Aquamen catches up to Dark Crisis in July plus a look at Dark Crisis #2

Aquamen #6 cover art (Image credit: DC)

Another DC ongoing series is catching up to Dark Crisis.

Regular Newsarama readers might be familiar with our efforts to understand and explain the timeline of the Death of the Justice League - Dark Crisis event, which happens a "bit in the future" of DC Universe continuity. And now there is a new wrinkle.

Aquaman, the relatively new ongoing series co-starring Arthur Curry and Jackson Hyde in the title roles, will 'catch up' to the event storyline in July 26's Aquamen #6 by writers Chuck Brown and Brandon Thomas and artist Sami Basri.

In what's officially a Dark Crisis tie-in issue, "After hearing about Arthur's death, Mera and the others must each find a way to come to terms with their loss and move forward," reads DC's description. "In his time of grief, Jackson finds comfort from the last person he ever expected…his father!"

Here are looks at July's Aquamen #6 covers by Travis Moore (above) and Fico Ossio (right). A third variant cover by Philip Tan will also be offered.

Aquamen will be the second DC ongoing series to mirror the events of Justice League #75 and Dark Crisis. In June, The Flash series begins a tie-in storyline set concurrent to the death of the Justice Leaguers.

However, July's ongoing Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman titles are still featuring storylines starring their lead superheroes that die in April 26's Justice League #75 along with other series like Nightwing and Deathstroke Inc. that are still pre-Dark Crisis.

And with Batman (six issues) and Detective Comics (four issues) both beginning multi-part monthly story arcs starring Bruce Wayne with brand new creative teams, it doesn't look likely those titles will catch up to Dark Crisis anytime soon.

Our best current guess is editorial offices/creative teams were given the option of matching/catching up with Joshua Williamson's event storyline at a time of their choosing.

The seven-issue Dark Crisis is scheduled to continue through December (assuming no skip months) and it'll bear watching if other ongoing in-continuity series join the event in the upcoming months.

And speaking of Williamson's Dark Crisis proper, issue #2 goes on sale July 5 illustrated by series artists Daniel Sampere and Alejandro Sánchez.

Williamson tweeted an interior image (seen here) by Sampere and Sánchez from the issue, which as you can see features Deathstroke and Cyborg Superman.

"The House Of Nightwing Burns!" reads DC's description of Dark Crisis #2.

"As the good people of the world mourn the loss of the Justice League, the forces of evil have seized the opportunity to wreak havoc in a world without its heroes! Leading the charge is a super-powered Slade Wilson…but this time there's something dark fueling his rage. With a massive army laying siege to Titans Tower, only Nightwing will have what it takes to stand in the way of Deathstroke's forces - but is this a fight Dick Grayson can win? Look, up in the sky - reinforcements are on the way! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's…uh-oh...it's Cyborg Superman. The world burns as Pariah and the Great Darkness make their play for planet Earth in this jaw-dropping second issue!"

Dark Crisis #2 features a main cover by Daniel Sampere and variant covers by Juliet Nneka, Mario Foccillo, and Lucio Parrillo and we'll get you a look at those soon as we can.

Look for DC's full July 2022 solicitations at noon ET, Friday, April 15.

Will Dark Crisis make Newsarama's list of the best DC stories of all time? Time will tell.

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.