Stories by @dc_black_label

Strange Adventures

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Rorschach

It's been 35 years since Ozymandias dropped a giant interdimensional squid on New York City, killing thousands and destroying the public's trust in heroes once and for all. And since that time, one figure in a fedora, mask, and trench coat has become a divisive cultural icon. So what does it mean when Rorschach reappears as an assassin trying to kill a candidate running against President Robert Redford? Who is under the mask, and why are they acting this way? It's up to one detective to uncover the true identity of this would-be killer—and it will take him into a web of conspiracies involving alien invasions, disgraced do-gooders, mystic visions, and, yes, comic books that will change him forever.

American Vampire 1976

It's 1976, and America is doomed. trust between the government and the public has crumbled, paranoia reigns, and the devil himself is about to unleash hell on Earth—just in time for the nation's bicentennial. American Vampire Skinner Sweet isn't doing so hot himself. A decade after his last heroic efforts robbed him of immortality, he's done fighting and determined to go out with a bang—in fact, he's closer than ever to his death wish when his estranged protégée, Pearl Preston, wields a tempting secret to recruit him for one final mission: the weapon they need to retrieve in order to save the world is also the last hope of restoring Skinner's powers. But with catastrophe looming and redemption on the line, Skinner, Pearl, and their old teammates will need to put the past behind them before they can change the course of history.

The Other History of the DC Universe

Academy Award-winning screenwriter John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992) examines the mythology of the DC Universe in this compelling new graphic novel. Reframing iconic moments from DC history and charting a previously unexplored sociopolitical thread as seen through the prism of DC superheroes who come from historically disenfranchised groups, John Ridley goes where no other has gone before! This unique new series presents its story as prose by Ridley married with beautifully realized color illustrations from a selection of exciting illustrators and comics artists. Extensively researched and masterfully executed, The Other History of the DC Universe promises to be an experience unlike any other. You may think you know the history of the DC Universe...but the truth is far more complex. The Other History of the DC Universe isn't about saving the world—it's about having the strength to simply be who you are.

Sweet Tooth: The Return

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Gus. Gus had antlers and lived with his father in a little cabin in the woods. Then his father died, and the big man with cold eyes took Gus away. Gus went on many great adventures, found friends, love, happiness, family, and acceptance. Now, years later...it begins again. A young boy with antlers and deer-like features wakes in a bizarre and completely foreign world where the last humans struggle to survive. They tell the boy he is special, he is chosen, and that he alone can help them take back the world from the oppressive Hybrids. Sweet Tooth: The Return is no rehash of the original series, but rather a bold reimagining of the Sweet Tooth mythology; taking elements of the original series and remixing them into something familiar, but totally new. A divided world. A planet long ago past the point of devastation. And at the center of it all, a child who didn't ask to be born into any of this, but who has no choice but to try and forge some life for himself. His visions and dreams may not be real at all...they may just be fiction. But they are hope. And sometimes hope is enough.

Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity

In Gotham City, heinous acts of violence are a daily occurrence. Harley Quinn, forensic psychiatrist and profiler, consults with the GCPD on their worst cases. But she is fixated on an unsolved murder that haunts her—the night she discovered her roommate's body marked with the signature of a notorious serial killer known as The Joker. Five years later, the case remains unsolved, and a new series of horrific killings has begun. As the murders escalate and the meticulously constructed crime scenes become more elaborate, Harley's obsession with finding the depraved psychopath responsible leads her down a dangerous path. When the past and the present finally collide, Harley has to decide how far she is willing to go—and how many lines she is willing to cross—to solve these cases once and for all.

Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn

The Joker is dead. Batman is behind bars. In a new age of villains, only Harley can save Gotham. Two years after Azrael wiped out Gotham's deadliest villains in Batman: Curse of the White Knight, the stage is set for a new criminal uprising. From the shadows, a visionary mastermind known as the Producer is assembling a colorful roster of new rogues—headlined by his alluring recruit Starlet, an actor turned serial killer with a vendetta against Gotham's Golden Age film stars. When Starlet's grisly crime scenes hint at an impossible link to the Joker, the GCPD—aided by eager young FBI agent Hector Quimby—turns to Harley Quinn to crack the case. But Harley is struggling to navigate her new role as a single mother to the late Jack Napier's twins, and revisiting Gotham's underworld—even as a "good guy"—will force her to fight her own worst instincts and flirt with danger. Determined to prove she can balance it all, Harley accepts Bruce Wayne's guidance and inches closer to the killer—and when the Producer's twisted script comes into full focus, she must confront her past to protect her children and Gotham from a fatal final act.

Hellblazer: Rise and Fall

If a billionaire falls out of the sky and dies...who gives a damn?! A wealthy man plummets from the sky and is gruesomely skewered on a church spire. Bizarrely, angel wings are attached to his back. More such deaths follow until, hallelujah, it's raining businessmen. Detective Aisha Bukhari is stumped by this strange phenomenon, until she's visited by her childhood friend, occult investigator John Constantine, who discovers a link between the falling elite and a shocking moment in his and Aisha's misspent youth. How are these killings tied to the first death on John's hands? How does this involve heaven and hell? Even if this is kind of John's fault, will Constantine be happy t let a few more rich bastards fall from the sky, like a vindictive Robin Hood?

Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey: The Hunt for Harley

Who's crazy enough to steal from the Joker? Come on. You know who. Harley Quinn has avoided Gotham City ever since she broke up with the Joker and found a home, and a kind of family, in Coney Island. But when she gets an offer she can't refuse, she has no choice but to slip back into the city as quietly as she can, hoping to be gone before anyone—especially he ex—learns she's there to steal Joker's legendary cache of loot. But for Harley, "as quietly as she can" is plenty loud...and before she can say "Holee bounty hunters, Batman," the Joker's sicced every super-villain in the city on her pretty ombré head—and the only people tough enough (or crazy enough) to come to her defense are Black Canary, Huntress, Renee Montoya, and Cassandra Cain: the Birds of Prey!

The Last God

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Batman: Three Jokers

Batman doesn't understand how or why, but the fact is certain: the man he has spent a lifetime chasing isn't one man at all. There are three Jokers. Now that he knows the unbelievable truth, Bruce needs real answers. Joined by Barbara Gordon and Jason Todd, two former victims of the Joker's brutality, the Dark Knight is finally on a path to defeat the madman once and for all. Every last one of him.

The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage

Vic Sage is the Question—the faceless hero of the hopelessly corrupt Hub City. He knows what is right and what is wrong. He knows the difference between good and evil. And that righteous moral certainty fuels his single-minded quest to bring justice and order to Hub City's chaotic streets. But deep beneath those streets lies a secret—a revelation that will turn Vic Sage's clear-cut view of the world inside out. Because this isn't the first lifetime in which the Question has waged his war against evil. Across countless lives, from the Wild West to World War II, he has fought against injustice, only to die in the attempt—and be reborn, over and over again. Now he's being forced to relive those past lives—and repeat those old fights—in order to find his way home once more. But even if he succeeds, will these tragic reincarnations continue forever? Or will this final battle break the vicious cycle once and for all?

Wonder Woman: Dead Earth

Wonder Woman's mission was to save Man's World from itself. She failed. When Diana awakens from a centuries-long sleep, she discovers Earth has been reduced to a nuclear wasteland. Now she's marooned in a dark and dangerous future, protecting the last human city from titanic monsters and struggling to uncover the secret of this dead Earth...and how she may be responsible for it.

Batman: Curse of the White Knight

The urban jungle that is Gotham City is being torn apart by the war between Batman and the Joker—a war in which the difference between hero and villain has become impossibly blurred. Now, with his do-gooding Jack Napier personality submerged beneath an ascendant Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker is ready to take that war to the next level—and his army has a new recruit. Wielding a flaming sword and bearing the weight of hundreds of years of history on his shoulders, Azrael is a knight darker than any that Gotham has seen before. One by one, the Batman's enemies will fall beneath his blade—and bit by bit, this new crusader will remake Gotham City into his own version of heaven on Earth. Only Batman and his estranged allies can stop him—but the distrust between them runs deep. And when the Joker and Azrael expose the hidden history of the Wayne family, all faith in the Dark Knight may be shattered for good.

Joker: Killer Smile

Arkham Asylum is home to many of the Batman's worst enemies—including the most dangerous one of them all: the Joker. No psychologist or psychotherapist has ever been able to break through the insanity that imprisons the Joker's mind. In fact, many have been broken themselves in the attempt. But Dr. Ben Arnell knows that he is different. He is sure that he will be the one to finally reach the man inside the madness—and cure him. Dr. Arnell believes that he can put an insurmountable wall between himself and the seductive void that lies behind the Joker's eyes. And he's absolutely certain that no matter what he goes through at work, he can keep that darkness far away from his family.

Harleen

It's been months since Dr. Harleen Quinzel began interviewing criminals at Arkham Asylum, and she's having strange dreams about one of them in particular: The Joker. What starts off as nightmares will soon evolve into fantasies. Despite warnings from the Dark Knight himself, she's utterly fascinated by this man who seems the perfect expression of her theory; who says all the things she needs to hear; who seems to know her better than she knows herself.

Batman: Last Knight on Earth

Twenty years in the future, Bruce Wayne wakes up in Arkham Asylum. Young. Sane. And...he's never been Batman. So begins this sprawling tale of the Dark Knight as he embarks on a quest through a devastated DC landscape, featuring a massive cast of familiar faces from the DC Universe. As he tries to piece together the mystery of his past, he must unravel the cause of this terrible future and track down the unspeakable force that destroyed the world as he knew it.

Superman: Year One

This story details new revelations that reframe the Man of Steel's most famous milestones-from Kal-El's frantic exile from Krypton, to Clark Kent's childhood in Kansas, to his rise to become the most powerful and inspiring superhero of all time.

Batman: Damned

The Joker is dead. There is no doubt about that. But whether Batman finally snapped his scrawny neck or some other sinister force in Gotham City did the deed is still a mystery. Problem is, Batman can't remember...and the more he digs into this labyrinthian case, the more his mind starts to doubt everything he's uncovering. So who better to set him straight than...John Constantine? Problem with that is as much as John loves a good mystery, he loves messing with people's heads even more. So with John's "help," the pair will delve into the sordid underbelly of Gotham as they race toward the mind-blowing truth of who murdered The Joker.

Batman: White Knight

The impossible has happened: The Joker has become...sane. Batman: White Knight follows the man now known as Jack Napier as he embarks on a quest to heal the city he once terrorized. After reconciling with his long-suffering partner, Harley Quinn, he sets in motion a carefully plotted campaign to discredit the one person whom he views as Gotham City's true enemy: Batman. His crusade exposes a decades-long history of corruption within the Gotham City Police Department and transforms Napier into a city councilman and civic hero. But when the sins of his past return to threaten everything that he has accomplished, the distinctions between savior and destroyer begin to break down for both The Joker and Batman alike-and with them any hope for Gotham's future.