The ComicsPRO annual meeting got under way yesterday and the first day brought big news from DC: A new writer for their flagship Batman series.

Writer Chip Zdarsky will take over with issue #125, after previous writer Joshua Williamson’s six-issue run (see “DC Announces New Batman Story Arc”); artist Jorge Jimenez will continue on the series, and the colorist will be Tomeu Morey. Zdarsky’s first arc will be “Failsafe,” a six-issue story in which Batman has nightmares about the future while an old enemy re-emerges from the past with murderous intent. Batman #175 will go on sale on July 5 with a main wraparound cover by Jimenez and variants by InHyuk Lee and Simone DiMeo.

In Aquaman & The Flash: Voidsong, Aquaman and the Flash are the only superheroes left standing when aliens invade the earth and freeze all motion with one single sound. The three-issue miniseries starts with the arrival of the aliens, who plan to use their single note to siphon away the Earth’s kinetic energy. As the only two superheroes to escape the initial blast, Aquaman and The Flash have to work together, without the support of the rest of the Justice League, to save the world. The creative team for the project consists of Collin Kelley, Jackson Lanzing, Vasco Georgiev and Rain Beredo, and the series will kick off on June 21 with a 56-page debut issue featuring a main cover by Jay Anacleto and an open-to-order variant by Georgiev.

Coming in July, DC Mech is a six-issue limited series that brings the mechs from anime into the DC Universe. This requires some alternate history: After World War II, the Justice Society of America was destroyed by invaders from the planet Apokolips and replaced by an elite force of fighters in battle suits, a force that includes both The Flash and Batman. The mech pilots stand ready to defend the Earth from another invasion, but they are caught unawares when the alien who arrives is Kal-El, a fighter from a doomed planet with a mech suit of his own. Kenny Porter (Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, Fearless) and Baldemar Rivas (Robins, Batman: Urban Legends) are the creative team for the limited series, which will launch on July 26.

In the middle-grade space, DC will follow up last year’s Diana: Princess of the Amazons with a new story that mixes superheroes and sibling rivalry. Diana and Nubia: Princesses of the Amazons starts out with a focus on Princess Nubia, who, like Princess Diana in the last book, is feeling lonely as the only kid on Themyscira. Then a newcomer, Diana, arrives, and everyone acts as if she has always been there. The creative team of writers Shannon and Dean Hale and artist Victoria Ying return to the young-readers version of Themyscira they created in the first book (see “Top-Selling Creators on DC Middle-Grade Graphic Novels”). Rated for ages 8-12, Diana and Nubia will go on sale on November 8 with an MSRP of $9.99.