The bad guys are taking over September at DC Comics. With Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other superheroes mysteriously gone from the world, the DC Universe’s greatest ne’er-do-wells take the spotlight hostage in “Villains Month.”
Beginning Wednesday and going through the end of the month, all 52 superhero titles, from Justice League to Batman, get a bad-guy makeover. Iconic villains Lex Luthor, Catwoman, the Riddler, Harley Quinn and the Flash’s Rogues Gallery each get an issue (available digitally and in comic shops), as do newer and lesser-known baddies such as the Joker’s Daughter, Relic and the female Ventriloquist.
Also launching this week is Forever Evil, an event series by writer Geoff Johns and artist David Finch. The book centers on the arrival of the Crime Syndicate of America, a villainous version of the Justice League from the parallel world of Earth 3 — deemed “the birthplace of evil.”
“One of the things that makes us stand out from others is our depth and breadth of our villains,” says DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee. “Sometimes our villains are even more infamous than some of our heroes, and we are able to explore that side of the universe in a way very few other companies can.”
The issues of “Villains Month” have the baddest of bad guys and girls driving the stories — from origin tales to those crafted to find the character’s individual motivations. Plus, each comes with a 3-D motion lenticular cover.
DC’s evildoers “have awesome names, they’ve always been the yin to the heroes’ yang, and they’ve all made the heroes richer and more interesting because of the reflections they cast,” Lee explains.
“When you look at a character as determined and obsessed as Batman, and you look at the flip side of that and see a horrifying villain in Joker, you see why Batman’s a hero. You see the line that separates him from the dark side.”
