Jason Aaron makes his DC return with Batman

(Image credit: DC)

Writer Jason Aaron is returning to DC for a new Batman story alongside artist Doug Mahnke and inker Jamie Mendoza, as announced by IGN. The series will mark Aaron's second time writing a story in the mainstream DC Universe following 2008's Joker's Asylum: Penguin one-shot.

Though he's mostly been associated with Marvel Comics for some time, including extended stints on the X-Men and Avengers franchises, Aaron made his name in comics on his long running creator-owned title Scalped with artist RM Guera, published by DC's now-dormant Vertigo imprint. Scalped ran for 60 issues from 2007-2012.

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"A routine night in Gotham City for a young Batman proves to be anything but routine when the crime-fighter is confronted with a sort of foe he’s never faced before - one from beyond the stars!" reads DC's official description of Batman: Off-World. "A universe of possible alien threats leads Batman to make a daring decision - to venture alone into the far reaches of the cosmos for the very first time, where the Dark Knight will face the fight of his life!"

Batman has been to space plenty of times alongside the Justice League and other allies, and he had some off-world adventures back in the zany sci-fi days of the Golden Age of comics in the late '40s and '50s. But this is his first time going out into space solo since DC updated its continuity with 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series.

"I fell in love with comics because of DC. The first books my young, beardless self ever plucked from a grocery store spinner rack were the New Teen Titans and World's Finest and Batman. Books that opened the door to a universe of stories that would quite literally change the course of my life," Jason said in a statement. "So it is with great honor and excitement that at long last I get to make my proper debut as a DC writer, with a Batman story that takes a young Dark Knight on his own first journey into the far, wondrous reaches of the DC cosmos."

Batman: Off-World #1 goes on sale November 21.

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I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)