Hey guys, it's Scott.
It is Friday, September 6th, and you can consider this a true proof-of-life post. I promise we're going to get back to more regular posting and the class, and we're even going to be doing a livestream next week. I'll say more about it soon. Wednesday night with Nick Dragotta about Absolute Batman. But right now I'm just white-knuckling it straight to New York Comic Con. The Wytches writers room is going. We have tons of comic stuff coming. Everything will get back to normal soon. But I wanted to do a quick post because I have two books coming out that I'm a part of that are sort of monumentally important, both to me personally and some of the biggest books I've been a part of in my career. And both have their Final Order Cut-Off coming very, very soon.
The first book is DC All-In Special #1. This is the book that launches everything in the fall. It spins out of Absolute Power. And this is the starting point, the way Rebirth #1 one was for Rebirth, of everything we're doing with All-In. It explains how the Absolute universe is formed, it explains how Darkseid is going to be a threat over the next few years, it explains the hero's mission. It's full of surprises, it's got great, great art by Dani Sampere and Wes Craig, it's co-written by my dear friend and great writer Joshua Williamson. And its Final Order Cut-Off day, the last day you can possibly order it, is this coming Monday, September 9th. You do not want to miss it because what happens if you don't order on Final Order Cut-Off day is if you go to the store and people have bought the copies that the store has ordered for general distribution, not copies that you specifically order for you, you miss out. It's sold out. And with a book in high demand like this, DC considers a sell-out very likely. So you want to reserve your own copy. You want to order a copy through your local comic shop for you. So the last day to order is this coming Monday, September 9th.
Now, the other book, of course, is Absolute Batman #1. I would put it up against my best superhero work. I'm so deeply proud of this book. The work that Nick put into it is, I think, just masterful. And also it's a book that I've been thinking about for three years. I can't wait for you to see it. I can't thank you enough for all the excitement around All In and around Absolute Batman, all the fan art and the buzz and the questions and the comments and the jokes and everything, like, the memes, it's been an incredible experience in this lead up. But the very last day to order it is September 16th. So a week from Monday. This Monday, DC All-In Special #1. Next Monday, Absolute Batman #1.
This one, if you do not order it ahead, if you do not reserve your copy, you will probably miss out. DC is extremely confident in a sell-out. The numbers on it are very, very high, which again, I'm very grateful for. But it's not about me trying to boost the sales, I promise. It is about me not wanting you to miss out on reading this book that I am really proud of. I really hope that you will reserve your copy now. We have a bunch of amazing covers too. I think nine different stores or something did retailer covers. Go support them. Third Eye Comics did a Sean Gordon Murphy one:
Midtown Comics did a Dan Panosian one:
There's just tons of great covers out there if you're into that as well. But please, please reserve your copy by September 16th.
So I'll talk a little bit about both books just so you know what you're in for. DC All-In Special #1 is one of those seismic event books, it's huge. It's 54 pages long, it's a one-shot flipbook, one side reads from Darkseid’s point of view and is narrated by Darkseid, the other side reads from Superman's point of view and is narrated by Superman. And it's a thesis statement about what the entire initiative is about. Darkseid realizes during the events of Absolute Power, and again, it spins out of Absolute Power. You don't have to read Absolute Power to understand it, but I would really encourage you to read Absolute Power #4. It comes out on the same day. It's awesome and it sets all this up.
But during the events of Absolute Power, Darkseid feels this quake at one point when the multiverse is locked away. He feels it in his bones and he realizes that some truth has been hidden from him for a long, long time about himself, about his potential, about his nature. And so he goes on a rampaging quest across the DCU. He goes to heaven, he goes to hell. He's looking for answers and he's looking for one person in particular. And I won't spoil it for you here, but his quest leads him straight into conflict with the Justice League. But what he learns makes him believe that he is kind of the ender of all things. He is meant to be the thing that ends all of the stories being told in the DCU. And so on the other side, you see Superman's point of view as he's setting up the Justice League for the first time in this huge, robust way as Justice League Unlimited, where every hero in the entire DCU will have access with a personalized Justice League card. And it's the story of how the DCU comes together and how they are united.
And again, it's about how right now in comics, the feeling is things have been a bit scattered. Things have been atomized. There have been great books, but we need to come together together. As a community, we need to sort of remind people we're DC Comics and that we do big, eventful stuff as well as great books. And it's time for us to take a big swing. And so that's kind of the ethos of the superhero side. And ultimately, what we're building to is this huge battle where Darkseid is saying, “it's time for these things to end. It's over. Superheroes are done.” Which is kind of in the cultural milieu, right? But what the heroes have to realize is that they not only have a way forward, a way to evolve and thrive, but the way to do that is to embrace both legacy and to embrace the new. And so both worlds, the Absolute universe, the main universe, they both play a huge part in this story as we go forward over the next couple of years. There's so much in this meta-story we're telling, me and Josh.
I mean, so much ties into it in its own way that you won't even realize till later. Ram V's amazing New Gods book plays a huge part about the formation of a new Darkseid:
The Justice League Unlimited book by Mark Waid and Dan Mora is going to play a part in terms of the search for this strange, new, mysterious Absolute universe:
There's all kinds of stuff that you're going to get, but it's a big plan. And it's a thesis statement about how superhero comics are not only alive and well, but are going to be thriving for a very, very long time. to embrace legacy and we also have to embrace bold, daring storytelling. So I can't wait for you to see it. Again, really, really proud of it. It's an incredible artifact also, because again, it reads back to front or front to back.
Then Absolute Batman. So Absolute Batman is a project that I've been thinking about for years. I didn't plan on doing Absolute Batman. I really didn't. I think I said this in one of our posts, but in all honesty, DC gave me a consulting contract for the year when I started to talk to them about doing an initiative like All In with Josh. What happened was I just got frustrated reading all these great superhero comics and feeling like the cultural conversation was about how superheroes were over because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe kind of winding down in different ways and the DC Cinematic Universe hadn't started yet with James Gunn after reaching its peak with Zack Snyder as well. And so there was this talk all the time about superheroes being over. And the feeling was, look, not only are they alive in comics, but they're living out some of their most epic stories. There's great series happening.
And so the mission became, let's create one big initiative that embraces the ethos of the best initiatives of the past the way New 52 did, and also does legacy the way Rebirth did. And so for us, that was my job. It was to write a meta-story with Josh about Darkseid, to invite creators in, to define the ethos of the Absolute universe, to go out to creators, to make sure that everyone was happy, to create guidelines for everyone, not just in the Absolute universe, but to read pitches and such with editors for the main universe just to make sure everyone was doing stuff that they loved. And it felt like a big swing because that was the thing. “Everybody, you have plenty of time. You've got a year and a half before we do this initiative.” That was once it got approved a couple years ago. “Take your biggest swing in the fall. Does that mean you want to do a new book? Does that mean you want to stay on your current book? But you have to do a new arc and create a jumping on point for October. Everybody has to be welcomed in. It has to be the greatest jumping on point that DC Comics has as a company in a decade. That's the bar.”
And so I didn't know what book I was going to take. But the proof of concept for the Absolute universe, the thing I used to pitch the Absolute universe to people was the Batman pitch. It was the one I had in my pocket that I was like, this is how I think Batman could really work. And there's a bunch of elements to it that I don't want to spoil. But a big one was just an inversion of the mythology. The idea that if Batman isn’t the system but is instead that small bit of chaos, that monkey wrench in everything, the one that makes you believe that you can change these huge, entrenched systemic things. It just gives him a whole new purpose and it suddenly changes a lot of other elements of the mythology. Maybe he grows up with his villains in Crime Alley. Maybe they’re all friends. Maybe he doesn't get to travel the world and learn detection skills from Henri Ducard and fighting skills from the League of Assassins. Maybe instead he has to do it a different way and learns MMA here from Killer Croc. Maybe he knows about Gotham because he works in the power plant and he works in the sewers and he works on the electrical grid and all this different stuff. And it just reinvigorated it for me. And so I went around and as the book started to fill up, Jason Aaron came on and he's been an amazing co-architect. He was the first person to sign on to Absolute, have faith in it.
Then Kelly Thompson came in and she's been unbelievable to work with as well.
But Batman was still unpopulated, it still didn't have a creator. I know I've talked about Absolute Batman before and my journey to writing the book and how I didn't plan on writing it and it was James Tynion IV who convinced me to do it. My brother from another mother, I'm very grateful. I won't rehash that here. All I'll say is that I couldn't be prouder of this book. Like I said before, I would stand it next to my best stuff. It's a true labor of love. It's deeply personal. It's big and epic. It's violent. It's fun. And it's about something for me. It really is. Like, you'll see it from the moment you open the book. And again, I think the work that Nick is doing on it is transformative. So I really hope that you'll give it a shot. It would mean a lot. And again, we have unbelievable covers, unbelievable retailers buying in. So I hope you'll order it. And it's an ongoing series. It is not a mini-series. We are on it for a couple of years. Again, like, we are committed. So I really hope you enjoy it. Thanks, you guys. Again, we'll get back to normal soon. And please, please order these books. It would mean a lot to all of us. Thanks!
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