along came a spider-woman: thedeadairchannel023

Out now from DC Comics: Nightwing 139. That means it's 20 issues since I began writing the character with issue 119. Which is bonkers. This is my favourite issue so far, and it pulls in a character I've really wanted to revisit. Sod it, it's not much of a spoiler and it's been out a few days, so here:

Doctor Sereika from Batman: Dark Patterns has made the move down the coast from Gotham to Blüdhaven.

Since these stories have been exploring Dick Grayson's acumen as a detective, it seemed only fair to give him some help. Sometimes help comes in the form of a slightly ghoulish forensic pathologist with a mysterious past.

This is in all candour probably the most "me" issue of the book so far, where a lot of my preoccupations are at play. So seeing that it seems to have sparked a reaction among readers is really lovely.

As I put this letter together DC solicits for September are out, revealing Jorge Fornes' cover for Nightwing 142.

This will be the first of two parts of our book crossing over into the Bad Seeds event, and sees Nightwing having to chase a potential tragedy up the highway from Blüdhaven to Gotham. We're joined by a guest artist for the event, to allow Denys some breathing room on the book, but what a fucking guest artist we have in David Lapham. I felt cheeky as hell even asking him, and utterly delighted when he said yes. If you like any of my work enough to be reading this and you haven't read Stray Bullets, you should rectify that asap.

I pitched this issue as Friedkin's Sorcerer for Nightwing, which isn't wholly accurate, but puts us in the ballpark. It was also imperative to me that these event issues move the book's story forward as much as any other issue- that they didn't feel like a side mission disconnected from the plot. In practice, they've ended up as critically important issues. If you're Dick Grayson and need to screw your head on straight, the people that can help you do that are probably in Gotham City.

Last week Marvel announced the Spider-Woman 50th anniversary special, out in September. It features two stories, one written by me, the other by Ann Nocenti. Nocenti wrote the last arc of the original Spider-Woman run in the late 80s, before then going on to spearhead one of the greatest Daredevil runs of all time, which saw John Romita Jr really come into his own, introduced Typhoid Mary, and set the stage for so much of what we now take for granted with the character. It's a run that's only truly gotten its flowers of late, and is still deeply underrated for my money. So being asked to write alongside her here is such a genuine pleasure.

My story is with the phenomenal artist Andrea Broccardo, and is intended to put the "mysterious" back in "the Mysterious Spider-Woman," as she was originally introduced 50 years ago. I was asked to propose a new direction for the character. This is that.

M.A.S.K. #1 is out at long last. I hope you enjoyed it if you picked it up.

An issue 1 like this has a fair amount of heavy lifting to do, reintroducing a franchise to those who know it, introducing it to those who don't, establishing its central conflict, its place in the Energon Universe, and establishing the Energon Universe itself for those who haven't been following along thus far. All that, plus establishing our characters and, most importantly, blowing stuff up with lasers.

Now that's out of the way, things are going to accelerate at quite a clip. The rest of this arc is a series of set pieces I'm really looking forward to getting out into the world.

The M.A.S.K. signing at Midtown last Thursday was unreal. I was on location from about noon signing stock for the store, and the signing itself began at 5. That in turn ran right up until 7pm. I didn't keep count, but I'm sure I easily signed more books than I ever have in a single day before, so thanks to everyone who turned out for this title.

It's truly not been that long since a signing was something that I'd grit my teeth for, just hoping that enough people would show up to make it worthwhile for the store that was hosting. And sometimes they wouldn't. So I really don't take this for granted. Thank you, everyone who came down.

Since the advent of the Absolute books, there are so many readers at these things who tell me they're at their first signing, or have just started reading comics at all in the first few months. It really feels like a moment for the medium. Of course I forgot to get any pictures. Gotta get better at that. But it really happened, ask anyone.

This was also slap bang in the middle of the NBA finals, and a historic run for the New York Knicks. Not something I'd pretend to have had skin in the game for for most of my life- but my wife, a native New Yorker, sure does, and we watched Saturday's game in a local bar in Queens. Easily the most electric, tense sports game I can ever remember watching live, and watching the whole city explode with joy at the hard-won victory was infectious and palpable. What a time to live in this city. Lightning escaping a bottle.

I'm sending this from the airport bar, on the way to North Carolina for a signing and panel tomorrow at Ultimate Comics, which is Batman: Dark Patterns focussed. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone there, and getting to check out a part of the country I haven't seen yet. This was meant to happen last autumn and I had to cancel last minute as my lungs were doing their best to eject via my esophagus, so I really couldn't get on a plane. This time I am en route, and as a bonus I am not bringing you bubonic plague.

Signings are always good fun, but are in an endless tug of war with deadlines and writing routines.

The first issue of Project Fear is due on Monday, but I burned the candle at both ends to finish it by late last night. I'm really pleased with how it came together, which is always reenergizing. Now I have to finish the final issue of Project Flask, which will hopefully happen before the weekend is out. I thought I had the skeleton of an entire draft, but when I went to flesh it out I found it sagged in the middle. I talked it through for about an hour and a half on the phone with my White Noise conspirator Alex Paknadel, which is what I often do when I get stuck. I tend to do this while wandering around the neighbourhood, which truly does help. Nietzsche said that walking was the single best thing for thinking and for general health, but then he declared himself the antichrist and went insane, so ymmv. We discussed a rather unorthodox framing device which will be a lot of fun if I can get away with it. Alex and I did. Not Nietzsche.

It's strange to be finishing my end of a project before it's even announced. I'm finalizing issue 5 while art from issue 2 is coming in, but every page that comes in has me cackling. Project Flask is the most unleashed, unhinged book I've written in a long time, and the artist and I are extremely on the same wavelength there. It feels like we're Getting Away With Something.

I've been writing a lot more longer runs of late, and by God it also feels good to write a definite ending. I was raised on British TV such as Blackadder, where a season was six episodes, and the final punchline of every season was the entire cast getting killed off. Ending a story was presumed to be an act of confidence rather than a concession to failure. I love longform serial storytelling- I'd be mad to be in comics if I didn't- but I do crave endings.

Speaking of endings, Michael Sarnoski's The Death of Robin Hood is out in theatres. I've been hearing mixed things, but I feel like curiosity is going to get the better of me and I'll try and sneak out and catch a showing when I'm back on Sunday. Sarnoski's Pig was a masterpiece, and I have a deep-rooted love for the Robin Hood stories, particularly the older, less sanitized versions.

I remember being very young and, having worn out a Disney VHS about a swashbuckling cartoon fox, digging a book out of the local library with a green clad, bearded figure on the cover... and then being traumatized as I read the story of his grisly death. Of his being tricked during a sickness and bled out until he could no longer stand. Of his begging his killers to help him fire one final arrow from his bow, so he might be buried wherever that arrow landed.

I wouldn't be able to tell you what book it was now, what specific version of the legend. It gave me nightmares, but my God did it stick with me and fascinate me. Perhaps it was the first time I became aware that there were far darker stories behind the versions we tell ourselves.

A fun article from the BBC on the topic, which sets some gears turning in my mind, as though I don't have enough to get on with.

Pals and beloved co-conspirators Josh Williamson and Hayden Sherman have just announced the new Legion of Superheroes for DC. I've generally bounced off the legion personally, but this take seems designed to bring in people like me. Josh has very much proven he can thread that needle with the Energon Universe.

And... honestly, I knew they were working on this, and obviously Hayden was going to do incredible work here, but... Jesus. Just unparalleled stuff.

Caspar Wijngaard slipped me an extremely advanced look at The Power Fantasy #17, which led me to rereading the 3 volumes of the book that are out so far. I adore this comic.

It's saying so much about soft and hard power and how they shape culture.

It uses a somewhat superhero-coded framework to do that... but it's not preoccupied with that at all. What it's really doing is stripping those metaphors back to their primary forms. Before the cliches had set on.

Both Caspar and Kieron are firing on all cylinders every issue. It feels like a culmination of something for both. Casp refining what he did on our Home Sick Pilots into something scalpel-sharp, and Kieron building off his latest era of Marvel work, particularly the Eternals and Krakoa X books. I have been looking forward to the twist of the knife in issue 16 since they told me it down the pub, probably two years ago. They still took me by surprise with the execution.

One last recommendation from me.

This last month has seen Matthew Rosenberg take over as the shepherd of the Spawn franchise, writing both Spawn and King Spawn starting with issues 376 and 55 respectively.

Putting Matt on these is fucking inspired. The former is being touted as a "Superman"-esque book and the latter as "Batman"-esque. What this means in practice between the two titles is devilish fun, and I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. Just go read them. This is They're telling a whole new story- you don't need to catch up on decades of Spawn, just start here. Goddamn, I love Spawn. The below single issue was one of about 5 single issues total I owned as a kid, and its cover lives in my head forever:

This has been thedeadairchannel. A ululation from the screaming skull of Dan Watters. Please do subscribe.