DC Nation #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeDC Nation #1 (July 2018) marked the launch of DC's free monthly promotional magazine, a format the publisher had not sustained successfully since earlier attempts like DC Direct. Coming immediately on the heels of DC Nation #0 — itself a landmark near-free prelude comic released around Free Comic Book Day — the #1 issue established the magazine as a genuine ongoing fixture for DC's post-Dark Nights: Metal publishing era, centralizing creator interviews, sketchbook features, and event previews in one distributed-free periodical. It served as a hub document for one of DC's busiest creative summers, spotlighting the dual Bendis/Snyder era that was simultaneously reshaping Superman and the Justice League. The series was short-lived (canceled after issue #6), making #1 the opening chapter of an experiment that, while brief, demonstrated DC's ambition to rebuild direct fan engagement through editorial-style content.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
DC Nation (Vol. 2) launched in mid-2018 as a free monthly magazine produced by ex-staffers of Wizard Magazine, according to Bleeding Cool's contemporaneous coverage. It was conceived as a successor to earlier DC promotional formats, including the failed DC Direct magazine. Issue #1, cover-dated July 2018 and featuring a Rogol Zaar cover by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado, was the first numbered installment of what DC positioned as an ongoing companion to its then-current publishing initiative. The magazine ran through issue #6 (January 2019) before being discontinued.
Trivia · 8 facts
- DC Nation #1 is the first numbered issue of DC's free monthly promotional magazine launched in July 2018, distributed at no cover cost through comic retailers.
- The cover of #1 features art by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado depicting Rogol Zaar, the new Man of Steel villain introduced by Brian Michael Bendis.
- Issue #1 content included a joint Q&A between Brian Michael Bendis and Scott Snyder on the future of the DC Universe — their first such conversation in print.
- Jim Lee's sketchbook pages detailing his character design for Rogol Zaar — described as 'the being who killed Krypton' — appeared in this issue, giving readers an early behind-the-scenes look at the flagship villain of Bendis's Superman run.
- Additional editorial content in #1 covered 'Wedding Crashers' (villains uniting to stop Batman's wedding, tying into the Batman #50 storyline), a 'New Age of Heroes' spotlight, a 'Legacy of Metal' Dark Nights: Metal follow-up feature, a Flash vs. Flash race feature, a 'How to Draw Hawkman' tutorial by Bryan Hitch, and a Pre-Crime Fighters Teen Titans segment.
- The series was staffed, at least in part, by former Wizard Magazine employees, positioning it as a spiritual heir to that era of comics journalism.
- The magazine ran for six issues total (July 2018 – January 2019) before cancellation, making #1 the start of a short-lived but editorially ambitious run.
- DC Nation #0 (May 2018), the prelude issue in the same series, contained the first appearance of Robinson Goode (later revealed as Red Cloud), a character written by Bendis who debuted in the 'Office Space' Superman story leading directly into The Man of Steel #1.
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