One of the most in-demand superhero writers in recent history, Ram V, has accepted a deal to be exclusive to DC Comics for two years. The deal was announced during the Gotham City panel at SDCC 2023, where Ram V was promoting his current run on Detective Comics.

"So far, I've tried to come up with really inventive ways of putting Batman through the wringer," V says. "The third act, we go through the metaphorical death and rebirth of your central character."

Along with this news, DC has revealed the next arc of Ram V's Detective Comics run will be a western-themed story titled 'Outlaw.' It will feature artwork from Dustin Nguyen and Jason Scott Alexander.

Ram V's decision to align with DC more comes just as he finished up his run on Marvel's ongoing Venom series.

For those who are fans of Ram V's creator-owned work outside of Marvel and DC, rest easy - while Marvel and DC describe these deals as 'exclusive' contracts, they generally still allow creators to work on outside work - just not for its chief rival (Marvel and DC), and only if they are on-target with the specific amount of monthly work spelled out in their article. For artists, it's usually 20 pages a month, and for writers, it is generally the equivalent of two to three scripts per month.