Looming corporate mega-mergers notwithstanding, it’s an exciting time to be a DC fan.
The publisher’s Absolute line and All In initiative have reenergized its print line. James Gunn’s Superman and Peacemaker have reinvigorated its properties in live action, with that hot streak seemingly set to continue in this year’s Supergirl and next year’s Man of Tomorrow.
Mirroring that sentiment, fans packed DC’s “What’s Next” panel at C2E2 in Chicago — to the point that at least 20 attendees had to sit on the floor.
Joined by a slew of DC’s finest creators, senior editor Brittany Holzherr shared a selection of things to come. Here are five things we learned.
Are we sleeping on Aquaman right now?
“I feel like everybody who’s reading Aquaman is part of, like, a secret club, where we’re having a lot of fun that no one is paying attention to,” writer Jeremy Adams told attendees of the recently rebranded Emperor Aquaman, drawn by John Timms.
Along with a new title for his book, Aquaman has undergone some major power upgrades since claiming the throne of the reinstated Atlantean monarchy. Similar to how Swamp Thing is the Avatar of the Green and Animal Man is Avatar of the Red, Arthur Curry is now the Avatar of the Blue and has control over all water, anywhere.
“That’s making him incredibly, incredibly powerful,” said Adams. “Like Stargate-ing around to other planets and setting up these lighthouses, because after DC K.O., everybody’s had visions of what might be coming. Maybe it’s Darkseid. Maybe it’s this. Maybe it’s that. He has a plan that has yet to be revealed.”
But despite all that, his mother-in-law Lolanna Meranna Challa, the Crimson Queen of the Atlantean penal colony of Xebel, is causing trouble for Aquaman post-DC K.O.
“[She’s] very evil, as mother-in-laws sometimes — ah, I’m just kidding,” Adams joked.
Holzherr joked that Adams’ Aquaman pitch to attendees “went swimmingly” — to lighthearted jeers from the crowd — while pivoting briefly to Adams’ other section of the DC Universe in the recently released Green Lantern #600.
Adams’ compared his Kyle Rayner-centric story arc to his time writing the Wally West version of Flash. “He’s younger, he’s maybe not as confident as someone like Hal is, but he’s also super creative, so he’s always figuring out ways to get through things,” Adams said.
Belén Ortega LOVES corgis — and we’re stoked for her Summer of Supergirl Special
If you’ve been keeping up with Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman, you’re probably already aware that there are quite a few corgis in it.
“I made a joke to Tom King a few years ago, and he went too far with the joke. Because I told him I like to draw samurais and corgis, because I have two at home. They are the silliest dogs in the world,” Ortega said.
Long story short, King stretched the corgi in-joke across six issues.
What you may not have known is that the corgis are modeled after Ortega’s two real-life pets. “For me, having them forever in comics is like a dream come true,” she said.
“All I can say about this story is it brings me joy and happiness,” she said of her work on Trinity overall.
Ortega, who also recently drew a Power Girl and Punisher story by Gail Simone in this month’s Superman/Spider-Man crossover, is joining Sophie Campbell in the main story of June’s Summer of Supergirl Special. That story will see Kara Zor-El go toe-to-toe with intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo.
Unfortunately, Holzherr said further details on that issue will have to stay under wraps for now.
More details on DC Next Level’s Teen Titans
As DC heads into the next stage of its All In initiative — the aptly titled Next Level — writer Kyle Higgins and artist Daniele Di Nicuoulo are helming a new Teen Titans series featuring a brand new line-up.
“There should be a Teen Titans team for every generation,” Higgins told attendees. “It reflects what the readers of that age range are going through in their lives.”
The goal, he said, is to capture the spirit of what New Teen Titans was for kids in the ‘80s and what Geoff Johns and Mike McKone’s Teen Titans were for his generation in the 2000s. A recurring theme in the book, he said, will be the notion of how people find community — not only in the real world in 2026, but in a post-K.O. 2026 in the DC Universe.
The team will also be overseen by second-Robin-turned-antihero Red Hood, and Jason Todd may very well have his hands full. “We are mixing the youth of D.C. with one of the youthful forgotten in Red Hood,” said Higgins. “He’s not a great babysitter, but he’s effective.”
Higgins teased a push-and-pull between Red Hood, believing “this soft-gen Teen Titans is never gonna work, much less stay alive,” and the Titans, “not understanding why he’s such an edge-lord and how it takes so long to get over a crowbar.”
And filling out the team’s lineup?
Fairplay: Jeffrey Holt, son of Mr. Terrific
Cheshire Cat: Lian Harper, daughter of Arsenal and Cheshire
Flatline: sidekick of Lord Death Man
Proxy: a character teased as having proximity-based telekinesis powers that grow as more people are around him
Wild Card: a “shit-stirrer” teased as having probability-manipulating abilities
Wild and fun things are happening at DC Vertigo
The panel swerved briefly to the DC Vertigo side of things with a spotlight on Kyle Starks and Steve Pugh’s End of Life and Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips’ Peril of the Brutal Dark.
Starks’ elevator pitch for End of Life is that it’s “John Wick meets Northern Exposure,” and it’s every bit as bonkers as that description sounds. To give you an idea, Starks — whose previous work includes Peacemaker Tries Hard — warned audience members who may want to speculate on the book to pick up issue three, which is set to fully debut a jacked antagonist named Big Cock (because he has a chicken head, obviously).
“Break-out character of 2026!” Starks said.
For what it’s worth, the book’s first issue has already sold out, so that speculator gag may not be unfounded.
Condon joked that while Peril of the Brutal Dark doesn’t have any characters named Big Cock, “we do use some choice words.”
Holzherr said the book, which is set in 1940s New York City and follows private eye Ezra Cain as he investigates the theft of a mystical Greek anvil and confronts a cult called the Brutal Dark, “scratches an Indiana Jones itch.”
The panelists also teased that more Vertigo titles are on the way from Ram V, Brian Azzarello, and James Tynion IV.
Readers are still absolutely bananas over DC Absolute
The panel wrapped up with insights on Absolute Martian Manhunter and Absolute Superman from artists Javier Rodríguez and Rafa Sandoval.
Rodríguez shared how he uses Play-Doh as a model for his work on the abstract superhero psychological horror of Absolute Martian Manhunter, which launched last year. As part of his approach, he said he memorizes the scripts and then walks along the beach, playing with the panels in his head.
It was this approach that gave him the idea for the final page of the book’s first issue, which can only be read by holding it up to the light, which allows the image on the other side of the page to show through and create a composite image.
“I see an opportunity to play with the medium, to play with the language, to try to achieve new readers,” said Rodríguez, who added that working with high concepts and emotional content, it’s important to keep things simple and easy to read.
He said he and writer Jason Aaron have ideas for at least two more arcs.
Sandoval’s expressed similar sentiments about his work with Aaron on Absolute Superman, a book that features a younger, darker, lonelier and angrier version of the Man of Steel who spent more time on Krypton before the planet’s destruction.
“He feels bad because he’s lost family, he’s lost friends, and he’s lost to the dark,” said Sandoval. “I feel like this character is more close to the human, you know?”
Sandoval added that drawing issue five, which featured Krypton’s destruction, made him cry. “That was all those ink washes, right? Your tears?” asked Holzherr.
“Yes, a bad time for me,” Sandoval said.
“I feel really lucky to draw this character,” he added.
