DC Comics Announces Annuals for ACTION COMICS, BATGIRL, JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK and SWAMP THING

DC Comics has announced its latest batch of 48-page Annual issues, encompassing four titles from across the New 52 line. They all go on sale October 31st. Yup, Halloween 2012 is a new comic book day!

First up, Action Comics Annual #1. What’s interesting? Neither the main or backup story are written by Grant Morrison, giving us two additional takes on this iteration of Superman, courtesy of Sholly Fisch and Max Landis. You may remember screenwriter Max Landis from this year’s found footage flick Chronicle and that high-energy viral video rundown of Superman in the 90s released on the same day. But the big draw? A Superman story drawn by Ryan Sook. Price of admission right there.

ACTION COMICS ANNUAL #1
Written by Sholly Fisch
Art and cover by Cully Hamner
Backup story written by Max Landis
Backup story art by Ryan Sook
On sale OCTOBER 31 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T
The secrets of the “missing five years” between when Clark Kent came to Metropolis and the present day continue to be revealed!
In the wake of Brainiac’s attack on Metropolis, Superman faces his first Earth-born villain: the Kryptonite Man!
Plus a special backup story written by screenwriter of CHRONICLE, Max Landis!

Next up: BatgirlAnnual #1! Babs and Catwoman tussle in what looks to be the fallout from The Night of the Owls. The draw here? A take on the highly polarizing New 52 Catwoman as written drawn by a female creator and drawn by someone other than Guillem March.

BATGIRL ANNUAL #1
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Admira Wijaya
Cover by Ed Benes
On sale OCTOBER 31 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T
Batgirl is on the hunt for Catwoman – but who is after Batgirl?

Jeff Lemire rounds up not just his own pet characters from the New 52, but a whole heap of DC’s magic power players, including the all new Amethyst. Justice League Dark Annual #1 arrives just in time for Halloween!

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK ANNUAL #1
Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Mikel Janin
Cover by Ryan Sook
On sale OCTOBER 31 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T
Continued from JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #13, it’s the big finale to Jeff Lemire’s first epic story!
Guest-starring Frankenstein and from the new series SWORD OF SORCERY, Amethyst!

It’s a night of candy, but don’t forget the vegetables. DC wraps things up with a special trick-or-treat edition of Swamp Thing from Scott Snyder and Becky Cloonan. We’ll see more from this same team next month with Batman #12.

SWAMP THING ANNUAL #1
Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art by BECKY CLOONAN
Cover by YANICK PAQUETTE
On sale OCTOBER 31 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T+
• Years ago, Alec Holland met Anton Arcane…and the seeds of that encounter created the nightmare that is Rotworld!
• This extra-sized tale of monsters and madness examines one of the greatest rivalries in the DC Universe!

Comments

  1. I’ll be getting 3/4 of these, and they all look like they’ll be really good; especially the Swampy arriving on Halloween. Very appropriate,

    • I’m gonna guess you’re not getting the Batgirl annual?

      I’m getting all of them. Great creative teams.

    • I am indeed picking up Batgirl, JL Dark is the one I’ll be missing out on. And the creative teams are all awesome.

    • Dude, JLD is awesome. And that’s Tim Hunter on the cover (he’s next to Constantine).

      Also the guy holding Franky and Zatanna looks like Keanu Reeves in Constantine.

  2. Getting JLD & Swamp Thing, odd that Lemire’s first arc ends in the annual.

  3. Action Comics: Lost interest when they said Morrison wasn’t writing it. Got it back when they said Max Landis was writing a backup. Is he going to show us how Death of Superman fits into the continuity? Even if he failed horribly, it would be fun to watch him try.

    Batgirl: Dropped this book early on because it was flat out bad. Also, the Court of Owls never really excited me. The Talons weren’t interesting enough villains to support 1 book, let alone 12. Despite all that, this actually looks mildly intriguing. Not a chance I’ll buy it but I might read it in the store.

    Justice League Dark: Frankenstein and Amethyst? Look Lemire, as cool as they are, no matter how many out of left field DC oddities you name drop, it won’t hide your inability to write an actual story. Actually, for most people it probably will but not for me. Still, I’ll reluctantly get this out of character loyalty.

    Swamp Thing: This doesn’t sound particularly exciting but Swamp Thing is awesome so I’ll get it.

  4. Batgirl and Catwoman? Ouch. They are gonna need some serious chiro or something after that day of hip popping. Ah, comics, we love you and your wackiness.

  5. Max Landis on Action Comics backup. I dropped the book a while back but I have to check that out. Awesome move

  6. Becky Cloonan is going to do art on Swamp Thing? And Batman!?! That’s fucking awesome news I’m missing her over on Conan but this is even better news

    • That is so badass. I’ve been a fan of hers for years and it’s great to see her getting these gigs. Her and Snyder are a fantastic team up I never even knew I wanted.

  7. They all look good and like the other writers being on Supes for a min, but I’ll probably only pick up JLDark as I love the guest stars on this already cool occult team, I’m a sucker for the supernatural stuff when done right and Lemire is a perfect fit for this book, bringing in his recent pal Frankenstein and Amethyst too sounds like a real treat for trick or treat day. Still think Dark Justice sounds much better than JLDark.

    • Dark Justice does sound better, who’s got Didio’s number? I think we should run this by him 😉

    • Yeah but Justice League on the cover will probably sell better then just Dark Justice.

    • Justice League on the cover selling more copies is probably what they thought at 1st but I think it turned off a lot of people to the book cause it sounds gimmicky and the book has nothing to do with the Justice League. I’ll bet the fan base who keep up with this book would still buy it if they changed the title and possibly draw in new readers thinking its a new book or changes aside from the title were made. Spread the word.

    • Personally, I think they should have had them be the new ‘Outsiders’. That name seems to suit the characters and theme of the book better, but I guess people would have wanted to have it be linked to Batman in some way.

  8. Avatar photo tripleneck (@tripleneck) says:

    A big fat issue of Swamp Thing written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Becky Cloonan sounds great to me!

  9. Might give the Action Comics annual a shot. It’s not Morrison but from what I remember Fisch’s back ups were much better then anything Morrison was writing. So it might be good.

  10. Action and Batgirl for me, please. 🙂