Infinite Frontier looks to continue to go strong in August 2021. With DC Comics August 2021 solicitations its clear things are only going to be picking up as something big is going on in every corner of the DC Universe. For starters we are getting the first Batman event in Infinite Frontier with Fear State, Aquaman return for major milestone celebration, and a Green Lantern heel turn. What else does DC Comics this coming August? Let’s find out by taking a look at the biggest things we learned from DC Comics August 2021 solcitations.
GOTHAM CITY TAKEN OVER BY FEAR STATE
After being introduced as the ones controlling everything in the possible future Gotham City during Future State we’ve been seeing the rise of The Magistrate across all the Batman comic books during Infinite Frontier. Now it looks like things are going to progressing even faster than Future State led us to believe with how The Magistrate rose to control everything. This is being done as the Batman Family event Fear State will be the full debut to the DC Universe public to The Magistrate. Given the name of the event being Fear State it does not look as though Mayor Nakano, Simon Saint, and Peacekeeper-01 are the only ones involved. This looks to also further progress how Scarecrow has been elevated as a major Batman villain again.
On top of the threat of The Magistrate the new Fear State event will also continue to see the rise of Jace Fox as he takes another step towards his future as the next Batman with I Am Batman #0. Like The Magistrate, it seems that things are happening much faster than they did in Future State as Jace is already starting to act as the Dark Knight. Which makes sense given how The Next Batman: Second Son ended with Jace discovering one of the Batman armors in storage. Finding that along with everything he is seeing happen in Gotham City may cause Jace to become a whole new Dark Knight that we haven’t seen, not even in Future State, as he gets in the action while Bruce Wayne is still active as Batman.
Speaking of Bruce Wayne, while Bruce will be kept busy with all things Fear State it is interesting to see that this event will force him to break the deal he and Selina Kyle made to each other. Right before Future State or Infinite Frontier started we saw Bruce and Selina promise each other to distance themselves from each other for one year in James Tynion and Guillem March’s Batman #101. It looks as though that deal will be broken as after only a few months, max in DCU time, Bruce and Selina will be reuniting in the Catwoman series. What this means for their future together will be very interesting to see play out.
TIM BURTON’S BATMAN & RICHARD DONNER’S SUPERMAN RETURN
Tim Burton’s Batman and Richard Donner’s Superman are back! DC Comics are going to revisiting both the Batman ’89 and Superman ’78 movie universes with brand new comic books. And it looks like they will be directly branching off those movies and not using anything from the sequels they both had. That is clear with how Batman ’89 will be using Harvey Dent/Two-Face and Superman ’78 will be using Brainiac as the villains to their respective stories.
Harvey Dent being the villain for Batman ’89 is the one that stands out most since for the most part we’ve seen how the 1989 Batman movie started a whole universe that ended with Batman & Robin. It looks like Batman ’89 will ignore everything that came after that 1989 movie and give us a whole new take on Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face. Which isn’t a bad idea since the Batman Forever version of Two-Face wasn’t well received. Let’s see what a Two-Face based on the way 1989 Batman set up the universe looks like.
AQUAMAN FINALLY BACK IN ACTION
One of the biggest characters that has been noticeably absent in Infinite Frontier has been Aquaman. Just about every other major DC Comics character has major stories going on around them. With Aquaman that is not the case. Even in the Justice League series where he is appearing he is more of a supporting character that to give more power to the team.
But now it looks like Aquaman may be getting an increased spotlight as August 2021 begins the celebration of the character’s 80th anniversary. To mark the occasion DC Comics is releasing a Aquaman 80th Anniversary Special like they did for Batman, Superman, Robin, and others in the last few years. This will hopefully be the start of bringing Aquaman back to some prominence with the possibility of a new ongoing series that spotlights the entire Aquaman family like we saw in Future State.
JESSICA CRUZ TO BECOME A SINESTRO CORPS MEMBER
Geoffrey Thorne started his run on Green Lantern by rocking the entire franchise with the destruction of Oa’s Power Battery. That event has left most of the members of the Green Lantern Corps without their powers. The only that looks to still have access to use of her Green Lantern ring is Jo Mullein. Because of that we are seeing in all future solicitations that Jo is being understandably placed at the forefront for what is going on with the Green Lantern Corps.
While Jo Mullein carries the weight of the Green Lantern Corps that still leaves a lot of questions for what is going to happen to the members without their powers. Now with the Green Lantern 2021 Annual we may have an answer for what the future for Jessica Cruz is as we are tease with her joining the Sinestro Corps as a Yellow Lantern. That would be a big turn for the character to take. This could open the door for not only Jessica Cruz to take on a whole new path but also the other previous Green Lantern Corps members as we could see the Lantern Corps from the rest of the spectrum come into play.
FLASHPOINT BATMAN RETURNS FOR INFINITE FRONTIER
After the whole City Of Bane event I’ve had more than my fill on reading stories involving Flashpoint Batman. Which is why seeing Flashpoint Batman return for the Infinite Frontier series has definitely lessened my excitement for the event. There are so many characters that could be used throughout the Multiverse that would be much more of an exciting prospect. Especially when it comes to alternate universe versions of Batman we have the Batman by Gaslight, Monsters & Men Man-Bat, Batman Beyond, Kingdom Come Batman, Batman Year 100, and Bethlehem Batman to name a few. Heck, why not just go crazy and bring in a version of Dark Claw since we are in dealing with the Multiverse in Infinite Frontier. So many options that make Flashpoint Batman even more disappointing of a choice to be used.
REUNION LEADS TO ROBIN WAR
In more exciting Batman Family news it looks as though Damian Wayne won’t be able to hide from his family for very long as Nightwing, Red Hood, Tim Drake’s Robin, and Spoiler will find him in Robin #5. While Damian could possibly be happy to reunite with Dick Grayson the other former Robins being around will cause a lot of tension to be in the air. Especially with Damian all hyped up on fighting it is likely based on the cover and solicitation information that he will use this reunion to further drive home the fact he is not just the best Robin but best fighter in the Batman Family. How successful he is at this will be something to look forward to.
It’s also interesting that Bruce isn’t going to be joining in on confronting Damian Wayne during the Lazarus Tournament. Part of that is likely because Bruce is busy with all his attention on what is going on with Fear State. It also leaves the door open for a bigger one-on-one reunion between Bruce and Damian in the future.
WONDER WOMAN OF THE MULTIVERSE
The current run by Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad on Wonder Woman has been working around how there is more to why Diana ended up on Asgard than has been revealed. Based on the solicitations for Wonder Woman #777 and Wonder Woman #778 it seems that Diana is much more involved in the happenings of the Multiverse than even she knows. That is at least the feeling that is given with how she is now going to visiting other Elseworlds in upcoming issues of Wonder Woman.
All of this seems to building on the greater narrative for Infinite Frontier around major things going on in the Multiverse. Especially with how Darkseid is claiming even more power after Infinite Frontier #0 we could start to seeing clearer clues as to how Wonder Woman factors into this greater story. Visiting these Elseworlds certainly points to that being the case.
SUPERMAN RED & BLUE AMAZING FINAL COVER
Superman Red & Blue has been a fun series to follow. Its offered the opportunity for various writers who are either experienced writing in the DC Universe or brand new a chance to write their own Superman stories. That is a valuable thing for DC Comics to do as they are building a talent pool for the future through one of their most popular characters.
All that said I would be lying if I did not say I’m including Superman Red & Blue #6 here because of the cover by Evan “Doc” Shaner. Just look at the cover above with all the different versions of Superman on it. It is an absolutely stunning cover that I just want as art to frame and have in my office. Its one of the best Superman covers I’ve ever seen.
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