Batman: Bad Seeds ends with Sunrise after ten weeks

01, comics, Confirmed, Off the map

DC announced Batman: Bad Seeds on 21 May, with Matt Fraction and G. Willow Wilson running it. It began on 26 August with a prelude in Poison Ivy #47 and with Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunset #1. DC spread it across ten weeks of Batman, Poison Ivy, Detective Comics, Batgirl, Batwoman, Catwoman, Nightwing and Harley Quinn.

DC lists Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunrise #1 as the conclusion of the event, on sale Wednesday 28 October at 41 pages. Wilson and Fraction write it. Giuseppe Camuncoli pencils, Cliff Rathburn inks and Tomeu Morey colours. That is the Wednesday before Halloween.

DC credited the art and cover on Sunset #1 to the same three: Camuncoli, Rathburn and Morey. The event opens and closes in the same hands.

Two more books from the event share the day. Poison Ivy #49 is written by Wilson, with pencils and inks by Alex Lins and colours by Arif Prianto. Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham General #1 is written by Greg Rucka, with pencils and inks by Rosa Ekedal and Steve Lieber and colours by Patricio Angel.

Sunset in August, Sunrise in October, and the same two writers at both ends.

02, screen, Confirmed, Off the map

Gunn says Batman's suit isn't designed yet

A fan asked James Gunn five questions on Threads. Gunn answered all of them in a numbered list, and the first answer reads: “Batman's suit isn't designed yet.” The rest of the list is about other characters.

Polygon reported the exchange on 20 October. Per Polygon, the fan had asked whether Batman's eventual suit would share the texture of Superman's, and Gunn revealed that the suit isn't even designed yet.

That is the whole of it. No sketch, no colour, no fabric. The suit is a question, and the man running the studio says the answer hasn't been drawn.

03, screen, Reported

Clayface is No. 1 on Saturday's box office estimates, Variety says

Variety reports that Clayface took the No. 1 spot on Friday 23 October from 3,458 North American theatres, and calls it a strong start.

Variety filed on Saturday 24 October, from Friday's figures alone, and gives the weekend as a projection to Sunday. These are Saturday estimates, not a final weekend gross.

James Gunn said on Threads that audiences gave the film an A- CinemaScore, and that only three horror films have earned an A- in the last couple of years. Sinners, by Gunn's count, is the only horror film ever to get an A. Rotten Tomatoes showed a Tomatometer of 75% on 160 reviews, marked Certified Fresh.

Peter Safran told Collider the film is “the introduction to the live-action Gotham”, and said the studio hasn't “really talked about what he's doing during the actual events of Clayface.” James Watkins told GamesRadar+ he wasn't trying to reference Batman. “Because I sort of felt, like the Joker is the story of one person in Gotham, so is this,” he said. He told Collider: “There were no mandates at all from James and Peter.”

A villain from Batman's gallery holds the top line. The man in the cape isn't on the poster.

04, screen, Reported, Off the map

LeFranc in talks to produce a Poison Ivy series, Deadline reports

Lauren LeFranc, showrunner of The Penguin, is in talks to join a Poison Ivy series from Warner Bros. and DC as a producer, Deadline reports. Deadline says no writers are attached, and the series would go to HBO if it gets picked up. Its sources say the show would not be part of Matt Reeves' Batman universe. Deadline adds that plans had been on pause during the Paramount and Warner Bros. merger.

Variety says it has confirmed a Poison Ivy show in the works at HBO with LeFranc as a producer. The Hollywood Reporter also confirmed the talks, and printed: “HBO declined to comment.” TheWrap says the series has not been greenlit by the network and would fall under LeFranc's two-year overall deal with HBO.

A producer in talks, no writer and no order. HBO isn't saying.

05, toys, Confirmed

McFarlane opens pre-orders on three Gotham screen figures on Monday

McFarlane Toys posted on 24 October that Batman Unmasked, a Deluxe Theatrical Edition figure based on Batman Returns, launches for pre-order on 26 October. The 7-inch figure comes with a broken mask, a grapnel launcher, a batarang, two extra hands, an art card and a display base. The maker's photo is marked as showing prototypes.

Two more posts followed the same day. Batgirl, from Batman & Robin, comes with two batarangs, a batarang with rope and two extra hands. The Penguin, from the HBO series, comes with four weapons and an extra hand. Both also launch for pre-order on 26 October, each with an art card and a base.

Two films and a series, one Monday. The mask comes broken in the box.

06, comics, Reported, Off the map

Snyder says Absolute Batman #25 sold over three quarters of a million

In his newsletter of 19 October, Scott Snyder wrote that it was “a pretty big milestone for us to hit over three quarters of a million copies sold with #25.” He wrote of the publisher: “They reported the sales, which was awesome.” The figure is Snyder's.

DC lists Absolute Batman #25 by Snyder and Nick Dragotta, with colours by Frank Martin, on sale Wednesday 28 October at 30 pages. The count arrives before the issue does.

The same newsletter answers a rumour. Snyder wrote that “we’re not taking a big hiatus at all.” DC suggested the team take December off, and the next big arc with Dragotta starts in February. In November, Dragotta gets a break while Snyder and Frank Tieri write the Beyond Ark-M special with Francesco Francavilla on art. Lunar gives that special an in-store date of 16 December. Lunar also lists #26, written by Snyder with art by Cliff Chiang and a Dragotta cover, with an in-store date of 13 January 2027.

Three quarters of a million, a month off, a guest artist, then Dragotta again in February.

07, comics, Confirmed, Off the map

Loeb and Sale's The Long Halloween is 30 years old

Batman: The Long Halloween #1 went on sale on 16 October 1996, the Grand Comics Database records. DC credits the series to writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale, with colours by Gregory Wright.

In DC's history of the book, Joseph McCabe traces it to editor Archie Goodwin. Goodwin had paired Loeb and Sale on three Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween specials, then suggested a story about Gotham's gangsters. DC calls the result Batman's first maxiseries.

It won the 1998 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series, per DC. McCabe sums it up in three short lines: “Thirteen months. One mystery. One creative team.”

08, other, Reported

Late wires

Lunar lists the Absolute Batman Deluxe Edition HC Vol 01 and Absolute Batman: The Covers HC as cancelled. No reason is on either page. For January, Lunar lists Batman #17 by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez for 6 January, and Detective Comics #1117 by Tom Taylor and Mikel Janin for 20 January, both in shops.

Penguin Random House lists Batman: No Man's Land, A Novel by Greg Rucka for 11 May 2027 at 464 pages. It also lists the Batman: Black Casebook Deluxe Edition and the Batman: Gotham by Gaslight Absolute Edition, both listed as available on 8 December.

The résumé of editor Tyler Nelson, posted by his agency, lists him on The Batman Part II for Matt Reeves.

On 18 October Deniz Camp answered a fan who asked whether Batman: Shadow of the Bat is limited or ongoing, and called it ongoing. On 19 October he answered a fan's question about fill-in artists: “No fill ins. Stay tuned.”

The ICON festival programme lists an Absolute Batman panel with Nick Dragotta and Daniel Warren Johnson on Saturday 7 November at 1 PM. India's censor board passed Clayface with an “A” certificate on 19 October after cuts, Bollywood Hungama reports. DC Universe Online runs its Witching Hour event in Gotham from 20 October to 16 November.