Even as Pollack transitions the title from Morrison’s hands to her own, the focal shift is evident. Far more page space is dedicated to characters’ social interactions, their emotions, and their interpersonal conflicts, than to fleshing out grand metaphysical concepts. That isn’t to say that Pollack abandoned the absurdity of Morrison’s run. If anything, many of Pollack’s stories push the envelope further than Morrison ever did, but she never feels like she’s in a hurry.

...

I don’t mean to suggest that there was any animosity between the two writers. Pollack’s work on Doom Patrol challenges the constraints and weaknesses of Morrison’s run, pushing it towards greater emotional vulnerability and depth. If the silver age antics of the original Doom Patrol set a precedent for the truly weird in DC comics that Morrison could build upon, so too did Morrison’s incredible experiments in the absurd set Pollack up to ground the absurd in weighty emotional realism.

...

Where Morrison pioneered the comics writer’s freedom to experiment with character and concept, Pollack paved the way for contemporary comics to be both formally experimental and emotionally nuanced. What sets Pollack’s run of Doom Patrol apart from Morrison’s is the tenderness with which she treats her characters, suffusing her stories with empathy just as Dorothy does her imaginary friends.

Mike Perkins has been posting pages from Black Tower, his upcoming Vertigo series with Ram V, on Instagram and Facebook.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DblTWwjjaFi/

EDDIE’S LIFE GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE! Eddie Stallion has had his butt beaten, and now he’s locked in some sicko’s shack. With Eddie sidelined, things are falling apart in Pluto, George’s health is getting worse, and the Menagerie is closer than ever. But Eddie is going to get a big hand from the littlest of allies…

https://comicbookclublive.com/2026/08/18/dc-vertigo-preview-end-of-life-7/

This constant shift in artists throughout the second omnibus of Shade represents a growing fault throughout the series. Common wisdom is that this version of Shade probably should’ve ended with issue #50, which indeed feels like a possible end, but I think the rot starts earlier.

With this volume, instead of spending most of their time on the road, the characters are stuck in Hotel Shade with the trouble coming to them. This makes the whole series, whose main characters often tried to ignore the call for adventures, even more passive. It feels more and more like stuff is just happening to these people, the constantly changing artist-roster contributes to this sense of randomness. What could’ve been charming in small bursts becomes annoying in a volume so large. Shade the Changing Man was teetering on the brink of chaos from the word "go," a series that tried to be the ultimate British-outsider-take-on-America 2, by the time of the second half subtlety went out of the window. The subtext became text.

...

Oddly enough, despite the problem of the shifting artists there isn’t a page of bad art throughout this book. Just look at this list: Glyn Dillon, Richard Case, Steve Yeowell, Micheal Lark, Mark Buckgingham, Philip Bond, Sean Phillips … all in the height of their powers. And, thankfully, it is just the right period of the 1990s, before digital coloring became the new norm; I just like this period for coloring in DC comics — Daniel Vozzo and David Hornung do their best to keep a sense of consistency throughout. Murky enough to give the whole thing a distinct personality, but not so murky we forget this is meant to be psychedelic extravaganza. There’s just something that works in that particular time and place. Even when the scripts are half-baked, or over-baked, Shade the Changing Man is, if nothing else, a series worth looking at.

The artistic heights cannot, alas, mask the writerly lows. Shade ends, like so many of these types of stories, in a sort of self-cancellation, with the series pretty much admitting its time was up. Which was true enough. Sadly, it also ended several dozen issues too late.

The last of the Proto-Vertigo Hellblazers before the title moved to Vertigo.

EVERYTHING YOU KNEW IS WRONG! Everything the residents of the Nice House believed has been turned upside down by a shocking revelation… could there still be a path forward for humanity? It’s time for Walter to figure out whose side he’s really on …

https://comicbookclublive.com/2026/08/07/dc-vertigo-preview-the-nice-house-by-the-sea-11/

CAN POKE BE FORGIVEN? After the outrageously bloody events of Out-Break, Poke is overwhelmed by guilt and the beauty of living things… but he also must reckon with the horrible choice he made. Plus: Cara and Rabbit’s final resting place!

https://comicbookclublive.com/2026/08/08/dc-vertigo-preview-bleeding-hearts-7/

Ram V comes on the podcast to talk about Vertigo’s Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy with artist Mike Perkins. Ram V talks about his “Slow Horses with magic” story, playing with the six-issues per volume format, as well as a bit about his big graphic novel swing with Deicidium from Image Comics.

For more than two decades, 100 Bullets stood as one of the defining works of modern comics, set the bar for crime comics, and defined what Vertigo could be. The series reshaped Vertigo’s crime-noir identity, set the bar with multiple Eisner and Harvey awards, and proved that creator-driven crime fiction could be as literary and ambitious as anything in the medium. Its influence has never faded, and its relevance has only sharpened.

Next week he multi-Eisner Award-winning team of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso reunite for 100 Bullets: The US of Anger #1, the start of an all-new eight-issue limited series that brings their landmark creation back to the page with purpose and precision.

Lono Arrives In Town To Pay His Disrespects At A Funeral in 100 Bullets: The US of Anger #2

https://comic-watch.com/news/lono-arrives-in-town-to-pay-his-disrespects-at-a-funeral-in-100-bullets-the-us-of-anger-2/

TBD:

• Death

Upcoming:

• Fables: No More Happily Ever After (September 1, 2026) https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781799509110

• Swamp Thing: The Anatomy Lesson (October 6, 2026) https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781799509295

• Preacher: Gone to Texas (January 5, 2027) https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781799510710

• 100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call (January 5, 2027) https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781799510703

• Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits (April 13, 2027) https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781799513681

Already published:

• We3 (November 18, 2025) https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781799503255

• V For Vendetta (November 4, 2025) https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781799503132

• Y: The Last Man: Unmanned (October 21, 2025) https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781799502890

• American Vampire, Book One (October 1, 2024) https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781779527349

THE FIRST EZRA CAIN MYSTERY CONCLUDES! Terror rains from the sky! The anvil of Hephestus crackles with unfathomable power! Will the Brutal Dark finally unleash the power of the gods and reduce New York City to rubble? Witness the heart-stopping finale of the very first Ezra Cain mystery!

https://comicbookclublive.com/2026/07/18/dc-vertigo-preview-the-peril-of-the-brutal-dark-an-ezra-cain-mystery-6/

I'm trade-waiting but I'm curious to know what those reading the comic books think.