Trailer Thoughts: DC Comics Next Level 2026 Trailer- A Shockingly Bright Future Ahead!
With San Diego Comic Con rolling out this weekend, a bunch of movie trailers came out this week with Avengers: Doomsday, Clayface, and Lanterns. I'll have time to talk about them, but I want to focus on a trailer that focuses on upcoming DC comics for this year.
Sidenote: yes, I do know about the Batman of Two Worlds one-shot that's coming out on Batman Day in September. It sounds great in having two Batman stories: one from the main DC Universe and the other set in the Absolute Universe. Unfortunately, it is NOT a crossover, as they're just separate stories that focuses on the differences between the two Batmen in how they operate. I know people are going to be disappointed by it not being a crossover, but I like this approach in how it still lets the Absolute Universe breathe instead of trying to forcefully attach it to main DC canon. I'll definitely get it when it comes out since I LOVE both series equally.
Anyways, the trailer in question focuses on upcoming comics that are part of DC's new initiative: Next Level. They're essentially creator-driven runs of fan favorite characters in DC. The first wave of this initiative came out with Deathstroke the Terminator, Batwoman, Firestorm, Zatanna, Deadman Barbara Gordon: Breakout, and Lobo, which is a series I highly recommend if you're a fan of the Main Man, it is insane and I love it! There are also some new runs for the already established All In initiative, so I'll talk about them too.
Now I'll talk about the runs that interested me the most from the trailer here to talk about as there are quite a bit out of this, but there are definitely a few runs that I'm absolutely excited about.
Legion of Super-Heroes (Williamson/Sherman)- Starting off, a new LoSH run comes out in September. This would definitely be a full reboot of the title since by this time in DC's current mainline continuity, Darkseid transcended and took over the 31st Century, essentially turning the Legion from a hopeful new generation of heroes into followers of Darkseid. It's going to be explained in the Superman one-shot "Year One Thousand" as that explores where Clark went after DCKO (the event comic, not the app fighting game) as that seems to indicate that Clark stopped Darkseid from taking over all of time with his remaining King Omega energy. Now the new run will have Joshua Williamson be the writer which I'm honestly on board for since the stuff I've read from his work, like G.I Joe from Skybound's Energon Universe, and his DC work like DCKO: Knightfight and his Superman run have been great, especially that recent storyline in Superman from issues #31-35 that focuses on Superboy-Prime probably being my favorite storyline this year. Seriously, it is THAT good. And top that off with Hayden Sherman's incredible artwork and paneling from Absolute Wonder Woman? chef's kiss Just perfect. I've always wanted to read the Legion books and this definitely seems like a good place to start!
Teen Titans (Higgins/ Di Niculo)- Now the only frame of reference I have here is that Kyle Higgins wrote the Elseworlds series, Immortal Legends Batman, which is what if the Batman cast were Tokusatsu characters in lieu of Kamen Rider. It is great as it sounds and one of the best things I've read last year. I won't spoil that series, but I just love how that series tackled Batman's rogue's gallery. Anyways, the members of the team include everybody's favorite angsty character, Red Hood as the leader, Cheshire, who is the daughter of Roy Harper and Jade, and Fairplay, who is Mr. Teriffic's son. There's also two new characters here, so there's that. I don't have much interest here, but if you like Jason Todd, this might do something for you. Especially since there was a Red Hood run from a few months ago that got cancelled due to how the writer have never read a Red Hood story before. If you want DC to return to Red Hood and the Outlaws with Bizarro and Artemis, well uh... sorry I guess, I'm just as bummed out as you are. If I hear good things about it, I'll check it out, but otherwise, I'll probably skip this.
The Demon (Camp/Morian(?))- Now I am a huge fan of DC's supernatural characters: Constantine, Zatanna, The Spectre, Dr. Fate, Blue Demon, Deadman, Swamp Thing, and Etrigan the Demon to name a few. So seeing a new announcement for a new Etrigan series/run is great to hear. And if I heard it correctly, this new series is written by Deniz Camp and from the looks of the art here, it seems to be drawn by Stipan Morian, and if that's the case SHUT AND TAKE MY FREAKING MONEY. Like its already dope to have Camp write it, but to have the same artist as Bleeding Hearts be attached to this too? I AM SOLD. Bleeding Hearts may be slow paced at first, only to kick into full gear by issue #6, making it probably not my favorite out of his prior works, but I still like Moran's art, and having this one be more into horror is great, especially given it'll release in October. So, I'm definitely on the Deniz Camp hype train since this man NEVER MISSES (except for Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion and Ultimate Endgame but I'll talk about THAT when I get there). Now with all that being said, I'm 110% sure I'm wrong and that Jeff Lemire is writing it instead, so take what I'm saying about this run with a grain of salt. I tried to look up news about this, but nothing came up. Only time will tell when it comes out in October.
Batman: Shadow of the Bat (Camp/Rodriguez)- Now for a run that I now know is ACTUALLY written by Deniz Camp. This series is set in Gotham and focuses on new original characters that are either civilians, new vigilantes, or even new villains. I'm also sure that Batman and the Bat Family would show up in this title too, but the sound of it makes me remember Greg Rucka's Gotham Central for those who have read it. What's even more enticing is how this shares the same artist as Absolute Martian Manhunter, Javier Rodriguez. Having Camp's socio-political commentary mixed with the beautiful illustrations and colors from Rodriguez again akin to AMM is just AMAZING to me. AMM was my favorite comic of 2025 and having the same duo here for a Batman title is great stuff. I can already imagine what a story with Scarecrow would be with these two in mind. I believe we're getting peak here people.
And now for the last two that definitely got my attention:
Vixen (Williams)- A brand new ongoing of Vixen is coming soon and being written by Stephanie Williams. I know that a LOT of people were waiting for a new Vixen run since the last one was... jeez when was the last time Vixen had an ongoing or even a series? I know Vixen originally from the DCAU with Justice League Unlimited when she dated John Stewart in the show. I honestly won't mind checking this out and see what new stories will come out since I heard Stephanie Williams is a good writer, but if anyone has any Vixen comic recommendations, hit me up cause I want to read her stories!
Static (Ziglar)- That's right. Static gets a NEW ONGOING RUN courtesy of Cody Ziglar. His Miles Morales: Spider-Man run is great, and I honestly love his Deadpool run and I'm still bummed out it ended at issue #15. Yeah, there was a three-parter Deadpools and Wolverines that served as an actual ending to his run but come on, I wanted to see moooooore! This has me hyped all the way. Now Vergil will make a return first in an upcoming issue of New Titans #38 and I was originally planning to make a post saying how weird it was that Static is a member of the Titans and is in their books and not in his own new series like how I wanted it back in my post about my thoughts on The New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident. But thankfully, it seemed that DC listened to the fans and now Static is getting an ongoing now. My only hope is that this run goes into solving the murder of Edwin Alva since I still want to know who did it since that stopped the bright future of Dakota City from happening and to also get more Milestone characters here like Icon, Rocket, and Hardware. Honestly, with this and an upcoming Static film in development, things are starting to look up for Static fans and potentially something big for the Milestone Universe. It might be the optimist in me saying it, but I'm definitely happy to see where this goes.
Now there are a few other new runs in the trailer I haven't mentioned, like a Deadshot one-shot, a new Doom Patrol run, and a new Jonah Hex series, and believe me when I say that this year is going to be huge for DC comic readers this year. DC comics are already doing great for me with multiple great runs like Matt Fraction's Batman, Ryan North's new run of The Flash, and Mark Waid's runs of World's Finest and Justice League Unlimited, and now with these new runs on the horizon, I'm pretty sure this is where DC goes into high gear, folks. I'm definitely checking out like Williamson's Legion of Super-Heroes, Camp's Shadow of the Bat, and Ziglar's Static. I already said this before in a previous post, but MAN, does it feel great to be a DC fan right now!
