My four-issue arc of Superman/Batman has been solicited. The first issue of this tale of time travel and sorcery was released last month, and the second issue will come out in a couple of weeks. Here are the covers (by the great Travel Foreman) and a brief teaser of each issue (which will be illustrated by ChrisCross and colored by Marc Deering).
Superman/Batman #81
“Sorcerer Kings” part 1 of 4! Who is that weird Batman on the cover? What has happened to the Earth’s sun? And how is it all connected to the mysterious armored figure that Shadowpact discovers in an abandoned factory outside Metropolis? Writer Cullen Bunn (The Sixth Gun) and artist ChrisCross (FIRESTORM) launch Superman and Batman on an utterly epic journey – one that will leave no corner of the DCU untouched!
Superman/Batman #82
“Sorcerer Kings” part 2 of 4! When Superman mysteriously vanishes from Earth, Batman must call upon some of the DCU’s top mystics such as Dr. Occult to get some answers. Meanwhile, The Man of Steel finds himself fighting side-by-side with a strange Batman against a horde of Solomon Grundies. And just what is the sun doing to his powers?
Superman/Batman #83
The penultimate chapter of “Sorcerer Kings” finds Batman, Doctor Occult, Detective Chimp and Klarion the Witchboy facing a magical Armageddon in the present as Superman is taken to meet the future Justice League at the Hall of Doom! How did things go so wrong — and can anything be done to stop it?
Superman/Batman #84
Superman must help the JLA of the future – Aquaman, Klarion the Warlock, Traci 13, Stanley and His Monster, Scream Queen and Jason Blood – in preventing Morgaine le Fey from traveling back in time to our era and destroying the sun! But Batman insists that you can’t change the past, and, well, Batman is kind of always right, so . . . hello, eternal darkness?
I’ve just finished reading the first three parts of ‘Sorcerer Kings’ and I can honestly say it’s been one of the most exhilarating story-arcs I’ve read in recent years. I’m a sucker for DC’s magic-based/supernatural characters, and Grant Morrison’s ‘Seven Soldiers of Victory’ is my favourite comic of the last decade, so I can’t overemphasise how thrilled I was to discover what you’d done with Klarion. You’ve created a take on the DC universe that I find utterly compelling, and I want to read more of Klarion the Warlock, Scream Queen, and the adult Stanley Dover.
Just one question: from Superman’s dialogue are we to assume that the Batman in this story (present and future) is Bruce Wayne? The present-day Batman seems to be wearing the Dick Grayson batsuit, and the future Batman uncowled certainly looks like a much older Dick Grayson.
Hey, Phil!
Glad you’re digging the arc! I wrote this with Bruce Wayne in mind as Batman (and there’s an editorial note in there somewhere in the first issue regarding at what point this story takes place).
Thanks for the confirmation! I’ve just reread the issues and it’s all so obvious now that it’s Bruce Wayne. The internal dialogue from Batman on the rooftop — “I’ve built my life around instilling fear in those around me” — is Bruce in a sentence. Nothing else needed to be said, that line alone should have told me that this wasn’t Dick Grayson.
Oh, I dug the name ‘Kilgore Abattoir’(very aptonymic!), is it a little ‘Easter Egg’ reference for the fans of Zatanna’s ex-apprentice Misty?
[...] to otherwise over-exposed characters. In this issue, the conclusion to the four-part “Sorcerer Kings“, “our” Superman finds himself on a world run by magic, where Batman’s [...]