Upcoming Comics February 12, 2025

Welcome back to Upcoming Comics! It's "the big game day" for anyone who lives here in the United States. Normally those who don't follow sports can carry on without giving them much thought, but the Super Bowl warps society around it in a way that can't be ignored. For example, I usually do my grocery shopping on Sundays, but now I need to plan around the huge crowds going to buy last minute watch party snacks. Maybe this is fair turnabout for the cities who have to deal with Comic-Cons.

Upcoming Comics

Absolute Batman #5

WILL THE PARTY END HERE FOR ABSOLUTE BATMAN? With his friends lives at stake, will a broken, beaten, and ultimately defeated Bruce Wayne finally compromise and give up both himself and his morals to Black Mask? Or does he have something even BIGGER than himself to help? And what does this have to do with Mayor James Gordon and his relationship with a young Bruce Wayne? All this and more in the penultimate issue to the first arc of ABSOLUTE BATMAN!

Written By: Scott Snyder
Art By: Nick Dragotta

Thoughts: The sales data for 2024 came out a bit ago, and Absolute Batman #1 nabbed the top spot, beating out Ultimate Spider-Man and the other Absolute titles. An impressive achievement for sure, and now it's on Snyder and Dragotta to keep that excitement going.

Batman News Critic: Jackson

Batman: Dark Patterns #3

Batman is in the dark now, amidst the accumulated devastation and suffering at the root of Wound Man’s grotesque reign of terror. Can the Dark Knight bring it all to an end before the twisted killer claims another life? Don’t miss the end of “We Are Wounded”!

Written By: Dan Watters
Art By: Hayden Sherman

Thoughts: These short, contained arcs based in Batman's early days reminds me of the Legends of the Dark Knight series from the 90s. I love it.

Batman News Critic: Jack

DC vs. Vampires: World War V - Darkness and Light #1

Wonder Woman, child of Themyscira turned vampire, and Alfred, Butler of the Waynes turned Green Lantern. Their paths couldn’t be any different. But for each, a chance encounter will force them to reexamine what it means to survive in a world ruled by darkness. Showcasing two sides of the same story, this double-feature special issue illustrates how anger and vengeance can break you or fuel you…how it can be ruin, or salvation!

Written By: Matthew Rosenberg
Art By: Nikola Cizmesija, Daniel Bayliss

Thoughts: Clearly I've missed a lot by not reading this series.

Batman News Critic: Akash

Batman and Robin #18

A hospital erupts in flames. A boat careens into a dock. Fresh corpses are found in the ruins of Arkham Asylum. These are but a few of Gotham’s historical atrocities, committed in disturbing, copycat-like fashion by the foul creature known only as Memento. While the dynamic duo fails to prevent these heinous acts, the very fabric of their alliance frays and rips. Can Batman withstand losing his city to violence while losing his son to uncertainty?

Written By: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Art By: Javi Fernandez, Miguel Mendonca, Carmine Di Giandomenico

Thoughts: I want to know more about how the Memento killer will tie into the titular dynamic duo, because it seems to be hinting at something along those lines.

Batman News Critic: Chris

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: Batman: Dark Patterns #3- Watters has just been knocking it out of the park with this series. It's exactly the type of story Batman needs more of.

Least Excited: DC vs. Vampires: World War V - Darkness and Light #1- I do have to admit, Green Lantern Alfred comes pretty close to making me want to check out this series

Wild Card: Batman and Robin #18- I find myself going back and forth on this title. Luckily I'm not reviewing the title so I don't have to gather my thoughts into any sort of coherent review.

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

13 comments

Madeleine

February 9, 2025

I've never seen annual sales data before. The only main line Batman issue on the list is the horrendous #142.

I'm not sure most excited is the right phrase for it but I'm most interested (concerned?) in what Johnson does with Jason in Batman & Robin. I don't think Bruce and Jason should be working together like Gotham War never happened or was made all right... I preordered The Boy Wonder. I have my qualms but in some key respects it's the most on point anything's been for how someone as damaged as Jason should present.

Also frustrating: Jurgens' The Bat-Man: First Knight is what Caped Crusader should have been.

I love that Black Label exists but seeing the quality gaps between these limited series and most major projects can be pretty galling.

Jackson Luken
February 9, 2025
Batman #142 (which I'm not surprised sold super well given that it's titled "Joker: Year One") is also the only DC title on that list that isn't an Absolute comic or an event aside from JLU #1.
1. Madeleine
  February 9, 2025
  Marvel is really outpacing DC... It will be interesting to see how the Absolute and Ultimate lines perform a year from now. Ultimate Spider-Man looks unstoppable. Even I've thought about reading it and I hardly ever read Marvel.
Sara
February 9, 2025
But if DC wrote Jason the way he should be written after all that's happened to him (meaning, if they wrote him as a roaring heap of traumap0rn at the center of a hundred car derailment), then Bruce might have to be held accountable for his part in it. And we can't have Bruce held accountable. Not really. His only punishment will be how he feels about things. He gets to go on guilt trips, observe his pain in the safe and aestheticized nook of Character Growth, and then go do something else. (Probably the same thing.) It's Jason who gets the bear the hurt and humiliation of repeated verbal, physical, and psychological assaults without being allowed to show it or experience it in full, as a lived reality. It didn't "happen to" Jason. It "happened for" Bruce. Because: Character Growth (but only for Bruce, never for Jason). The fact that the latest "incident" looked marvelously like date rape is, you know, totally acceptable. Because it's Jason. And Jason deserves it. And also because Judd Winick implied once that Jason might have been sexually abused while living by himself, so that makes it fine. Since it's nothing new for him, so he should just get over it. Or something.
I feel actual hatred thinking about this. Real hatred.
I still need to read the Jurgens comic.
1. Mingthemerciless
  February 11, 2025
  He went from just being a tough kid on the street who was naturally savvy (and ballsy enough) to lift the Batmobile's tires to a basket case to prop up Bruce.
  Yes being brought back to life after a lethal beating by the Joker would would be a significant thing to overcome but as Redhood he returned as a tough, calculating and well trained anti-hero with the potentential to be a force to be reckoned with...somerhing like Winter Soldier is to Captain America. But DC keeps squandering Jason.
  And dont get me started on the butchering of Tim Drake to prop up Damien.
  1. Sara
    February 11, 2025
    You can always tell which characters DC is rooting for and which ones they don't give a shit about or actually hate for being there.
    And, good point? Jason managed to make good strides in moving on from being a thieving street kid. But all he gets to do is show up to get punched in the face for not staying dead. DC has been deskilling him for years.
    It's crummy of DC to revert Tim to the Robin role, then barely use him. (Fitzmartin's comic counts as abuse, not use.) Just, like, why do that? The least they could do is find a team where he won't have to be shackled to the Best Robin identity, which is doing him no more favors than being the Worst Robin is doing Jason. Tim could then be the best at doing something new and not the best at being something that he wasn't for years and barely gets to be anymore.
    Also, to answer your other question: I think Dragotta's art is ugly as hell, but tons of people love it. I cannot understand why.
    1. Mingthemerciless
      February 11, 2025
      Yeah to be honest DCs writers dont like Bruce very much either. Theyve tried to sideline him so many times its ridiculous.
      Great thoughts on Tim and Jason as seen as "the best and worst Robins". Both are potentially great away from the "R" on their chests but DC has saddled them with so much garbage that theyre almost unrecognizable. Id run to my LCS to pick up a book each month with Jason as the bad ass he returned as for under the red hood. That scene with the duffle bag stuffed with the severed heads of the lieutenents of the gang leaders was like crack to readers like me.....then DC blows it. Now he uses crowbars? Oh for Christs sake.
    2. Rko
      February 12, 2025
      There are too many Robins now. The way Tim was treated in Fitzmartin's run, the best thing would be to kill him off and not have him return or give him an oracle role. Damian is Robin now, and Jason is Red Hood (they should restore his look and characteristics and make him a baddass again).
      He had one of the best resurgences and comebacks, but lately, they don't know what to do with him. Also, bring back Alfred and start treating your main character, the biggest character they have, great again. Bruce is stripped of everything that made him great and is being treated as a joke in his own books.
    3. Mingthemerciless
      February 11, 2025
      And bring back Alfred already. Its clear hes needed as an essential story telling device and as Bruce's conscience when he lets his instincts get the better of him.
      Granted Alfred started as a charicature of the steroetypical butler for comic relief but he was changed into Batman's surrogate father, medic and Bond movie "Q" and its been great ever since mostly......then Tom King comes along.
2. Madeleine
  February 11, 2025
  The Jurgens comic is excellent. I would love to get more. If they would pretend season one of Caped Crusader never happened and replace it with this then all the better.
  Mere minutes ago I finished a second reading of Scott Snyder's indie horror comic Severed. Have you read this? It reads like a bloodsoaked inversion of the Batman/Robin relationship. Excepting one detail I won't spoil Jack and Sam could practically be elseworld Dick and Jason facing this insatiable child consuming horror.
  Knowing that Jason gets intentionally setup to attract fans' ire without any benefit accruing to him, without any stories seen to the end and so many possibilities eliminated along the way, has done irreparable damage to my relationship with DC, Batman comics, and the fandom.
  1. Sara
    February 11, 2025
    I'll have to get the Jurgens someday. I'm waiting for a cheap secondhand copy.
    I've read Severed. I don't remember much about it except that kids are running from a serial killer. I'll have to read it again.
    Yeeeaaaahhh... I'll rant again. I never tire of ranting about this. Jason gets to be this avatar of trauma that they trot out to pretend they care, because they have to, because it's a notorious case. Then some self-help mumbo jumbo is phoned in. Then they shove him back into the cupboard where they store their Topics and Themes, all static and objectified, and nothing matters. People kvetch endlessly about how Jason doesn't do what broken people are supposed to do, which is recover and never speak of the bad thing again, and Do Better. I mean, because other trauma victims in the heroes' ranks Do Better, so it must be easy, right? Sure. But DC has Jason stuck speaking about NOTHING BUT the bad thing, in every appearance. And he gets blamed for it like he wrote the damn stories. Maybe the actual writers, who lack ideas, or the editors, who hate ideas, should take the blame? Yeah. Nah. It's easier to blame the victim.
  2. Mingthemerciless
    February 11, 2025
    Severed sounds interesting. I may pick it up. Thank you for the recommendation.
Mingthemerciless
February 11, 2025
I realise that art is subjective but is anyone enjoying Dragotta's work on blue collar Batman? That cover is ludicrous.

Madeleine
February 9, 2025
I've never seen annual sales data before. The only main line Batman issue on the list is the horrendous #142.
I'm not sure most excited is the right phrase for it but I'm most interested (concerned?) in what Johnson does with Jason in Batman & Robin. I don't think Bruce and Jason should be working together like Gotham War never happened or was made all right... I preordered The Boy Wonder. I have my qualms but in some key respects it's the most on point anything's been for how someone as damaged as Jason should present.
Also frustrating: Jurgens' The Bat-Man: First Knight is what Caped Crusader should have been.
I love that Black Label exists but seeing the quality gaps between these limited series and most major projects can be pretty galling.
1. Jackson Luken
  February 9, 2025
  Batman #142 (which I'm not surprised sold super well given that it's titled "Joker: Year One") is also the only DC title on that list that isn't an Absolute comic or an event aside from JLU #1.
  1. Madeleine
    February 9, 2025
    Marvel is really outpacing DC... It will be interesting to see how the Absolute and Ultimate lines perform a year from now. Ultimate Spider-Man looks unstoppable. Even I've thought about reading it and I hardly ever read Marvel.
2. Sara
  February 9, 2025
  But if DC wrote Jason the way he should be written after all that's happened to him (meaning, if they wrote him as a roaring heap of traumap0rn at the center of a hundred car derailment), then Bruce might have to be held accountable for his part in it. And we can't have Bruce held accountable. Not really. His only punishment will be how he feels about things. He gets to go on guilt trips, observe his pain in the safe and aestheticized nook of Character Growth, and then go do something else. (Probably the same thing.) It's Jason who gets the bear the hurt and humiliation of repeated verbal, physical, and psychological assaults without being allowed to show it or experience it in full, as a lived reality. It didn't "happen to" Jason. It "happened for" Bruce. Because: Character Growth (but only for Bruce, never for Jason). The fact that the latest "incident" looked marvelously like date rape is, you know, totally acceptable. Because it's Jason. And Jason deserves it. And also because Judd Winick implied once that Jason might have been sexually abused while living by himself, so that makes it fine. Since it's nothing new for him, so he should just get over it. Or something.
  I feel actual hatred thinking about this. Real hatred.
  I still need to read the Jurgens comic.
  1. Mingthemerciless
    February 11, 2025
    He went from just being a tough kid on the street who was naturally savvy (and ballsy enough) to lift the Batmobile's tires to a basket case to prop up Bruce.
    Yes being brought back to life after a lethal beating by the Joker would would be a significant thing to overcome but as Redhood he returned as a tough, calculating and well trained anti-hero with the potentential to be a force to be reckoned with...somerhing like Winter Soldier is to Captain America. But DC keeps squandering Jason.
    And dont get me started on the butchering of Tim Drake to prop up Damien.
    1. Sara
      February 11, 2025
      You can always tell which characters DC is rooting for and which ones they don't give a shit about or actually hate for being there.
      And, good point? Jason managed to make good strides in moving on from being a thieving street kid. But all he gets to do is show up to get punched in the face for not staying dead. DC has been deskilling him for years.
      It's crummy of DC to revert Tim to the Robin role, then barely use him. (Fitzmartin's comic counts as abuse, not use.) Just, like, why do that? The least they could do is find a team where he won't have to be shackled to the Best Robin identity, which is doing him no more favors than being the Worst Robin is doing Jason. Tim could then be the best at doing something new and not the best at being something that he wasn't for years and barely gets to be anymore.
      Also, to answer your other question: I think Dragotta's art is ugly as hell, but tons of people love it. I cannot understand why.
      1. Mingthemerciless
        February 11, 2025
        Yeah to be honest DCs writers dont like Bruce very much either. Theyve tried to sideline him so many times its ridiculous.
        Great thoughts on Tim and Jason as seen as "the best and worst Robins". Both are potentially great away from the "R" on their chests but DC has saddled them with so much garbage that theyre almost unrecognizable. Id run to my LCS to pick up a book each month with Jason as the bad ass he returned as for under the red hood. That scene with the duffle bag stuffed with the severed heads of the lieutenents of the gang leaders was like crack to readers like me.....then DC blows it. Now he uses crowbars? Oh for Christs sake.
      2. Rko
        February 12, 2025
        There are too many Robins now. The way Tim was treated in Fitzmartin's run, the best thing would be to kill him off and not have him return or give him an oracle role. Damian is Robin now, and Jason is Red Hood (they should restore his look and characteristics and make him a baddass again).
        He had one of the best resurgences and comebacks, but lately, they don't know what to do with him. Also, bring back Alfred and start treating your main character, the biggest character they have, great again. Bruce is stripped of everything that made him great and is being treated as a joke in his own books.
      3. Mingthemerciless
        February 11, 2025
        And bring back Alfred already. Its clear hes needed as an essential story telling device and as Bruce's conscience when he lets his instincts get the better of him.
        Granted Alfred started as a charicature of the steroetypical butler for comic relief but he was changed into Batman's surrogate father, medic and Bond movie "Q" and its been great ever since mostly......then Tom King comes along.
  2. Madeleine
    February 11, 2025
    The Jurgens comic is excellent. I would love to get more. If they would pretend season one of Caped Crusader never happened and replace it with this then all the better.
    Mere minutes ago I finished a second reading of Scott Snyder's indie horror comic Severed. Have you read this? It reads like a bloodsoaked inversion of the Batman/Robin relationship. Excepting one detail I won't spoil Jack and Sam could practically be elseworld Dick and Jason facing this insatiable child consuming horror.
    Knowing that Jason gets intentionally setup to attract fans' ire without any benefit accruing to him, without any stories seen to the end and so many possibilities eliminated along the way, has done irreparable damage to my relationship with DC, Batman comics, and the fandom.
    1. Sara
      February 11, 2025
      I'll have to get the Jurgens someday. I'm waiting for a cheap secondhand copy.
      I've read Severed. I don't remember much about it except that kids are running from a serial killer. I'll have to read it again.
      Yeeeaaaahhh... I'll rant again. I never tire of ranting about this. Jason gets to be this avatar of trauma that they trot out to pretend they care, because they have to, because it's a notorious case. Then some self-help mumbo jumbo is phoned in. Then they shove him back into the cupboard where they store their Topics and Themes, all static and objectified, and nothing matters. People kvetch endlessly about how Jason doesn't do what broken people are supposed to do, which is recover and never speak of the bad thing again, and Do Better. I mean, because other trauma victims in the heroes' ranks Do Better, so it must be easy, right? Sure. But DC has Jason stuck speaking about NOTHING BUT the bad thing, in every appearance. And he gets blamed for it like he wrote the damn stories. Maybe the actual writers, who lack ideas, or the editors, who hate ideas, should take the blame? Yeah. Nah. It's easier to blame the victim.
    2. Mingthemerciless
      February 11, 2025
      Severed sounds interesting. I may pick it up. Thank you for the recommendation.
3. Mingthemerciless
  February 11, 2025
  I realise that art is subjective but is anyone enjoying Dragotta's work on blue collar Batman? That cover is ludicrous.

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