Tom King, Mitch Gerads, and many more team for BATMAN: ONE BAD DAY, a series of one-shots
UPDATE: It has since become clear that DC Comics is announced one new Batman: One Bad Day comic every hour throughout today (May 17). We’ll be posting the full list of creative teams (more or less) as we get them at the bottom of this post.
By Zack Quaintance — Tom King and Mitch Gerads are re-teaming for a new graphic novel called Batman: One Bad Day, which will reunite the duo behind Mister Miracle and The Sheriff of Babylon for a new 64-page contained story about The Riddler. DC Comics announced the new book, due out in August, Tuesday via Twitter.
“Edward Nygma is meticulous… until one day he suddenly starts killing at random. Batman must race to figure out the motivation behind The Riddler’s spree!” the DC Comics Batman Twitter account teased. This marks the second-and-a-half high-profile story starring The Riddler announced this year from the publisher. Earlier this year, DC announced The Riddler: Year One, which is due out in December with artwork from Stevan Subic and a script from actor Paul Dano, who portrayed the character as the central villain in this year’s film, The Batman.
On top of that, The Riddler is also a central character in the Batman: Killing Time miniseries, which is written by King with artwork by David Marquez. That book to me counts as half of a book starring The Riddler, because it’s most of an ensemble villain cast, also featuring Catwoman, Penguin, and Killer Croc.
So yes, this is really shaping up to be a big year for The Riddler. What’s also enticing about this particular series is the track record of the creative team. Mister Miracle is one of the most lauded superhero comics series in recent memory, having cleaned up at the 2019 Eisners. More information about this one — cover artists, pricing, exact release date — will likely arrive later this week with the unveiling of the August 2022 DC Comics solicitations.
For now, enjoy these artwork teases that Gerads posted on Twitter:
UPDATE TWO: Writer Mariko Tamaki — who is currently wrapping up an outstanding Detective Comics run — will be teaming with artist Javier Fernandez on a Batman: One More Day story about Two Face, arriving in September. No length was given for this one in the Tweet, other than it being described as a one-shot, but it did come with the following teaser text: “Harvey Dent is back, but is he here to save Gotham City? Head or Tails, Batman can’t win when it comes to Two-Face!”
UPDATE THREE: Writer John Ridley (currently penning the new book, I Am Batman) and artist Giuseppe Camuncoli are writing a Penguin-focused one-shot for October, which also apparently involves someone called The Umbrella Man? Who knows, maybe The Penguin’s umbrella has been a sentient being from another dimension this whole time because comics. Anyway, teaser text is as follows: “When The Penguin’s criminal empire is stolen by a former associate, Batman faces both Oswald and The Umbrella Man on the burning streets of Gotham!”
UPDATE FOUR: Writer Gerry Duggan — who has most recently been a Marvel guy, penning the Krakoa Era books Marauders Vol. 1 and the X-Men book, post Hickman — and artist Matteo Scalera are teaming up for a Mister Freeze one-shot due in November. Duggan is the first writer on this book who is not currently writing another Batman comic, so that’s interesting. Teaser text for this one is: “Save your sympathies, Batman and Robin! Years ago, Gotham City experienced a winter so icy that Mr. Freeze could live without his containment suit.”
UPDATE FIVE: This one might be my personal favorite so far…writer G. Willow Wilson is teaming with artist Jamie McKelvie (yes!) on a Catwoman one-shot for this thing, due out in December. McKelvie doing a full-length DC Comic is a thing that makes me very happy. Story tease is as follows: “A brooch Selina Kyle's mother once pawned for pennies is now part of a high-bid auction, and Catwoman will steal it back at any cost.”
UPDATE SIX: And the next one brings us back to another writer who is currently dabbling in Gotham with Joshua Williamson teaming with frequent collaborator Howard Porter on a story for January about Bane. No tease with this one, but we did get a preview of the work-in-progress cover art:
UPDATE SEVEN: The writing duo of Jackson Lanzing and Conor Kelly are teaming up with the artist Xermanico for a story about Clayface, wherein Batman chases him to Los Angeles, which makes sense given that Clayface is actually Basil Karlo. The plot tease for this says he is out there, “killing his way to fame.” This one is due out in February 2023.
UPDATE EIGHT: Writer Tom Taylor and artist Ivan Reis will seemingly conclude this project with a story about Ra’s al Ghul, slated for March 2023. Not a whole in the teaser for that one either: “You know his name, the Bat will know his wrath.”
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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.