Batman/Superman #1 Puts A Horrifying New Spin On An Already Disturbing Robin

The DC Universe is gearing up for the return of the fan favorite team up book, Batman/Superman, with the creative team of Joshua Williamson and David Marquez this August--and to celebrate, they've released a first look at the first five pages of the first issue, which you can check out below.

Gallery

Here's some context if you've lapsed on your DC reading over the past year or so. Remember that evil, fanged Robin who just introduced himself as Billy Batson? He's a member of the Batman Who Laughs' crew--a team of monstrous, brainwashed youths who run around with crowbars gnashing their teeth at whatever their evil overlord points them at. And, for a while, that's all their really was to it. The Batman Who Laughs and his underlings are all invaders from an evil alternate reality called the Dark Multiverse (because comics, don't worry too much about it) so of course, it just went to follow that an evil Batman would have evil Robins, right?

But there's more to the story now, apparently--and one of the Robins has revealed himself to actually be none other than Shazam, himself: Billy Batson. No, not our Billy Batson--at least, not that we can tell--but a version of Billy Batson from the Dark Multiverse who was corrupted by The Batman Who Laughs. Maybe, at least. From the context of the preview, it's hard to tell whether or not this is the Billy from our universe or not.ither way, he's definitely in some serious trouble.

Batman/Superman plans on delving deep into the mysteries of The Batman Who Laughs and the "sleeper agents," a new Rebirth-era "Secret Six," who he's planted across the world--superheroes he has corrupted who continue to live and exist in their normal lives none-the-wiser but who can be transformed into the evilest versions of themselves at any moment. Anyone could be a potential threat and when the truth is finally uncovered, the DC Universe will never be the same. So what does this mean for Billy and his heroic counterpart, Shazam? Only time will tell--but it's probably nothing good.

Batman/Superman #1 hits shelves August 14.