DC’s New Comics Give Some Fan Favorites a Deserved Spotlight

In a few months, DC Comics will have a new run of comics under its All In banner. The big draw is the brand new Absolute Universe, but the prime DC universe will go on with new creative teams at the helm, and in some cases, wholly new books are joining the lineup.

DC’s got four new comics coming out centered on beloved heroes Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), Black Canary, and the Question (Renee Montoya). The former comes from Tate Brombal (House of Slaughter) and Takeshi Miyazawa (Silk), and sees Cass fend off a random assassin attack that leads to her teaming with her mother, Lady Shiva. Working together is their only option, and the ongoing comic was teased by Brombal as a “jaw-dropping, martial-arts filled adventure” that celebrates the character ahead of her 25th anniversary. It’s also Cass’ first solo title under the Batgirl moniker in quite some time, and Brombal teased she’ll “kick ass the way only Cass can do. […] The world won’t know what hit it.”

Next, Tom King and Ryan Sook’s Black Canary: Best of the Best will pit Dinah against Shiva to determine which of them is the better fighter. While fighting her way to that match, she’ll pick up some new moves from fellow fighters like her mother, Batman, and Wildcat. King further hyped up the six-issue book by calling it a “gorgeous, epic, heartbreaking, heartwarming miniseries dead focused on what makes Dinah unique and uniquely awesome.”

I got to show this off. Some spectacular, visceral, perfect line art from Ryan Sook for BLACK CANARY: BEST OF THE BEST. Sook’s doing every page in every issue. So proud of this book. Out 11/27–Black Canary Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/pDJIyT3wKE

— Tom King (@TomKingTK) August 15, 2024

The Question: All Along the Watchtower by Alex Segura (Secret Identity) and Cian Tormey (Injustice) has Renee do her detective work on the Justice League’s titular space station. Set sometime after Absolute Power, the Trinity call on her to investigate a murder in a noir tale inspired by the classics like Sherlock and Agatha Christie, and also more modern murder mysteries. Talking to Polygon, Segura listed off authors like Walter Mosely, Laura Lippman, and George Pelecanos as additional influences. But as far as comics are concerned, he credited key figures to Renee’s success like her co-creator Denny O’Neal, writer Greg Rucka, and artists Denys Cowan and Cully Hamner.

“I’ve taken to heart the stories they’ve told with Renee, where we see her trying her best to overcome her own demons to do the right thing,” he explained. To him, Renee will be “walking among an array of heroes that are akin to gods,” in the vein of superhero mysteries like Batman: Long Halloween, but on a “much bigger and more surreal stage” with the Watchtower. Tormey said the station would be “as much a character in this as Renee herself. […] Trust me when I say, there’s a lot of thought put into all those backgrounds you won’t be able to see under all the blood and shadows!”

Finally, Black Lightning by Brandon Thomas (Black Manta) and Fico Ossio (Mister Miracle: The Source of Freedom) puts Jefferson Pierce and his daughter Jennifer (Lightning) in charge of the Justice League’s new outreach program for metahumans. Not long after his daughter Anissa comes looking for help with her new Thunder powers, a new version of the Masters of Disaster pop up in Metropolis’ Suicide Slum, and it falls to the Pierces to put a stop to it. “While the Pierce family struggles to hold it all together, a mystery rival consolidates power and legitimacy,” Thomas told ComicsBeat, “weaponizing public sentiment that declares that ‘Waller was right’ to fear these power mad gods.”

Batgirl will kick off on November 6, followed by the five-issue Black Lightning the following week on November 13. At the end of the month, Black Canary: Best of the Best begins its six-issue tale on November 27. At time of writing, a specific release date hasn’t been locked down for Question: All Along the Watchtower.

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