DC released their August 2024 solicitations at the end of last week, offering a smorgasbord of vampires, crossovers, variant covers, graphic novels and more for the last month of summer break. I thought I’d pull out some of the highlights. I’ll hit the stuff I haven’t talked about here yet; you can read about Jenny Sparks and Gotham City Sirens elsewhere on the site.
So let’s begin …
DC vs. Vampires: World War V
Vampires, I hear, are all the rage in comics this summer, so there’s no better time to return to the world of DC vs. Vampires . The storyline that kicked off in 2021 continues with DC vs. Vampires: World War V by returning writer and artist Matthew Rosenberg and Otto Schmidt. This is also part of the bigger Elseworlds line that DC announced at New York Comic Con last year.
If you missed the previous series or its sequel, DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War , both are available (across two volumes each) as trade paperbacks. The new series will pick up where they left off, with a vampire queen, an Oliver Queen and a certain Bat prince who is fighting back:
It’s the dead of winter, and any hope for a fragile truce between the Green Arrow-led human heroes and vampire queen Barbara Gordon’s army has been dashed by Damian Wayne and his guerrilla fighters. Damian is the only one fighting back against the bloodthirsty hordes, leaving Green Arrow with a choice: Does he stand and fight or sacrifice the boy in the name of peace? Not only will this new Elseworlds series build upon the compelling storylines from the previous DC vs. Vampires series, but readers can also expect to see reimagined versions of current DC Super Heroes in this dark and terrifying world.
Here’s a preview:
And the variant covers for the first issue, by Steve Beach, Jae Lee, Riley Rossmo, and Nikola Čižmešija, plus a foil variant cover by Homare:
The first issue of the 12-issue series arrives in stores Aug. 14.
Absolute Power
The Absolute Power crossover event continues in August with its second issue, a bunch of tie-ins and, oh yeah — a ton of variant covers. Above you can see the main cover for Absolute Power #2 by Dan Mora, along with variants by John Timms, Stephen Bliss, Lucio Parrillo, Tyler Kirkham, Nathan Szerdy, Ben Oliver and Salvador Larroca.
After Amanda Waller and her allies in the Trinity of Evil have depowered Earth’s superheroes, she sends a team after the gathering resistance that has taken up residence at the Fortress of Solitude. But Mark Waid and Dan Mora have a surprise for the heroes, as one of their own as turned on them and leads Waller’s troops.
Absolute Power: Task Force VII continues in August with two issues; this is the tie-in series that’s really a bunch of one-shots by different creative teams focused on different Amazo robots who have stolen the powers of various heroes.
Issue #4 is by Pornsak Pichetshote and Claire Roe, and it features Batman’s current headache, Failsafe, hunting Nightwing and his allies. Above you can see the main cover by Pete Woods, along with variants by Mora, Steve Beach, Belen Ortega and Timms.
Absolute Power: Task Force VII #5 also sports a main cover by Woods, with variants by Larroca, Mora, Taurin Clarke and Timms. This issue, as you can see, focuses on the Flash and his Amazo counterpart Velocity. It’s by writer Alex Paknadel with Woods on interior art as well.
Absolute Power: Origins #2 by John Ridley and Alitha Martinez continues the origin story of Amanda Waller, with this issue focusing on the birth of Task Force X. It has a main cover by Edwin Galmon with a varaint by Mateus Manhanini.
