Upcoming Comics May 28, 2024

Welcome back to Upcoming Comics! One of my favorite things to do as a Batman fan is to find hidden gems in the backlog. Beneath all the bombastic events and superstar runs, there are often lesser known stories and runs that are criminally underlooked. Thanks to a comment left by user Madeleine a couple months ago, I decided to check out Ed Brubaker's Detective Comics run from the early 2000s, which was a blind spot for me. I went in a little skeptical because, despite loving his Catwoman run and Gotham Central, I was never super impressed with his Batman.

Boy, was I happy to be wrong. It's a short run, only lasting two story arcs, but each one is exactly the sort of well crafted, meat-and-potatoes Batman detective story that the title should strive for. "Dead Reckoning" especially is easily something I would recommend to anyone looking for a solid piece of Batman writing that understands all the characters and how to put them in a murder mystery perfectly.

What are some of your favorite lesser known Batman stories? I'll return the favor and throw one of mine into the conversation: "A Gotham Tale" by John Wagner in Batman #477-478. It's a simple two-parter that involves Batman trying to solve a mystery while trapped inside a vault with two other people, and air is running out. It's such a clever premise that is so much fun to watch play out.

Upcoming Comics

Detective Comics #1085

The Batman has returned, but his city is no longer the home it once was. A sinister order now governs the shadows of Gotham. An order so precise, so methodical, that there is only one thing that could combat it. What is this one force—this singular thing that could undo order? Even if you were told, you would not believe it. In fact, you may think it’s a joke.

Written By: Ram V, Alex Paknadel
Penciled By: Stefano Raffaele, Javier Fernandez, Christopher Mitten
Inks By: Stefano Raffaele, Javier Fernandez, Christopher Mitten
Colors By: Lee Loughridge, Triona Farrell
Cover By: Evan Cagle

Thoughts: Man, that last line of the solicit scares me. I've been loving this run, but the Joker has the potential to suck all the air out of a story if not kept in check by a writer.

Batman News Critic: Jackson

Batman: Dark Age #3

A Robin rises from the ashes! Bruce Wayne discovers he may wield more power without a mask as he reenters society to rave reviews. But when an ambitious Carmine Falcone takes over Gotham with the help of his False Face Society, Batman realizes the only way to win the war is with allies. Will the next generation be up to the task? Or is Gotham doomed to continue living in this dark age?

Written By: Mark Russell
Penciled By: Mike Allred
Inks By: Mike Allred
Colors By: Laura Allred
Cover By: Mike Allred, Laura Allred

Thoughts: I'm still not sure how I feel about this version of Batman, so I'm curious to see how it handles Robin and Superman.

Batman News Critic: Akash

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #13

Brave and the Bold enters its second year with five tremendous tales! Nightwing and Deadman face the ghosts of the circus, as presented in spectacularly horrific detail by Kelley Jones! Booster Gold (allegedly) causes a disaster that must be fixed by…the JURASSIC LEAGUE?! Artemis’s quest comes to its stunning conclusion! Batman and Guy Gardner face high strangeness when a UFO crashes in Gotham! And finally, Jason Shawn Alexander brings his legendary talents to Batman Black and White!

Written By: Tim Seeley, Mark Russell, Delilah Dawson, Joshua Hale Fialkov
Penciled By: Kelley Jones, Jon Mikel, Serg Acuña, Lisandro Estherren
Inks By: Kelley Jones, Jon Mikel, Serg Acuña, Lisandro Estherren, Jason Shawn Alexander
Colors By: Matt Herms, Michelle Madsen, Patricio Angel, Mike Spicer
Cover By: Simone Di Meo

Thoughts: According to DC, this title will now "start" focusing on team-up stories. That's also what the title was known for for decades, but hey I guess so long as they get there eventually.

Batman News Critic: Chris

The Penguin #10

The fire in Gotham turns into an inferno as chaos spreads in the wake of Penguin’s return. No one in the city is safe from the bird’s wrath, not least his own children. How far will Penguin go to regain his crime empire? How much blood will need to spill? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Written By: Tom King
Penciled By: Rafael de Latorre
Inks By: Rafael de Latorre
Colors By: Marcelo Maiolo
Cover By: Carmine Di Giandomenico

Thoughts: I wish I could bring myself to care about Penguin's kids, but I can't.

Batman News Critic: Jack

Harley Quinn #40

Driving laws, etiquette, common sense? WHO NEEDS ’EM. Dat’s right, you finks! I’m continuing my greatest higher education-motivated research assignment to date—being bad! And if that wasn’t enough GETTING SCHOOLED for ya in one issue, my collegiate best friends for life forever and always, Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer, have joined forces to tell the true story of the time I dreamed I was sent back ta school! You’ll be calling me Harley Dangerfield by the end of this one on account of all the respect yer gonna be giving me!

Written By: Tini Howard, Grace Ellis
Penciled By: Hannah Templer
Inks By: Hannah Templer, Natacha Bustos
Colors By: Hannah Templer, Nick Filardi
Cover By: Sweeney Boo

Thoughts: I know I've said this before, but whoever writes these solicits has to be trying their hardest to make it sound as grating as possible.

Batman News Critic: Jack

Beyond the Bat

Welcome to Beyond the Bat, where we take a quick look at the rest of DC’s comics coming out this week.

Gallery

Graphic Novel Watch

Sometimes you need more than floppies. Sometimes you want something that can sit nicely on your shelf that proudly displays your favorite stories. That’s when you turn to graphic novels. Let’s see what bat collections are coming out this week:

Gallery

Ratings

Most Excited: Detective Comics #1085- Here's hoping Ram V continues knocking it out of the park with this run.

Least Excited: Harley Quinn #40- Erica Henderson actually wrote some pretty good Harley Quinn stories for the annual and backups. When can we get her to take over the title?

Wild Card: Batman: Dark Age #3- It's still not clear where Russell is going with this story. It could end up being a clever social commentary, but it might end up falling flat.

Well that’s it for this week! Let us know in the comments what comics you’re looking forward to.

17 comments

RatLord

May 25, 2024

There has been something so strange about how DC has been writing Penguin, in the comics, these last few years. He runs a shady bar, he’s been aged up to 70 all of a sudden, he’s got two b*stard twin children (one boy one girl) and a horrible whooore of a ex wife and is “getting real weird” with his life…

…wait. Are DC just trying to turn Penguin into Frank Reynolds? (Minus the comedy) Because it’s really starting to feel like it…

Sara

May 25, 2024

Damian's head on Dick's body on the Brave and the Bold cover is so weird.

For a split second, I thought DC had done the nearly unthinkable and not put Harley on the cover of an anthology. I don't know how I missed her smack in the center of the Pride cover at first, but I did. And it gave me hope. She was not on the cover of the previous Pride anthology and it was judged better than average for a DC anthology.

These anthologies don't sell very well. Maybe they would sell better if Harley, a character long associated with low quality stories and hogging the spotlight, wasn't on virtually every single cover. Just a thought.

(Some of the Pride variant covers look good, but the main covers have all been ugly.)

After seeing the cover for the last issue of Batman: The Dark Age, I skimmed it to see if Poison Ivy or Two-Face were in it. She definitely was not (and I curse them for the missed opportunity). He might have been in the second half. It was him or someone who looked like him. A two o'clock rendez-vous suggests it was him. The long history of DC avoiding using him when he's RIGHT THERE suggests that it wasn't.

amphiuma33

May 25, 2024

Evan Cagle's Detective Comics covers continue to be absolutely stunning. And I'll be honest, if I trust any modern DC writer to not be obnoxious with the Joker, it's Ram V. Still annoying, but Ram V has done nothing but astonish me since Swamp Thing Future State.

Madeleine

May 25, 2024

So glad you liked Dead Reckoning!

I love recommendations and discoveries made through discussions. Two titles I found through the comments within the past few months have been Archie Goodwin's Night Cries and Mike Grell's Masque. The former is a haunting grimdark look into the suffering of children and the limits of heroism. The latter is an elseworld loosely adapting The Phantom of the Opera that uses a simple premise that like all the best Two-Face stories upon closer inspection reveals layer upon layer of fine psychological webbing.

Two more:

Mortal Clay by Alan Moore. Batman Annual #11. Published earlier than The Killing Joke, not a fraction as famous, but perhaps a more perfectly realized and deeper look at comic book statis. Moore also has a witty Batman story embedded in his Swamp Thing run but for my life I can't remember which volume...

The Two Faces of Evil by J. Michael Straczynski. Teen Titans Character Spotlight #13: Cyborg. Another Two-Face story, also published before The Killing Joke but there are some stark parallels.

Robin MB
May 26, 2024
I second Night Cries, sadly it's hard to track down only been reprinted once. I saw a YouTube analysis/read of it and wish I could get a cheap copy.
Sara
May 26, 2024
Night Cries is the kind of comic DC would never publish today. They're too afraid of stepping on someone's toes.
When I read older comics from almost any period except the Silver Age, I'm stunned at how much darker they are than the current ones. People are dying gruesome deaths, killing themselves, abusing children and spouses, overdosing on wacky designer drugs, going insane, everything you can think of. Now all the darkness is expected to be carried by the ineffectual sadman heroes in big, empty stories featuring meaningless mass death. The anger and grief in Night Cries felt earned in a way nothing in recent runs has.
1. Madeleine
  May 26, 2024
  I think of Night Cries as an ancestor of today's Black Label.
  I have noticed that the old stories were less averse to an open or dark ending and violence that felt personal. Newer stories are more oriented to a big picture, conspiracy-driven political explanation of generalized evils with decisive, explosive battles against clearly defined enemies who are usually led by known rogues. The first half of Cheer felt like a miffed but earnest attempt to revive the old style. The second half was Batfamily bathos.
  1. Sara
    May 26, 2024
    That is a horribly accurate description of what's wrong with Cheer. The first half was almost a good story. Almost. There was something there. The second half was bubblegum-scented pooh.
Madeleine
May 26, 2024
I loved Masque with its gothic doubling.
I will definitely check out these other recommendations. Moore brought me to DC so I'm always happy to get more background on the characters he worked with like Clayface III.

Akash Sil

May 26, 2024

I'll throw in Strange Apparitions by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin. One of the earliest story arcs in Batman history, it makes Bruce more than Batman's 'secret identity' and stars Hugo Strange, Deadshot (in his iconic costume for the first time), and the Joker all bringing their A-game. The storytelling style can be a bit outdated but the art is great.

...y'know what? I'll actually shamelessly plug a video I did for that comic on my channel
https://youtu.be/pKp2x5cCLP...

Vee

May 26, 2024

I know you’re worried about Joker appearing in Detective Comics, but it might not be The Joker himself. I keep seeing rumours that this next arc is all about The Joker….’s Daughter.

…well at least it’s not about Punchline.

Jackson Luken
May 26, 2024
That only makes me more worried!
Kerk Lastnameless
May 26, 2024
I would be impressed if some writer actually found a way to make JD or Punchy work.
Sara
May 26, 2024
I wouldn't put much stock in fan theories or rumors. They're usually wildly wrong.
But hey, maybe. Joker's Daughter doesn't have to suck. One of the things the CW series Gotham Knights did notably *better* than the comics was focus on multi-generational conflict. If Duela Dent was Harvey Dent's actual daughter and represented a bastardy confusion of rogue concepts and qualities, truly a child of her time and place, that could be pretty interesting, imo. Which means it won't happen.
1. Jackson Luken
  May 26, 2024
  It's less fan theories and more the solicit for Detective Comics #1087:
  GOTHAM UNDER ATTACK FROM EVERY ANGLE! Gotham City is besieged on all sides. The Orghams' iron fist holds the city in a death grip. The Joker's Daughter terrorizes the streets, while Mr. Freeze's most apocalyptic creation yet menaces the city from below. Does the Dark Knight stand a chance?
  1. Sara
    May 26, 2024
    ... ... ... I know I read the solicitation last week. I must have instantly blocked it out because Mr Freeze puts me in a boredom coma.
    Bonus rant: Afaik Duela Dent was last seen being saved from herself by Jason in the final arc of Red Hood: Outlaw. I'd rather see her reset as I prescribed above than keep that arc as canon, but lord. What IS canon anymore? What matters? I didn't like what Ram V did with Lian Harper, but maybe he'll do a better job with Duela. The run's first Two-Face arc was synergistically connected to the CW's Gotham Knights, so maybe my ideas aren't way off base. But I'd like a modicum of consistency. Who can even care about characters when they keep getting changed? Every month is New 52 Commemoration Month.
2. Bruce Vader
  May 27, 2024
  Rumors about comics have been mostly right in the past 3-4 years.

RatLord
May 25, 2024
There has been something so strange about how DC has been writing Penguin, in the comics, these last few years. He runs a shady bar, he’s been aged up to 70 all of a sudden, he’s got two b*stard twin children (one boy one girl) and a horrible whooore of a ex wife and is “getting real weird” with his life…
…wait. Are DC just trying to turn Penguin into Frank Reynolds? (Minus the comedy) Because it’s really starting to feel like it…
Sara
May 25, 2024
Damian's head on Dick's body on the Brave and the Bold cover is so weird.
For a split second, I thought DC had done the nearly unthinkable and not put Harley on the cover of an anthology. I don't know how I missed her smack in the center of the Pride cover at first, but I did. And it gave me hope. She was not on the cover of the previous Pride anthology and it was judged better than average for a DC anthology.
These anthologies don't sell very well. Maybe they would sell better if Harley, a character long associated with low quality stories and hogging the spotlight, wasn't on virtually every single cover. Just a thought.
(Some of the Pride variant covers look good, but the main covers have all been ugly.)
After seeing the cover for the last issue of Batman: The Dark Age, I skimmed it to see if Poison Ivy or Two-Face were in it. She definitely was not (and I curse them for the missed opportunity). He might have been in the second half. It was him or someone who looked like him. A two o'clock rendez-vous suggests it was him. The long history of DC avoiding using him when he's RIGHT THERE suggests that it wasn't.
amphiuma33
May 25, 2024
Evan Cagle's Detective Comics covers continue to be absolutely stunning. And I'll be honest, if I trust any modern DC writer to not be obnoxious with the Joker, it's Ram V. Still annoying, but Ram V has done nothing but astonish me since Swamp Thing Future State.
Madeleine
May 25, 2024
So glad you liked Dead Reckoning!
I love recommendations and discoveries made through discussions. Two titles I found through the comments within the past few months have been Archie Goodwin's Night Cries and Mike Grell's Masque. The former is a haunting grimdark look into the suffering of children and the limits of heroism. The latter is an elseworld loosely adapting The Phantom of the Opera that uses a simple premise that like all the best Two-Face stories upon closer inspection reveals layer upon layer of fine psychological webbing.
Two more:
Mortal Clay by Alan Moore. Batman Annual #11. Published earlier than The Killing Joke, not a fraction as famous, but perhaps a more perfectly realized and deeper look at comic book statis. Moore also has a witty Batman story embedded in his Swamp Thing run but for my life I can't remember which volume...
The Two Faces of Evil by J. Michael Straczynski. Teen Titans Character Spotlight #13: Cyborg. Another Two-Face story, also published before The Killing Joke but there are some stark parallels.
1. Robin MB
  May 26, 2024
  I second Night Cries, sadly it's hard to track down only been reprinted once. I saw a YouTube analysis/read of it and wish I could get a cheap copy.
2. Sara
  May 26, 2024
  Night Cries is the kind of comic DC would never publish today. They're too afraid of stepping on someone's toes.
  When I read older comics from almost any period except the Silver Age, I'm stunned at how much darker they are than the current ones. People are dying gruesome deaths, killing themselves, abusing children and spouses, overdosing on wacky designer drugs, going insane, everything you can think of. Now all the darkness is expected to be carried by the ineffectual sadman heroes in big, empty stories featuring meaningless mass death. The anger and grief in Night Cries felt earned in a way nothing in recent runs has.
  1. Madeleine
    May 26, 2024
    I think of Night Cries as an ancestor of today's Black Label.
    I have noticed that the old stories were less averse to an open or dark ending and violence that felt personal. Newer stories are more oriented to a big picture, conspiracy-driven political explanation of generalized evils with decisive, explosive battles against clearly defined enemies who are usually led by known rogues. The first half of Cheer felt like a miffed but earnest attempt to revive the old style. The second half was Batfamily bathos.
    1. Sara
      May 26, 2024
      That is a horribly accurate description of what's wrong with Cheer. The first half was almost a good story. Almost. There was something there. The second half was bubblegum-scented pooh.
3. Madeleine
  May 26, 2024
  I loved Masque with its gothic doubling.
  I will definitely check out these other recommendations. Moore brought me to DC so I'm always happy to get more background on the characters he worked with like Clayface III.
Akash Sil
May 26, 2024
I'll throw in Strange Apparitions by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin. One of the earliest story arcs in Batman history, it makes Bruce more than Batman's 'secret identity' and stars Hugo Strange, Deadshot (in his iconic costume for the first time), and the Joker all bringing their A-game. The storytelling style can be a bit outdated but the art is great.
...y'know what? I'll actually shamelessly plug a video I did for that comic on my channel
https://youtu.be/pKp2x5cCLP...
Vee
May 26, 2024
I know you’re worried about Joker appearing in Detective Comics, but it might not be The Joker himself. I keep seeing rumours that this next arc is all about The Joker….’s Daughter.
…well at least it’s not about Punchline.
1. Jackson Luken
  May 26, 2024
  That only makes me more worried!
2. Kerk Lastnameless
  May 26, 2024
  I would be impressed if some writer actually found a way to make JD or Punchy work.
3. Sara
  May 26, 2024
  I wouldn't put much stock in fan theories or rumors. They're usually wildly wrong.
  But hey, maybe. Joker's Daughter doesn't have to suck. One of the things the CW series Gotham Knights did notably *better* than the comics was focus on multi-generational conflict. If Duela Dent was Harvey Dent's actual daughter and represented a bastardy confusion of rogue concepts and qualities, truly a child of her time and place, that could be pretty interesting, imo. Which means it won't happen.
  1. Jackson Luken
    May 26, 2024
    It's less fan theories and more the solicit for Detective Comics #1087:
    GOTHAM UNDER ATTACK FROM EVERY ANGLE! Gotham City is besieged on all sides. The Orghams' iron fist holds the city in a death grip. The Joker's Daughter terrorizes the streets, while Mr. Freeze's most apocalyptic creation yet menaces the city from below. Does the Dark Knight stand a chance?
    1. Sara
      May 26, 2024
      ... ... ... I know I read the solicitation last week. I must have instantly blocked it out because Mr Freeze puts me in a boredom coma.
      Bonus rant: Afaik Duela Dent was last seen being saved from herself by Jason in the final arc of Red Hood: Outlaw. I'd rather see her reset as I prescribed above than keep that arc as canon, but lord. What IS canon anymore? What matters? I didn't like what Ram V did with Lian Harper, but maybe he'll do a better job with Duela. The run's first Two-Face arc was synergistically connected to the CW's Gotham Knights, so maybe my ideas aren't way off base. But I'd like a modicum of consistency. Who can even care about characters when they keep getting changed? Every month is New 52 Commemoration Month.
  2. Bruce Vader
    May 27, 2024
    Rumors about comics have been mostly right in the past 3-4 years.

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Upcoming Comics May 28, 2024

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