Age, the Challengers are one of those concepts that disappears into the void (much like in Teen Titans Go! to the Movies! “They’s unknown!”) only to reemerge every few years when someone has a new take. This time around, Christopher Cantwell and Sean Izaakse envision the Chals as the Justice League’s base support team, until their scientific-explorer skills are needed in the field.
Two-Face #1: One of many things we can say about Christian Ward’s Batman: City of Madness, he drew a hell of a Two-Face. Ward isn’t drawing Harvey Dent’s first-ever solo series; Fabio Veras is (that’s not to put down Veras’ art sight unseen; he’s just someone we’re not familiar with beyond a couple preview pages online), but we’re interested in seeing Ward’s continued take on the character.
Marvel
“Raid on Graymalkin” (X-Men #8-9, Uncanny X-Men #7-8): Rogue’s X-Men and Cyclops’ Brotherhood X-Men come to loggerheads over whether they should bust their deadbeat dad (Charles Xavier, duh) out of the prison that used to be his house, in the first crossover of the From the Ashes era. And if that isn’t enough Jed MacKay-written good guy-on-good guy violence, Avengers #21 features Cyclops facing off against Captain Marvel, with Storm stuck in the middle.
Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1: The Ultimate Universe. It’s like Earth 616, except there are fewer comics, they’re more tightly plotted and generally more fertile ground for creator-driven storytelling. With a year of comics under its belt, Ultimates writer Deniz Camp and artist Jonas Scharf check in on the Maker’s Council, the universe’s big bads, to see how their plans are going.
Timeslide #1: Marvel finally lets us know what bestest frenemies Cable and Bishop, last seen in last year’s Children of the Vault series, have been up to in this end-of-the-year linewide sampler-platter comic intended to tease next year’s stories. You may recall these were called Timeless the past couple years and starred Kang, but now it’s called Timeslide and stars characters you actually give a rat’s ass about! By Steve Foxe and Ivan Fiorelli.
BOOM Studios
In Bloom #1: What if all the microorganisms in the human body somehow teamed up and birthed something within you? That’s right, it’s a new comic where fungi are creepy as hell, written by Michael Conrad (Wonder Woman) and drawn by John J. Pearson (The Infernals).
Image
Snotgirl #16: Saga isn’t the only Image comic that can take a four-year hiatus. Bryan Lee O’Malley and Leslie Hung’s comic about a queer fashion influencer with severe allergies is back with a new arc, and if the reaction on Twitter is any indication, this is important.
Saga #72: Oh shit, it’s an end-of-arc issue and Ghüs is on the cover. I SWEAR TO CHRIST, BRIAN K. VAUGHAN AND FIONA STAPLES, DON’T YOU HURT ONE HAIR ON THAT TINY SEAL-MAN’S HEAD.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
