DC cancels Batman/Superman

Batman/Superman #22
(Image credit: Ivan Reis/Danny Miki (DC))

Gene Lueng Yang's well-received Batman/Superman run is being cut short, as DC has announced his run - and the series - will be ending with September's Batman/Superman #22.

"Mr. Mxyzptlk resurrecting Calendar Man from his death during A-Day is causing some reality-rattling consequences," reads DC's description of Batman/Superman #22. "If Superman and Batman are going to prevent a fifth-dimensional god-being from compartmentalizing all of existence, they’re going to need to turn to some unlikely allies."

A-Day is a recent event that occurred in Infinite Frontier #0 where the Joker seemingly launched a deadly chemical attack on Arkham Asylum, killing many people - prisoner and worker - alike. Calendar Man, a bit of a regular inmate there, was among those dead.

(Image credit: Ivan Reis/Danny Miki (DC))

It's unclear how Calendar Man returning could have "reality-rattling consequences" given he has no metahuman powers that we know of, but with Mr. Mxyzptik involved - who has "reality-rattling" metahuman powers and then some - everything is up for grabs.

Paul Pelletier is drawing Batman/Superman #22, stepping in for regular series artists Ivan Reis and Danny Miki. Pelletier is also slated to draw August's Batman/Superman 2021 Annual #1, also written by Yang.

Ivan Reis and Danny Miki's last word on Batman/Superman will be the primary cover to Batman/Superman #22. DC also plans for Gary Frank to draw a variant cover.

The decision for the Batman/Superman series appears rather sudden, since Yang's run on the title just began back with March's Batman/Superman #16. August's Batman/Superman #21 is the finale of the current 'The Archive of Worlds' arc (and is being collected into a titular volume this December), with #22 working as a one-off finale. It's not clear if and how DC would collect this one-off story down the road for Yang's sizeable booktrade audience.

The current Batman/Superman series is the second volume under that title, after the original Batman/Superman ran for 32 issues from 2014 to 2016. That being said, Superman and Batman have teamed up numerous times in other titles going by different names.

Batman/Superman #22 goes on sale on September 28.

If you're looking for the best stories of Superman and Batman, you can't go wrong with the best DC Comics stories of all time. 

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Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)

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