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DC offered Rick Remender Batman and the Absolute Universe, but he says he turned them down: “It feels like playing cover songs to me.”
DC offered Rick Remender Batman, but there’s one obscure superhero team he’d actually consider.
NewsbyChris Arrant, Editor-in-Chief
Published on Thu Sep 03 2026
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Rick Remender quit Marvel, DC, and pretty much any comic company where he couldn’t own (or at least co-own) what he made in 2015. Not because he had to, as he walked out midway through plans to relaunch Marvel’s Avengers title and/or an X-Men title, but because his creator-owned comics were finally taking off with Black Science, Low, Seven to Eternity, and more. But over the past 11 years, Remender says that both Marvel and DC have tried to win him back; in 2019, Marvel offered him the X-Men again before giving it to Jonathan Hickman, but now Remender says that DC has offered him some absolutely wild projects.
Let me rephrase that: Absolutely wild projects.
In a fan AMA over on League of Comic Geeks, Remender says that DC offered him the main Batman ongoing series “and a bunch of opportunities in the Absolute Universe.”
“It wasn’t that hard to turn down those jobs. It would’ve been good money, and money is nice, but my heart simply isn’t in it. It feels like playing cover songs to me,” says Remender. “There are a few IPs I’d still get excited for, but they are oddball things.”
One of the “oddball things” Remender said would pique his interest is a revamp of the DC space police squad known as Blackstars. No, they’re not the Green Lantern Corps, but were created by Star Trek writer Michael Jan Friedman and Tribe’s Larry Stroman in the ’90s.
“I don’t really want to write other people’s characters, but if I had to pick one, I’d say I would fix Darkstars for them,” says Remender. “Then I’d be really hurt when they made a movie and didn’t involve me. Then I’d swear– never again, Satan!”
Remender, who is currently in the third year of a three-year exclusive deal with Image Comics, says that while it’d be pragmatic to do a mixture of creator-owned work and company work, his tenure at Marvel was “some of the unhappiest of my life. It’s just not a great fit for me.”
I applaud Remender for not wanting to go back to a place where he felt uncomfortable. But if things ever changed, I will say that DC recently reintroduced the Darkstars in the Absolute Green Lantern series under the new name they’ve become known by, the Blackstars.
Just sayin’.
Interested? Here’s where to find your closest local comic store, courtesy of Sweet, and here’s a guide to how (and where) to read comics online. If you’re looking for the best comics in recent memory, check out the Eisner Awards winners and the Harvey Awards nominees. And if you like free comics, here’s everything we know about Free Comic Book Day 2027.
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Chris Arrant: Chris Arrant is the Popverse’s Editor-in-Chief. He has written about pop culture for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher’s Weekly, Marvel, Newsarama, CBR, and more. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. (He/him)
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