Next month sees the release of Detective Comics #1027, celebrating 1000 issues since Batman’s first appearance back in 1939. The issue, clocking in at a whopping 144 pages, will feature a star-studded lineup of creators, and yesterday DC released the full list of contributors, as well as a pair of unlettered previews for two of the stories.
Via their DC Nation twitter account, DC shared the credits page for Detective #1027, with details on the creators behind a dozen stories, plus pinups and covers for the issue:
Here's your complete lineup for Detective Comics #1027! 144 pages (!), $9.99 (!!), on sale September 15. pic.twitter.com/QertchVrSk
— DC Nation (@thedcnation) August 10, 2020
Here’s the story and creator breakdown:
- “Blowback” by Peter J. Tomasi, Brad Walker, Andrew Hennessy, Nathan Fairbairn, and Rob Leigh
- “The Master Class” by Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez, Alejandro Sanchez, and Joshua Reed
- “Many Happy Returns” by Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky, and Aditya Bidikar
- “Rookie” by Greg Rucka, Eduardo Risso, and Tom Napolitano
- “Ghost Story” by James Tynion IV, Riley Rossmo, Ivan Plascencia, and AndWorld Design
- “Fore” by Kelly Sue DeConnick, John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Arif Prianto, and Troy Peteri
- “Odyssey” by Marv Wolfman, Emanuela Luppachino, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jordie Bellaire, and Carlos Mangual
- “Detective #26” by Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham, Nathan Fairbairn, and Steve Wands
- “Legacy” by Tom King, Walter Simonson, Laura Martin, and John Workman
- “As Always” by Scott Snyder, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Marcelo Maiolo, and Tom Napolitano
- “Generations: Fractured” by Dan Jurgens, Kevin Nowlan, Hi-Fi, AndWorld Design, and editor Brian Cunningham
- “A Gift” by Mariko Tamaki, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain, and Tom Napolitano
Also included are pin-ups by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez & Trish Mulvihill, Jamal Campbell, Jim Cheung & Alejandro Sanchez, Lee Bermejo, and Olivier Coipel.
There are a lot of familiar names in that creator list, creators who’ve worked on Batman fairly steadily over the last decade or so. Fraction and Zdarsky are wildcard choices, and it’s good to see Rucka writing Batman again, as well as Morrison & Burnham back together again for a new story (whither Arkham Asylum 2?). The stories in ‘Tec #1027 include six female creators out of 47 total creators, which is…not a great ratio, but somewhat comparable to last year’s Detective #1000. Two of those female creators are writers, though, which is two more than were on ‘Tec #1000, so I suppose that’s progress?
Along with the creator lineup, DC has released unlettered previews for “Generations: Fractured” and “A Gift”. It’s unclear if the former story is tied to the apparently-scrapped Generations project that DC had begun teasing prior to Dan Didio‘s departure from the company, the threads from which appear to be being tied up with the current Dark Nights: Death Metal series. The latter story is Eisner winner Mariko Tamaki’s first Batman story, and a tie-in to the “Joker War” storyline currently running across the Bat-titles.
Check out both of those previews below, and look for Detective Comics #1027 to swing into comic shops on September 15th.
“Generations: Fractured” by Dan Jurgens, Kevin Nowlan, Hi-Fi, AndWorld Design, and editor Brian Cunningham
“A Gift” by Mariko Tamaki, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain, and Tom Napolitano