Major Upcoming DC Books: Superman Unchained! Pandora! Batman & Robin! Guest Bat-Stars!

Emerald City Comic Con was exploding with comic book news over the weekend, but it seems like DC waited until Monday to make some pretty major announcements for their books.

One title that DC did announce at Emerald City Comic Con was that Ray Fawkes would be writing Trinity of Sin: Pandora. Art duties will be given to Daniel Sampere, who has recently drawn and inked Batgirl for DC Comics.

The comic will focus on the Pandora character who was mysteriously introduced in ”Flashpoint #5″ when the DC, Wildstorm, and Vertigo timelines all converged into one.

Batman & Robin was a title to look at after the events of “Batman Incorporated #8.” One big question was how the book would continue without a Robin around. The answer: Special guest Bat-stars!

CBR.com had the exclusive reveal of the characters that would appear in the following issues:

#19: Batman and Red Robin
#20: Batman and Red Hood
#21: Batman and Batgirl
#22: Batman and Catwoman
#23: Batman and Nightwing

Batman & Robin writer Peter Tomasi explained in an interview to CBR that: ”There are five stages of grief, and we intend to explore it in a very visceral way…Let’s just say there’s a big, epic picture in view over the horizon, but there’s plenty of lightning storms and hurricanes for myself, Pat Gleason and our partners in crime Mick Gray and John Kalisz to still fly through before it all becomes clear.”

Five issues announced with five stages of grief. Coincidence? Probably not. When reading those titles, remember the acronym DABDA—Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance, otherwise known as the five stages of grief.

One of the biggest Post ECCC announcements so far is the reveal for the title of the upcoming Jim Lee and Scott Snyder Superman book, Superman Unchained. The book is schedule to appear in comic shops on June 12, 2013. The book is timed to coincide a few days before the release of the new Superman live action film, Man of Steel.

Superman’s new title plays homage to a classic Superman motif

Also revealed in the announcement of the title was that the book would feature back-ups with art by Dustin Nguyen. Nguyen has been busy in recent months on art duties for the digital comic Batman: Li’l Gotham, taking an all-ages, out of continuity approach to the Caped Crusader.

If Snyder’s Twitter feed is any indication, not only can a book about the Man of Steel bring Snyder and former Twitter sparring partner Rob Liefeld back together (Liefeld: “…I’ll be 1st in line for a Snyder/Lee Superman!!”), but Snyder can at least guarantee that “There will be punching!”