Superman faces an alien attack as DC teases a new Suicide Squad and Batman and the Joker's "most brutal battle yet"

Batman and the Joker fight
(Image credit: DC)

As DC's Titans: Beast World draws closer, the publisher has teased their plans for what will follow it - and it sounds like an unholy trinity of villains will be causing chaos for Batman and Superman.

The architect of much of this carnage is Amanda Waller. Fans who have been keeping up with the comics will know that she has been manipulating events from behind the scenes for quite some time now. In Action Comics #1060 and Titans: Beast World Tour: Metropolis #1, the scope of her schemes will become clearer. 

One of Waller's desires is to wipe out metahumans entirely, but she's not above manipulating them. She intends to create a new Suicide Squad made up of various yet to be revealed heroes and villains, and this will spin-off into its own title, Suicide Squad: Dream Team, which launches in March.

Get a first look at pages from Action Comics #1060 in the gallery below.

Meanwhile, over in Metropolis, the return of Braniac has been teased for some time now and is set to have devastating consequences for Superman and his friends. Starting in Action Comics #1064, the 'House of Brainiac' arc is a six part story that will run in both Action Comics and Superman, as well as in a Superman/Brainiac one-shot. 

The story, which is the next stage of DC's Superman Superstars initiative, sees the Czarnians launch a devastating attack Earth while a new Braniac Queen emerges. It's all building to a massive confrontation that will pull in Superman and his friends, Lobo, Brainiac, and the Green Lanterns.

In the gallery below you can see some concept art for the Braniac Queen, and an impressive spread by Rafa Sandoval.

You may have noticed, but things have not been going well for the Dark Knight lately. Bruce Wayne has pushed the Bat-Family away and is currently operating on his own. He's also increasingly under the control of the violent Zur En Arrh persona - and that's just the start of his troubles... 

December's Batman #140 marks the beginning of the new 'Mindbomb' storyline, in which the Caped Crusader must deal with the Joker, in what DC is calling "their most brutal battle yet," while Zur En Arrh continues to grow in malign power. 

That will then lead him to face a terrifying figure from his past in the 'Dark Prisons' arc, which runs from Batman #145 to #148 and climaxes with a confrontation with Amanda Waller and the forces of the U.S. military.

DC is dubbing this triple threat as the Trinity of Evil and also teasing that it's, "just the beginning of what's coming to DC in 2024." To prove it the publisher has also released an updated version of its Dawn of DC timeline graphic.

A Dawn of DC timeline

(Image credit: DC Comics)

Batman #140 launches on December 5, with Action Comics #1060 and Titans: Beast World Tour Metropolis #1 both published the following week on December 12.


Live or die, these are the greatest Suicide Squad members of all time.

Will Salmon
Comics Editor

Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.

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