Batman fends off an alien invasion while Superman is MIA in Batman - Fortress

Batman: Fortress #1 cover art
Batman: Fortress #1 cover art (Image credit: DC)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story screenwriter Gary Whitta and fan-favorite artist Darick Robertson are teaming on a new "brutal and shocking" May-debuting eight-issue series called Batman: Fortress.

Batman: Fortress #2 cover (Image credit: DC)

Global power and communications are disrupted and Earth is plunged into chaos when an unknown alien ship enters Earth's atmosphere, but the world is left wondering where Superman is.

The Man of Steel is mysteriously absent so it looks like this is a job for ... Batman, who must gather together the remainder of the Justice League to combat the alien threat.

(Not bad for a bunch of dead guys, right?)

It also looks like part of Batman's plan might be to take over Superman's arctic headquarters as the titular "Fortress" as DC says Whitta and Robertson "join forces to raid the Fortress of Solitude!"

But wherever his base of operations, Batman must also contend with quelling a crime wave on the streets of Gotham City that is blacked out without power.

Whitta and Robertson worked together recently on the creator-owned series Oliver, for Image Comics.

Batman: Fortress #1 variant cover (Image credit: DC)

"This has been my first opportunity to collaborate with my Oliver co-creator Gary Whitta for DC, on a character that is one of my all-time favorites to draw," says Robertson. "I'm having the best time creating the art for this series and with my pal and original The Boys editor, Ben Abernathy at the helm, it's been a dream project, with a lot of fun twists and surprises ahead for the readers!"

According to the publisher, those fun twists and surprises wind up turning "everything you think you know about Superman upside down."

"It's always been my dream to write a truly epic Batman story, one that draws inspiration from some dark and unexpected corners of the DC universe," says Whitta. "The opportunity to once again collaborate with my friend Darick Robertson makes this all the sweeter. I hope that together we’ve done justice to some of DC's most iconic characters, while at the same time reinventing everything you thought you knew about them…"

Batman: Fortress #1 will feature a cover by Robertson and variant covers by Doaly and Robertson, and goes on sale May 24. Check out all the covers below. Look for DC's full May 2022 schedule later in February here at Newsarama.

There have been some great Batman stories over the years; in fact, here are picks for the best Batman stories of all time.

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.