DC Comics Future Reveals: Scabbard Comes To World's Finest?

Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics, Superman | Tagged: keith giffen, mark waid, Robert Loren Fleming, Scabbard, Things To Come, Trevor Von Eeden, world's finest

DC Comics Future Reveals: Scabbard Comes To World's Finest?

DC Comics Future Reveals: Scabbard comes to Batman/Superman World's Finest for his first appearance in forty-two years?

Published Sat, 14 Mar 2026 06:58:10 -0500
by Rich Johnston
|
Comments

Article Summary

• Scabbard returns to DC in Batman/Superman: World's Finest after a 42-year absence from comics.
• Originally created in Thriller #4, Scabbard is a deep-cut villain with a violent, short-lived history.
• His last appearance was in 1985's Ambush Bug #4, brought back by his own creator for a comedic cameo.
• Mark Waid's upcoming World's Finest issues promise big stories with Robin, Supergirl, Warlord, and more.

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool ran twenty advance looks at the DC Universe, courtesy of the Things To Come variant cardstock covers from DC in  March and April, and asked readers to tell us what they could see beyond my initial cursory summaries… and they came up trumps!

Now, that's Batman, Superman, Robin, Supergirl, Batgirl and Warlord on the cover of Batman/Superman: World's Finest #50 – the latter of whom will be coming to the series in May. But Bleeding Cool reader Disembodied wrote in the comments, "Do I see Scabbard on that World's Finest cover?? Talk about a deep cut…" And they are right, it is! Scabbard appeared once in the 1983 comic, Thriller #4, created by Robert Loren Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden, in which he died. And was then revived for one issue, Ambush Bug #4 by Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming in 1985.

Scabbard's first appearance saw him as the leader of a group of Molluscan terrorists. He notably beheads the twin brother of the series protagonist and photojournalist, Daniel Grove, on camera.

Scabbard is portrayed as a brutal antagonist and meets a sticky end, losing his own head in the process, courtesy of helicopter blades.

And his head gets kicked around the comic book for a bit as well. Look, it was the eighties…

Two years later, Scabbard reappeared in Ambush Bug #4, itself a deep-cut in 1985, by Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming, of Robert's own work. Well, if no one else was going to bring back Scabbard, Fleming might as well.

In that issue, Scabbard comically returns from the dead to reclaim his severed head, which a police officer had been using as an ashtray…

The manner of his death haunts him through the story, as he tries to deal with Ambush Bug's various shenanigans… and Ambush Bug catches up on his origins, with Fleming giving a subtle dig to himself.

… until Scabbard himself realises that he is in the wrong comic, one in which DC Comics actually exists as an entity.

And that's the last we ever saw of him. Except, it seems, in upcoming issues of Batman/Superman: World's Finest written by Mark Waid. Who didn't even include Scabbard in The New History Of The DC Universe first… here are the upcoming Scabbard-less solicits for the series.

• BATMAN SUPERMAN WORLDS FINEST #50 CVR H VASCO GEORGIEV THINGS TO COME CARD STOCK VAR
  (W) Mark Waid (A) Dan Mora, Adrian Gutierrez (CA) Vasco Georgiev
  OVERSIZE ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! This issue features an adventure so big, not only are Robin, Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen, Batgirl, and the rest of the Super-Bat Family joining in but Dan Mora makes his return to the series he helped launch!
  $5.99 4/1/2026
• BATMAN SUPERMAN WORLDS FINEST #51 CVR A DAN MORA
  (W) Mark Waid (A) Adrian Gutierrez (CA) Dan Mora
  RRRROOOOOAAAARRRRRR! Uh-oh. That sounds like a T. rex. The World's Finest team enters the lost world of Skartaris—home of Travis Morgan, the Warlord! In a magical realm where Superman's powers are at risk, Batman and Robin trade their masks and capes for swords and sorcery!
  $3.99 5/20/2026

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!