The Top 10 DC Comics Coming in June 2011

With the June solicitations out for DC Comics, ComicsAlliance is back to take a look at the 10 best-looking comics coming out from DC in June 2011. Click below the jump for our thoughts on Flashpoint tie-ins, the 100 Bullets creative team, the return of George Perez, a new digital Batman adventure from Grant Morrison, and Sean Murphy's next project.

Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO

Art by EDUARDO RISSO

Cover by DAVE JOHNSON

FLASH FACT! He spends his days running Wayne Casinos!

Retailers: Please see the Previews Order form for special FLASHPOINT promotional buttons.

On sale JUNE 1 • 1 of 3, 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

There are no less than twenty-two Flashpoint-related solicitations this month, so I tried to whittle it down to the three that looked most interesting. Honorable mention goes to Scott Snyder, Lowell Francis and Gene Ha's Flashpoint: Project Superman, a book about which I have high hopes.

The first of my choices is by the creative team behind 100 Bullets, Wednesday Comics Batman, the "Broken City" arc in Batman and the upcoming Spaceman ongoing. I was pretty shocked that they signed up for not only a mainline DCU miniseries, but a summer event companion book. So here it is: It's Azzarello and Risso on Batman, again. It'll probably be excellent, if kind of nihilistic, which probably fits whatever modifications Geoff Johns and the Reverse-Flash have made to his past. Maybe it's not even Bruce Wayne, but I don't really care, since judging by all reports these miniseries are really just excuses for the creators to go wild.

Written by PETER MILLIGAN

Art by GEORGE PEREZ and SCOTT KOBLISH

Cover by GEORGE PEREZ

FLASH FACT! One among them will betray them all!

Retailers: Please see the Previews Order form for special FLASHPOINT promotional buttons.

On sale JUNE 1 • 1 of 3, 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Here's another dream team. Artist George Perez isn't a creator who can manage a whole lot of output these days, so he's got to be deployed tactically. His inclusion in this project means it must be a big deal; his last major project, Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds with Geoff Johns, was also an event tie-in, albeit one with major consequences of its own. In other words, this is likely to be one of the more "important" Flashpoint books, which makes me hope that the ever-mercurial Peter Milligan pulls this off. He's a writer whose work often vacillates between overambitious but mediocre snoozers (X-Men, Greek Street) and genre classics ("Dark Knight, Dark City" in Batman, X-Force/X-Statix). Which one will this be? That's the real secret, I guess, but considering this looks to be a continuation of his '90s Vertigo classic series Shade the Changing Man, I'm hoping for the latter.

Written by JEFF LEMIRE

Art by IBRAIM ROBERSON

Cover by DOUG MAHNKE

FLASH FACT! They can't survive unless they find their maker!

Retailers: Please see the Previews Order form for special FLASHPOINT promotional buttons.

On sale JUNE 8 • 1 of 3, 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

When they first announced the name of this miniseries, I have to admit, I was really hoping that Grant Morrison would jump in and return to one of my favorite characters. His 2005 miniseries with Frankenstein's Monster - part of the Seven Soldiers megaevent - was a pure joy, with Frankenstein's Monster working his way through four issues of weepy, depressed villains who just want to be understood by ignoring them and shooting them right in the face. It was a surprisingly brutal book for the writer, full of high pulp and weird sci-fi adventure, and I think that Jeff Lemire and Ibraim Roberson actually have a chance of following up on that promise. Superhero readers probably only know Lemire's less gritty side from Superboy and The Atom, but Sweet Tooth shows that he can do hard-hitting pretty damn well too. Roberson did a great job on the New Mutants issues of the "Second Coming" crossover last year, so this should be a fun, pulpish romp.

Written by KELLY SUE DECONNICK

Art by CHRISCROSS and MARC DEERING

Cover by MAHMUD ASRAR

Co-ed of Steel? Supergirl goes undercover on a college campus to help Lois Lane uncover the truth behind a string of recent student disappearances! What they uncover, though, leads Supergirl directly into a confrontation with one of the DCU's deadliest villains!

On sale JUNE 15 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

This was definitely the most surprising solicitation of this month, since I really didn't expect DeConnick to be working for anyone other than Marvel so soon. She's been doing a bang-up job on the "Osborn" miniseries with Emma Rios over there, and while I'm still smarting from Nick Spencer's early departure from the title, I'm looking forward to this (according to the writer) three-issue arc. Still, it's a yet another creative team switchover for the beleaguered title, which has had exactly one stable run (the underrated Gates/Igle one) and a whole lot of cut-short, interfered-with or generally disastrous stints and false starts. ChrisCross is a great artist, though, and Osborn has shown DeConnick to be a diverse writer, especially of intrepid reporters.

Written by PAUL CORNELL

Art and cover by KENNETH ROCAFORT

1:10 Variant cover by JON BOGDANOVE

"Reign of Doomsday" marches on! A deadly new foe has risen following the events of ACTION COMICS #900 – and he represents Superman's worst fears personified. Even with Steel, Superboy, Supergirl and the Eradicator by his side, Superman is still in for the fight of his life – and considering his life, you know that's gotta be some fight!

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

On sale JUNE 22 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

It's Paul Cornell, so the dialogue will be good. It's Kenneth Rocafort, so it'll look gorgeous. It's 20 pages of Superman and Doomsday beating the crap out of each other, along with other characters from a favorite story for anyone who grew up reading DC comics in the '90s. At least, it was one of mine. I'm going to be honest here and say that this arc pushes all my fanboy buttons, and with Cornell writing I'm confident that there'll be a twist past just 20 pages of sweet-ass fighting. But even if there isn't, I suspect my appetite will be sated.

Written by JOHN ROZUM

Art and cover by FRAZER IRVING

The secrets of Roland Finch and the Ninth Stronghold are uncovered. As David and his companions set out to forge an alliance against Finch, David takes his first steps toward a destiny he's deterined to avoid.

On sale JUNE 29 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+

The first issue of this was excellent, as basically every critic predicted. Come on, guys. I really don't want to have to read yet another editorial about why the comics market can't support new characters in a year after the cancellation of this title seven issues after they pulled Frazer Irving off and replaced him with a house style artist. Go out. Buy this comic. Let it flourish. I want to see Rozum and Irving working together on this book for years, and if you have any decent taste so should you. Not to support minority characters, or to support low-selling titles, or new concepts, or in memory of Dwayne McDuffie, or anything like that: Buy this because it's a really goddamn good comic book.

Written by J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI and CHRIS ROBERSON

Art by EDDY BARROWS and J.P. MAYER

Cover by JOHN CASSADAY

1:10 Variant cover by GEORGE PÉREZ

Meet Los Angeles's newest super hero in the latest Chapter of "Grounded": Sharif! But Sharif discovers that in today's current cultural climate, some people don't want his help – they just want him gone. Can Superman aid Sharif and quell a prejudiced public, or are there some problems too big even for the Man of Steel to solve?

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

On sale JUNE 8 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

I completely and fully support DC's ongoing campaign to troll the hell out of anti-Islamic bigots. It is fantastic. While this solicitation would probably make me shudder and crawl into a hole before dying inside if Straczynski had been the only name on the writer credit, after Chris Roberson's Pretty Damn Good last three issues of Superman, I've got faith that he'll handle this as it should be handled: with Superman lecturing a bunch of stupid racists.

Still, CA's Andy Khouri might want to get to work on "Racists Totally Freak Out Over Muslim Superhero in Superman" right now so he can take a vacation in a few months.

Written By SCOTT SNYDER

Art and cover by SEAN MURPHY

1:10 Variant cover by CLIFF CHIANG

From the pages of the red-hot Vertigo series comes a five-issue spinoff miniseries!

It's World War II in Nazi-occupied Romania as vampire hunters Felicia Book and Cash McCogan (last seen in the critically acclaimed AMERICAN VAMPIRE story "Devil in the Sand") go behind enemy lines with the secret organization known as the Vassals of the Morningstar in search of a rumored vampire cure. But their haunted, twisted past with Skinner Sweet makes the mission more difficult than they imagined.

Superstar artist Sean Murphy (JOE THE BARBARIAN) joins Scott Snyder to tell a story of horror and history, expanding the American Vampire mythology in a way that changes this story forever.

On sale JUNE 8 • 1 of 5, 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • Mature Readers

I've still only read the first hardcover of this series, but Snyder's doing excellent work over in Detective Comics, so I'm fairly confident when I say he's on a roll lately and that this book is likely to continue that, especially with artist Sean Murphy coming on after Joe the Barbarian with Grant Morrison. I suspect that a lot of the problems that plagued the process in Joe won't apply here due to increased creative team communication; I only wonder why this wasn't just an arc in the main series itself, since it'll doubtlessly end up collected as volume three or something. Still, American Vampire twice a month, one Albuquerque, one Murphy. I don't know why Scott Snyder is teflon to bad artists, but he is.

Written by GRANT MORRISON

Art by SCOTT CLARK

Cover by CHRIS BURNHAM

1:25 Variant cover by SCOTT CLARK

When Waynetech's launch of Interworld is plagued by a series of "virtual murders," Batman teams up with Oracle to hunt down the culprit in a simulated environment that's slowly collapsing into post-apocalyptic zombie-haunted chaos. A computer-generated Batman adventure that brings Dark Knight justice to a wild new frontier, to face a new and virulent menace. In a world of numbers, does everything have a price?

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

On sale JUNE 22 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

While he's been improving with his work in Brightest Day, the stuff Scott Clark did for Justice League: Cry for Justice was some of the most incomprehensible comic art I've ever seen in my life. Take, for example, this two-page spread:

How am I supposed to read this? Where are the panel borders? Why is Speedy shooting at someone to her left with her bow pointed to her right? What is that in the last panel? (It's supposed to be an explosion.)

So, I'm somewhat concerned about the fact that he's going to do an "all-digital" issue of my favorite comic. The worst-case scenario is that it's 20 incomprehensible pages just like what I pasted above. The best-case scenario is that it's a hilarious sendup of Batman: Digital Justice, the last all-CG in-a-computer-world Bat-tron hybrid comic.

Cyberpunk is done wrong 99% of the time in superhero comics. For God's sake, Messrs Morrison and Clark, be in that other one percent. But if you can't... then try to fail spectacularly.

Written by BRYAN Q. MILLER • Art by PERE PEREZ

Cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN

When Stephanie Brown arrives in London for a top-secret Batman Incorporated assignment, jet lag, lost luggage and those terribly difficult accents are the least of Batgirl's problems – the actual Greenwich Mean has been stolen, and as all of London literally grinds to a halt, it's up to Batgirl and Squire to save the United Kingdom! Tally-ho!

On sale JUNE 15 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Batgirl may be the most purely fun comic book on the market, and it's at its best with the one-shot issues that pair her off with various incongruous characters in the DC Universe. I think basically everyone's been hoping for a Batgirl/Squire teamup as soon as they announced the former was taking a trip across the pond to jolly old England, and while it's unclear whether we'll see that in Morrison's title, I'm glad to see that Miller won't be passing up the opportunity for what should be a truly natural team-up. They're both upbeat, they're both funny, they're both young, and they should play well to Miller's cheeky style of humor. I'm sad Dustin Nguyen won't be onboard, but Perez did a fantastic job with the Damian issue. I dunno if it'll reach as far as some of the other comics on this list, but it's the most likely to make me smile.