DC Comics DC K.O. already punched New York Comic Con in half yesterday (October 10) with the announcement of a wild array of new contenders at the Jim Lee & Friends panel. But the hits keep on coming with today’s “DC K.O.: What’s Next” panel — and we’ve got the blow by blow recap, right here. But first, here’s the official description of the panel:
Join top DC storytellers in a next level NYCC panel that dives deeper into DC’s All In publishing initiative—including DC K.O., Knightfight, DC’s Absolute comic books, and beyond! Moderated by DC Group Editor Paul Kaminski and DC Group Editor Rob Levin.
That out of the way, let’s ring that bell and get right into it. After a trailer for the event played on screen recapping the plot — 32 heroes and villains fight to gain enough energy to beat Darkseid — the lights came up to reveal the members of the panel. They were: Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson, Javi Fernández, Hayden Sherman, and Jeremy Adams.
And strap in there, because Snyder plugged that there is “all the good stuff” in this panel as they’re ready to talk about what comes after the event (as well as during).
Talking generally about the event, Williamson said that the reason they’re doing it is in honesty because of the fans, that the positive response to the first year of DC All In allowed them to go “nuts” with DC K.O.
Expanding on that, Snyder explained the three things they set out for events going forward. “One is a great story… The second is if the event really states who we are as a company at the time… And the third thing, which we’ll get to later in the panel is if it sets things up, if the event, on the other side of it, gives us a better DC.”
Snyder and Williamson then riffed for a bit about how they came up with the event, and how they were worried they were going to go too far, but Jim Lee encouraged them to go even farther. Added Williamson, “It’s really hard to work with Scott and not get hyped all the time. After Scott will talk you feel like ‘f**k yeah’ all the time.”
Moving over to Fernández, he briefly noted that when drawing the character portraits for DC K.O., he used himself as reference. And then it was back to Snyder to explain the plot, and the purpose of the bracket, with moderator Levin noting the goal was to capture those conversations we all have in comic book shops: who will win in a fight?
“Every issue we want you to be guessing what will happen,” Snyder said expanding that the central theme of the event is, “Do you become your enemy to save the universe? … These heroes aren’t fighting Civil War style over political issues.”
Moving over to Adams, who is writing Aquaman and Green Lantern, he explained that with Darkseid infecting the DC Universe, it would infect the primordial forces as well — specifically Aquaman, an Avatar of The Blue, who has become “O.P.” prior to the event. “He’s underwater Conan,” Adams explained. As for Green Lantern, Adams was just excited to see what happens.
Next up? Reveal of the “All Fight Month” in December, which is the third round of K.O. The main series will take a break in December, to make space for one-shots and tie-ins, which will feature two out of three rounds… Once you come back, you can come back as any version of yourself from continuity. As an example, Williamson spoiled the Superman versus Captain Atom fight, with Atom losing and coming back as Monarch.
Next up? Aquaman versus Hawkman by Jeremy Adams and John Timms. And then when they plugged who Wonder Woman was fighting, an audience member shouted “Tom King!” It’s actually Lobo. Just FYI.
Cyborg is taking on Swamp Thing from John Layman and Pete Woods, followed by Harley Quinn versus Zatanna by Leah Williams and Stephen Byrne. Then Jay Garrick will take on Guy Gardner from Mark Waid, Christopher Cantwell and Vasco Georgiev. And Lex Luthor is taking on The Demon from Joshua Williamson and Hayden Sherman.
One more: Red Hood versus The Joker from Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson, and Dustin Nguyen. Snyder got the note from Levin that “eh maybe a little too violent.” They also revealed that when Red Hood respawns, he’ll come back as Robin — and the Heart of Apocalypse, which is running the fights, sets them in a place meaningful for the characters… In this case it’s the warehouse where Jason died.
Added Snyder, “We also wanted this to be a meaningful exploration of the characters,” so it’s not just fights, it’s also character stuff.
Moving on, they teased how the Absolute Universe Trinity comes in, noting that there may be a fourth Horseman of Darkseid — and it’s according to Snyder, an extremely important, impactful story point that explains the importance of the Absolute Universe.
Spoiler time: Batman “died” in the first issue of DC K.O., which spins into DC K.O. Knightfight by Joshua Williamson and Dan Mora, where Batman has to fight all the Robins who have become better Batmen than him. “We’re trying to make you cry,” Williamson said. The explanation of why this is happening is that Batman tried to cheat, and the Heart of Apokolips saw it. If you noticed the game night that was seen in the first issue of K.O., they’ll be returning to it every issue — and reveal more of what happened with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
Then, a new one-shot coming in January: DC K.O.: The Kids Are All Fight Special from Jeremy Adams and Travis Mercer, featuring Superboy, Cassandra Cain, and more. It’s a “bunch of misfits who don’t want to be babysat by Jon Kent on the Watchtower… So they go on their own adventure,” said Adams.
That’s DC K.O. So… What’s next? Following the event series is another initiative, a la All In is DC Next Level, starting March 2026 and beyond. The goal is to put the highlight on characters that deserve more shine, are highly accessible to new readers, and will bring in some of the best in the business including some legends.
New titles include: Deathstroke The Terminator, Batwoman, Firestorm: The Nuclear Man, Lobo, Zatanna, The Demon, Batman: Shadow of the Bat, Barbara Gordon: Breakout… And more.
And as for creators? Deniz Camp, Tony Fleecs, Jamal Campbell, Dani, Jeff Lemire, Joshua Williamson, James Harren, Jorge Corona, Greg Rucka, Mariko Tamaki, Skottie Young, and more.
Snyder expanded on the line… They reached out to creators to ask them “what do you want to do? So these are passion projects… We’re trying to really reinvest in characters and creators we believe in.”
“The exciting thing is, nothing is going away,” Snyder said. “This is no shot at anyone, but we’re not closing the Absolute Universe, that will not happen.” He explained that when he talked to Jim Lee, he wanted to invest more money and effort into the comics division to make it great — and that’s what they’re doing.
So what are they doing? Levin brought up Rucka and DANI to talk about their title, which is Batwoman. “It’s going to blow your f**king mind,” Rucka said. The book will be based in Greece, and art shows Batwoman battling Alice.
“It’s starting in a very dark place, and it’s only going down from there,” Rucka teased. “This is a story I wanted to tell back in the day, but you can’t go home again.” Matt Hollingsworth is on colors, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou on letters. And Rucka teases on Batwoman and Alice, one of them will die in the first issue (guess which one).
“When I left unceremoniously in 2009, it was unresolved,” Rucka continued. “And that means the stories were unresolved.” He explained that just because it’s been years, the stories he was thinking of haven’t gone away — and now he gets to do those stories.
While not “news” necessarily, Rucka did have a lovely statement about working with Dani, and collaboration in general. Said Rucka, “The beauty of this medium… Is the nature of the collaboration. And when it works, it is magic, because it’s literally more than the sum of its parts.”
Next up, another team announcement: Lobo from Skottie Young and Jorge Corona. Snyder is super-excited about the book and letting the team — which hasn’t worked at DC frequently — take their “swing” with the series.
That was it for the team reveals, though Snyder teased the work that James Harren and Tony Fleecs were doing in particular, saying Fleecs is “about to explode” and Harren’s work will “blow your mind.”
…And then guess what? “The Legion Of Super-Heroes are coming soon,” says a slide, with Joshua Williamson taking on the title. Sounds like it’ll be following his run on Superman, but that’s all TBA.
“Every month you’re going to get one of these books — two of these books in some cases,” Williamson said, teasing that it’s going to be a great year for the publisher.
And that was it for the panel! Total knock out!
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