Warning! Spoilers ahead for Dark Knights of Steel #1
The epic miniseries Dark Knights of Steel is here, revealing an alternate and medieval DC Universe with variant covers featuring actual Dungeons & Dragons stats. While the world of Dark Knights is one of swords and sorcery, it still features heroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and more iconic characters with brand new roles to fit the era. While Superman is a prince of Castle El, Batman is a brave knight devoted to guarding the royal family. Furthermore, Wonder Woman looks to be a powerful warrior as well whose exact role will soon be revealed. However, D&D fans will also be able to play as their favorite DC heroes with new variant covers serving as character sheets (complete with their own unique stats).
In Dark Knights of Steel #1 from writer Tom Taylor and artist Yasmine Putri, Jor-El and his wife Lara escape Krypton along with their son Kal, crash landing in a medieval version of Earth. Jumping ahead several years, Jor-El and Lara have become monarchs of their own kingdom, being seen as gods due to their Kryptonian powers. While Thomas and Martha Wayne were the kingdom's rulers before the Els, their son Bruce did not ascend to the throne given his status as a bastard. Instead, Bruce has become a knight wearing armor forged to resemble a bat, sworn to protect the royal family from their one weakness of magic as well as the threat of rival kingdoms. Combined with new looks at Black Lightning, Green Arrow, John Constantine, and more carrying new medieval roles in this new alternate universe, Taylor and Putri have set the stage for an incredibly dynamic series going forward.
Additionally, Putri has also created unique variant covers that have been revealed for the first three issues. In keeping with the medieval fantasy theme, Putri's covers resemble D&D character sheets for Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman with each hero having their own issue. As a result, fans of DC and D&D could use these covers to create their own Dark Knights of Steel campaign if they so desired (as it would only require some minor tweaks to make them playable).
While the six ability scores on official D&D character sheets are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, the DC heroes' Speed and Stamina stats are fairly synonymous to Dexterity and Constitution, respectively. As far as the actual score numbers themselves, they do seem to be fairly accurate for each hero. While Superman's highest score is Strength, Batman's is Intelligence with Wonder Woman's being Stamina. As such, having these character sheets can add a whole new level of enjoyment to the series should a Dungeon Master rise to the challenge to create a DC-themed campaign worthy of this new medieval Trinity of heroes.
Once Dark Knights of Steel is all said and done, it could absolutely serve as a narrative foundation that a DM could then riff on with their own spin, providing a truly unique D&D experience. Here's hoping Yasmine Putri has more character sheet variant covers featuring other heroes on the way after these first three issues, allowing more players to get in on the action with a potential DC-themed campaign.