Daniel Warren Johnson is on the Absolute Batman Annual. BOOM! announces new title, Mary Sue. Marvel is launching a new Guardians team.
SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, APPLE, SPOTIFY, OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON BLUESKY, INSTAGRAM, TIKTOK, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON.
Powered by RedCircle
Episode Transcript:
Daniel Warren Johnson is taking on Absolute Batman.
BOOM! announces Mary Sue.
Marvel introduces new Guardians.
This is Comic Book Club News for July 15, 2025.
Daniel Warren Johnson Is On The Absolute Batman Annual 2025:
Hidden inside DC’s list of panels for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con is an as-yet unannounced surprise: Daniel Warren Johnson is coming to Absolute Batman.
As first reported by Bleeding Cool, specifically the DC Comics: Gotham City panel, which will be held Saturday at 12:30 in Room 6DE at the annual pop culture convention, lists the following panelists: Matt Fraction, who is taking over Batman in September; Scott Snyder, who writes Absolute Batman; Dick Dragotta, which is likely a misspelling of Nick Dragotta, Absolute Batman artist, unless Nick has an evil twin; and Kyle Higgins, who is the co-writer of the upcoming Immortal Legend Batman.
But the surprise listing is DWJ, who is credited for Absolute Batman 2025 Annual. Since that’s all the info provided, we don’t know if the multi-hyphenate is drawing from a script by Scott Snyder, writing and drawing, or just writing. We also don’t know when the annual will be released, though DC’s solicits for October have yet to be announced.
Previously, Johnson drew a variant cover for Absolute Batman #2. And his run on the best-selling Transformers is ending in September, meaning this is the perfect time for him to jump to other projects. Whatever he’s doing with Absolute Batman, we’ll know more when San Diego Comic-Con kicks off next week.
BOOM! Announces Mary Sue:
Writer Meghan Fitzmartin is creating an archive of her own with BOOM! Box series Mary Sue #1.
Alongside art by Lisa Sterle, in Mary Sue, Cassie is a popular online fanfic writer, obsessed with the vampire show Riverview. She’s created her own original character, a hot vampire named Jessica, and living it up online… That is until her fic writing persona is revealed IRL to her classmates. And oops, some of her fic gets read out loud.
The twist? Straight out of a fic itself, per PR from the publisher, “her very own Mary Sue pops right out of her fan fic to save the day—or make it much, much worse.”
Mary Sue #1 hits stores on October 1, with covers by Sterle, Paulina Ganucheau and Tula Lotay.
Marvel Announces New Imperial Guardians:
Marvel’s cosmic event Imperial has one more one-shot in the works, and it’s introducing an all-new team of cosmic heroes from a writer who knows something about teams of cosmic heroes: Imperial War: Imperial Guardians #1, written by Dan Abnett with art by Cory Smith.
In the one-shot from one of the guys behind Annihilation and War of the Kings, and co-written by Imperial architect Jonathan Hickman, you’ll meet the new Guardians: Captain Marvel, Gamora, Darkhawk, what looks like Cosmic Ghost Rider, and some other guy, all join together to take on a, per PR, “dark conspiracy at the heart of the Skrull Empire.”
In the one-shot, the Super-Skrull finds himself at the center of a dastardly scheme, which brings him crashing into the Imperial Guardians.
While this is the final one-shot announcement, Marvel teases that more Imperial announcements will be coming next week at San Diego Comic-Con. Imperial Guardians #1 hits stores on October 1, 2025.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And maybe DWJ is going to turn Batman into a Transformer, that would be pretty cool.
Got tips or stories you’d like us to cover? Email us at comicbookclublive@gmail.com.
For more comic book news, reviews, and interviews, check out comicbookclublive.com.
Listen early and ad-free on Patreon.com/comicbookclub.
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.