SDCC 2026: The Biggest Comics Announcements from San Diego
San Diego Comic-Con 2026 was genuinely one of the better years for comics announcements — not because of any single blockbuster, but because almost every publisher showed up with something worth paying attention to. DC had two major Batman reveals and the biggest news for the Absolute line since it launched. Marvel rolled out what comes next after Armageddon. Dark Horse brought Frank Miller back. IDW confirmed an ending. Here is everything worth knowing, sorted by when you will actually be able to read it.
DC COMICS
Batman: Shadow of the Bat — Deniz Camp and Javier Rodríguez Reunite
The most exciting comics announcement of the entire convention, and it is a new ongoing series that does not have a release date yet — which tells you something about how good the creative team is. DC revealed that Batman: Shadow of the Bat will be written by Deniz Camp and drawn by Javier Rodríguez, the exact team behind the Eisner-nominated Absolute Martian Manhunter. If you have been reading that book, you already understand the significance. Rodríguez designs pages the way architects design buildings — every panel is a structural decision, every spread a formal argument — and Camp writes Batman the way he writes all his best work: as a character crushed by the gap between what he stands for and what the world actually delivers.
The series is set in main DC continuity, running alongside Matt Fraction's Batman and Tom Taylor's Detective Comics. The trigger is a massive explosion at an abandoned Ace Chemicals plant — the Joker's birthplace — and the series follows Batman confronting the failure of the institutions built to protect Gotham, and the ways his own trauma mirrors the city's collective grief. New characters. New villains. A version of Batman who has to reckon with what it means to punch problems that cannot be punched. Camp describes it as a book about "coming to terms." If you have ever wanted a Batman story that treats Gotham as a place real people actually live in, this is the one to watch.
Batman of Two Worlds #1 — September 19 at The Multiverse
On Batman Day — Saturday, September 19 — DC is releasing a one-shot called Batman of Two Worlds #1, and it contains two complete stories telling the same crime from two different angles. The main-continuity story comes from Matt Fraction writing and Javi Fernández drawing, with Tomeu Morey on colors. The Absolute Batman story comes from Scott Snyder writing and Nick Derington drawing, with Frank Martin on colors. The cover brings both worlds together in one image by Jorge Jiménez, Nick Dragotta, and Frank Martin. It costs $2.99.
Fraction described it as "a chance to put them side by side and see the similarities and differences." Snyder said the goal was to show "what's special about each interpretation." What that means in practice: two Batman stories, one incident, two completely different moral frameworks for solving it. Fraction's Bruce Wayne is still becoming himself inside the cowl. Snyder's Absolute version is something rawer and more physically certain. Watching those two approaches collide on the same case is going to be a genuine read at a price point that makes it impossible to pass up.
The important logistical note: this comic is available only at local comic shops. The only way to get Batman of Two Worlds #1 is through a shop on Batman Day. We will have it. Come see us September 19.
The Absolute Universe Gets Its First Crossover — November 2026
The Absolute line launched in late 2024 as an experiment in clean-slate reinvention, and after two years of building a universe issue by issue — Absolute Batman, Absolute Superman, Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Green Lantern, Absolute Martian Manhunter — DC announced at SDCC that the first Absolute Universe crossover event lands this November. It is written by Jason Aaron, who has been writing Absolute Superman since the beginning, with contributions from Deniz Camp.
The event brings together Absolute Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and others against a threat Scott Snyder described as "a proxy Justice League represented by villains" — the team of heroes this universe doesn't have yet, mirrored by something dangerous. New characters on both sides of the line will be introduced. Snyder was emphatic that this is not a curtain call: DC has mapped out 2026 and 2027 as an expansion period for Absolute, not a conclusion. The crossover is the next chapter, not the final one.
Also announced for the Absolute line: Absolute Black Canary, a one-shot by Absolute Green Arrow writer Pornsak Pichetshote and artist Belén Ortega, bridging that series' arcs; and Absolute Batman Beyond: Ark-M Special, by Frank Tieri, Scott Snyder, and Francesco Francavilla, which expands the Joker's Ark mythology and focuses on Absolute Professor Pyg. Francavilla drawing anything involving Pyg is the correct creative choice.
Batman Day: What Else Is Coming to The Multiverse on September 19
Beyond Batman of Two Worlds, DC is releasing a full slate of Batman Day items exclusively through comic shops. Three hardcover editions arrive with special packaging: the Fraction/Jiménez Batman Vol. 1: Daylight collection gets a new dust jacket by Nick Dragotta designed to evoke the original Absolute Batman cover; Batman '89 gets an exclusive hardcover dust jacket and a digital code for the 1989 film; and the 40th anniversary edition of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns gets a Batman Day variant dust jacket plus digital codes for both animated film adaptations, at $44.99. None of these will be available anywhere else.
DC is also launching DC Start Here on Batman Day: $1 first issues of four landmark Batman runs, including Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman #1, Tom King and David Finch's Batman #1, Sean Murphy's Batman: White Knight #1, and Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman's Batman: Dark Patterns #1. Discounts on the corresponding graphic novels apply. If you have been looking for a way to introduce someone to Batman comics, September 19 is your best argument.
October 7: The Demon and Jonah Hex Both Launch
DC's Next Level initiative keeps adding creative teams that have no business agreeing to do superhero work, and October 7 brings two more. The Demon is written and drawn by James Harren with colors by Dave Stewart — the team whose collaboration on BPRD and Harren's own creator-owned work has produced some of the most kinetically alive draftsmanship in contemporary comics. The series follows Jason Blood's struggle to protect the world from monsters, and "James Harren drawing Jason Blood fighting monsters" is a sentence that requires no further selling. Dave Stewart coloring it is a bonus.
Jonah Hex and the Shadow of Death is a six-issue folk horror series written and drawn by Michael Walsh. Walsh has the exact sensibility this premise demands — atmospheric, unhurried, precise — and folk horror is the register Jonah Hex has always been closest to without anyone having the nerve to fully commit. Six issues. One story. No filler. Also announced for later in the year: Vixen by Stephanie Williams and Khary Randolph, and Static by Cody Ziglar and Diego Olortegui, both new ongoings that deserve more attention than they are going to get while Batman takes up all the oxygen in the room.
MARVEL COMICS
Maximum X-Men — December 2026
The biggest Marvel comics announcement of the con was a direct consequence of Avengers: Armageddon. In the aftermath of that event, Earth's Mightiest Heroes are gone — shattered, discredited, or worse — and someone has to fill the void. Marvel's answer is Maximum X-Men, a new ongoing series launching in December from Christopher Yost and Tony S. Daniel. Storm recruits a team to take on the world-scale threats the Avengers used to handle: the roster is Wolverine, Colossus, Bishop, Iceman, Psylocke, Firestar, and Justice. Their first challenge is a full-scale invasion from the Negative Zone.
The creative team is the right call. Yost wrote X-books during one of the better periods for the franchise in the 2010s — his New X-Men and X-Force runs understood how to use a big team without losing individual characters — and Tony S. Daniel brings the kind of widescreen superhero energy this premise demands. The "X-Men as Earth's last line of defense" concept is older than most readers, but putting Storm in charge of a team that explicitly has to be the Avengers — not just the X-Men — gives it a different weight. Yost described the book as having "a classic Claremont vibe," which either worries you or excites you, and both reactions are correct.
After Armageddon: The Marvel Universe Rebuilds
Avengers: Armageddon wraps with issue #5 in October, written by Chip Zdarsky, and then the reconstruction begins. Zdarsky is continuing on a new Avengers ongoing with artist Marco Checchetto, picking up the broken pieces — a team in a world that has turned against its heroes, which is a premise Zdarsky is exceptionally equipped to write. The long game here is Iron Man #700, arriving in March 2027 via Joshua Williamson's run, which is double-shipping with alternating story arcs and artists to build toward the anniversary. That is a meaningful commitment to one character over the next eight months, and Williamson has earned the benefit of the doubt after his Flash run.
Also announced: a new Venom ongoing from Charles Soule, who wrote the definitive modern Venom run, and a Friendly Neighborhood Mary Jane series spinning out of the Queen in Black event. Soule returning to Venom is the kind of announcement that should not need explanation to anyone who read his first run — he understands what makes the character work in a way few writers have.
DARK HORSE COMICS
Frank Miller Returns with Invasive Species
Dark Horse used SDCC to announce that Frank Miller is returning to the publisher for a new sci-fi series called Invasive Species, with artwork by Ryan Benjamin and colors by Alex Sinclair. SDCC attendees got the first look at never-before-seen artwork; details on story and format are still under wraps. Dark Horse confirmed this is the first of multiple projects Miller is developing with the publisher, with more announcements planned for later.
Miller's relationship with Dark Horse goes back to Sin City and 300, and a return to that partnership — especially for an original sci-fi concept rather than an existing property — is the kind of announcement that lands differently depending on where you stand on Miller's recent output. What is not in question is Benjamin's draftsmanship or Sinclair's color work, both of which are suited to whatever Miller is building. The first look artwork is striking. More details to come.
IDW PUBLISHING
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees Gets a Final Volume
Patrick Horvath announced at SDCC that the third and final volume of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees — titled The Summer and the Fall — will debut in February 2027 from IDW's horror imprint. The story jumps ahead to 2004, where small-town America has changed beyond recognition, and Samantha Strong, once the most wanted person in the country, has faded into obscurity. Horvath described the announcement as "bittersweet": the series grew from a standalone story into a franchise — volumes, one-shots, a crossover — and he is choosing to end it rather than expand it indefinitely. The franchise has won awards and sold well enough that IDW would presumably support more. Horvath ending it anyway, on his own terms, is the right call, and February 2027 gives you time to read the first two volumes before the finale begins.
That is the short version of a very long four days. The fall calendar is stacked in a way it has not been in a while — two new DC ongoings landing October 7, Batman Day on September 19 with a shop-exclusive one-shot, the Absolute crossover in November, Maximum X-Men in December, and Frank Miller teasing a new Dark Horse series with no release date yet. If the last several months have felt like comics treading water, the next six months look like a wave.
We will have everything. Come find us.