A couple of images from DC's December Solicits...

[icon_uk]

His status? In two words; "Pissed off!"



Artwork courtesy of Scott McDaniel (Those are some very bold reds in his costume)

I'm not quite sure what it is, but my god that's some beautiful cover art.



Artwork by Alex Gardner



A very chunky looking Batman fighting a rather solid Lex Luthor


Full Solicitations can be found here

Comments

[kuronotenshi]

That has some really pretty artwork.

I do find it interesting with the Lex vs. Batman picture..that the CSA is behind them, and you can see that Owlman's costume is empty.

With all the comments of the 'Forever Evil' Batman maybe not being our Batman...that could be interesting or a bit of a pre-lim reveal.

[coldfiredragon]

So is the Nightwing story that Higgins was writing officially forgotten due to Forever Evil and it's first issue spoilers?

Also, damn. That Batgirl cover is some of the best cover art I've seen in years.

[icon_uk]

I doubt, he said optimistically, that even DC would make such a major change to Nightwings status without talking to the writer on the title which will see the most impact.

[coldfiredragon]

LOL, yeah right. This is the company that champions last minute editorial mandate. They've done it before to Nightwing's book. I know a lot of people are not fond of Devin Grayson's run but that's a prime example.

[chrisdv]

Because they clearly told everyone writing the Bat-family books that Damian was being killed off. There's no way some of the writers knew it was coming, considering some of the Requiem tie-ins were merely "Also, Robin is dead now." when it came to showing how it affected them.

Hopefully, Higgins was told about this, but I wouldn't put it past DC to not tell him until the last possible moment.

[mrstatham]

Or it could be that the writers were basically forced to acknowledge Damian's death, knew that another book would be handling it as an overall plotline, and just threw a page in there. Why bother dedicating an issue to something that Tomasi was going to dedicate six to?

[thezmage]

The solicits to this issue say that it is taking place before Forever Evil.

[coldfiredragon]

I guess on a second read it does hint to that. They use the word 'looming' which I missed.

*sighs* I'm feeling that the identity reveal is going to be around for a while.

[polly1788]

i find it funny that they have williams still on batwoman even thou they said new guy starts with 25

[coldfiredragon]

There probably wasn't time to stop the solicit from going to print. If it's appearing in Previews that would have already been finished.

They have to write a completely new issue 25 to make it a Year Zero crossover like all the other bat books that month.

[polly1788]

doesnt matter dc comes off as spiteful in the whole matter and the story is not gonna end so no really point in reading anymore

[northstarfan]

DC has the worst freakin' PR. Ditching the outgoing team's last couple of issues comes off as a purely punitive move on their part, and I'm surprised at how much of this is being received with a shrug and a "What did they expect?" Um, some germ of professionalism? Because however DC editorial feels about the split, this is not the kind of behavior that encourages established talent to flock to one's banner.

I'm just sorry Marc Andrekyo is getting cast as the stooge by the online trolls. He's done solid work for DC previously, and hopefully he'll at least get some decent spotlight out of this debacle.

[polly1788]

because the pr people are same people who are making the decisions bout what to do, or atleast that how it comes across

[chrisdv]

Dang it, JL3000 1 was pushed back from October.

I thought the first issue was coming out as planned, then issue 2 was skipping November & releasing a month later.

Sad face.

[coldfiredragon]

Didn't the creative team either get dumped or quit? That might explain the delay.

[polly1788]

the artist

[junipepper]

It's like they're hemorrhaging talent over there...

Batgirl Cover

[junipepper]

Oh wow -- that is a beautiful cover. All those shapes, and the light -- like some kind of atomic geometry. Just gorgeous. What else has the artist done?

Re: Batgirl Cover

[doodleboy]

He mostly does covers from what I've seen.

His deviantart, http://alexgarner.deviantart.com/.

Re: Batgirl Cover

[junipepper]

Thanks!

[superfangirl1]

The Batgirl art cover is really amazing.

[mrstatham]

Too bad the Batgirl cover is just a going to be holding together the pages of the latest stop on Barbara Gordon's misery train to nowhere.

Also, I'm amazed at how much product DC has coming out that I could not give a flying fuck about.

[mrstatham]

Also, another strike against marriage from DC? The Aquaman solicit is a bit ominous for Arthur and Mera.

[coldfiredragon]

I don't know how much you pay attention to the con news but they already covered THAT. They are NOT married. They made the point of saying that while Mera's been called Arthur's 'Queen' she is never once mentioned as wife and that was on purpose.

[mrstatham]

They WERE married prior to the reboot. Therefore, it's another strike against them, and all they've done is wimp out by not confirming anything in the book. They WERE married, now they're not, and it joins the neverending procession of stupid that is, at this point, doing the conga around DC's offices.

[coldfiredragon]

I know they were. It's very sad :(

And that's one damn long conga line!

[coldfiredragon]

Dan Didio also made it clear this weekend that if the character was considered a 'Bat' that they were not allowed to have any sort of happy personal life. So Barbara's story is par for the course.

[mrstatham]

Except her life has been a complete misery train since the book launched, more than ANY other Bat-character. I just.. I don't get why you accept that line from Didio as if it's okay; It shouldn't be 'par for the course'. That line from him is an insult to anyone who works as part of rescue services, who saves lives or does good things for a living.

[coldfiredragon]

I don't agree with it. I think it sucks! I think heroes need to embrace a personal life or the job will destroy them. I'm just saying that Barbara's character being miserable is expected because of the way DC has treated ANY Bat for the last five years or so.

It's not an excuse its an acceptance of longterm reality. Until Didio is gone they are going to be miserable. Everyone in the whole universe is going to be miserable because according to Didio it's the hero's role to suffer for the good they do.

One of my favorite characters is Deathstroke the last time Deathstroke was well written was pre-Infinite Crisis. He's not a shade of gray character anymore, he's become an absolute bastard. I have the whole run of his original solo series, I loved it. I hate what Didio's turned the DCU into but nothing will change until he's gone.

[icon_uk]

I'd date Deathstroke's decline to back further, to Identity Crisis in fact. Before that he was a fairly low level metahuman, but very talented professional mercenary, with a sense of honour and sense of perspective, and who generally avoided conflicts with superheroes because it was never worth the money, he only targetted the Teen Titans because of a self assumed debt of honour.

Identity Crisis comes along and suddenly he's facing down the Justice League with prep-time that would make Batman gasp and of course "I make stabby"

[coldfiredragon]

I place the 'death' of Slade's honor in the Nightwing book actually, when he agreed to keep the Society out of Bludhaven then turned around and nuked the city.

You are right though, he didn't become a main player until Identity Crisis. The low level meta-human merc is my favorite version of him, and one I miss dearly every single time Slade pops up in something.

[arilou_skiff]

I know he's supposed to be spitting blood, but it just looks like Batman has a really weird tongue.

Also, Green Lantern's expression... Doesen't fit in with the others. The rest of the CSA are like "Staring into the distance" and GL is like "Whoah man.... There's like, a bat-dude fighting a bald man..."

Also, Luthor wouldn't look out of place with a chainsword and bolter.

[bizarrohulk]

Power Ring, not Green Lantern. And that's pretty much his default expression.

[icon_uk]

AFAIK Power Ring is basicallly a fearful, neurotic mess, if he ain't looking worried/scared then he's not being Power Ring.

[big_daddy_d]

...What if Batman in FE is...from Earth 3...and is actually that world's Joker?! O.o

Hey considering the out of left field shit that's been done in the new 52 so far, you can't consider that a stretch.