LEGO Batman 76300 Arkham Asylum has no fewer than 65 stickers to apply, but only one of those may be hinting towards the next superhero modular building…
A feature the LEGO Group is touting as a selling point of its first-ever DC modular building, 76300 Arkham Asylum’s extensive sticker sheet is mostly a means for the designers to cram in as many references to Bat-lore as possible. There’s a ‘vote for Harvey Dent’ poster, a Clayface cameo and much more besides – but there’s also one sticker that hints at a world beyond Gotham.
Another poster on the rear wall of Arkham’s cells encourages Gotham’s citizens to visit Metropolis, the home of Superman, with artwork of towering skyscraper the Daily Planet. DC’s equivalent to the Daily Bugle, these newspaper offices are where Clark Kent and Lois Lane ply their trade. They also feature heavily in James Gunn’s newest Superman film, which has just debuted in cinemas.
Any acknowledgement of the wider DC universe is a rarity for the LEGO Super Heroes theme, which save for a single Superman mech this January has basically been Batman’s playground for the past few years. So this sticker in itself feels pretty significant amongst the other 64 – but also because the LEGO Group has previous when it comes to teasing new sets through graphics.
Take the latest trio of flagship Middle-earth sets, for example. A map in 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell features Sauron’s fortress, which materialised a year later in 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr. That towering citadel then gave us a glimpse of Bag End in the Palantir, and lo and behold the next set to arrive on shelves was 10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire.
So, is 76300 Arkham Asylum teasing a new Daily Planet modular building for 2026? It’s an impossible question to answer right now, but it’s also not one we can categorically dismiss.
Consider too that 76178 Daily Bugle is finally retiring at the end of 2025, leaving space in the Super Heroes line-up for another newspaper office – and while the LEGO DC theme has been all too cautious around DC’s latest silver-screen adventure, the generally positive reception to Superman (2025) will hopefully prove encouraging.
Perhaps the biggest difficulty facing a potential Daily Planet is the minifigure line-up. Marvel’s most populous modular buildings have had the benefit of reusing minifigures currently in circulation to bolster their ranks, thanks to the wealth of Spider-Man and Avengers sets otherwise on shelves. A Daily Planet set, on the other hand, would need to conjure up its cast almost entirely from scratch.
It’s obvious from 76300 Arkham Asylum’s repeated prison jumpsuit torsos, which all feature generic grey gloves regardless of the villain wearing them (as opposed to The LEGO Batman Movie’s 70912 Arkham Asylum, which featured unique torsos with different hands depending on the wearer), that the budget for LEGO Super Heroes sets is not quite as flexible as it once was.
Overcoming that obstacle could make or break a potential LEGO Daily Planet in 2026 – although one solution, just off the top of our heads, would be a proper DC universe wave of LEGO sets releasing earlier in the year to get some of those minifigures in circulation. We can only dream…
76300 Arkham Asylum launches September 9 and is
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