We're back once again with a look at the ten most interesting entries from DC Comics' May solicitations! There are no less than five cancellations of DC books within, so sit back, grab some popcorn, and watch the canceled titles fall like dominoes.

10. ABSOLUTE IDENTITY CRISIS HC

Written by BRAD MELTZER

Art and cover by RAGS MORALES and MICHAEL BAIR

"The IDENTITY CRISIS mystery uses all of Mr. Meltzer's skills as a thriller novelist." - The New York Times

"A genuine comics landmark." - Publishers Weekly

The unforgettable 7-issue miniseries from New York Times best-selling novelist Brad Meltzer (Dead Even) is now in DC's Absolute format! Starring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the entire Justice League, this is the widely talked-about tale of intrigue and an inventive look at the world of Super Heroes, fantastic powers and secret identities. When the spouse of a JLA member is brutally murdered, the entire super hero community searches for the killer, fearing their own loved ones may be the next targets. Before the mystery is solved, a number of long-buried secrets will threaten to divide the heroes before they can bring the killer to justice. This gripping mystery includes a gallery of the variant covers, previously unpublished script pages and more!

Advance solicited • On sale OCTOBER 12 • 288 pg, FC, 8.25" x 12.5", $99.99 US

*sigh*

9. BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #40

Written by DAN DIDIO

Art by KEITH GIFFEN and SCOTT KOBLISH

Cover by PHILIP TAN

Batman arrives in an attempt to unite Black Lightning's team with Geo-Force's for the final battle against Veritas. But as one teammate is lost and others leave, Batman must determine if it's time to disband The Outsiders forever.

On sale MAY 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • FINAL ISSUE • RATED T

KILLSHOT! Executive editor/writer Dan DiDio ices his own title, freeing artist Keith Giffen to work on a comic that actually has a plot that makes sense. Will the Outsiders finally defeat Veritas, who's barely shown up in the past few issues, and his herald Harold Winer, a thinly-disguised parody of comic book message board poster and regular tvtropes.com quoter Herald? Will there be anything left about Geo-Force that will make him interesting to anybody, ever? The first of this month's five cancellations begins here! It's like a fifth-week event!


8. DOOM PATROL #22

Written by KEITH GIFFEN

Art by RON RANDALL

Cover by MATTHEW CLARK

It's all been building to this! To retake Oolong Island, The Doom Patrol must face a pan-galactic array of foes, old and new alike. Hanging in the balance is the fate of the team, the island – and maybe even the world!

On sale MAY 4 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US,

FINAL ISSUE • RATED T

DOUBLE KILL! Keith Giffen's Doom Patrol is next up on the chopping block. Who will die? Who will also die? Who will die horribly? Come on, guys, it's the Doom Patrol. This also is the end of the last book where Giffen was involved in a writing capacity - with this cancelled and Booster Gold taking on a new creative team, he's apparently moving to all-pencils, all the time.

7. FREEDOM FIGHTERS #9

Written by JIMMY PALMIOTTI and JUSTIN GRAY

Art and cover by TRAVIS MOORE & WALDEN WONG

They've saved America countless times, but there's one national crisis the Freedom Fighters are powerless to combat: a troubled economy. The recession hits home as our heroes find themselves among the ranks of the unemployed and facing an uncertain future.

On sale MAY 4 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US,

FINAL ISSUE • RATED T

MULTI KILL! At least it lasted one issue longer than the two Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters miniseries that preceded it by the same creative team. I haven't seen a lot of buzz about this title, so I'm kind of stuck on a eulogy, especially since I haven't been reading it. But then again, considering those factors, it's probably not too surprising it got cancelled with number nine. Perhaps other ongoing series must be eaten up by the still-going, 67-issue methuselah that is the improbably successful Jonah Hex ongoing. No matter how many other cancellations they get, Graymiotti still managed to put out that many consecutive issues of Jonah Hex at a rate where people would buy them, and that's pretty damn cool.

6. R.E.B.E.L.S #28

Written by TONY BEDARD

Art by CLAUDE ST. AUBIN and SCOTT HANNA

Cover by AARON LOPRESTI

With Starro the Conqueror on the verge of complete victory, our rebel fighters Lobo, Vril Dox, Adam Strange, Starfire and the gang pull out all the stops in this series' bloody conclusion!

On sale MAY 11 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US, FINAL ISSUE • RATED T

ULTRA KILL! This one I'm really going to miss, though. R.E.B.E.L.S. has been a really fun cosmic romp, a lot like the work Abnett and Lanning have been doing at Marvel with their cosmic properties over the last few years. I've really enjoyed the ongoing adventures of Vril Dox II, Intergalactic Dick, and I hope there's a place for these characters and Tony Bedard coming up. This is literally the title that made me start digging Tony Bedard as a writer, and while DC propped the title up way longer than they needed to and will undoubtedly give him bigger assignments to make up for it... R.I.P., R.E.B.E.L.S.

5. JSA ALL-STARS #18

Written by MATTHEW STURGES

Art and cover by FREDDIE WILLIAMS II

The All-Stars have followed the disturbingly powerful Prince to the lair of his archnemesis, Doctor Hate– but all they appear to have found is an innocent woman under siege! Has the team been deceived by a madman? Or is it reality itself that has gone insane? Either way, the consequences could prove disastrous for the team's future!

On sale MAY 4 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US, FINAL ISSUE • RATED T

MONSTER KILL! The final cancellation of this month's solicitations is for the satellite JSA title, originally created to be a companion book to Bill Willingham on the main title until Willingham left after two arcs. With the main title switching direction completely into the building of a city, it was probably only a matter of time until this book became outdated. Still, doubtless Sturges and Williams II have considerable jobs ahead of them.

But seriously - "Doctor Hate?" Really?

4. BATMAN & ROBIN #23

Written by JUDD WINICK

Art and cover by GUILLEM MARCH

1:10 Variant cover by GENE HA

Jason Todd - Batman's one-time sidekick, currently the anti-hero known as Red Hood - has been imprisoned in Arkham Asylum for the past several months. But after a period of good behavior, will a transfer to a lower-security prison mean reformation for Jason Todd . . . or is trouble waiting in the wings for Batman and Robin? Don't miss "The Streets Run Red" part one of three!

Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

On sale MAY 11 • 32 pg, FC $2.99 US • RATED T

The Tomasi/Gleason run on Batman and Robin hits yet another roadblock, allowing the maestro of Jason Todd's resurrection, Judd Winick, to return to his favorite pet character with very talented fill-in regular Guillem March on art (who really needs a regular gig). Guaranteed angst out the wazoo, and it'll be interesting to see Winick riffing on Grant Morrison's riff on his own riff of a character who died in the '80s. No idea where Tomasi and Gleason are going, but the existence of a comic book called Deadman and the Flying Graysons coming up makes me suspect you'd have to use electric fencing and guard dogs to keep Tomasi away from that title.

3. FLASHPOINT #1

Written by GEOFF JOHNS

Art and cover by ANDY KUBERT

1:25 Variant cover A by ANDY KUBERT

Variant cover B by IVAN REIS and GEORGE PÉREZ

Not a dream, not an imaginary story, not an elseworld. This is Flash Fact: When Barry Allen wakes at his desk, he discovers the world has changed. Family is alive, loved ones are strangers, and close friends are different, gone or worse. It's a world on the brink of a cataclysmic war – but where are Earth's Greatest Heroes to stop it? It's a place where America's last hope is Cyborg, who hopes to gather the forces of The Outsider, The Secret 7, S!H!A!Z!A!M!, Citizen Cold and other new and familiar-yet-altered faces! It's a world that could be running out of time, if The Flash can't find the villain who altered the time line!

Welcome to FLASHPOINT!

Retailers please note: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

On sale MAY 11 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

With April we get Marvel's Fear Itself event, and starting one month later (and, barring skip months, ending one month earlier) we get DC's summer event: Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert's Flashpoint. The crossover tale is a gigantic time-travel mystery starring the Flash (obviously) in a drastically changed present that DC wants to remind you is not an alternate reality, even though Marvel said the same things about House of M and Age of Apocalypse, both of which ended up being pretty much alternate-reality stories, even if they were supposedly just modified versions of the main universe.

Either way, it's a Geoff Johns DCU event, which means it'll be insanely important to the overall universe and basically everyone will buy it. Much like Blackest Night spun out of his work on Green Lantern, this is really just a Flash story that bubbled over to include the entire DC Universe. There are tie-in miniseries galore, so DC's really betting the farm on this, including the cancellation of several low-selling titles to make room for those tie-ins -- but we'll get to that later.

2. BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM #1

Written by SCOTT SNYDER and KYLE HIGGINS

Art and Cover by TREVOR MCCARTHY

1:25 Variant cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN

When a mystery as old as Gotham City itself surfaces, Batman assembles a team of his greatest detectives – including Red Robin, Owlman, I-Ching and others – to investigate this startling new enigma. As clues are discovered and the mystery deepens, Batman's team soon finds itself on a journey that explores different eras in Gotham's history and touches upon notable Gotham families including the Waynes, Kanes, and Elliotts.

This miniseries spins out of recent events in the Batman titles and sets the stage for several exciting storylines in 2011. Additionally, this limited series touches upon mysterious story elements introduced in Grant Morrison's RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE. Featuring many exciting Batman Family guest stars!

On sale MAY 18 • 1 of 6, 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

This book is a total surprise, announced on the Source last Friday, and it actually sounds like a lot of fun. Snyder's shown a great deal of ability writing the Bat-universe over in Detective Comics, as well as a willingness to play in the sandbox and expand on others' work that should make this a really interesting riff on the history of Gotham City hinted at in Return of Bruce Wayne. I haven't read much by Kyle Higgins, but if Snyder vets him I'm in, and Trevor McCarthy's cover looks like a vast improvement over his previous work, showing considerable design sense. I'm really excited for this. Scott and Kyle, you can thank me for my Batman annotations by killing me off in the first issue, I don't mind. (Come on, you know you used them.)

1. DC COMICS PRESENTS: BATMAN – DARK KNIGHT, DARK CITY #1

Written by PETER MILLIGAN

Art by KIERON DWYER, TOM MANDRAKE and DENNIS JANKE

Cover by MIKE MIGNOLA and GEORGE PRATT

In these thrilling tales from BATMAN #452-454, The Riddler goes on a crimepsree – but when he has the chance to kill Batman, he let The Dark Knight live. What strange game is The Riddler playing? Plus, in a story from DETECTIVE COMICS #633, Bruce Wayne returns to Wayne Manor to find no trace of the Batcave, and Alfred without any knowledge of his master's crimefighting career. Has Bruce Wayne gone insane?

On sale MAY 18 • 96 pg, FC, $7.99 US

IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME. While this story undoubtedly should have been reprinted prior to Return of Bruce Wayne, since it forms the basis for basically the entire origin of Doctor Hurt, I'm just glad to see this little-known masterpiece get a second lease on life. Milligan and Dwyer come up with what is, in my opinion, one of the best Batman stories of all time, a deviously clever three-issue arc involving an unusually creepy Riddler, ancient demonic rites, the living soul of Gotham and an insanely clever twist. I haven't read the other story collected here, but I'm seriously looking forward to it. My only regret here is that this isn't a proper TPB, since DKDC is a story that legitimately should be preserved forever.

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