Joshua Williamson will be replacing Brian Michael Bendis as Justice League writer with April 19th's issue #75... where he will end the series with the death of the world's greatest superheroes! Williamson is teaming up with artist Rafa Sandovel of The Flash to create this 48-page special, which will see the League falling in battle against a Dark Army made from the Multiverse's greatest villains.
The book will have an acetate cover-- generally seen as a standard comic cover with a translucent plastic cover atop it-- illustrated by Daniel Sampere and Alejandro Sanchex, seen below. This will be the final issue of the current Justice League line.
In a DC press release, both Williamson and Sandoval detailed what makes them excited about creating this comic.
“We've been building to the Death of the Justice League for the last year across the main line,” said Williamson. “I remember buying Death of Superman 30 years ago and now we have an opportunity to take that idea and go bigger with it. Justice League #75 allows us to showcase why the Justice League are comics' greatest heroes as we show the aftermath of the loss against their biggest threat ever and its impact on the DCU.”
“Being able to draw the Justice League is always exciting, they are just the greatest superhero team of all time,” said Sandoval. “We will see a great evil coming out of the darkness and more dark characters that will be revealed very soon. This book is just the starting point and fans do not want to be left behind and miss what is going to happen.”
Williamson has been laying the groundwork for this story in the pages of Infinite Frontier and Justice League Incarnate, but the Justice League proper has been largely uninvolved in the story until now. The League's line-up will consist of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (John Stewart), Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Zatanna - the latter normally being found in the Justice League Dark instead. Reportedly, only one character will survive.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Williamson detailed his plans for the Justice League's future, where he continued to compare the story to the wildly successful Death of Superman storyline.
"I remember the experience of reading the build-up to The Death of Superman," Williamson said, "and then waiting in the rain for my copy of issue #75. I think one reason that story was so powerful was that after the Funeral for a Friend story, there were no Superman comics for three months. That's part of what led us to make the decision that this is the last issue of Justice League. But then three months later, there's still not gonna be a Justice League comic. It's gonna be a while, and that's gonna be a major part of what the DCU looks like after this story: There is no Justice League."
Below is a variant cover of the issue, illustrated by Dan Jurgens: the lead writer of The Death of Superman story arc in 1993.
