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It's a happenin' time for those of us who love watching dudes fight. There's a new Mortal Kombat movie on the way with Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, the actual Mortal Kombat character Sub-Zero is coming to DC K.O., Absolute Batman will be fighting white nationalists in an annual out later this month, and writer Scott Snyder is having "the most fun [he's] had" putting together DC K.O. with fellow writer Joshua Williamson. DC K.O. is the publisher's current company-wide event, where the heroes and villains of the DC Universe are pitted against each other in, well, a Mortal Kombat-style tournament that will leave one final character standing to fight Darkseid. 

At New York Comic Con 2025's Retailer Day, Snyder explained to comic store owners, "Fight Month is December. It's all these characters in one-shots where one character fights another character. I'm doing one of them, the Red Hood one, it's gonna be a blast. The fun of Fight Month is that it's not just like one issue where they fight, it's best of three, so they can respawn. When they respawn — it's so dumb, but I love it — they can take on any version of themselves from continuity that they want to fight the other person, and so it's just completely fucking bonkers. And the most fun that we've had."

Of course, Red Hood will be fighting the Joker in the one-shot Snyder is co-writing with Joshua Williamson, with art from Dustin Nguyen. It's an important and emotional rematch against the clown who originally murdered him back when he was just a Robin in the 1988 storyline 'A Death in the Family.' At DC's Next Level panel at NYCC, Snyder noted that Jason Todd will respawn at one point in the issue as Robin in the infamous warehouse where he was killed by the Joker. That's one way to confront your trauma! 

My question is, as Popverse's rabid Jason Todd fan, will Red Hood choose to respawn as the version of himself from a bizarre 2006 arc in Nightwing where he was a cannibal tentacle monster? I'm not kidding you - the story exists in Nightwing (1996) #122, and it was written by Bruce Jones and pencilled by Paco Diaz (with wonderful cover art by none other than Jock). Surely, that would be the most efficient way to take out the Joker, right? I apologize to all of you reading this who just learned this information for the first time. 

DC K.O. #1 is currently available. DC Fight Month begins December 2026.

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