Scott Snyder explains the future of DC Next Level

Scott Snyder outlined the entire philosophy and approach for the upcoming DC Next Level line in an October 21 post on his Our Best Jackett Press Substack. Snyder teased some of the new titles announced, and provided an initial look at the lineup of creators who will take over.

When explaining the approach to creating the new DC Next Level line that starts in March 2026, Snyder explained:

“So for a long time now, for the last eight to nine months, we’ve been building a line of books that’s focused on some fan favorite characters. Everybody from Deathstroke to The Demon to Zatanna, characters that don’t often get quite the brightest spotlight that’s taken up by Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman, but characters that fans love and we love. 

And so we wanted to kind of do with them what we tried to do with characters in Absolute, where we give careers a lot of leeway to come in and not reinvent them because these books, unlike Absolute, are in continuity, but give them as much latitude as we could within that context. So you can come in, as long as you’re not breaking continuity and we want you to make an incredibly user-friendly book that doesn’t rely on anyone knowing anything about these characters whatsoever, and make people fall in love with these characters on your terms.”

From the Beat’s previous intrepid on-the-ground reporting at NYCC ’25, we have a list of announced books and creators.

• Greg Rucka & Dani – Batwoman
• Joshua Williamson  – Legion Of Super Heroes
• Skottie Young & Jorge Corona – Lobo
• Mariko Tamaki
• Deniz Camp
• James Harren
• Jeff Lemire
• Tony Fleecs
• Jamal Campbell 

And the other books are:

• Deathstroke The Terminator
• Firestorm: The Nuclear Man
• Batman: Shadow Of The Bat
• Zatanna
• The Demon
• Barbara Gordon: Breakout

Batwoman and Legion of Super Heroes and corresponding creative teams were announced at NYCC, and Snyder went on to give some insight into how the new Lobo book with Skottie Young and Jorge Corona came about.

“Young was one of the first to sign up to do Lobo with Corona. And his pitch is f—ing amazing. It’s just exactly the Lobo book you want. He’s the perfect creator for it. He’s got an unbelievable enthusiasm for the character, and he wants to make everybody fall in love with Lobo the way he loves Lobo,” Snyder explained.

Snyder used this example to highlight the editorial approach to the DC Next Level line, not just assigning a creator but also giving more creative freedom as long as it’s within the larger DC continuity.  

“It’s a really simple idea. It’s the idea that instead of going to creators and saying, ‘we have this slot and we need you to fill it’, or ‘we have this pitch that we made up and we need you to execute it,’ we go to creators that we love and say, ‘what character do you have a story for? What’s your passion project?’ That’s what we did with Absolute, and we want to replicate that in the main line while still being in continuity and a little bit closer to the model.

But we wanted to make every single book something that feels like the creators just love what they’re doing, and there’s a palpable energy. So that’s really what Next Level is. It’s a curated line of books within the main line that is in continuity, but feels particularly accessible to new readers, feels creator-forward, has number ones, reintroduces these characters in big ways, and just excites and brings the fun.“

So that leaves us with Deathstroke The Terminator, Firestorm: The Nuclear Man, Batman: Shadow Of The Bat, Zatanna, Barbara Gordon: Breakout, and The Demon. Snyder gave some info on The Demon and Deathstroke on his Substack post.

The pitch for Deathstroke was from a creator who said, “I really want to do Deathstroke and I really want to make Deathstroke just straight up badass assassin. I wanted to decouple him from all of the other superheroes and this and do something that shows the world of assassins inside of DC in this really dark and fun and brutal way.“ We were like, “you know what? That sounds great. We don’t have a crime book like that.“ So we were really trying to give you things you don’t have, but let creators lead to charge. 

When talking about The Demon, Snyder said:

The Demon was a similar project. I went to somebody I love and was like, “Look, I think you’re fantastic. What do you want to do?“ And they wanted to do a horror book. And then they started talking about The Demon, and the pitch was unbelievable. We just built it out together where their pitch was essentially a book that allows you to walk right in knowing nothing about The Demon and and just be completely enveloped by this awesome mythology about a guy who’s cursed with this alternate demonic presence inside of him, Etrigan the Demon, that comes out when he doesn’t want it to and fights other demons and it’s just awesome. It’s a straight-up horror book.

In a newsletter from last September, Jeff Lemire gave a “very first sneak peek at some art from a top secret DC project coming in 2026. The book will be written by me, illustrated by Rafael De Latorre, and colored by my old Green Arrow collaborator Marcleo Maiolo.” 

Some guessed the redheaded character to be Agent Cameron Chase and therefore tied Lemire to Barbara Gordon: Breakout but he quickly got rid of the Agent Chase guess.

Last but not least Absolute fans can breathe a sigh of relief as Snyder made sure to assure fans that the Absolute Batman title will continue for at least the next two years:

“We are contracted, me and Nick Dragotta, through more than 35 issues at this point, which would take us another 2+ years down the line. So please don’t worry that there’s any end in sight. There’s not. We’re just expanding and building and trying to keep it streamlined so you can read all the books as well. It’s not going to explode into like, 20 books either.”  

So who do you think will work on which book? will Jamal Campbell or Mariko Tamaki continue their work on Zatanna? Who is the mysterious creator in charge of The Demon? My Eisner Award winning intuition says it’s James Harren but his covers on Absolute Batman have been incredible so Batman: Shadow Of The Bat might be a great pick.

Make sure to keep reading The Beat for any more DC Next Level news and comment which creator you want on Deathstroke The Terminator, Firestorm: The Nuclear Man, Batman: Shadow Of The Bat, Zatanna, Barbara Gordon: Breakout, and The Demon.