We are now in the post-San Diego Comic-Con 2019. In the aftermath of the biggest comic book convention of the year DC Comics has officially released their full slate of comics being published in October 2019. Some of these like Tales of the Dark Multiverse were comics that DC Comics announced during the week of SDCC 2019. Along with October furthering the build for Year of the Villain we are also seeing Joker gain an increased profile with several comics in preparation for his big movie’s debut in October. Let’s take a look at all of DC Comics plans for October 2019 after the release of their new solicitations.
WARREN ELLIS AND BRYAN HITCH CREATE THE BATMAN’S GRAVE
The Batman’s Grave is one of those comics that DC announced right before SDCC 2019 began. This comic immediately becomes one of the most high profile comics DC is releasing thanks to having a creative team of Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. Individually both creators are major selling points for a comic. Together they should be able to make The Batman’s Grave a big seller the month it is released.
The big question for this series is if it will be able to hit a monthly release schedule. As great as Hitch’s artwork is he does not have the best track record of meeting deadlines for a monthly series. His work since signing with DC Comics has also been forgettable. Hopefully Hitch is able to get ahead of schedule and show the comic book world once again why he became one of the industries top artists with his work on Ultimates.
HARLEY QUINN LEADS NEW ERA FOR BIRDS OF PREY
Harley Quinn’s dominance over the DC Universe has grown to the point that she has taken Batgirl’s spot in the Bird of Prey. Given Harley’s elevation over the last few years this will her inclusion will give Birds of Prey a higher profile. That said, I have not liked what Brian Azzarello has said about how he is positioning Black Canary and Huntress when Birds of Prey #1 starts.
From interviews posted since the Birds of Prey announcement Azzarello has said both Black Canary and Huntress are a tough place in their lives. It sounds like they will actually be in a low-point in their lives. That is not how we saw either character since Black Canary was shown to be in a good place as she was back to being in a good relationship with Green Arrow and was having a good superhero career. Similarly, Huntress was coming into her own the last time we saw her. Azzarello immediately changing all that to start them from a dark place is not a great selling point. It actually makes me take a wait and see approach rather than automatically placing it on my pull list.
JOKER TAKES OVER DC’S OCTOBER PLANS
Joker is already one of DC Comics most well-known villains. Now in October he will gain even more attention as Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker movie will be releasing that month. DC Comics is taking advantage of the movie’s release by having several Joker comics release in October. These comics are The Joker: Year of the Villain, The Joker: Killer Smile and Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity. All three seem to be tackling a different part of who Joker is.
The most high profile of these comics is by far The Joker: Year of the Villain one-shot. That is thanks to John Carpenter, director of Halloween, The Thing and other classic movies, being as the writer for the comic book. That is a huge get by DC Comics for one of their biggest villains. It’ll definitely make it a must-have comic for a lot of fans and possibly bring in horror fans to check out the Year of the Villain comic because it is Carpenter’s name on the cover.
BATMAN STEPS UP TO RECLAIM GOTHAM CITY
As we saw in Batman #75 Bruce Wayne will finally have Selina Kyle back by his side to combat Bane and his forces. Now after whatever journey Bruce and Selina go on they will be finally be ready to reclaim Gotham City from Bane starting in Batman #80. Given how crazy the takeover of Gotham City was whatever Bruce plans has to be the best one he has ever come up with. Hopefully the journey has helped clear Bruce’s mind. Because he and Selina will definitely need every advantage possibly, even maybe turning someone like Gotham Girl to their side.
NAOMI BECOMES SUPERMAN’S NEW SIDEKICK
Since one Superboy is joining the Legion of Super-Heroes in the future and the other Superboy is off on adventures in the Multiverse with Young Justice Superman is without a sidekick. Now it looks like it did not take Superman much time to find a new sidekick. With her critically acclaimed series on hiatus Brian Bendis seems to bring in Naomi to fill that void for Superman.
Having Naomi interacting with Superman will help her further develop as superhero. And keeping her in the mind of readers until her series returns will further help make it a big deal once Naomi returns. Plus this should benefit Superman as well since he has never had a sidekick that is not directly related to him in someway. This will be a refreshing change of pace for him.
BATWOMAN BEYOND FINALLY DEBUTS
For quite a while DC has teased adding a Batgirl or Batwoman to the Batman Beyond mythology. The few times they almost went through with that introduction they went in another direction, specifically introducing Catwoman Beyond instead. Now we are finally getting who looks to be Batwoman Beyond in the pages of Batman Beyond #37. This is a big deal especially since where the Beyond universe originates from we have not had a Batwoman show up before. This could make Batman Beyond #37 an extremely valuable comic fans will want to keep an eye out for.
LEADER OF LEVIATHAN POTENTIALLY REVEALED
A lot of the clues for who is pulling the strings behind the plot of Event Leviathan seems to point to Jason Todd’s Red Hood. Though those clues seem to be way too obvious and straightforward for Red Hood to turn out to be the big bad of Event Leviathan. Now we know that we will finally find out who is behind Leviathan in the pages of Event Leviathan. Given all the build up to this reveal I hope that Brian Bendis has a truly surprising reveal. Because this is the type of thing that can either make or break a big event. And given the slow pace of Event Leviathan thus far this better be worth the build up.
WALLY WEST TRAVELS TO THE DARK MULTIVERSE
An idea that has been thrown around since Heroes In Crisis ended was that the Wally West that showed up in DC Rebirth is not the classic version. It has been theorized that after the events of Dark Nights: Metal that Wally’s story was changed to him being actually a Dark Multiverse doppelganger while the real Wally has been captured by someone in the Dark Multiverse. That would really change how we would see the events of Heroes In Crisis if true.
Now it looks as though some wood is going to be thrown in the fire of that theory as Wally travels to the Dark Multiverse in Flash Forward #2. This could set all that up to explain the extremely out of character arc that Wally has been on. That or it could be something completely different and I’m just getting my hopes up.
GRANT MORRISON WIPING GREEN LANTERN OUT OF THE DCU
When DC announced that Grant Morrison was taking over Green Lantern they said that Morrison had a 12 issue story to tell. It wasn’t completely clear if that meant that Morrison’s complete run would be 12 issues or something else. With The Green Lantern #12 we will learn the truth as the solicitation for the issue states it is the final issue of the series.
What’s interesting about this solicitation is that it teased how The Green Lantern #12 leads into Morrison’s next DC project. Given how the issue also states that the events of the issue will have an impact on the entire DC Universe this will be a massive chapter. Since this is Morrison we can expect it to be a crazy end that you have to hope Hal Jordan and the Green Lanterns will still be around by the final page.
ROBIN AND SUPERBOY REFORM THE SUPER SONS
Damian Wayne and Jon Kent’s run as the Super Sons was great. Since their time as the Super Sons a lot has happened. Damian has gone on to lead the Teen Titans and Jon went on an adventure that aged him to be a teenager older than Damian. Now we are finally going to get their reunion in the pages of Superman #16 before Jon goes on to join the Legion of Super-Heroes. How exactly the relationship between Robin and Superboy changes because of the sudden age different will be interesting to see. It definitely won’t help Damian’s superiority complex when he finds out his best friend is now older and much taller than him. Maybe it will trigger Damian to go on his own journey to get older fast.
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