Writer Jason Aaron has been one of the dominant voices at Marvel Comics over the past 15 years, penning lengthy runs on titles like Wolverine, Thor and The Avengers. At long last, Aaron is returning to DC, and he’s got big plans for a certain Dark Knight Detective.
IGN can exclusively reveal Batman: Off-World, a six-issue limited series that pairs Aaron with artist Doug Mahnke (Detective Comics, Green Lantern) and inker Jamie Mendoza. As the title suggests, Off-World drags Batman away from Earth and on a rare solo mission to an alien world.
Check out the slideshow gallery below to see the various covers for Batman: Off-World #1:
Here’s DC’s official description for Batman: Off-World #1:
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! 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!
Superstar writer Jason Aaron delivers his first Batman story ever, partnered with blockbuster artist Doug Mahnke for a unique, brutal tale!
While Aaron built his early reputation in DC’s Vertigo imprint on books like The Other Side and Scalped, Off-World is only the second time Aaron has written a story set in the DC Universe itself. The first was 2008’s Joker’s Asylum: Penguin #1, commissioned shortly before Aaron began his long exclusivity with Marvel. 15 years later, he’s finally getting the chance to work with the Caped Crusader proper.
“I fell in love with comics because of DC,” Aaron tells IGN. “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. 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 is priced at $3.99 for the standard version and $4.99 for the cardstock variant covers. This issue will be released on November 21, 2023.
For more from the world of comics, check out the biggest new comics of August 2023, and be sure to brush up on everything announced at San Diego Comic-Con.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.