DC Solicitation Sneaks: September 2026
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Adventures of Superman: The Book of El
“Superman: The Warworld Saga” didn’t just collect writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s three-volume epic, it also collected his “Future State” work with Superman and other comics that established his take on the House of El’s far future status. That stuff was surprisingly great for being a non-canon look at the character’s descendants and while Johnson signed an exclusivity deal with Marvel, I’m assuming that included a carve-out provision to write this twelve-issue follow-up to that work with DC. This maxiseries sees Superman flung into this future to deal with not just his legacy, but that of Olgrun and a reborn Brainiac. Scott Godlewski and Cian Tormey illustrate this title and they seem like solid choices who will do the storytelling justice. Still, the real appeal here will be seeing Johnson tackle the Man of Steel, a character whose reliable heroics and moral code he made feel fresh and new again, one last time.
And yeah, I’ll definitely go and re-read all of the necessary stuff before tackling this. It really does feel like it’d be unfair not to.
Legion of Superheroes #1: Now here’s a series that has had a lot of difficulty working at DC over the years with only the 90’s reboot era and the 00’s Abnett/Lanning run pulling it off. Bendis gave it a whack recently and while I liked parts of it, the whole thing wound up being something that definitely happened. Now Joshua Williamson is taking on DC’s premiere future team of super-teens and, sure, why not. I’ve actually warmed to his work on “Superman” and “G.I. Joe” and his work with the large cast of that latter title, along with reintroducing it to a modern audience, may be what’s needed here. Certainly helping will be the art from Hayden Sherman who’s been killing it on “Absolute Wonder Woman” and has shown that they’re the rare artist that can handle more than one book a month. That said, trying to make a successful new iteration of the “Legion” sounds like an easier task than trying to do it with…
The Doom Patrol #1: You’ve got Grant Morrison’s era-defining run that bridged the 80’s and 90’s, the abbreviated run from Rachel Pollack that followed (and is being collected again in these solicitations), and John Arcudi’s 22-issue run from the early 00’s. Then just the occasional cameo and miniseries after that. Not even Gerard Way could make this work when DC gave him his own imprint to do so. Now writer Darcy Van Poelgeest and artist Niko Henrichon are going to give their own spin on DC’s weirdest superteam as they adopt a heroes-for-hire business model whose first mission sees the team trying to rescue a missing cat. This being the Doom Patrol, expect things to get exponentially stranger from there. The more I think about it, the more I’d like to see a new version of this team that really succeeds and forges its own weird identity. History, however, is really tempering my optimism with regard to that.
Absolute Cassandra Cain: The Shadow’s Hand #1: This one-shot introduces the title character to the Absolute Universe in fairly grim fashion. By that I mean she and her mother Lady Shiva are the only survivors of the League of Assassins following their (obviously misguided) decision to let the Joker train with them. Now Cassandra is the foremost assassin in the world and she’s got her sights set on Selina Kyle. Coming from “Absolute Catwoman” writer Che Grayson with art from Matais Bergara, this seems like a promising introduction for the character into this universe. Better still is that its one-shot status, along with it coming from Grayson and featuring Catwoman, implies that we’ll be seeing it collected along with “Absolute Catwoman” down the line.
Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham General #1 (of 2) & Gotham Central #1 (of 2): Tie-ins to the solicited Bat-event focusing on ER workers at Gotham’s biggest hospital and officers trying to do actual police work amidst all the mayhem. In a real plot twist, “Gotham Central” co-creator Greg Rucka is writing “Gotham General” and Christopher Cantwell is handling the former series. To be honest, I’d read full-sized miniseries about these things from either creator and I hope that these are here to test the waters for such a thing. I’ve got no idea how they’re going to be collected as part of the “Bad Seeds” event, but their presence is already making me amenable to an Omnibus collection if that’s how DC wants to do it first.
Batman/Superman/Weird Al: World’s Weirdest #1: A disease that makes everything dull and ordinary is affecting the fifth dimension and is now spreading to Earth. Mr. Mxyzptlk naturally turns to Superman and Batman for help in dealing with this, but it’ll take something more than the World’s Finest to handle this threat. It’ll take someone… Weird. I don’t know what the specific reason is for this team-up between Batman, Superman, and Weird Al Yankovic, but I’ll still take it. If only for the fact that the solicitation indicating that the story is being written by Mark Waid and the “vibes” are being provided by Weird Al, makes it feel like the most honest admission of what a celebrity provides when they’re listed as a writer on these kinds of projects.
The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery: The rollout of trade paperback collections from DC’s relaunched Vertigo imprint continues with this miniseries from “That Texas Blood” creators, writer Chris Condon and artist Jacob Phillips. Ezra Cain is a former student of archaeology who now makes his living as a private eye and winds up embroiled in a case involving the theft of a relic that’s said to hold the power of the Greek god Hephaestus. Sounds fine enough and my main concern is that’s all it’ll wind up being based on what I’ve read from Condon so far. He’s a weird writer whose output that I’ve read so far appears to be curiously stuck in the middle of the road. Maybe “Indiana Jones: Private Dick” will wind up being noticeably better (or worse) than that.
Absolute Superman vol. 3 & Absolute Green Lantern vol. 3: For whatever reason, “Absolute Superman” hasn’t been able to keep to the monthly schedule that “Absolute Wonder Woman” and “Absolute Batman” have. Which is why the third volumes of these titles are launching at the same time. I’m still onboard for both of them, particularly as “Absolute Superman” promises the introduction of “King” Shazam, and it should be interesting to see what kind of edgelord twist writer Jason Aaron has in mind for that character, Meanwhile, Jo Mullien finds herself thrust into the darkness of deep space against Mogo and the Blackstars as writer Al Ewing continues to double down on his metaphysical reinterpretation of the “Green Lantern” mythos. I’ll have a better idea about how optimistic I can feel about that after (say it with me now) the second volume that I’ve ordered finally arrives on my doorstep.
Batman vol. 2: Blood & Money: See that last sentence above.
Wonder Woman vol. 5: The Wonder War, Act 1: Tom King’s run on this title has been excellent so far and I’m very much looking forward to seeing where it goes after The Sovereign was taken down in vol. 3. War looks to be the obvious answer, against a new villain called The Matriarch who’s a big enough threat that Wonder Woman’s daughter, Trinity, is having to come back from the future to help her mother deal with it. I’m a little curious about the whole “Act 1” subtitle here as it implies this is going to be a rather lengthy storyline. Fortunately King and regular artist Daniel Sampere have banked enough goodwill with me that I’ll be sticking around regardless of how many acts this war has (for now).
Justice League Unlimited vol. 4: Villain Amnesty: In the wake of “DC K.O.” some heroes have brought up the idea of granting villains amnesty for their past crimes to help with the rebuilding process. Other heroes think that this is a TERRIBLE idea and the debate between the two sides is threatening to tear the League apart. So I can only imagine that Guy Gardner and his spacefaring team are relieved to have to confront the threat of the Brainiac Queen rather than deal with it. Writer Mark Waid pitches an interesting idea here and I’m curious to see how he mines it for superhero drama, which should look great coming from Dan Mora with Clayton Henry pitching in.
Crisis on Infinite Earths: DC Comics Compact Edition & DC Finest: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 3: The Compact Edition collects the classic maxiseries in a smaller format for $10. Meanwhile, the “DC Finest” edition (apparently analogous to Marvel’s “Epic Collections”) collects issues #6-9 along with all of the related tie-ins from the era. Both of these formats strike me as a terrible way to read this story. The former because its smaller format squeezes down the incredible art from George Perez which was meant to really be enjoyed in a full-sized (or oversized) format. As for the latter, not only are you just getting a piece of the story but the tie-ins it collects are of extremely dubious value. “Crisis on Infinite Earths” was notorious for having tie-ins that had only the most tenuous of connections to the event. Where some characters would just point out the fact that the sky had turned red in their series and that was it. So if you’re wondering what possible significance issues like “Omega Men #31” and “Vigilante #22” have to the consolidation of the DC Multiverse, I’m willing to bet that’d be it.