DC Solicitation Sneaks: November 2026
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Superman: DC Compact Comics Box Set
This is a value-priced collection of five “Superman” comics and one “Supergirl” comic. The collections are his modern origin “Superman: Birthright” by Mark Waid and Lenil Yu, the first “Superman/Batman” (vol. 1) by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness, “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow” by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, “Superman: The Man of Steel” by John Byrne, “Superman: Secret Identity,” by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen, and “Superman: Brainiac,” by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. I own five out of the six “Super”-tales collected here, and I’m willing to bet that “Superman/Batman” isn’t too bad itself. So if you’re looking for a selection of stories representing the Man of Steel, and the Maid of Might, at their best, then you could do a lot worse than picking up this collection if you don’t already own any of the stories mentioned here.
If you already do, then maybe consider checking out the following…
Absolute Batman: Beyond Ark-M #1: Ha, I see what they did there! Anyway, this is following up on the previous “Ark-M” special written by Scott Snyder and Frank Tieri who are returning to write this one while Francesco Francavilla provides the art. The solicitation text tells us that it’s about Joker surveilling his empire of Arks while we learn about the bone-chilling surprises that lie within them. However, the cover lets us know to expect someone almost as terrible to be involved with this process: Absolute Professor Pyg! We’ll see if Snyder and Tieri can make him even more depraved than Grant Morrison did when he introduced this villain. No word yet on when this will be collected, but the first special is being included in the forthcoming third volume of the series.
Gangs of Gotham #1: Lonnie “Anarky” Machin has been given an ultimatum by the Torus – the criminal organization overseen by the Minotaur. He’s been tasked with unifying 100 street gangs in Gotham that aren’t under the Torus’ control. If he succeeds, then he’ll get a seat at their table. If he fails, well, who’s really going to miss Anarky? I’m interested in this because I’m always up for an oddball superhero title from Christopher Cantwell who’s writing this while Mike Henderson provides the art. It’s not specified as to whether this is just a one-shot, a miniseries, or an ongoing title, but I’d bet on “miniseries” as the former seems too small for this kind of story and I can’t imagine this setup sustaining an ongoing.
Batman #15 & Detective Comics #1115: Bruce Wayne is assassinated in one issue and Clark Kent is accused of murder in the other. How are these two stories connected? What if Clark Kent is the person who killed Bruce Wayne?! Sounds crazy, right? Until you realize that this may be a plan by the World’s Finest superteam to thwart the people actually trying to kill Bruce. Call it a “stealth crossover” as tying these two titles together would likely give the game away before these issues arrive. It sounds clever, though, so best of luck to writers Matt Fraction and Tom Taylor in pulling this off.
Poison Ivy vol. 8: Grassroots Monarchy: Two words to sum up this volume: Mayor Ivy. That’s right, the longtime Bat-villain turned, uh… well, she hasn’t really changed all that much over the course of her ongoing series. So it’s probably not a surprise to learn that her tenure as Mayor of Gotham City is doomed from the start. How doomed is it? So doomed that the events of this volume lead directly into the “Bad Seeds” crossover event with Batman. While it sounds like the Caped Crusader is going to have to clean up the mess Ivy has made, my guess is that longtime writer G. Willow Wilson has another idea as to how this should play out. That’s all in the future, so let’s see if she can make Ivy’s mayoral flameout entertaining to see in action.
While we’re on the subject of volumes leading into upcoming events…
Superman Unlimited vol. 3: There’s a “Kryptonite Kingdom” on the horizon, but before we get there Jon Kent has some issues to deal with. Not only is he going to get his own fifth-dimensional imp to make his life more interesting, he also has to contend with the return of… his younger self? Jon got aged up after going on adventures with a version of his grandfather, Jor-El, during the Bendis run and that hasn’t been walked back in the time since the writer left. Is this the first step towards Dan Slott giving us a younger Jon Kent on a full-time basis again? Remember, this is the guy who devoted an entire issue of “She-Hulk” to finding a way for future writers to address any continuity or character issue that they didn’t like – and he himself used to reveal that She-Hulk didn’t actually sleep with the Juggernaut. I’m at least curious to see what Slott has planned here, as well as what he has in mind for Batman helping out with the ongoing threat of El Caldero.
100 Bullets vol. 1: First Shot, Last Call & Preacher vol. 1: Gone to Texas Compact Editions: DC has been reprinting a number of their titles in smaller, cheaper editions to great success based on what I’ve heard. However, this initiative has been made up almost entirely of reprints of their superhero titles. “Fables” also got this treatment, but these two have content that is much more harder-edged and outrageous than that title. Both volumes are stone-cold classics (“Preacher” moreso than “100 Bullets,” but I digress) and I don’t think that they’ll read any worse for being shrunk down into this format. It’s just that part of me wonders if DC has a plan for differentiating their expectedly violent superhero fare from the profane, gory, over-the-top violence featured in these collections. Regardless, if you’ve not read either of these titles yet, do yourself a favor and check these out (FINALLY!).