Back in February, DC announced that writer Matt Fraction and artist Jorge Jiménez would be the new creative team for the ongoing Batman series following the conclusion of Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee‘s H2SH storyline. With that story wrapping in August, September will see the arrival of Fraction, Jiménez, colorist Tomeu Morey, and letterer Clayton Cowles‘s Batman #1, and today DC unveiled details about who the artists for the issue’s the many variant covers will be, and announced special “Blind as a Bat” blind-bagged foil variants for the issue.
First, here’s Jiménez’s main cover for the issue, complete with trade dress and snazzy corner box:
The full list of variant cover artists for Batman #1 is a veritable murderers’ row of superstar artists, including past Batman artists and Fraction collaborators. Here are the covers available to show off now:
Marc Silvestri and Arif Prianto (open-to-order)
Frank Quitely (open-to-order)
Gabriele Dell’Otto (open-to-order)
Julian Totino Tedesco (open-to-order)
Andy Kubert (1:25 incentive)
David Aja (1:50 incentive)
“DC Showcase” wraparound variant cover by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau (“DC Showcase” wraparound variant, retail price $24.99)
Jim Lee and J. Scott Campbell will also provide open-to-order variants for the issue, which will also be available with a foil logo cover and a blank sketch cover. Jiménez’s cover will also be available sans trade dress as a foil variant for $7.99.
Each of the above covers will also be available in shiny foil, though only if you’re lucky enough to pull it out of one of the newly-announced “Blind as a Bat” variant cover blind bags. Those polybagged variants will retail for $9.99, so collecting all of them won’t be a cheap endeavor.
If that’s not enough, you can also pick up a “Giant-Sized”, 11″ x 17″ edition of the issue, either with a regular version or foil version of Jiménez’s main cover.
It’s the “Blind as a Bat” variants that are sure to garner the most interest, though, both for the gimmick and the price point. This isn’t the first time DC has done blind-bagged variants – they did lines of Harley’s Little Black Book-themed and Batman v Superman-themed variants back in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Each of those variants was available in three different versions – regular, black-and-white, and pencil-only – that were packed at random in the blind bags. Some lucky buyers also found original art sketch covers in the blind bags. No word on whether that might be the case for the new Batman #1, but you never know what DC has up their sleeves.
With its many variant covers, bagged and otherwise, Batman #1 is due out in stores and digitally on Wednesday, September 3rd.
