Six Future State: Batman Family first look previews

Future State: The Next Batman — (Image credit: DC)

Over the past weekend, DC released first look preview art from five titles from the Future State: Batman family.

Future State is the two-month event in January and February 2021 imagining DC's core characters in near- and far-flung futures.

Although not all DC Future State titles occupy the same future time period, the Batman family of titles appears to mostly take place at the same time, except Batman/Superman which takes place some months or years before.

The Next Batman and Dark Detective anthologies, Harley Quinn, and Robin Eternal all take place in a near-future in which Gotham is placed under martial law by a private law enforcement group known as the Magistrate after a tragic event called 'A-Day,' and costumed vigilantes are outlawed (which of course doesn't stop Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Harley, and whoever is the 'Next Batman').

Batman/Superman takes place in the early days of the Magistrate's control over Gotham before Bruce Wayne goes into hiding and Superman departs Earth for space leaving Metropolis in the hands of his son Jonathan (as depicted in the Future State: Superman family of titles).

The previews also include art from Grifters, one of the stories in the Dark Detective anthology, starring the original WildStorm character who as of recent Batman stories has taken up residence in Gotham.

Check out the preview pages below along with the creative details of each story.

Future State: The Next Batman

'The Next Batman' is written by screenwriter John Ridley with art by Nick Derington.

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Future State: Dark Detective

'Dark Detective' is written by Mariko Tamaki with art by Dan Mora.

DC just announced the Tamaki-Mora creative team will continue on when the monthly Detective Comics returns to DC's schedule in March.

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Future State: Dark Detective #1 — (Image credit: DC)

Future State: Dark Detective 'Grifters'

'Grifters' is written by Matthew Rosenberg with art by Carmine Di Giandomenica.

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Future State: Dark Detective Grifters — (Image credit: DC)

Future State: Robin Eternal

Robin Eternal written by Meghan Fitzmartin with art by Eddy Barrows.

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Future State: Robin Eternal #1 — (Image credit: DC)

Future State: Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn is written by Stephanie Phillips with art by Simone Di Meo.

DC announced Phillips will launch a new Harley Quinn ongoing series in March when DC's main titles return, with art by Riley Rossmo.

Check out Newsarama's interview with Phillips about Future State: Harley Quinn.

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Future State: Harley Quinn #1 — (Image credit: DC)

Future State: Batman/Superman

Batman/Superman is written by Gene Luen Yang with art by Ben Oliver.

DC announced Yang will take over the monthly Batman/Superman ongoing series when it returns in March with issue #16, with art by Ivan Reis.

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Future State: Batman/Superman #1 — (Image credit: DC)

Keep up-to-date with all the upcoming new Batman comic books, graphic novels, and collections coming to stores and digital markets here.

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.