Picking up where The Batman Who Laughs left off, Batman/Superman kicks off at the end of August promising to infect heroes from around the DC Universe with dark multiverse Joker venom. But the identities of the infected have been mostly hidden, until now.
We already knew that the first one to catch giggles would be Shazam, from a fantastically creepy preview. The Batman Who Laughs grabs Billy Batson and nicks him with an infected Batarang, then dresses him up like a Robin and sets him loose on the heroes.
He’s going to be getting a one shot in November examining the impact of the Joker venom. Sina Grace, writer of the best pre-Hickman X-book, Iceman, is writing the one shot (titled The Infected: King Shazam), with art from The Immortal Hulk‘s Joe Bennett.
Joining him as the poisoned, psychotic owner of a one-shot is Young Justice’s own Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes. Jaime’s Jokerization apparently plays into his need for approval from the longer tenured heroes. The Infected: Scarab will be written by Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum (Sea of Stars, Spider-Woman) with art from Freddie Williams III (Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).
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Joining them are two heroes who will use their regular books to tie in: Supergirl and Hawkman. Marc Andreyko writes the Year of the Villain tie in starring an infected Supergirl in issue 36, with art from Eduardo Paniscia and Julio Ferreira, and a cover from Dan Mora, while Robert Venditti writes Hawkman #18 with art from Pat Olliffe and Tom Palmer, and a cover from Tyler Kirkham.
The full slate of infected will be revealed in Batman/Superman #4. For more on infected DC heroes, including an eventual discussion of a grand unified theory of Batman Who Laughs/Batman/Superman/DCeased (would the Dark Multiverse Anti-Life Equation just be the Life Equation?) stick with Den of Geek!
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