Writer Kyle Higgins had a bit of a surprise up his sleeve at today’s “Kyle Higgins Presents: Radiant Black, The Massive-Verse and More!” panel at C2E2. Because it turns out the “and more” had nothing to do with Image Comics’s superhero universe, but another one entirely: Higgins and his amazing friends are taking on what they call a “superhero tokusatsu” for DC Comics titled Immortal Legend Batman.
Written by Higgins and Mat Groom, with art by Dan Mora and Erica D’Urso, colors by Igor Monti and letters by Becca Carey, the Elseworlds title will run six issues and hit stores in August. In the series, the team will combine superhero storytelling with elements of the Japanese “tokusatsu” genre, which includes everything from sci-fi and fantasy to kaiju.
“Certain projects are the perfect storm of timing, idea and creative team,” said Higgins via a press release provided to Comic Book Club. “Immortal Legend Batman has been years in the making, dating back to stunning designs that Mat and I first saw from Dan Mora. Obviously, we have a love and appreciation for Tokusatsu, and it’s influence on our books like Radiant Black and Inferno Girl Red. The opportunity to bring that love to a very unique version of Gotham, with very unique versions of these characters, with Mat, Erica, Igor, and Becca, along with our editor Matt Levine, who we worked with on Power Rangers, makes this beyond a perfect storm.”
Added Groom, “Batman is fiction’s greatest hero, and we wanted to find a way to take everything that’s so great about him—his immense determination, resilience and selflessness—and explore it in a totally new way. So, we’re taking Batman to the stars, turning him into a wandering hero, exploring humanity’s final frontier… and searching out deadly threats he inadvertently released upon the galactic community.”
Here’s the synopsis of the series, per DC:
Many centuries from now, humanity becomes a galactic civilization with capital megacities on multiple planets and smaller outposts on dozens more. To conquer the vast distances between solar systems, humanity tapped into dark matter to bend space-time around spacecraft, from hulking colony vessels to one-man mech suits. In accessing this dark power, humanity broke the barrier between their universe and their universe’s shadow. This resulted in the creation of “Shadows”: mindless, soulless apparitions craving nothing but violence and destruction. Due to the actions of these Shadow creatures, newly colonized worlds were brought to the brink of collapse. But three warriors found a way to access the energy that bound their universe to the shadow universe, becoming “immortal legends”: Immortal Legend Batman, Immortal Legend Robin and Immortal Legend Nightwing.
Immortal Legend Batman #1 hits stores on August 27, with preorders open on May 23. You can check out covers by Mora and Matt Taylor below, as well as development art by Mora. Click for larger versions.
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