Hey guys, it's Scott.
It is Tuesday, August 19th, and I know it's been a while, but it's been a crazy, crazy couple weeks. So I thought I'd do a post and catch everybody up on everything coming soon and what's been going on on this side of the fence and everything. So first, quick bit of groundskeeping. We have Absolute Batman #11, drawn by the incredible Clay Mann, written by me, but with a lot of help from Nick Dragotta, out this week.
It is out tomorrow, Wednesday. It's a special issue. It's a self-contained one, although it pushes the plot forward in a really big way for our Abomination arc. But it gives the origin of Bane, and it was a really hard issue to write, but a really gratifying one where we really tried to keep the aspects of Bane's origin that we loved, but transform him into something that felt resonant for the kinds of things we're trying to do in Absolute Batman and has a lot of personal pathos in it. And Clay and I tried to work in a new way, both of us. I did a lot of prose for it. Clay changed up his style in a huge way where the only kind of beautiful people, because he draws beautiful people so well, in the issue are watching war. And there’s, without spoiling anything, a really dark undercurrent to their presence in the story. So it gives you a lot of Easter eggs. It pushes the story forward in a really big way. And it also does a deep dive into some of the themes of both the arc and the series as a whole. So I hope you love it as much as we do.
Also, I wanted to talk a little bit about K.O. because we're about a month away from the Final Order Cut-Off for issue #1. So if you missed the announcement, DC K.O., it stands for King Omega, although that's not announced yet. Darkseid has become a King Omega in the DC universe right now, or the King Omega, which is the entire totality of Omega energy over in the Absolute Universe. And he's coming over to attack. And so what the heroes have to do is figure out a way to beat him. And so this is going to be our five-issue big DC All In Saga event for this year. It runs from October to March. It's written by me with help from
and it is drawn by the incredible Javi Fernandez and we also have Xermanico on it. I'm incredibly excited can't wait for you guys to see it. I just think it looks amazing and again i so so proud of the the visual team on this book.
So what is it about? It's essentially about these heroes realizing that there's no way to stop Darkseid. He's coming and he's become something far more insidious than he's ever been before. He's still Darkseid, he's still all about control and absorbing everything so that it is of him, so that he is the only ruler, the only mind that can dictate everything to all reality. But he almost exists outside of space and time, he's become so incredibly powerful. I was talking to Deniz Camp and part of the fun of the series at this point is that Darkseid is omnipresent. So it's almost like all the kinds of fears that you have that make you want to cede control to somebody else, that make you want to give up and feel like, “I'm going to stop trying.” That's Darkseid in every atom and every cell.
Anyway, so the heroes realize that the only way to stop Darkseid is to become as powerful as him. And Omega energy in the DC mythology is essentially the energy of conquest. It's the energy of destruction, of ending things, of controlling things. Omega obviously is alphabetically the end. So it's the idea of the final absorption into things. And so what they have to do is gather as much Omega energy as possible and drive it into one person so that that one person can become a celestial being as powerful as Darkseid. And at the core of the earth, a heart of apocalypse is already forming. This is the device that Darkseid uses in the Absolute Universe, which you learn in issue one, to gather all of the Omega energy unto himself and become the only god, the only celestial being. And so they decide that if they can go get this thing or get close to it and use it to funnel all Omega energy into one of them, then they can become as powerful as Darkseid and take him down and restore things to the way they're supposed to be. Because Darkseid's already taken over all of the future.
So the event, as they get towards the heart of Apokolips, it tries to defend itself and creates a tournament, five levels, to see who is worthy of it. And so the only way to become worthy is to defeat other champions, to take down all of the other heroes, anyone else that's in this competition, and to do it in a way that shows no compassion, no mercy. Because if you start to help each other, if you start to try and be soft, then it won't create enough Omega energy and you won't be worthy. So it is a knockdown, drag out, fun battle royale to see who will be the standing champion at the end of the DC universe to be able to defeat Darkseid and bring everything back the way it's supposed to be.
So it's almost like the first time that we've gotten to do a big fight event. Marvel's done them a bunch. You have Avengers vs. X-Men, Secret Wars, Civil War. But I realized, like, we haven't actually done almost any of them. So for us, this is our knock-down, drag-out fight. But it's done in a way that isn't meant to be grim. It doesn't really hit them against each other in a way that has fault lines over deep issues. It is supposed to be something that you can enjoy. It has a very personal message, which I think will become apparent as you get closer to the end. So it's not just some kind of big escapist bubblegum thing. It's very much about what I think these superheroes are meant to stand for and represent to us, especially in difficult times. But it is coded in 10 layers of bloody candy fun. Out of control, violent candy fun. No edgelord bullshit. It is PG-13 in its own way. We'll have some red band issues, but overall, it is really supposed to get you that kid joy of Saturday morning cartoons on steroids. Who will win? That fun. Get you into stores.
There'll be a bracket with the 32 contestants that you can winnow down and take guesses and we'll have rewards for stores. to guess right or come closest. We'll have all kinds of incentives. We're going to even have a voting thing at New York that'll be a lot of fun that we'll announce soon that'll allow you to participate. So we want it to be something like All In that drives you into stores, that gets you going there for fun, that gets you talking with your friends, that makes you enjoy the month wait in between. We're going to have special months where we have tie-ins and all kinds of cool stuff that's already planned, but I don't want to get ahead of myself and announce stuff that I'm not supposed to yet.
But Knightfight, you have Batman versus the Batman versions of all of the former or a lot of the former Robins to see who would be better. It's almost like Batman's journey through Hell. It's amazing. It's written by Josh Williamson with a little help by me and obviously the incredible Dan Mora on art. We have Fight Month coming in December where you're going to have matches between some of the great contestants, the champions. And again, that's going to be a blast. I'm writing one of those. It's just meant to be pure comic book joy with a lot of heart. As you get deeper in, you'll see it's a personal Superman story about what I think about Superman and why he's such a great character. So I can't wait for you to see it. I know I've been talking about it a lot, but we're really excited about it.
It's very small, also. I'm not a big believer in events that go on for 12 issues. I'm sure we'll do one someday. But I know right now your wallets are tight. We want to keep it modular. We don't want you to have to interrupt a lot of your other series. You don't have to read anything but the main series if you don't want. But we will have some tie-ins in Teen Titans and in Flash. Superman is also building a lot of the architecture right now if you want to check it out. So you can check all of that stuff out if you want to get the full picture. But if you want to just read five issues in and out, you can do that too. And again, It's not going to kind of interrupt books that you're really enjoying.
But the big goal of something like KO for me, just to give you a behind the scenes peek, is A, to keep the great saga going of Darkseid, you know, to keep the big story that you guys are invested in going strong. So it's part two of, essentially, three. If All In was part one, this is part two.
We want the story of DC Comics over these years to be powerful and impactful and moving and resonant and all of those things. To tell a great story. But in addition to that, events for me are also a utility. The value of it in part, beyond the story itself, is what it gives you on the other side. What it says about who we are right now as a company, but also what it gleans on the other side. What it adds, what it does, how it affects the line. And this one has some great, great effects. Come the end of it in spring, we're all about being additive. We're going to make some announcements about the Absolute line, about adding some stuff which I'm very excited about. We're gonna have some books that we're bringing into DC that I think are going to get you very, very excited. We're about brushing up the line itself in all kinds of fun ways, but we know how much you're enjoying the book.
So again, it really is an opportunity for us to just strengthen DC. And so we're going to tell you some stuff as the event gets started about what's coming on the other side that I think is going to make you very, very happy because you'll be able to see the kind of aerial view that we're taking right now about planning and responding to you guys. Things that are working, things we want to add to. Creators that you're excited about, we really want to go in on. We still want to take some risks and bring in people and new voices and artists and writers that you might not expect. So we're going to be doing a bunch of that. Again, we want to give some new voices a chance as well. So we're going to be doing some of that. But that's what K.O. is for me. It's both this big event that's, again, knock-down, drag-out fun. It says what we believe about these characters in general, but also Superman. And it's going to give you a lot of really great stuff on the other side. It's going to affect the line in an incredibly positive way, in my opinion. And I'm very, very proud to be a part of that. I'm loving being in DC right now for all those reasons.
So, quick personal stuff. I think today the theme is back to school, right? So back to school, my kids, our oldest goes to college this year. He starts in the winter. He starts second semester, the program he's in, in Boston. It's a special program that we're very excited he got into and it begins in January. So he's still around for a bit, but he's soaking up time with all of his friends and his girlfriend and all of that stuff. Our 14 year-old is about to start high school. He's excited and nervous about that. Quinn, our six year-old, is about to start first grade. And so we're trying to soak up a lot of time, which is why I apologize if you've written me emails. I've been a little hard to catch the last few weeks. I'm trying to soak up the summer with my family.
We went to Ireland. That was a blast. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here, but a few years ago, Jeanie and I bought some property over there. Her family is from Ireland originally and we love it so much, we decided we would try and invest a little bit. So we bought a property and we're working on a house over there, not to move out of the States or anything like that, but just to have a place that we can use as a base to show the kids more of the world and just because we love it. So we went there and visited that, which was a blast because it's actually coming along. And we just drove around. I love driving in Ireland. I feel like I'm the only person that loves the super-narrow hair-raising roads and driving on the other side of the road itself. But it was a blast. And we went and saw Dingle Peninsula. We went to Dublin. We went to Cary, places that we've been before, but Emmett and Quinn obviously have never been overseas, so it was a blast for them.
I came back, I went to Boston, got to hang out with the great Greg Capullo and a couple friends.
And then I went down to Tulsa really briefly for one day to sign at a terrific store, Impulse Creations. They're a big supporter of everything we're doing at DC, and they also are a big supporter of Skybound and Marvel. Great people, great store.
And now I am home. I'm going nowhere for a very long time is the hope. And I just want to be here, watch the Yankees, desperately try and get into the playoffs with my kids.
And again, just soak up, soak up as much time as I can. A couple other things I wanted to mention. We have our Joker issue coming up. I really appreciated you guys responding so positively online to my little tease of just the script. But Jock and I are working hard on that alongside Nick. I can't wait for you to see the Joker design. I genuinely am trying to write this Joker and believe he is like the scariest version that I've been able to do. He's pitch-black dark and he's something that really haunts my imagination in this form. And he's physically fucking terrifying as well. But on the surface, he's handsome and rich. He's very much like Bruce Wayne in the main universe. So I can't wait for you to see that.
I got to take my kids to see Weapons. That was really fun. I thought that was a fantastic horror movie. I was very fascinated. I'm happy to talk about it with anyone that wants to. I had some things. I loved it. And I also had some fascination with how it switches gears halfway through. And being almost like Barbarian in the way that it's like two movies kind of put together in one somehow works, but at the same time sort of abandons one thing for another thing.
Oh, a really big thing, back to school class. We're supposed to do class this week, but I want to wait one week because the person that I was going to have on wasn't feeling well and I'd really love to be able to do a class with him because I feel like you guys will really enjoy it. So I think we'll be able to do it next week instead. We'll promote it. We'll have a lot of fun. Anyway, if there's anything I'm forgetting, I apologize. But I just want to say thanks again. It's been an incredible summer getting to see so many of you at San Diego and Boston and at various stores. And the people that came up to me, even in Ireland, came up and said hello. I got recognized by some comic fans in Dublin in front of my family, which was really fun because it made me look cool in front of my kids. But again, I can't thank you guys enough for a great summer. And I promise you, going back to school means going back to work. It means graduating, which we're going to try and do at DC and just level everything up. And that's the goal. So thank you guys again. Talk to you soon. Bye!
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