Batman's Detective Comics to run weekly beginning this winter, but with a lot less of Batman

Detective Comics #1050 variant cover
Detective Comics #1050 variant cover (Image credit: Lee Bermejo (DC))

DC's long-running Detective Comics title will be picking up the pace after the December holidays, with new issues planned weekly for the foreseeable future. 

The title, which has been monthly or twice-monthly in recent memory, will begin coming out weekly with December 28's Detective Comics #1046 - a coda to the current 'Fear State' crossover event.

(Image credit: DC)

Newsarama has confirmed that DC's Detective Comics title is planned to be a weekly release at least through late March 2022. 

A 12-part event titled 'Shadows of the Bat' will begin in January 4, 2022's Detective Comics #1047, dealing with Batman's decision to leave Gotham City and the vrious Bat-family characters who step up to fill the void.

The Detective Comics release schedule is picking up in part due to the main Batman title, which is commonly released twice-a-month, going back to a monthly schedule in December once the new creative team of writer Joshua Williamson and artist Jorge Molina take over Batman.

(Image credit: DC)

The Batman title will follow Bruce Wayne out of Gotham while Detective Comics will be a mostly-Batman-less Gotham City series focusing on the remaining Bat-family - much like the upcoming Gotham Knights game.

One of the first things the Bat-family will deal with is Gotham City's replacement for Arkham Asylum, which was destroyed back in March 2021's Infinite Frontier #0 as part of the Joker's A-Day. The newly-christened Arkham Tower - and its new treatment methods by a mysterious Dr. Wear, whom DC has hinted is actually a returning DC villain in disguise.

Keep track of this and all the new Batman comics, graphic novels, and collections in 2021 and beyond. 

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)