Is it the Year of the Villain again? Earlier today DC Comics announced a new ongoing series for The Joker. Now the publisher has revealed that the Crime Syndicate, the evil counterparts of the Justice League from the alternate Earth-3, will star in a new six-issue miniseries arriving in stores in March. The Crime Syndicate miniseries is written by Andy Schmidt, with interior art by Kieran McKeown and covers for the first issue by Jim Cheung and Skan.
The new series will tell the story of the team’s origin on the new, post-Dark Nights: Death Metal version of Earth-3, and will include classic team members Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Power Ring, Johnny Quick, and more recent addition Atomika. The first issue will also feature a back-up story illustrated by Bryan Hitch, recounting the origin of Ultraman.
First appearing in 1964’s Justice League of America #29 during the second team-up between the Justice League and the Justice Society, the Crime Syndicate hails from an alternate Earth where good and evil are reversed. The team has been through several iterations over the years. They were retconned to be from the anti-matter universe of Qward post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, and later, in the JLA: Earth-2 graphic novel by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely, a new version was introduced that hailed from an undesignated alternate Earth (in the story, the JLA’s world was called “Earth-2”). Following Infinite Crisis the multiverse was restored and the Crime Syndicate returned to Earth-3, and the most recent incarnation of the team debuted in the New 52 Justice League series, and were the centerpiece of the Forever Evil storyline.
Check out Cheung’s cover for Crime Syndicate #1, as well as the full text of DC’s series announcement, below. The first issue of the six-issue series will arrive in stores on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021.
DC’s CRIME SYNDICATE RETURNS!
Spinning out of Dark Nights: Death Metal, the DC Multiverse is reborn, and with it a new Earth-3!
What if the Justice League decided to rule the world instead of protect it?A paranoid titan (Ultraman), a narcissist (Super Woman), a nihilist (Owlman), a broken moral compass (Power Ring/Emerald Knight), a sociopath (Johnny Quick) and a sadist (Atomica). Does the world stand a chance?
Spoiler alert: No. No, it does not. Writer Andy Schmidt and artist Kieran McKeown will launch DC’s new Crime Syndicate mini-series on March 2 to tell the origin of the evil Justice League from Earth-3!
Spinning out of the pages of Dark Nights: Death Metal, the DC Multiverse is reborn, and with it a new Earth-3! Witness the true origins of the malevolent makers of mayhem known as the Crime Syndicate as a common foe unites them! But how long can alliances last between villains like these?
“Kieran and I were given a once a lifetime opportunity to build a world from the ground up,” said writer Andy Schmidt. “We’re establishing the Crime Syndicate’s origin story for the first time—how and why they came together. And we’re not taking it lightly. You’ll find that you’ve entered a fully realized world—this is the story of the Crime Syndicate, but it’s also the story of Earth-3 and it moves fast and pulls no punches.”
Also in this debut issue, witness the origin of Ultraman in our special backup story drawn by super-star artist Bryan Hitch!
CRIME SYNDICATE by Andy Schmidt and Kieran McKeown is a six-issue mini-series debuting on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, with a cover by Jim Cheung and a variant cover by Skan. For more information on the Crime Syndicate and the World’s Greatest Super Heroes, be sure and check out DC’s website at www.dccomics.com, and follow DC on social media at @DCComics and @thedcnation.
