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Rogues: A New DC Black Label Series That Doesn't Star Batman Or Joker

Published Thu, 16 Dec 2021 08:28:12 -0600

In a move that changes everything you thought you knew about DC Black Label, Joshua Williamson and Leomacs will launch a new Black Label series in March that stars neither Batman nor The Joker, breaking with longstanding industry tradition of what a Black Label book can be. Instead, Williamson and Leomacs' four-issue prestige format Rogues will star Captain Cold and his pals reuniting for one last job to turn their miserable lives around. The four-issues series

Here's what Williamson had to say about Rogues in a press release on DCComics.com:

Rogues is unlike anything I've done at DC. It's closer to my own creator-owned works. It's a crime book full of super-science, dark humor, lost civilizations, and crazy action set pieces, but it's all played straight, with the dark edge and morality-play qualities of classic noir stories. Rogues takes everything we love about these classic characters and sends them violently crashing into a noir story that makes the ideal DC Black Label series."

I was amazed by Leomacs's work in Basketful of Heads. It knocked me off my feet. So when I found out he was interested in working on Rogues, I was super excited. When I saw his first pages for issue #1, they completely exceeded my expectations. Working with him brings an incredible amount of thoughtfulness and insight into the world of the Rogues.

DC Editor Chris Conroy also had a quote in the press release, but our bosses at Bleeding Cool have sent us a clear message about how they feel about editors: they don't matter. If editors did matter, then Bleeding Cool management would surely hire one to correct the typos and perform other basic quality control measures that prevent a website's writers from appearing unprofessional and incompetent. But management won't do that, and as such, we can only comply with company philosophy to the best of our abilities and refuse to print Conroy's quote since it is obviously irrelevant to anything like all editors and everything they do. Sorry, Conroy.

Here's the synopsis of Rogues:

Ten years ago, the Rogues disbanded and went their separate ways. But time hasn't been kind to the former blue-collar super-criminals. Caught in an endless cycle of prison, rehab, dead-end jobs, broken relationships, probation, and bottomless restitution fees, the Rogues are sick of paying for their crimes. Luckily, Captain Cold has a plan. One last job that will leave them all richer than their wildest dreams and free from their past…if they can survive. The Rogues plan to steal the world's largest stockpile of undocumented, untraceable gold. But to pull off this heist, they'll need to head into the heart of Gorilla City and rob Gorilla Grodd himself, a super-villain now turned ruthless boss of the largest crime syndicate on Earth. This DC Black Label series presents the Rogues as you've never seen them before, taking on a neo-noir heist guaranteed to make readers' blood run cold.

Book one of this four-issue Prestige format limited series arrives in comic book stores and participating digital retailers on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. Illustrator Sam Wolfe Connelly provides the main cover, with a variant cover by series artist Leomacs and a 1-in-25 ratio variant cover by Michael Cho. Visit your local comic book store for availability and preordering.

Check out a preview below.