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If there’s one hero in all of comics you can depend on, it’s DC’s Superman. Everyone knows where they are with the Man of Steel — we know that he stands for Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow, that he’s an unmistakably good guy, and that, odds are, you’re going to be okay if he’s there to help out. But… what if something changed that?

Enter the creative team behind Image Comics’ acclaimed (and Eisner Award nominated!) Ice Cream Man, W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, and Chris O’Halloran — a group who are about to bring their brand of genre-twisting, existential horror to the oldest superhero of them all in the new five-issue series Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum.

Published under the DC Black Label imprint — which means that the story is told outside of continuity (so anything can happen!) and also aimed at older readers who might be ready for something a little more unusual and challenging than the norm — The Kryptonite Spectrum is the story of what happens when Superman finds new versions of the radioactive material that can effect him, and what happens when he sets out to discover what these new Kryptonites are capable of.

Described by editor Paul Kaminski as “art-pop storytelling,” the series is “often warped, suspenseful and occasionally horrific, and lean[s} into the rich stylings of the silver age Superman franchise.” Writer Prince says that it’s about something else as well, however.

“Martín, Chris and I want to tell a bonkers story that also explores real, human problems,” he said in a statement about the series. “These Kryptonite shards are, in fact, pieces of Kal-El's home. It's his own home that hurts him. This idea that ‘home hurts’ can also be applied to Batman, Wonder Woman, et al. So, we're exploring that idea inside this framework of our usual experimental storytelling. Home can be traumatic—and yet there’s no place quite like it, as Dorothy reminds us. We’re interrogating all this stuff within the bookends of something decidedly wacky, and full of make-your-jaw-drop Man of Tomorrow moments. It’s what we do best: an admixture of sad, funny, and strange. (And, because it’s Superman, HAPPY!)”

Well, I’m convinced. Or maybe the right word should be ‘concerned’? (That all-caps HAPPY is far from convincing, put it that way.)

The series launches August 13 with covers from Morazzo and O’Halloran, Tula Lotay, Juan Ferreyra, Wes Craig, and Alex Eckman-Lawn. You can see all of those covers, as well as interior pages from the first issue by Morazzo and O’Halloran, in the gallery below.

James Gunn's Superman is flying into theaters soon enough, and Popverse has all you need to prepare. Refreshing your cinematic memory with our Superman movie watch order, learn what we know about the upcoming Superman movie, Superman's S-Shield through the ages, and read about what DC is doing ahead of their flagship hero's triumphant return.