The creative team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev return in April 2020 with the six-issue miniseries Event Leviathan: Checkmate, the next installment of their Event Leviathan storyline. From the beginning, the story arc involved the various intelligence agencies and organizations within the DCU systemically dismantled by a new, masked villain calling himself Leviathan - who somehow had a private army at his disposal. By the conclusion of the first miniseries, Leviathan had managed to avoid capture and was revealed to be a former hero. This reveal, along with the elimination of the various spy agencies of the DCU, left the heroes and the world reeling by the organization's sudden and explosive arrival.
Leviathan: Dawn the oversized one-shot special that releases in February.
Previews for Event Leviathan: Checkmate reveals that Leviathan has successfully established a new world order among the espionage agencies of the DC Universe and united them under the single banner with agents and acolytes all over the world. Green Arrow, The Question, Lois Lane, and Talia Al Ghul, the heroes who stopped Leviathan from initially achieving his ultimate goal, find themselves as the last line of defense against the plan the organization has for the entire world.
The unlikely group of allies bands together as a new version of Checkmate, with the goal of taking the world back from Leviathan. This new version of Checkmate will have to discover what the Leviathan organization really is and the secrets behind its power before all is lost. ing these heroes will be a hero, whose identity is unknown and will be working from the shadows. The press release only says that the actions of this unknown hero could mean the difference between victory or defeat.
While there are few specifics about this new version of Checkmate or if it will resemble the past incarnations of the organization, it seems as though the heroes have simply co-opted the Checkmate name. The identity of the mystery superhero working from the shadows also remains a mystery at this time, but it could be a strong possibility that it will be Jim Harper, Guardian, who was supposedly taken out by Leviathan before he was revealed at the end of Event Leviathan.
Event Leviathan: Checkmate is the latest installment in what Bendis has called the Leviathan Saga. According to Bendis, the Leviathan Saga will expand across much of DC's publishing line across the coming year and will continue in the format of miniseries, one-shots, and various ongoing series in the DC line of titles.
Event Leviathan: Checkmate is scheduled to release on April 22, 2020.
