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It’s no secret that the highly-anticipated Batman 'H2SH' arc has faced some delays. The sequel to the 2002 Batman storyline, which reunites the creative team of Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, has experienced a few scheduling shifts. Batman #163, which was originally announced for August 2025, has been delayed a few times and is currently set to hit stores on May 27, 2026.

Jim Lee, the H2SH penciler who doubles as DC Comics' publisher and chief creative officer, has publicly revealed that he has been dealing with a condition that has affected his work for the past year — and one that for his safety means he can't go into his 'fifth' gear to handle his multiple jobs.

"I've been reluctant to share personal health matters publicly, but I also wanted you to know why these last two issues have taken so inordinately long," Lee writes on Facebook. "Last summer 1 was diagnosed prediabetic-the result of decades of poor decisions and work habits: way too little sleep, way too much stress, and way too many late-night carbs under deadline."

Lee talks about how, ever since he became a full-time business executive in the mid '90s, he was able to fit in drawing by doing it after a full day of work and then spending time with his family in the evening in what is a grueling schedule.

"The biggest adjustment has been losing the '5th gear' I used to rely on—the 10 PM to 4 AM grind that powered books like Justice League and Suicide Squad," Lee says. "Now I cap drawing at 1 AM and force myself to work during the day on weekends, but those hours are only 25-40% as productive as my old late-night form. And then beating yourself up because you're not [delivering] the speed and results you expect from yourself made drawing particularly frustrating and at my lowest moments — profoundly depressing."

In a surprisingly raw moment, Lee said he tried a medication to help him through this but it led him to feel "like I was disrupting my brain and poisoning my body." Instead, he's focused on rebuilding his life through diet, exercise, and sleep.

Lee's father worked in the medical field, and Lee himself originally planned to become a medical doctor himself (with a Princeton degree to prove it). But now, after a decades-long career as a comic creator, business owner, and now chief executive of DC Comics, he found the balancing a full-time job as DC CCO/publisher and the demands of being one of the most celebrated and scrutinized superhero artists not tenable with living a healthy life for himself, his children, his wife, and for all of us.

In a further attempt to set boundaries for himself and to avoid letting down fans and DC (and his own expectations of himself), Lee has decided any projects where he is drawing or writing will not be put up for pre-order with retailers until he's completed his creative work on the project. 

"It's not fair to you all — the retailers, the readers, and all the DC Comics team members to be this unprofessional, particularly as the lead of this company," Lee writes.

There's something we can all learn from this.. 

Lee is working on the last two pages of Batman #163, and he says his longtime inker Scott Williams and color artist Alex Sinclair are set to finish it out right behind him.

Batman #163 will go on sale on May 27.

Need more? Here's our picks for the best DC Comics stories of all time, and here's a list of all the free DC comics you can look forward to as part of this year's Free Comic Book Day 2026 and Comics Giveaway Day 2026.