James Gunn’s Superman and Creature Commandos may have set the grand stage for both live-action and animated storytelling in the DCU, upcoming DC movies sound like they could possibly set audiences up for the Dynamic Duo movie. First announced in the latter months of 2024, this movie will focus on two iterations of the Boy Wonder, Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, and it’ll mash up various kinds of animated mediums to tell its story, and at least one major DC (and Marvel) artist was brought in behind the scenes.
Fans can now expect Dynamic Duo to include some visuals from the always excellent Jock (real name: Mark Simpson), who has been wowing comic book readers for over 25 years, with a career that first began with Judge Dredd stories for 2000 AD. I’ll list a larger rundown of his works below, but he’s most noteworthy to Batman fans as the writer/artist of the DC Black miniseries Batman: One Dark Knight, and for teaming with writer Scott Snyder on Detective Comics, The Batman Who Laughs arc, All-Star Batman and more.
Jock’s a fabulous artist who has gone to both dark and lighter stories with the Caped Crusader, and actually dropped the big reveal himself about his involvement while talking to Popverse, saying he’s “been designing stuff” for the animation studio Swaybox Studios in New Orleans, which he traveled to in order to meet the team and see everything they’ve worked on so far. He shared where he’s been most helpful, but addressed that keeping mum is important at this early stage.
Visual development basically. I’d love to tell you what I’ve been doing, but I guess I’ve got to be a little bit careful. But it’s very exciting and it’s right in my wheelhouse. Let’s put it that way.
Despite not being able to dig into any plot details or what other characters fans can expect to see, Jock did share praise for the Swaybox team and spoke to the various visual elements that will be on display, and I don’t know how I’m going to stay patient waiting years for this. As he put it:
Seeing what they’re doing, applying what they do to the world of Gotham is a sight to behold. I’m lucky to have worked on a lot of things, but I’m really excited about this. . . . This is puppets, though, of course. There’s an animation sort of element, well, a CG element, I should say. It’s amazing. It’s like an amalgamation of lots of different disciplines brought together, and the visuals are just stunning. It’s quite something honestly.
I’m intrigued by the notion that Jock’s duties are in his wheelhouse, since his DC work has largely fallen on the darker and more adult side of things (like Creatures Commandos), while Dynamic Duo is said to be more on the family-friendly side (like Superman). Here are some of the major non-Batman comic books he’s worked on over the years that also speak to more serious vibes, with the upcoming Absolute Batman #15 marking his latest pair-up with Snyder.
- Hellblazer
- The Losers
- Faker
- Green Arrow: Year One
- Savage Wolverine
- Immortals: Gods and Heroes
- Gone
- Wytches (also written by Scott Snyder)
That’s not even counting all the cover art he’s put together, which is perhaps most notable for Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra’s Scalped. If DC brought him into the fold for the new movie, that’s a pretty big show of confidence both in the artist and the project itself, and I can’t wait until he’s able to share more details, such as whether or not this movie has a direct effect on Robin’s role in the impending Brave and the Bold movie.
Dynamic Duo is set to hit theaters well beyond the 2026 movie schedule, on June 30, 2028. We might actually know who’s playing the DCU’s Batman by then, amirite?