Writer/artist Tony Daniel continues to pit Batman against the Black Mask in his latest BATMAN issue. While trapped in the crime lord's headquarters, The Dark Knight must find a way to escape before all of Gotham City falls prey to the Mask's lethal toxins. Guest-starring Catwoman, Penguin, Robin and the Reaper, BATMAN #696 hits 2/17.
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Writer/artist Tony Daniel presents the unthinkable, as Batman teams with his arch-foe the Penguin to track down the Black Mask. Wise move? We'll see. BATMAN #695 hits 1/13.
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Batman wearing that mask can't be good, can it? And what is the Penguin up to? No more clues here, folks. But enjoy the lovely work of Mr. Daniel.
Pandemonium breaks out at the inaugural ceremony of the new Arkham Asylum. Will the combined forces of Oracle, Huntress and Catwoman be enough help for Batman? Plus, the debuts of both the Gotham Shield Committee and Black Mask's Ministry of Death in writer/artist Tony Daniel's second issue. What more do you want? How about some pages? We can accommodate that, sure.
BATMAN #693 hits 11/11.
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In the spirit of my favorite time of the year…here are a few things that scare me.
THE FLAMINGO. This guy has death and danger written all over him. He rides a motorcycle and rips people’s faces off for fun. Oh yeah, and to top it all off, he’s dressed head-to-toe in pink. What’s not to be afraid of? If Batman & Robin thought they had their hands full with Red Hood & Scarlet, well, they haven’t seen anything yet. Check out the Flamingo in all of his pink and face-ripping glory in BATMAN & ROBIN #6.
TONY DANIEL. This guy scares me. True, he’s one of DC’s exclusive artists. He’s also one of my good friends. But he still scares me. Why? Because he’s a double-threat. Not only can he draw circles around anyone holding a pencil, but this guy can write, as well! In case you didn’t already know, Tony’s both writing and illustrating the current arc of BATMAN, which runs from #692-697. Will Tony reveal who’s under the Black Mask in this storyline? (Hint: I wouldn’t be teasing it, unless he was.)
BLACK MASK. His true identity scares me. Stay tuned.
WHITE GHOST. Sure, he has a name that sounds like a discounted Halloween costume, but this right-hand-man of Ra’s al Ghul is scary because he appears in not one, but two Batman titles this month--RED ROBIN #6 and AZRAEL #2
The PHILLIES don’t scare me.
MARCUS TO. Have you seen this guy’s art? Incredi--I mean, scary. Marcus debuts as RED ROBIN’s new regular artist this month, and I can’t tell you how excited we are about this. We’ve seen several complete issues of art from Marcus already, and each one gets better and better! Welcome aboard, Marcus!
Till next time, Stay Scary.
As some of you know, the Baltimore Retailer Summit is in full swing. We've got some news breaking during our presentation, so what better place to unveil it than here, on The Source?
Glad you agree. Our very own Dan DiDio has the info, so we live the rest of this blog entry in his more-than-capable hands. Take it away, Dan:
How big is Blackest Night?
So big that its power to make the dead rise has now moved from expired characters to old, canceled series.
That’s right, this January, the BLACKEST NIGHT mini series skips a month to make room for a very special Blackest night event. Eight classic titles from DC’s past will return from the dead for one month only to celebrate this mega-crossover throughout the DC Universe. Each series will pick up on its original numbering and feature characters from their original runs as they deal with the events currently unfolding in the DC Universe. And I have to say, this has been one of the more fun projects we’ve put together.
We scoured the list of series from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and today to find the right titles to bring back from the dead. They are, in no particular order, as follows;
- POWER OF SHAZAM #48 Eric Wallace tells the tale in which Osiris returns from the dead to “chew the fat” with a very powerless Billy and Mary Batson.
- CATWOMAN #83 Fabian Nicieza has the original Black mask explaining to Selina why shooting him in the head was a bad idea.
- SUICIDE SQUAD #67 Gail Simone and John Ostrander are ringside for the epic fight between a very dead Suicide Squad and a possibly soon-to-be dead Secret Six.
- QUESTION #37 Greg Rucka has the one answer for when two Questions meet.
- PHANTOM STRANGER #42 Pete Tomasi reveals what Blackest Night means to the Phantom Stranger.
- WEIRD WESTERN TALES #71 Dan DiDio (weirdly talking about myself in the third person) lets you know what all the dead old west characters are doing in the new west today.
- ATOM AND HAWKMAN #46 Geoff brings you the double date from Hell, The Black Lantern Hawks work to reunite Atom with his long dead love, Jean Loring.
- STARMAN #81 James Robinson returns to the book he made great and visits some old haunts.
So there you have it! Eight great issues to show the amazing reach of this amazing story. And in case you are wondering why we skipped a month BLACKEST NIGHT, well, that’s just to give the immensely talented, and immensely overworked Ivan Reis a chance to prepare the over-sized final issue of this series out this March.
How's that for fun?
To be continued…
DD
Writer Paul Dini and artist Dustin Nguyen continue to tell tales stories from Batman's city in the latest issue of BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM. And with Batman's recent "Bruce Wayne" issues somewhat contained, Gotham's new Dark Knight must now deal with someone far more frightening -- the frightening psycopath Victor Zsasz.
Meanwhile, in writer Marc Andreyko and artist Jeremy Haun's MANHUNTER co-feature, Kate faces off with Jane Doe, as she tries to determine why the villain offed the last DA. Will Jane flip on her boss the Black Mask? We're not telling. But the pages below might have some clues for you.
BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM #4 hits 9/16.
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