Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV will team with Jim Lee, Andy Kubert and John Romita Jr. this summer for Dark Days: The Forge and Dark Days: The Casting, two one-shots that lead into a major event that Snyder has been building towards for years.
DC Comics hasn’t been much in the business of mega-crossover events since The New 52. Outside of Forever Evil and the schedule-filling Convergence, most of the stories that could be described as “events” have been franchise focused. However, part of DC Rebirth‘s core goal has been to reunite the DC Universe, and perhaps there’s no better way to do that than with an old-fashioned crossover event. In the announcement provided by DC, Scott Snyder revealed the scope of Dark Days:
“Art like this demands an epic story. Dark Days posits a mystery that traces all the way back to when I started on Batman. I’ve hinted at them over the years with Easter eggs and clues. This is a mystery that literally begins at the dawn of man and spans generations of heroes and villains and ultimately leads to huge revelations about the past, present and future of the cosmology of DC. I couldn’t be more excited for Dark Days. It’s the prelude to the event we’ve been developing for years.”
Jim Lee’s cover for Dark Days: The Forge shows a Batman-themed statue clad in a mysterious armor that, to my eye, looks almost Apokoliptian, and the helmet looks reminiscent of Orion‘s iconic headgear. Could Dark Days lead into a new Fourth World story, completing the loop on what Geoff Johns and Jim Lee started on Justice League?
One of the goals of Dark Days also seems to be to bring artists back as a major creative force behind the events, as explained by Jim Lee.
“Working with Scott and James on Dark Days is the culmination of the big ideas and endless brainstorming that came out of a recent creative summit. It was tremendous fun having peers like Andy Kubert and JRJR in with some of our top writers. Strategically, Dan [Didio] and I have talked for a long time about bringing the artist back to the table in the genesis of big, epic events. The creative summit was just that, and the level of collaboration was truly invigorating and electrifying. We can’t wait to share Dark Days with the DC faithful…they’re in for a thrill ride!”
Dark Days: The Forge will be released on June 14, and Dark Days: The Casting hits shelves a month later on July 12.
