Marvel revealed a couple of months back that it would be telling the story of that cataclysmic conflict and now we have the full details. Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku will be told – appropriately enough – as a trilogy of limited series titled: Insurgency Rising, Republic Under Seige, and Last Stand. This epic saga will be written by Spider-Society writer Alex Segura and drawn by Leonard Kirk, Stefano Raffaele, Jethro Morales, and Luke Ross. 

"It's an unbelievable honor to be able to tell this lost story of Star Wars history, alongside so many amazing artists, in the pages of the three Battle of Jakku limited series," said Segura in a statement about the new trilogy. "Our story will be epic in scope – involving all the major characters you love, plus some new, exciting additions to the mythos. We'll not only give readers a front-row seat to the final battle of the Galactic Civil War – we'll reframe the aftermath of the Battle of Endor and introduce a new, menacing threat that will keep our heroes guessing. The goal for all of us is to turn up the volume and make sure this adventure stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the other stories of the era. As the Empire collapses, a new darkness arises!"

There's a sense of closure with Marvel's Star Wars comics at the moment, with both the regular Star Wars and Darth Vader monthlies ending with their 50th issues in September, and the High Republic comic line seemingly wrapping up with a final phase that starts in 2025. It's nothing to worry about, however – it's already been confirmed that the Marvel's Star Wars comics will continue in a new setting that has yet to be revealed. 

Star Wars: Battle of Jakku – Insurgency Rising #1 is published by Marvel Comics on October 2.

Find out exactly where Star Wars: Outlaws takes place in the timeline.

Marvel's synopsis for the new issue, which is from the creative team of writer Thomas Krajewski, artist Jason Muhr, colorist Rachelle Rosenberg, with lettering from VC’s Travis Lanham, teases both a team up between Groot and the Hulk and a battle between the Guardians of the Galaxy and a horde of zombie Avengers. It sounds like a lot of good, gory fun and we've got an exclusive preview of the issue right here.

The Marvel Zombies brand launched in 2005 with a limited series written, appropriately enough, by Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, with art from Sean Phillips. Since then it's been an irregular part of Marvel Comics, with the most recent series being last year's Marvel Zombies: Black, White, & Blood limited series, which featured an impressive roster of creators including Garth Ennis, Gail Simone, Peach Momoko, Rachael Stott, and more. 

The issue's main cover is by series artist Jason Muhr, with variants by Ron Lim, Annie Wu, Sean Galloway, and Nick Bradshaw. You can check out all of those below.

Here's Marvel's official synopsis for the new issue:

"A NEW ZOMBIE VIRUS IS UNLEASHED... AND GROOT IS PATIENT ZERO! Groot feels bad – not only because Rocket's latest scheme put them firmly in the crosshairs of the Avengers, but also he's just plain sick! Sap-dripping nose and all. Things go from bad to apocalyptic, however, after an ill-timed sneeze in Captain America's face has unforeseeable consequences! Suddenly, Groot is being attacked by a horde of zombified Avengers, and only he and Hulk, with his impenetrable green skin, remain impervious. Now it's up to these two heroes to team up and fight their way through a blighted New York City to Banner's lab in Avengers Tower to find a cure before it's too late. But can Groot keep the hero in check and on track, or will Hulk unleash his deadly might on the zombies they once called friends?"

Marvel Zombies: Dawn of Decay #1 is published by Marvel Comics on September 4.

Read all about the best horror comics of all time.

Spoilers for Absolute Power: Task Force VII #5

The main focus of the new issue, from writer Alex Paknadel and artist Pete Woods, is Barry Allen's conflict with the speedster power-stealing Velocity. Towards the end of the issue, however, we cut to Wonder Woman's beloved Steve Trevor who has managed to infiltrate Waller's prison on Gamorra Island. There he witnesses the arrival of some mysterious figures from another universe, realising with a shock that one of them is Donna Troy – Earth-3's evil Superwoman, surrounded by some familiar faces.

Yep, Waller's latest allies are the Crime Syndicate, who turn 60 this year. In case you're not aware of this dark alternative to the Justice League, the original line up of the team (then named the Crime Syndicate of America) first appeared in 1964's Justice League of America #29 by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. 'Crisis on Earth-Three!' introduced several evil counterparts to DC's best known heroes, in the form of Owlman (a dark version of Batman), Ultraman (Superman), Power Ring (Green Lantern), and Johnny Quick (the Flash).

The line-up has shifted many times over the intervening 60 years, with the current version still featuring Ultraman and Johnny Quick, alongside the second Power Ring (an alternative to John Stewart), Black Siren (the evil version of Black Canary), Etrigan the Demon, and Nocturna AKA Natalia Knight.

The Crime Syndicate have been a slightly under-used concept over the last few years, so it's exciting to see them back in the fray like this. The question now is, what role will they have to play as Absolute Power starts to head towards its reality-shaking endgame?

Absolute Power: Task Force VII #5 is out from DC.

Mark Waid reveals why he's taking "big swings" with the Absolute Power event in our exclusive interview.

'Ray Gun' is a Western-themed horror written by Christopher Cantwell and drawn by Stray Bullets creator David Lapham, who makes his EC Comics debut here. In the story, a washed up cowboy is startled by a UFO encounter, only to find that it leaves behind something very special: a futuristic lazer gun which he uses to... well, check out the preview below. Hint: it's pretty gruesome.

Of course, with this being Cruel Universe, we have to expect a sting in the tale, but to find out what that is you'll have to pick up the full issue.

The issue comes with a main cover by Greg Smallwood, followed up by variants from Riley Rossmo and Jay Stephens, plus a black and white Rossmo variant, and an Archive Edition cover by Rian Hughes.

As well as 'Ray Gun' the new issue also features new stories from Chris Condon and Javier Rodriguez, Stephanie Phillips (who we interviewed yesterday about her brilliant new series with Brian Azzarello  LIFE) and Riley Rossmo, and we're also promised "a very special surprise from Ben H. Winters and Leomacs."

In our recent interview with Hunter Gorinson, the Oni Press CEO hinted that a third title would be on the way from the EC Comics imprint in the near future, saying "the third book will not be in a genre that EC specifically did stories in before. They dabbled in it, but they never had a title fully committed to it before." He also suggested that some future EC Comics titles might move away from the traditional anthology format.

Cruel Universe #2 is published by Oni Press on September 4.

EC employed some incredible artists, including some of the names that make up our guide to the best horror comics artists of all time.

But the answer to humanity's prayers may come from one of the weirdest places of all - another kind of alien parasite, the Venom symbiote.

Spoilers ahead for Aliens Vs. Avengers #1

Aliens Vs. Avengers #1 by writer Jonathan Hickman, artist Esad Ribić, colorist Ive Svorcina, and letterer Cory Petit presents an alt-reality in which not only the Xenomorphs but also the Weyland Corporation of Aliens film lore exist in the Marvel Universe. Set in the future, the story shows what happens when Weyland synths masquerading as Shi'ar scientists launch a coordinated Xenomorph attack on Earth, designed to wipe out humanity in the name of turning the entire planet into a weaponized Xenomorph hive.

Earth quickly falls, with the Inhuman city of Attilan, the nation of Wakanda, and even the underwater kingdom of Atlantis are all overtaken by Xenomorphs, while the island of Krakoa is abandoned, with the mutants all fleeing to planet Arakko/Mars. This leaves just one last human city standing, though the Xenomorphs are encroaching further every day.

Fortunately, there are a few Avengers left standing to help combat the Xenomorphs, but they're all getting old, and their chances are dwindling. They're all holed up in the Weyland Corporation building - an appropriate setting for an Aliens story if there ever was one.

There's Carol Danvers, aging but still cosmically powerful. There's Bruce Banner, whose human body is starting to fail, but who can transform into a fully intelligent Hulk apparently at will. And there's Miles Morales, who seems to be the same old Spider-Man, all grown up. And there's someone named only "the old man of Weyland," but who is vaguely hinted to potentially be an elderly Tony Stark. There's still time for this to be proven very wrong, but both Iron Man and Captain America are shown on the issue's cover, so it's likely we'll see them in some form or another.

Finally, there's Valeria Richards, now in her 40s, the last of the Richards family, who has left the safety of their stronghold on a mission to recover a Xenomorph egg in the hopes of creating a virus that can destroy every Xenomorph egg on the planet - which she succeeds, with a little bit of last minute help from Hulk and Miles.

However, when Bruce goes to her lab to check on her, he discovers he's locked out, with even his override codes prevented from allowing him to open the lab. Instead, a video message from Valeria plays, confessing that while she was on her mission, she was infected by a Xenomorph parasite, and has likely now succumbed to the Xenomorph lifecycle. Her message begs Bruce to leave the lab locked, but he breaks inside to find a fully grown Xenomorph along with Valeria's corpse.

Hulk dispatches the Xenomorph, though its acid blood is shown to be able burn his skin - showing why heroes like the Hulk who could normally smash through a whole horde of alien monsters aren't able to do more to individually repel the encroaching Xenomorphs. But even worse than the Xenomorph which burst from Valeria's chest, the egg she was using for her experiment has hatched, meaning there's a facehugger in the room somewhere, capable of implanting another Xenomorph egg and continuing the cycle of carnage.

Just as Captain Marvel tries to warn everyone about the facehugger, it pops out and latches onto the face of Miles Morales, attempting to implant its egg right through his mask. The heroes attempt to get it off, but Hulk explains that not even magic or psionics have been able to effectively remove a facehugger.

But as it turns out, it doesn't actually matter - Miles' suit isn't any ordinary spider-suit. It's a symbiote (maybe even the Venom symbiote), which not only repels the facehugger, but also subsumes it into a new symbiotic relationship. 

With the symbiote apparently in control of the facehugger, it jumps back on to Miles, creating a new kind of Xeno-Venom symbiote, which may even provide some kind of window into how to defeat the Xenomorph scourge - though we'll have to wait and see if the symbiote is able to keep the facehugger at bay indefinitely, or if it becomes something even worse.

Aliens Vs. Avengers #2 goes on sale November 6. 

Check out the best Avengers stories of all time.

LIFE takes the form of a flipbook, with each side following a different character. In one, ex-con Bobby dreams of a fresh start, but he is inevitably pulled back into taking a dangerous final score – a heist that may prove fatal. In the other, mass murderer CJ, nicknamed "the Cassanova Killer", is sentenced to live out 32 full-term life sentences – and he'll feel every minute of them. 

How these two stories crash together in different and surprising ways is at the heart of LIFE. Newsarama caught up with Azzarello and Phillips to find out more...

Newsarama: Brian, Stephanie, congratulations on the excellent first issue of LIFE! I'm interested to know where the idea to present this comic as a flip book came from and how that informed the two main stories you're telling here?

Brian Azzarello: Why thank you. The idea for LIFE actually came from two ideas and probably a couple beers at Cigar City Tap Room in Tampa. Stephanie was telling me about a project she was looking to develop – a futuristic, interplanetary heist story. As she explained her tale, it dawned on me that an idea I was working on, which dealt with prisoners forced to serve out multiple life sentences, could be grafted to hers, so I mentioned it. Lucky for us she felt the same as I did – maybe even more excitedly. I think she was the one who came up with the flip-book idea as something that DSTLRY would be into. She understands what gets Chip and David gung ho.

Stephanie Phillips: That all sounds about right. It's something we spent a long time working together before bringing it to DSTLRY and making it real. It's exciting to finally see it in print and out in the world. 

The book has two protagonists, Bobby who is taking on the fabled "one last job" and the Cassanova Killer – an unrepentant murderer. What can you tell us about these two very different characters?

Azzarello: Well, Bobby wants out of the life, but agrees to the job to make his partner in crime Jax happy and rich, probably in that order. Bad decision, heart in the right place. CJ – The Cassanova Killer… he's heartless and incredibly charismatic. A lethal combination that landed him in prison hundreds of years ago and led him up the ranks to top dog. He's always working an angle to get what he wants.

Phillips: Right, and there are times where you will both like and hate all of these characters in equal measure. I think that makes the questions we're asking about justice even more impactful as we question our own relationship and understanding of the characters. 

The ethics of criminal punishment are a clear theme here. How does LIFE explore this theme and what drew you to telling this story?

Azzarello: Well that's a question that's been struggled with forever. How does a moral society deal with immoral people? And who's to say what's immoral in the first place? Is the death penalty immoral? Is life imprisonment moral? What if the ability existed to keep criminals alive and imprisoned for hundreds of years to live out their sentences? Does that make immortality immoral? My head hurts…

This is both a prison break and a heist story. Does mashing these two genres together give you the opportunity to tell a new kind of crime story?

Azzarello: Is there a new kind of crime story? Maybe A.I., maybe. I think what we're doing is a new kind of setting for a crime story. The interplanetary aspects, the living your multiple life sentences, that kind of stuff. But at the heart of every crime story is an ego and a mistake. Been that way since Cain murdered his brother.

This is your first time writing together. How does your collaboration work? Did you take one half of the book each, or did you each work on both stories?

Phillips: It's a mix. We work really closely on all of it, switch parts as needed, and try to go back-and-forth on different scenes for Danijel. It's definitely unlike any way that I have worked, and I'm glad. 

How was working with Danijel Zezelj and Lee Loughridge on the book? What does their art and coloring bring to LIFE?

Azzarello: It's been fantastic working with Danijel again after too many years. Back in the day I thought that he was an artist that "gets me." Well, he still does. His work is thick and moody; perfect for these stories. When we asked him about a colorist he immediately said Lee. Looking at the work the two are doing together, it's easy to see why. Another "gets me" thing, right?

Phillips: It's my first time working with Danijel and it's been a great experience. Brian mentioned his work as someone he thought would immediately fit the setting, and seeing him and Lee create this world has been inspiring on our end as well. 

No spoilers, but the first issue ends – whichever way around you read it – with these two strands about to crash together. What can you tease about #2?

Azzarello: That it follows #1? Look, the strands are going to criss cross and separate and events that seem a certain way to one side might wildly diverge to the other. But let's never lose sight of the fact that both sides are criminals, people that have little regard for law, so anything can happen. And anything does. I don't even want to breathe a word about #3.

Phillips: Not sure I could give a better teaser than that… 

LIFE #1 is out now from DSTLRY.

Check out our interview with Tula Lotay and Becky Cloonan about their Eisner Awar-winning folk horror Somna.

The second volume in the reprint series, covering the White Star Rising arc, will be published as both a series of three single issues starting this October, and as a collected edition in May 2025, where it will be available in both trade paperback and limited edition hardcover formats. We've got a preview of the book for you right here which shows off several of Emi Fujii's newly-colored pages in the gallery below...

Also included in the book is a new short story by Stan and Julie Sakai that expands the Space Usagi universe. "'Akemi and the Secret Invasion' is the first full length story featuring the daughter of the current Space Usagi," said Sakai in a statement to Newsarama. "It has a lot of excitement, but sprinkled with whimsy and cuteness. I'm sure people will enjoy this first look at a new, unlikely action hero." 

You can check out the first page of the new tale below.

Both the trade paperback and hardcover collections of Space Usagi: White Star Rising run to 88-pages, with the hardcover also including a numbered tip-in sheet signed by Stan Sakai.

Here's Dark Horse's official solicitation info for the new volume:

"The rabbit ronin's classic adventures in space continue – now in color! Taking place directly after the Space Usagi: Death and Honor arc, Stan Sakai's second Space Usagi series sees Miyamoto Usagi continuing to defend the Shirohoshi clan in the far future from scheming rivals, the Kajitori. New friends, like space pirate Rhogen, and new enemies, led by Empress Amateh, are introduced in this miniseries now colored by longtime collaborator Emi Fujii! This collection also includes new stories by Julie Sakai and Stan Sakai, featuring Space Usagi’s Akemi character! Collects Space Usagi: White Star Rising #1–#3."

Writers: Stan Sakai, Julie Sakai
Artist: Stan Sakai
Colorist: Emi Fujii
Cover Artist: Stan Sakai
Format: Trade paperback ($17.99), hardcover ($59.99)

The collected Space Usagi: White Star Rising is published by Dark Horse Comics on May 20, 2025.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are one of the best teen superhero teams ever.

For Black Canary: Best of the Best, writer Tom King, whose comic book accolades are too numerous to list but who is best known for stories like Mister Miracle, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and the current ongoing Wonder Woman series, is teaming up with artist Ryan Sook, who may just be the perfect collaborator for a story focusing on Dinah Laurel Lance and her mother Dinah Drake Lance.

The story takes Black Canary and Lady Shiva and traps them in, in King's words, the "four corners of a ring" for a knockdown drag out fight that hides a deeper core of the emotional reckoning between a mother and daughter as they both face their own life-defining stakes.

Newsarama spoke with King and Sook ahead of the November 27 release of Black Canary: Best of the Best #1, digging into the reasons why Black Canary is one of the most dynamic and interesting DC heroes, the influence the WWE and MMA had on the depiction of the big fight, and why King promises "you'll fucking cheer" by the time the limited series - and the fight - are done.

Newsarama: Tom, Ryan, first off, I just want to say, I got to read the first issue of Black Canary and I loved it. So the first thing I want to ask is Tom -

Tom King: Why so many words? Why so many words? [Laughs]

Nrama: I would never! [laughs] Tom, you've said before something along the lines that writing a specific character isn't necessarily important to you, it's all about finding an angle with a character that lets you tell a good story. So what was the thing that made you say, "Yes, I can do a Black Canary story?" What made it click for you?

King: It was two ideas coming together in my head at the same time. Number one, my oldest son became a huge WWE fan. That was not my nerd growing up, but he got way into it, the way I got into comics as a kid. And remembering how my parents sort of very much did not enjoy my comics and did not participate in my hobby, I kind of wanted to do the opposite. 

So I decided to watch WWE with him, and read the books, and buy the toys, and I got very much into watching it. I became fascinated with the way they just had four corners of a ring to tell, like, 80 years of storytelling. The challenge of that just blows my mind, that they make it so compelling. And every writer sees something they love, and they want to participate in it.

That was half of it. The other half goes back to a retreat a long time ago, a sort of famous retreat, with me, Scott Snyder, Becky Cloonan, and James Tynion, and we were trying to plan a Batman event. So we jokingly came up with something called 'Knight Fight,' Knight with a 'K,' and the joke pitch was that all the Bat-characters would get together for a tournament. We just joked over who would win, and we all just decided that it would be Black Canary, because she's the second best fighter in the DC Universe. It always stuck with me, what an odd person for it to be. That's how she became the main character.

It was like, if she's the second best, who is the best, and how does Black Canary become the best? And I just started running with that.

Nrama: Ryan, how did Tom bring you into that vision of Black Canary? And what's your history with her? I know you've drawn your fair share of fishnets over the years.

Ryan Sook: I have done my share of fishnets over the years [laughs]. But Black Canary, she's a character I've only ever had the chance to draw in publication on a handful of covers over the years, and she's one of my all time favorite characters. I just thought there was always so much potential with her, even though I hadn't seen it fully tapped. 

But I was working with our editor Ben Abernathy, and he asked me, "Oh could you do this other thing?" And I said I was kinda busy. But he goes, "Well I've got this Black Canary script that Tom King wrote…" And I was immediately like, let me see it, I want to do that. I literally had another thing lined up and I dropped it like a hot potato. I apologize to whatever that was.

But yeah, I was definitely in on this. I've been looking for an opportunity to work with Tom, whether he knew it or not. And when Ben mentioned it to me I just said, "I would love to do that." And it was a hard call, it's the only time I've ever done that in 30 years of comics. But I said to myself, I have to draw this book. It's Black Canary, she's one of my favorite characters. And she's got that great duality to her. She looks like an angel but she fights like a devil.

It's the drama that Tom wrote, the characterization that he wrote, and the backstory for both Dinah Laurel Lance and Dinah Drake Lance, it's this incredible mother-daughter story. That's what drew me in. And Tom was cool with it, the editor was cool with it, and I couldn't be happier.

Nrama: You both brought up some interesting points I'd like to touch on. First off, Tom, you mentioned writers wanting to be part of the things they enjoy, and I think this comic is a great example of how both comic writers and artists have to be able to step into all kinds of different roles to have these stories feel credible - you have to be fighters, commentators, all of it. How do you prepare for that, both in terms of how it's scripted, and how it's drawn on the page?

King: I mean, half of that is just trusting your artist. I'm not the kind of guy who's going to tell Ryan, this kick should look like this. And here's the exact move, and the physics would never work this way, and so on. That's just not how I write or read superhero comics. I just write something like "Black Canary kicks Shiva in her stupid face," and then Ryan makes it look realistic. So I don't want to say that I did incredible amounts of research into how fighting works. All that is from Ryan.

As for the commentators and the dialogue and stuff, I did sit down and do my 10,000 hours watching Raw and SmackDown and a lot of WWE pay-per-views, getting those down and just hearing those two voices in my head. I based them on two of my friends who are both huge fight fans, I'm more of a football guy. So I talked to John Siuntres and Mike Kronenberg, two big fight guys who gave me the sort of ins and outs of how that works. And I projected that. 

And then, you know, you steal as much from non-fiction as you start to steal from fiction [laughs]. I stole from, you know, Neal Adams' Superman Versus Muhammed Ali, I stole from a lot of the Kickboxer movies I grew up watching in high school with my friends. It's called 'Best of the Best' as a tribute to one of my favorite kickboxing movies from childhood, starring Eric Roberts. 

So it's a combination of, like, every moment you've been on Earth, plus the research you need to put yourself over

Sook: Yeah, absolutely same thing for me. I mean, I got the script, I read it, I try to, as an artist, just draw what the writer writes. You know, I mean that. And I've never been a big, big fight fan myself, So research for me was watching some Holly Holm/Ronda Rousey fights and stuff like that, and actually kind of getting into some of those UFC and MMA fights, just for research. 

Which I gotta tell you, as someone who's seen some boxing matches, I was literally horrified. I could only watch a few, because in boxing, if somebody falls on the mat, they give them time to get up if they can. But in MMA, they jump on them and pound their head to a pulp until they can't walk. You know, it's gnarly. And this is that kind of fight, so that was my research.

Also watching WWE over the years. I've never been a huge follower of it, but a researcher of it. You can't help but appreciate the dynamic athletes, and using them for reference  over the years has been a huge part of drawing comics. They're such great athletes, and to see them do this crazy stuff for real, I love that kind of stuff.

And you know, one of my favorite things about the dialog Tom wrote in the book is that the fight announcers kind of narrate the story. It's got this brilliant back-and-forth where you can read the fight and then you can read about her life and they're kind of narrating the same thing. It's such a great overlay, it's really, really fun to read.

Nrama: Ryan, you brought up the relationship between the two Dinahs, and that really feels like the driving force of the whole story, at least in the set up. Tom, how did you land on that particular relationship as the emotional heartbeat of this series? You mentioned that you got into WWE thanks to your son, so that parent-child dynamic seems to be part of the origin of the story, too.

King: Yeah, no, no, the emotional core of this whole series is Dinah and her mother. It's the two Black Canaries. And it's getting at what is the great theme of DC, which is legacy, and the idea of sort of picking up another person's mantle, which mirrors what all of us are doing as writers and artists. We're picking up another person's mantle. 

You know, Neal Adams is laying it down, and I'm picking it up. You're trying to learn from the best to be the best. And, yeah, this is very much a story about parenting, about making mistakes in parenting, about the cost of those mistakes, about people loving each other, and how, you know, love and hate live right next to each other in our psyche, especially in dealing with our relatives.

And how you can edge back and forth, and sort of how complicated those relationships can become, how delicate, how beautiful, and how motivating. All that stuff is in here. And you don't see that much in comics. Comics are most often father-son stories, not mother-daughter stories, just because, you know, we tell a lot of stories about sidekicks, and that usually tends to be a father son dynamic. So it was a new territory to delve into there. 

As for the personal side of it, yeah. I mean, half my life is working on comics. The other half is being a father full-time and raising three kids, including raising a daughter with a mother and seeing their relationship develop and evolve, and the beauty of that. And I tried to put all of that in the comic.

Nrama: And Ryan, on that note, what are your touchstones for the visual depictions of their relationship? There's a lot of fighting in this comic, but there's also a tremendous amount of tenderness. How do you dig into that dichotomy with the visuals?

Sook: Yeah, it's kind of like Tom said, you sort of, you have this whole life that you've lived, and you draw on all of it  to tell a story, visuals and everything else. I have a sister and a mother and they have a relationship. I have two young daughters, and watch them with my wife. And so to be able to sort of draw just from life, that was the thing I really wanted to do for the whole book, both the dramatic side and the character side and the fighting, was to ground it in something totally believable. 

Because when I read it, it was believable. The relationship between the two Dinahs, it's not a father-son story. It's a very different dynamic. And I like it because it has a real grit to it, it has a real value to it. And it develops through the whole series, it kind of goes places I didn't expect it to go, but I was glad that it did, because it doesn't really, you know, it doesn't hold anything back. 

And, yeah, those are, those are actually the scenes that I liked drawing probably the most are those relationship scenes where they're talking in the kitchen or driving in the car, or she's, you know, helping, encouraging her to train and and the sort of positive and negative that goes along with that, with that parent-child relationship. Great stuff.

Nrama: My favorite scene in Black Canary #1 is where all Dinah's allies from the Justice League and other heroes are sitting around watching the fight, and there's just so much going on it almost feels like a Mad Magazine bit, just little visual gags all over the page. But it also shows so much personality, in a way that it feels like many superhero comics don't take the time to do anymore. How much of that spread was in the script and how much came straight from your brain? I just loved that bit so much.

King: Nothing, nothing was in the script. Ryan doesn't have to protect me. [Laughs]

Sook: No, I took everything from Tom's script, it's full of material. There's always those moments that you can try to add a little something, but the characters are just such great characters. I don't know, Aquaman and Mira showing up with a platter of seafood for the gang to share. I can't help but love to draw that kind of stuff. And, you know, Clark cooking hot dogs with laser vision. 

You've got to have fun with it, because that's what they're doing. They're having fun, it's a get together for fight night. But they're still a team, that's kind of what I really liked about it. They're like, what's going on with Dinah? Why is she doing this? And I love their reactions. It's such a great scene.

Nrama: Ryan, I want to ask, what was your favorite specific thing to draw? And what have you drawn that we haven't seen yet that you can tease us on?

There's a great scene where Dinah is training and, there's been a preview floating around showing Batman wrapping up his hands. So we know that he's in the book and he makes an appearance, but when she's out training and he shows up, that scene is a brilliant scene.

And I really love this book in the visuals, because it's a straight knuckle down fight, and it's not relying on what so many other superhero books that I've drawn are relying on, which is laser beams and superpowers and all of the things that we can have fun with, with superheroes. 

It really tells you what a hero is. And all the storytelling and all the visuals go into telling you what a hero is, and it's way more than any of that stuff. 

It's more than the costume. It's stripped away. Tom stripped it down to this ring, you know, those four corners and the straight fight, and some of those scenes in the fight have just been a pleasure to draw. Even though it's never been my strength, I would say I'm learning to love it. And getting to pull from guys like Alex Toth, who did this Black Canary story, one of my favorites. 

I feel like the success of this comic for me so far, as far as drawing it, is just that I think when I was a kid, I probably would have really liked it. That's always the best. The feeling when you draw a comic, or you did the cover for it, and you look at it and you go, man, when I was in 7-Eleven, at 12 years old, I would have bought that. 

Nrama: This is a question for both of you. What makes Black Canary so special and so unique in the DC Universe, even though she's a character that hasn't quite broken out into being a household name?

King: Oh, man. I mean, a few things. Number one, she's got an incredible silhouette. I mean, like, I think working with Batman, you're like, nobody looks cooler than Batman. But goddamn, Black Canary looks cool. Like Ryan said, it's when you're 11 years old and you're in 7-Eleven and you see a Black Canary comic. Like, oh, man, that that's somebody I want to see. 

Number two, she has sides to her, but there's something about her that's like, essentially punk rock. There's something about her that's like, rebellious. There's something about her that's like, fuck the system, fuck you, fuck everyone, that I just very much gravitate to, and I think is very cool. 

She's definitely the one who, you know, when Batman calls a mission together, she's the one who's like "That's a stupid plan." She's the one who will raise her voice. I love that about her. I love that she's a legacy, I love the story between her and her mother and their complicated issues. I love that she's a character who's existed since the beginning, almost as long as Batman, since the '40s.

And also, just to mention something that's maybe my favorite. What's the best drawn superhero comic of all time? That Alex Toth Black Canary issue. That lives in my head as, like, the greatest of our medium. Toth took her and made the greatest story. So that makes her awesome.

Sook: Yeah, absolutely. It's just great. She's a great looking character. I mean, that is really what it kind of comes down to. For me, I go back to that duality thing. She's beautiful, she looks like a bombshell - but she's a bombshell, and she'll go off. She's the kind of girl that will beat you up, and you fall in love with her because of it. That makes her really unique to me. And of course, she's a lot of fun to draw.

Nrama: Tom, I asked Ryan this, so before we go, what can you tease us on that we haven't seen yet for Black Canary: Best of the Best?

I've said this a lot, but I'm gonna say it again. My favorite part about comics is when a superhero gets pushed as hard as they can be pushed, and then stands up and keeps fighting, because it inspires me in my own life. 

I've used those comics since I was eight years old to be like, alright, you know, I got bullied today. I'm getting back up and keep fighting because freaking Superman got off the mat. And so this comic, obviously, is about a fight. And I think the best part of, you know, any WWE match, in any boxing match, is that moment where your opponent is like, he is gone. That it's just impossible. But they get off the mat and they're like, no, it ain't over. You know, it ain't over. It ain't over. 

And if you don't think I'm putting that in this comic, then you don't know me as a writer. That's coming and you're gonna fucking cheer, and I'm gonna cheer when it happens, it's awesome.

Black Canary was actually the leader of one of the best Justice League line-ups of all time, and a member of many more.

The chapter opens with a flashback to Yuta and Gojo's Body Swap training with the two discussing who should have Sukuna's last finger. As we saw at the end of Chapter 266, that final finger is still out there and we learn more about it this chapter. Yuta wants to feed it to Rika, believing that it will enable her to copy Sukuna's Malevolent Shrine. Gojo doesn't thing that the plan will work, however.

Back in the present, Yuji and Sukuna are mid-battle. We discover that Utahime and Gakuganju have the final finger. Not only that, but it's revealed that Nobara is alive, having previously been thought killed by Mahito in the Shibuya Incident arc. Despite being awake for less than an hour, Nobara uses Resonance on the finger, causing visceral damage to Sukuna in the process. This is enough to give Yuji the edge in the battle. He uses Dismantle and then lands a powerful Black Flash on the King of Curses, badly wounding him. 

This is certainly a memorable chapter! While Nobara's return is a surprise, especially coming this late in the game, her fate has been the subject of fan speculation ever since her apparent death in 2020, which never seemed entirely clear cut. It will be fascinating to see what further role she has to play in the series which now has just four chapters to go...

You can read Jujutsu Kaisen in the pages of Weekly Shōnen Jump and online at the VIZ website and app. The final chapter of the series will be released on September 30.

Keen to start reading manga? Here are 10 incredible ongoing series you should be reading right now.

There's been a healthy skepticism from fans online about a VR-focused sequel of another VR-only Arkham game, but from my early hands-on time with Batman: Arkham Shadow, it shows great promise in evoking that same thrill of being the Bat and exploring the underbelly of Gotham City that the Rocksteady games succeeded at. GamesRadar+ also spoke with Camouflaj head and Batman: Arkham Shadow game director Ryan Payton about making a direct sequel to Batman: Arkham Origins and why Rocksteady's original Arkham Asylum was a core influence on giving Batman a new life in VR.

The Bat's VR comeback

2016's Batman: Arkham VR from Rocksteady Studios was the series' first attempt at VR, but while novel, it felt more like an experiment with the budding technology than a full experience. But with Arkham Shadow, developer Camouflaj is building its Arkham Origins sequel as a return to "classic" Batman: Arkham while adapting the full combat, stealth, and investigation experiences into a new dimension.

Building off of the dev's work on Iron Man VR, Arkham Shadow puts a significant focus on capturing the experience of being Batman, right down to getting players to match his many mannerisms to execute actions using the cape to glide or stun enemies, extending your arm to aim the grappling hook, or swiping your arms to toss batarangs. When working on the adaptation to VR, game director Ryan Payton explains that despite challenges with bringing that Arkham experience to VR, some things made for a natural fit for the new medium.

"We actually found that some aspects of the Arkham gameplay adapted well from the flat experience. For instance, the detective vision mapped really well into VR, like to a surprising degree," says Payton. "You activate the detective vision by bringing the right motion control to your right temple and tapping the button, and then you're completely enveloped in the familiar detective vision mode, and it's a nice way of allowing the players to understand very quickly and clearly what to interact with. There were aspects I wasn't convinced at first would translate well into VR, but if anything, I think parts of the game feel even better in VR. You're more a part of this world with VR."

From the opening hour, Arkham Shadow feels like a very deliberate throwback to the structure of Arkham Asylum – except the perspective is entirely in first-person and uses a unique control scheme focusing on motion controls and face buttons from the Quest 3 controllers. It's a different way to engage with a Batman: Arkham experience, but one that got surprisingly intuitive and familiar the more I played. 

Arkham Shadow's most significant deviation from the core formula is combat, which now goes for a more tempo- and gesture-based attack flow. As soon as you launch yourself towards the enemy, you have to follow specific patterns for each individual opponent as they can block and counter any careless strikes from you. Finishing moves are now triggered by swiping your controllers up or down to execute grabs or slam attacks. The action in Arkham Shadow makes for intense sessions, and I quickly worked up a sweat.

It took some time to get used to this flow, but when I did it gave me the same sense of satisfaction I got from taking out foes in previous Arkham games. One frustrating aspect was incoming attacks, which require you to jut your forearm in the same manner that Batman does in the Arkham games in the specific direction of an off-screen attack. The counter timing's tricky and awkward to get a handle on in the middle of combat. 

While combat is different but still satisfying, the investigation and stealth gameplay in VR are the most engaging and enjoyable sections of Arkham Shadow. The VR stealth in particular functions just like the original games, but with a focus on gesture-based actions. For example, by actually making a grabbing motion with the controllers, you can perform stealth takedowns. It's thrilling to play these sections in VR as executing vertical takedowns and gliding in first-person was so fun to pull off and VR really heightens the tension in stealth; very familiar set-piece sections suddenly feel new with the change of perspective.

Early years and familiar haunts

Making Batman: Arkham Shadow a direct sequel to Arkham Origins, which had such a novel approach to the series, is the most interesting choice the developers made. Arkham Origins brought lesser-known characters into the story and featured a more character-driven plot that showed more genuine pathos to characters like Batman and Joker in ways that its predecessors didn't.

With Arkham Shadows set six months after the end of Arkham Origins and its spin-off Blackgate, Gotham City is under siege by a mysterious organization known as the Cult of the Rat King during the week of the Fourth of July. As crime escalates, Batman (voiced by returning actor Roger Craig Smith) investigates the cult while teaming with Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent to find the leader. Along the way, Batman encounters other characters from the Rogues Gallery, including deep-cuts like the Ratcatcher and Lock-Up, who also have a role to play in Gotham's summer of violence.

According to Payton, post-Arkham Origins was a rich era left untapped in the larger Arkhamverse – and it was also an opportunity to revisit one of the Arkham series' most underappreciated games.

"We're committed storytellers, and I always look for character-focused stories and take them to interesting places," says Payton. "The timeline around Origins was such an interesting place. We see Batman as very confident but still in his early years, and he's now made himself more known to Gotham City. It's such an unexplored space compared to the very crowded time of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, and we had so much breathing room to tell an original story that tapped into what made Origins great while going deeper on returning characters and bringing in some new ones."

Arkham Shadows does revisit some familiar locations and regions of Gotham City, such as the Monarch Theater and its district, but the developers stress that it is not an open world game. It's structured through interconnected zones for a more story-driven experience, to give players more time to fully take in areas for exploration and activities, along with finding hidden collectibles such as the Rat King's radio broadcasts scattered throughout the game.

"I feel like going for a more Arkham Asylum-type experience was an appropriate place for us to go, especially with this being our first Batman game," he says. "Also, fans were ready for a tight, interconnected Arkham Asylum-like experience with a more defined and set area to explore. Even though the franchise just got bigger and bigger in scale, it was a great opportunity for us to have that tighter structure while returning to this Origins era."

In fact, fans might be surprised to learn just how faithful Arkham Shadow is to the formula of an Arkham game. From the opening hour I played, Batman: Arkham Shadow's atmosphere and pacing felt similar to Arkham Asylum and its larger interconnected metroidvania structure, which felt right for the focus on VR gameplay. It's also refreshing to see Batman: Arkham Origins get a direct follow-up, as, in my view, it's low-key the best Arkham game thanks to its tighter cast of characters and a plot that dealt with Batman's steady growth into becoming Gotham's protector.

So far, Batman: Arkham Shadow is shaping up to be a worthy and satisfying continuation of the series. While owning a Meta Quest 3 and one's mileage for enjoying VR games may prove to be a hurdle for many, Arkham Shadow is still a promising revisit to everything that made Arkham work in the first place. It doesn't reinvent the Batwheel, but it does heighten what made the games so great with its change of perspective.

Batman: Arkham Shadow is set to release for the Meta Quest 3 in October 2024. While you wait, you could always check out some of the best VR games.