DC Comics’s seasonal anthologies have become a staple of the publisher’s schedule, with past specials celebrating, among other things, the summer months, end-of-year holidays, and AAPI Heritage and Pride months. Today DC has revealed details for their latest anthology one-shot, Saved by the Belle Reve, a collection of stories all with an academic theme, arriving in August just in time for students to head back to school. Of note among the one-shot’s offerings are the return of some fan-favorites from around the DCU: Gotham Academy, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent as the Super-Sons, and Art Baltazar & Franco‘s Tiny Titans.
Here’s how DC describes Saved by the Belle Reve:
School’s back in session, and we just know you’re waiting for the BELLE to give you some REVElief…all right, you can’t say we didn’t try! DC Saved by the Belle Reve’s halls are packed with eight tales of schooltime fun from around the DC Universe! The Suicide Squad is sent to an international prep school to protect a dignitary’s son! Jean-Paul Valley returns to the school that made him into Azrael! Plus, a return to Tiny Titans by Art Baltazar and Franco, and a new school year starts at Gotham Academy! So grab your pencils and notebooks and get educated!
Among the creators involved in the new one-shot are the original Gotham Academy creative team of Becky Cloonan, Brendan Fletcher, and Karl Kerschl, returning to the school for a new story. The original series launched as part of the DCYou initiative in 2015 and ran for a total of 30 issues and an annual over two volumes. Kerschl also recently told a new story starring fan-favorite character from the series Mia “Maps” Mizoguchi in a back-up feature that ran in Batman.
Baltazar and Franco co-created Tiny Titans, a young-readers series starring kid versions of the Teen Titans and their supporting cast, back in 2008, with an original run that spanned 50 issues. The pair last tackled the Titans in a six-issue revival miniseries, Return to the Treehouse, in 2014.
The third notable return is that of the Super-Sons, under the pen of the duo’s original writer Peter Tomasi. The popular duo of Jon Kent as Superboy and Damian Wayne as Robin was last seen in a digital-first series, Challenge of the Super Sons, which concluded a little over a year ago. Jon Kent having been aged to young adulthood hasn’t stopped he and Damian from having adventures, either, as the two also teamed up earlier this year in the Superman & Robin one-shot, written by Tomasi and illustrated by Viktor Bogdanovic.
Other creators and characters featured in Saved by the Belle Reve include the Suicide Squad: King Shark team of Tim Seeley and Scott Kolins with a return to Task Force X; Dave Wielgosz and Mike Norton with a Green Arrow & Speedy tale; Brandon Thomas and Craig Cermak on a Black Lightning story; upcoming Sword of Azrael writer Dan Watters and artist Juan Ferreyra with a story starring a young Jean-Paul Valley; and March and Run co-writer Andrew Aydin making his DC Comics debut alongside another new-to-DC creator, artist Nelson Dániel, telling a story in which Nightwing and Batgirl go to Prom. Will they kiss?
I was onboard with the Gotham Academy story, and the rest of the special sounds pretty delightful. Look for the 80-page Saved by the Belle Reve anthology one-shot to arrives in stores and digitally on Tuesday, August 30th.
