The DC Next Level initiative has been a big success for DC over the past year, as the company has built on the momentum of the Absolute Universe line and reinvigorated a number of long-running franchises. Next up for DC is a revival of three of their most important superhero teams. Fans can expect new ongoing series for the Legion of Super Heroes, the Teen Titans, and the Doom Patrol in September 2026.
Check out the slideshow gallery below to see cover art for all three series, and then read on to learn more about each book:
Legion of Super Heroes
Creative Team: Joshua Williamson & Hayden Sherman
This is arguably the biggest news of this batch of books, as it features a brand-new take on the Legion of Super Heroes from Superman writer Joshua Williamson and Absolute Wonder Woman artist Hayden Sherman. It’s unclear whether Sherman is leaving Absolute Wonder Woman or if they’ll be drawing both books simultaneously (as they did recently with AWW and Batman: Dark Patterns). DC’s official description teases:
One thousand years after the Last Son of Krypton’s rocket crashed on the Kent Farm comes a new future inspired by the Man of Tomorrow!
But this new future is in danger! Superheroes are outlawed! Deadly enforcers known as the Persuaders keep the populace of the United Planets in check! Worlds are at war! And this dark tomorrow’s last glimmer of hope, R.J. Brande, has been brutally murdered.
Can the mysterious Brainiac 1 of 5 solve Brande’s murder? To restore hope to the universe, he must assemble a legion of gifted young rebels from across the cosmos! But they are scattered across the universe!
Witness the dawn of a new future in DC Comics architect Joshua Williamson and Eisner-winning superstar artist Hayden Sherman’s Legion of Super-Heroes… you will never look at tomorrow the same way again!
Teen Titans
Creative Team: Kyle Higgins & Daniele Di Nicuolo
DC has made the intriguing choice to put the Teen Titans franchise in the hands of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers team of writer Kyle Higgins and artist Daniele Di Nicuolo. The new series features a very nontraiditonal lineup of teen heroes, one led by none other than ex-Robin Jason Todd. DC’s official description reads:
When one of their own vanishes after attending a rally for Ascend—a fast-growing youth movement training kids to survive in a world shaped by superhuman conflict—Fairplay, Cheshire Cat, Proxy, and Wildcard will do whatever it takes to find their friend, including teaming up with Red Hood!
Jason thinks they’re soft and reckless. They don’t understand how he can still kill people. Now they have to work together—whether they like it or not!
Created by Kyle Higgins and Daniele Di Nicuolo, the acclaimed team behind Power Rangers: Shattered Grid and Image Comics’ Massive-Verse, this series channels the same mix of heart, scope, and style that has defined their work together—blending cinematic storytelling and Di Nicuolo’s dynamic, expressive art to bring the next generation of heroes to life.
The Doom Patrol
Creative Team: Darcy Van Poelgeest & Niko Henrichon
DC is reviving the Doom Patrol with a very interesting creative team in Little Bird’s Darcy Van Poelgeest and Pride of Baghdad’s Niko Henrichon. In this series, the troubled team of outcasts finds itself broke and forced to take on hero-for-hire jobs, only for that to predictably spiral out of control. DC’s official description teases:
The Doom Patrol is broke. Adopting a heroes-for-hire business model to stave off financial and emotional ruin, the team finds itself responding to what seems like a simple case—a missing cat. But when this case proves to be far from simple, the world’s strangest heroes find themselves pulled into a truly out-of-this-world situation! And elsewhere, beyond the view of Robotman, Elasti-Girl, and Negative Man—and perhaps even beyond the veil of our reality—a ghost of the team’s past is preparing to cross into their world.
The visionary team of Eisner Award-winning writer Darcy Van Poelgeest (Little Bird) and legendary artist Niko Henrichon (Spectators, Pride of Baghdad) ushers the Doom Patrol into a new age for DC Next Level.
All three titles will debut on September 2. You can preorder copies at your local comic shop.
For more, learn about The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe and see an exclusive preview of Vampire Survivors #1.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
