by 
Updated on June 14, 2022
June solicitations have arrived, and so has DC’s first post-“Convergence” month. A full list of solicits are available here.
Comics
- Bat-Mite #1 (of 6), on sale June 3, $3
- Bizarro #1 (of 6), on sale June 3, $3
- Starfire #1, on sale June 10, $3
- Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #11, on sale June 17, $4 (digital first)
- Batman ’66 #24, on sale June 24, $3 (digital first)
- Astro City #24, on sale June 3, $4
- Strange Sports Stories #4 (of 4), on sale June 10, $5
- Looney Tunes #225, on sale June 3, $3
Trade paperbacks
- America vs. the Justice Society, on sale July 22, $15
Comments
The first post-“Convergence” month, as well as DC’s first full month as being solely located on the west coast, looks to be business as usual. While the New 52 branding’s gone, for now the old mentality’s still in place. Case in point: the new costumes given to their “Trinity” of heroes. Superman looks like Lil’ Abner again (*sigh*) plus has a bad haircut, which all screams “bad imitation of Kon-El’s 2000s look.” Batman looks like some sort of mecha-rabbit…thing. While Wonder Woman finally has pants, she’s also got stupid looking shoulder pads and even stupider looking wrist blades(?!). Apparently I’m the only one who remembers Diana’s shtick is being the world’s strongest woman, negating the need for bad 90s-style gauntlets.
However, the much bigger controversy is the variant covers for this month, featuring the Joker. While some of the covers featuring the Harlequin of Hate are decent (particularly the Superman-involved ones, oddly enough), the one for “Batgirl” is, well, bad. Very bad. Without rehashing what I or others have said, I’d like to give “The Killing Joke” and its sexist, women-in-refrigerators treatment of Barbara Gordon a rest already. Ditto the modern comics’ version of the Joker. The only suspense in Joker’s modern comic appearances are which city’s population size his death spree du jour will match this time. However, given DC’s infatuation with grimdark, gory violence, and that “The Killing Joke” is one of their top-selling trade paperbacks each month (despite being almost 30 years old…which says a lot in itself), I’m not sure what DC will have learned from the “Batgirl” cover’s controversy.
(Update) DC’s not going to go ahead with the Batgirl/Joker variant cover; it’s been killed at the artist’s request.
On a positive note are the two six-issue miniseries for Bat-Mite and Bizarro. Bat-Mite’s been getting used a lot in non-comics media, including TV (“Batman: The Brave and the Bold”), various Lego Batman video games, and kid-oriented spin-offs. I guess it was sooner or later (a la Krypto’s resurgence lately) that he’d finally get used in the actual comics again, despite that he doesn’t fit their “realistic” tone. Ditto Bizarro, though the “tragic warped clone” take probably lets Bizarro fit in easier. Either way, Bat-Mite’s got his work cut out for him if he really wants to “help” the New 52-ified DCU, magic or not.
Also on a positive note, Starfire sees her first issue of her new series kicking off this month, to much more praise and optimism than her New 52 debut.
“America vs. the Justice Society” gets reprinted this month. It’s the 1985 four-issue miniseries that’s a summary/retelling of the JSA’s entire Golden Age and pre-Crisis history in the form of a court trial. No relation to “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice”‘s legal-sounding name.
“Looney Tunes,” DC’s highest-cover-numbered comic, features Bugs and Taz vs. Rocky and Muggsy.
Golden Age adventure character the Spirit gets a 75th anniversary omnibus this month. Wonder Woman also is getting the omnibus treatment of George Perez’s stories.
