By Zack Quaintance — The DC Comics round robin tournament is back this year, pitting a bunch of comics pitches with the publisher’s characters and leaving it up to a fan vote as to which one eventually gets made. The winner will appear in a six-issue miniseries, just as last year’s victor, Robins, is currently doing.

There are 16 comics ideas on the bracket now, and all we know about them in round one is their titles and plot summaries. As the tournament progresses, DC Comics will reveal more about each, presumably including creative teams, cover artwork, and more. You can find the full 16-comic bracket below, as well as the plot synopsis for each, plus! I have a prediction for which one would win, as well as my own choice for which one should win.

Check it all out below…

DC Comics Round Robin Tournament 2022

So, that’s the DC Comics Round Robin Tournament 2022 bracket. You can find summary blurbs — elevator pitches really — from the publisher below, absent the names of the creative teams, which if last year is any indication will likely be announced as we advanced further through the bracket. Finally, at the waaay bottom of this piece, I have a prediction for the winner, which is different than the book I hop wins this thing.

HAWKMAN & HAWKWOMAN: THE CHANGELING
Logline: Hawkman and Hawkwoman have never had children together. They know that for a fact. Then who is Hektor Hol, the hotheaded, razor-winged teen who claims to be their son? Can they trust their own memories—or each other? 

 VERSUS

WILDCAT: NINE LIVES
Logline: Wildcat’s spent eight of his nine lives showing the ropes to some of the DC Universe’s heaviest hitters, and he’s got the scarred knuckles and reset bones to prove it. But now he’s only got one more life to go. How fearless would you be if you knew it was your last round in the ring?

THE QUESTIONS: GRAND SOLUTION
Logline: What happens when people from all walks of life are activated as faceless vigilantes, each forced to solve an Alternate Reality Game where the stakes are life and death? That’s THE QUESTION, but does RENEE MONTOYA have the SOLUTION?

VERSUS

CONSTANTINE & THE DEMON: VACATION FROM HELL
Logline: Arcane guile meets hellish fury! John Constantine is forced to play host to Etrigan the Demon and the pair embark on a deeply personal—and potentially apocalyptic—mission. Journeying back home to Liverpool, Constantine must confront ghosts from his past, and Etrigan isn’t exactly his first choice for an ally! 

SUICIDE SQUAD: DARK
Logline: A team of occult misfits and monsters, assembled by Amanda Waller and led by Vampire Batman, are forced into a mind-melting suicide mission to assassinate Earth-13’s League of Shadows. 

VERSUS

JUSTICE LEAGUE [REDACTED]
Logline: Green Arrow has watched many heroes—the great, the good, the kind—be forever scarred by the darkness they swear to fight. Rather than sit by and let any more of his friends fall to the festering abyss, he decides to create a Justice League black-ops team of fighters who can survive a few more shadows—because as far as he’s concerned, they may already be lost. Green Arrow’s team of Nemesis, Killer Frost, Manhunter, Metamorpho, and Cheshire are needed more than ever. Green Arrow was worried about what happens when you look the abyss in the eye? That goes double when Johnny Sorrow and Merlyn team up.

FIRESTORM: FOURTH WORLD PROBLEMS
Logline: When Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch make the startling discovery that the Firestorm Matrix contains a spark of the Life Equation, Darkseid and his army turn their sights toward the teenage nuclear heroes. But can Ronnie and Jason put their differences aside and combine into Firestorm, or will Darkseid claim the matrix for himself and Apokolips?

VERSUS

 KID FLASH: THE SPEED OF FEAR
Logline: REVERSE-FLASH melds with PARALLAX in an unprecedented combination of the Speed Force and the fear-based yellow power ring to create a deadly SPEED RING to shatter OA’s central Green Lantern battery. A confused and isolated Kid Flash (Wallace West) must chase Thawne across a variety of alien worlds to stop him and the Sinestro Corps while his own powers die because of Kid Flash’s slow disconnection with the Speed Force. 

BLACK CANARY: WHEN CANARIES CRY
Logline: When Black Canary intercepts an intelligence operative trying to deliver sensitive material on an encrypted disk, she finds herself plunged into the world of espionage to contend with an international consortium known only as Mysterium. With the help of a French spy, Dinah must stop this shadow organization from instigating war for their own profit. 

VERSUS

 GREEN LANTERN: THE LIGHT AT THE END OF FOREVER
Logline: A dark far-future. A galaxy gripped by tyranny. When an elderly farmer in a backwater system is brutalized by the latest thugs with jetpacks and jackboots to call themselves lawmen, he remembers a forgotten past. An era of champions. A cadre of noble peacekeepers, long since vanished. His name—he's sure of it—is JOHN STEWART. Whatever happened to the Green Lanterns Corps...and is it too late to reignite the light...?

DC HORROR PRESENTS: GHOST TOUR FROM HELL
Logline: A frantic mother begs for Madame Xanadu’s help in finding her missing son—last seen on a ghost tour with friends. Xanadu’s reading reveals there’s a nefarious being behind the disappearances in New Orleans. Enlisting the help of the Demon Etrigan and Deadman, the trio quickly realize that they’re on a Ghost Tour from hell and they’re no match for these supernatural kidnappers.

VERSUS

ANIMAL MAN: THE METAMORPHOSIS
Logline: Buddy Baker, aka Animal Man, has serious problems. His home life is in shambles, his daughter’s powers are awakening, and the world needs him, but he’s stuck. He needs change. Soon Animal Man will enter a cocoon…but when the metamorphosis is complete, what will emerge?

GREEN LANTERN: THE BIRTH OF CONSPIRACY
Logline: In 1947, three events kindled America’s fascination with UFOs: the men in black, flying saucer sightings, and the Roswell crash. Three low-level government employees, tasked with monitoring superheroes, realize that one person was at all three events: the Green Lantern, ALAN SCOTT. He hasn’t been seen since. 

 VERSUS

 CAPTAIN CARROT & HIS BEST FRIEND DARKSEID
Logline: The interdimensional space epic no one asked for! DARKSEID is trying to eliminate the newest New God, but the EXTREMELY FUR-IOUS (yes, we hate us too) ZOO CREW is determined to reach their long-foretold CAPTAIN CARROT first…before FRIENDSHIP ruins everything!

SUPERBOY: THE MAN OF TOMORROW
Logline: Determined to find his place in a strange universe, Conner Kent/Superboy leaves Earth behind. But his journey of self-discovery brings him face to face with a group of freedom fighters who challenge not just everything Conner stands for, but what it means to bear the Superman crest.

VERSUS

CYBORG: CYBER GODS
Logline: Cyborg has grown so powerful he no longer needs to leave his cold metal lair. He fights the good fight, but only virtually, with Cyborg replicas. When the super-villain Gizmo and Klarion the Witch Boy mix magic and tech, they become powerful technomancers. Cyborg is joined by Beast Boy, who tries to remind him of his true power: his human spirit. Cyborg must reconnect with his human side and face the world, or Gizmo will become an omnipotent, unchallenged cyber-god and Klarion will get what he’s always wanted: chaos and destruction. 

Those are the matchups. Now, as promised, my prediction: I think Suicide Squad — Dark waltzes to victory in this thing. If you notice, there are no clear Bat-family titles, probably because they all absolutely crushed in last year’s tournament and it’s not like DC Comics’ blatantly most popular character has gotten any less popular in the past year. Suicide Squad — Dark, however, has a summary that notes who will be leading this squad, and the answer is Vampire Batman.

So yeah, that’s the one I think is the winner. I think Suicide Squad — Dark on its own had the potential to win, but the addition of a Vampire Batman leader puts it over the top. That book isn’t my favorite of this bunch, however. That honor goes to Green Lantern: Birth of Conspiracy, which features a mystery box plot description wherein original Green Lantern Alan Scott is appearing at odd, seeming disconnected points throughout history. That’s the book here that I really want to read.

We’ll see, though. Voting for the DC Comics Round Robin Tournament 2022 starts today at 12:15 p.m. Eastern Time. The tournament will run through through May 17, with a second round of voting kicking off on April 5. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, you can vote via DC Comics Twitter, DC Comics Instagram, or on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE Community.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He has written about comics for The Beat and NPR Books, among others. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.