DC’s Next Level publishing initiative expanded on September 2, 2026 with three new ongoing series — Legion of Super-Heroes, The Doom Patrol and Teen Titans — each debuting with a new creative team, a mystery-driven opening issue, and strong early reviews from critics.
DC Comics released all three #1 issues on Wednesday, September 2, 2026. Reviewers at AIPT Comics, The Beat and Fandom Post posted their verdicts the same day, and the consensus across all three is unusually positive for a three-book relaunch wave.
Last updated: September 3, 2026.
What DC Next Level Is, and Where This Wave Fits
DC Next Level launched in March 2026 as what DC itself has called the "second act" of the DC All In publishing strategy, the line-wide push that began with the DC K.O. crossover event. Next Level titles are full continuity, but written as standalone jumping-on points: new #1s built around established characters, each handed to a creative team working in a genre lens the character has not been given before, as DC’s own announcement of the line explains. Earlier Next Level launches covered Batwoman, Lobo, Deathstroke: The Terminator, Firestorm, Zatanna, Barbara Gordon: Breakout and The Deadman. Legion of Super-Heroes, The Doom Patrol and Teen Titans — ranked among the best superhero teams in comics — are the first team books the initiative has tackled, rather than solo heroes.
Legion of Super-Heroes #1: A Thousand-Year Murder Mystery
Writer Joshua Williamson and Eisner-winning artist Hayden Sherman set their Legion relaunch a thousand years after Kal-El’s rocket crashed on the Kent farm, in a future where superheroes have been outlawed and a police force called the Persuaders keeps the United Planets in line. The issue opens with the murder of R.J. Brande, long the Legion’s patron and last hope for a better tomorrow. A new incarnation of Brainiac, calling itself Brainiac 1 of 5, has to solve the murder while recruiting a scattered cast of gifted young rebels from across the galaxy to rebuild the team.
AIPT Comics’ review called the debut "fresh, radiant, and everything about it is electric," praising Williamson for laying out the pieces of a mystery that spans the universe and time itself without losing new readers in the process.
Teen Titans #1: Red Hood Leads a New Roster
Writer Kyle Higgins and artist Daniele Di Nicuolo built their 32-page debut around a disappearance, not an origin story: a friend of the core cast vanishes from a rally tied to a youth movement called Ascend, and Red Hood steps in to lead four new-to-the-role Titans — Fairplay, Cheshire Cat, Proxy and Wildcard — into the investigation. It is a deliberate reset of the Titans’ usual sidekicks-of-the-Justice-League formula: none of this cast is a legacy hero’s understudy, and Red Hood is cast as mentor rather than member. Readers curious how this new roster stacks up against every Titan who has worn the name before can see the full membership ranked.
The Doom Patrol #1: Heroes for Hire, Broke for Real
Eisner-winning writer Darcy Van Poelgeest (Little Bird) and artist Niko Henrichon (Pride of Baghdad) reboot Robotman, Elasti-Girl and Negative Man as a heroes-for-hire outfit taking cases to stay solvent — starting with what looks like a simple missing-cat case before it spirals into something cosmic. A second thread, kept apart from the team for now, follows what the solicitation calls "a ghost of the team’s past" preparing to cross back into their world. AIPT Comics’ review said the issue "reads breezily, leans into the genre’s inherent ridiculousness, and yet still leaves readers with a sense that something deeper and more meaningful is at play."
How the Three Launches Compare
| Series | Writer / Artist | Opening hook | Tone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legion of Super-Heroes #1 | Joshua Williamson / Hayden Sherman | A patron’s murder, 1,000 years in the future | Cosmic mystery |
| Teen Titans #1 | Kyle Higgins / Daniele Di Nicuolo | A friend vanishes from a youth-movement rally | Street-level investigation |
| The Doom Patrol #1 | Darcy Van Poelgeest / Niko Henrichon | A missing-cat case that turns cosmic | Dark comedy |
The Weight Each Team Is Carrying Into This Relaunch
All three books are following acclaimed, decades-old runs, which raises the bar for what a jumping-on point has to earn back. Legion of Super-Heroes has its highest-water mark in Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen’s early-to-mid-1980s run, including 1982’s The Great Darkness Saga, credited with turning a sprawling 30-plus-member cast into a coherent political drama. Doom Patrol’s defining era is Grant Morrison and Richard Case’s 1989-1993 run, which rebuilt the team around trauma and body horror rather than traditional superheroics — a tone Van Poelgeest and Henrichon are visibly working in conversation with, not against. Teen Titans carries the heaviest legacy of the three: Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s New Teen Titans (1980-1988) is one of the best-selling superhero comics of all time and set the template every subsequent Titans relaunch has been measured against. None of the three new creative teams is attempting a copy of those runs; each is using a different genre — cosmic mystery, dark comedy, street-level investigation — to sidestep the comparison rather than invite it directly.
The Pattern: None of These Three Open With an Origin
Every earlier Next Level book relaunched a solo hero, where an origin refresher is the default opening move. All three team books do the opposite: Legion opens on a murder, Teen Titans on a disappearance, Doom Patrol on a case file. None of the three spends its first issue re-explaining who its cast is or how they got their powers — the mystery itself is doing the introducing, with characters revealed as they become relevant to solving it. For team books specifically, that is a harder trick to pull off than it is for a solo hero: a new reader has to track four or five names instead of one. All three creative teams made the same bet that a plot hook beats a cast roll call, and the review consensus — positive across three separate outlets, on three separate books, on the same Wednesday — suggests the bet paid off.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to have read previous Legion of Super-Heroes, Teen Titans or Doom Patrol comics to start these #1s?
No. All three are designed as jumping-on points under DC’s Next Level initiative: they are in full DC continuity but written to be read without prior knowledge of the teams’ history.
Who are the new Teen Titans in the 2026 relaunch?
Red Hood leads four characters new to the Titans’ core lineup: Fairplay, Cheshire Cat, Proxy and Wildcard, introduced while investigating a friend’s disappearance.
What is DC Next Level?
DC Next Level is a publishing initiative that launched in March 2026 as the second act of the DC All In strategy, relaunching established characters as standalone #1s with new creative teams.
When did Legion of Super-Heroes #1, Teen Titans #1 and The Doom Patrol #1 come out?
All three shipped on Wednesday, September 2, 2026.
Are these three books connected to each other, or separate stories?
Each is a self-contained relaunch with its own creative team and plot. They share only the DC Next Level branding and a September 2, 2026 release date, not a crossover storyline.
