DC Comics revealed two new titles in its young-readers line at its Sunday panel at San Diego Comic-Con: Batman and Robin and Howard: Summer Breakdown, by Jeffrey Brown, and Lightning: Changes, a story about Jennifer Pierce, the daughter of Jefferson Pierce (Black Lightning), by Sherri L. Smith.

Brown is the creator of the best-selling Vader and Son books (see “Jeffrey Brown’s ‘Mandalorian and Child’ Coming in November”), and DC published his middle-grade original graphic novel Batman and Robin and Howard in 2021 (see “Top-Selling Creators on DC Middle-Grade Graphic Novels”).

At the panel, Brown said he had envisioned Batman and Robin and Howard as a one-off and was working on another idea involving different characters.  “As I worked on it, I was like, you know what’s missing from this story is Batman and Robin and Howard,” he said.  “I fit them back in and the story came together, so there will be a sequel.”  In a break from its usual practice for this program, DC will publish Batman and Robin and Howard: Summer Breakdowns as a three-issue series to be collected later.

Lightning: Changes follows Jennifer Pierce, who has no idea at the outset that her father is a superhero, through a summer of troubling changes.  Her parents are divorced, and she goes to spend the summer with her father and his family in Memphis, Tennessee.  Not only does she have to deal with relatives who haven’t seen her since she was a baby, she has also started manifesting powers of her own, usually at the most inopportune times.  Smith is the author of the young adult novel Flygirl and has also written Simpsons comics and Avatar: The High Ground. Lily J. Allen is the artist for the book.

Click Gallery below for artwork!