Upcoming Comics February 19, 2025

Welcome back to Upcoming Comics! I'm writing most of this ahead of time before the preview images go out because I'll be gone most of the weekend for my brother's wedding. He and his fiancée are great for each other and I'm super happy for them. There's been some chaos in the planning leading up to the event, but what wedding isn't that true for? My family's all very excited (especially my mom) and I'm sure it will be a wonderful time.

Upcoming Comics

Nightwing #123

Nightwing answers a distress call from the genetically spliced Flyboiz, creating an opportunity to bring another gang on board with his plan to save Blüdhaven’s streets from a bloody war. But have they mutated themselves too far to be saved?

Written By: Dan Watters
Art By: Dexter Soy

Thoughts: Gonna be honest, I thought this cover was the Green Goblin at first.

Batman News Critic: Aaron

Batman/Superman: World's Finest #36

Superman and Batman must team with Aquaman and Swamp Thing to prevent a global eco-catastrophe engineered by... the Floronic Man?! An extradimensional battalion of converts wrecks havoc on the high seas in this latest installment of the 20,000 leagues epic!

Written By: Mark Waid
Art By: Adrian Gutierrez

Thoughts: I love Swamp Thing (even if no one has been able to live up to Moore's version) so I have high hopes for this.

Batman News Critic: Jackson

Batman & Robin: Year One #5

A lead from Gordon provides Batman an opportunity to chase down one of The General’s assets, but the best way to get close to them is not as Batman but as Bruce Wayne. But with Bruce off on his own, Dick is left stuck at Wayne Manor. What’s a boy wonder to do when no one’s watching…?

Written By: Mark Waid, Chris Samnee
Art By: Chris Samnee

Thoughts: Is it just me or does the solicit seem to have nothing to do with the cover? Which am I supposed to judge a book by, DC?

Batman News Critic: Chip

Catwoman #73

Selina arrives in Tokyo looking for an old ally and a much-needed respite. Unfortunately for the feline fatale of crime, her enemies are already one step ahead of her. As she struggles to outwit them, Catwoman is offered a proposition: what if she were to completely disappear and give up being Selina Kyle forever?

Written By: Torunn Gronbekk
Art By: Marianna Ignazzi, Fabiana Mascolo

Thoughts: I'm sure Selina will definitely cut all ties to Batman and the rest of the DC Universe.

Batman News Critic: Akash

The Question: All Along the Watchtower #4

Cornered and betrayed, THE QUESTION and BATWOMAN must rally a ragtag group of allies to retake the Watchtower from a surprising villain - as the true mastermind behind the conspiracy to take over the Justice League's headquarters stands revealed.

Written By: Alex Segura
Art By: Cian Tormey

Thoughts: Maybe the ragtag group will become a new superhero team. DC can never have enough of those.

Batman News Critic: Akash

Titans #20

Take an overly-emotional empath and add a hearty dose of psychosis, and what do you got? A recipe for disaster! Also: A belligerent boyfriend, an enraged archer, an unsound cyborg, an agitated alien, a testy tactician and a livid team-leader. Yes, Titan tempers are running hot, but the angriest person of all, dear reader, will be YOU if you miss this issue!

Written By: John Layman
Art By: Pete Woods

Thoughts: I both love and hate this cover at the same time.

Batman News Critic: None

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/Superman: World's Finest #36- Last issue was a great start to the arc so I'm hoping that it continues

Least Excited: Titans #20- Remember when this was pushed as DC's premier flagship team/title?

Wild Card: Batman & Robin: Year One #5- Waid has a few interesting ideas floating around this series that I'm curious to see how it plays out

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

10 comments

Kaingerc

February 15, 2025

regarding Swamp Thing, have you tried vol 5? (AKA the new 52 one)
despite the connection to the new 52 and my disappointment from more modern Snyder comics (Scott Snyder wrote issues 0-18 and Charles Soule 19-40), the series was one of the more engaging series of the time.
I haven't read the Moore run, so I don't have a point of reference but this series definitely made me engaged with Alec Holland and the Arcane family characters' stories

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1609046592i/25241778.jpg https://storage.googleapis.com/hipcomic/p/56dee14de9bb77d2f24ad870d6f63d3a-800.jpg

Madeleine

February 15, 2025

There's no Swamp Thing like Moore's Swamp Thing. I'm waiting for Veitch's run to be fully released before I try it. (I "like" Brat Pack and Veitch's other iconoclasms.) I've been contemplating getting Nancy Collins' run in omnibus but I can't find much information on it. I read Ram V's for the first time about two weeks ago and enjoyed it as the work of DC's best dark fantasy writer--but it's no Moore. King and Watters might have good Swamp Thing runs in them.

I wanted to buy the Absolute Swamp Thing hard covers but I saw the comics had been recolored. No thank you, I think I'll keep my paperbacks. I diligently collected unrecolored Sandman trades a few years ago after finding the new coloring too distracting while reading...

I go back and forth on whether I want to read Snyder's. It's like with Lemire's Animal Man, I read positive remarks on the run but I haven't liked the writer's other work most of the time. Lemire's Question and Killer Smile were fat nothings. He took some ideas from his Gideon Falls, underdeveloped and overambitious as that was, and boiled them down. I also didn't think too highly of Robin & Batman, even less highly now. Why does DC want to neuter Croc like this? He originated as a Hush level masermind emerging in the Gotham underworld who murdered Jason's parents by feeding them to crocodiles but in Lemire's version he's a whinging sideshow attraction from Dick's circus. Today he's the dopey comic relief as often as not.

This went on longer than expected.

Kaingerc
February 15, 2025
I'm not particularly a 'horror guy' but I did enjoy Lemire's Animal Man (poor Buddy and his family just can't catch a break).
it does pair well with Snyder's Swamp Thing (which isn't AS gruesome, but still has some messed up stuff happen with Anton Arcane) and they even crossover one or two times with the whole Red/Green/Grey concepts
https://bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/ROTWORLD.jpeg
1. Madeleine
  February 15, 2025
  I love horror... A few times Snyder has nailed it but other times he gets too caught up in some pet idea or aesthetic. His best work revolves around children and families so I could see a monstrous family dynamic being the highlight of his run. Soule I found dull on Daredevil but otherwise I don't know his work. Lemire's superhero and horror work that I've read is most apt to be guity of being all flash, dazzle, and bad metaphysics with a few solid scenes but not much substance.
Sara
February 15, 2025
I've never liked Croc very much, and I blame the inconsistency in what sort of character he is. He's never a criminal mastermind anymore, which is fine since we've got too many of those. But Croc as a big, dumb, harmless lug (who can rip you in half) has got to be one of the stupidest character evolutions in Batman comics.
Lemire and Snyder are both overrated writers. They'll take a good idea and make you wish nobody had ever had it.
The only Swamp Thing solo run I've read is Moore's. That's an all-timer, yeah. Not all of the things Moore introduced carry over well into other writers' work. Whenever he shows up anywhere else, I find the ellipses in all his dialogue so irritating that I have to block them out.
A couple years back I tried to read some Jon Fosse (fashionable high literature author) and he has this, like, tic, where he keeps injecting "he said," "she thought," and similar subjectivizing phrases into his paragraphs. Over and over and over, with nauseating repetition, like somebody tapping a pen between his teeth (or against your skull). It's the biggest pain to read. Like, physically painful. I hate it so much that I slapped Aliss at the Fire against the edge of my desk to make it shut up. I don't care if that doesn't make much sense. Like I said, physically painful. Violence was my outlet. The ellipses in Swamp Thing comics aren't nearly that bad, but they remind me of that.
1. Madeleine
  February 15, 2025
  I agree about Croc, mostly. I don't mind him having a semi-reformed status. I prefer that to full reforms that take away characters' edge. I'd like them to stop declawing and doping characters who straddle the good and bad sides. From terror of the sewers to silly goose is a pretty steep downgrade.
  I read a collection of stories about childhood by Fosse. It was all right, a minor work, probably early. I liked the first novella best. I do recall some stories in the book having too many saids and thoughts. I'm on the autism spectrum and am easily vexed by repetitious noise including in written form so Aliss is going to be a pass for me... Thanks for the warning, haha.
  1. Sara
    February 15, 2025
    Norway can't be the utopia it's chalked up to be if it's breeding up psychopaths who build triggers for sensory processing disorders into their novels.
    For his crimes, Fosse was rewarded with a Nobel prize.
    Oh, the humanity.
    WhY IS noBodY TalKIng AbOuT ThIS?
  2. Robin MB
    February 16, 2025
    I get that way with too much noise going on. I didn't know it could trigger in written form too. Learned something new on this site huh
    1. Madeleine
      February 16, 2025
      I think it can get to me in written form because it's already registering as visual noise but it's visual noise with an audio equivalent that my brain stubbornly supplies no matter how I try to will it not to.

Sara

February 15, 2025

I'll believe in that Batman and Robin: Year One review when I see it.

Wouldn't it make more sense to drop all reference to reviewers who can't be arsed to do the jobs they agreed to do?

Kaingerc
February 15, 2025
regarding Swamp Thing, have you tried vol 5? (AKA the new 52 one)
despite the connection to the new 52 and my disappointment from more modern Snyder comics (Scott Snyder wrote issues 0-18 and Charles Soule 19-40), the series was one of the more engaging series of the time.
I haven't read the Moore run, so I don't have a point of reference but this series definitely made me engaged with Alec Holland and the Arcane family characters' stories
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1609046592i/25241778.jpg https://storage.googleapis.com/hipcomic/p/56dee14de9bb77d2f24ad870d6f63d3a-800.jpg
Madeleine
February 15, 2025
There's no Swamp Thing like Moore's Swamp Thing. I'm waiting for Veitch's run to be fully released before I try it. (I "like" Brat Pack and Veitch's other iconoclasms.) I've been contemplating getting Nancy Collins' run in omnibus but I can't find much information on it. I read Ram V's for the first time about two weeks ago and enjoyed it as the work of DC's best dark fantasy writer--but it's no Moore. King and Watters might have good Swamp Thing runs in them.
I wanted to buy the Absolute Swamp Thing hard covers but I saw the comics had been recolored. No thank you, I think I'll keep my paperbacks. I diligently collected unrecolored Sandman trades a few years ago after finding the new coloring too distracting while reading...
I go back and forth on whether I want to read Snyder's. It's like with Lemire's Animal Man, I read positive remarks on the run but I haven't liked the writer's other work most of the time. Lemire's Question and Killer Smile were fat nothings. He took some ideas from his Gideon Falls, underdeveloped and overambitious as that was, and boiled them down. I also didn't think too highly of Robin & Batman, even less highly now. Why does DC want to neuter Croc like this? He originated as a Hush level masermind emerging in the Gotham underworld who murdered Jason's parents by feeding them to crocodiles but in Lemire's version he's a whinging sideshow attraction from Dick's circus. Today he's the dopey comic relief as often as not.
This went on longer than expected.
1. Kaingerc
  February 15, 2025
  I'm not particularly a 'horror guy' but I did enjoy Lemire's Animal Man (poor Buddy and his family just can't catch a break).
  it does pair well with Snyder's Swamp Thing (which isn't AS gruesome, but still has some messed up stuff happen with Anton Arcane) and they even crossover one or two times with the whole Red/Green/Grey concepts
  https://bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/ROTWORLD.jpeg
  1. Madeleine
    February 15, 2025
    I love horror... A few times Snyder has nailed it but other times he gets too caught up in some pet idea or aesthetic. His best work revolves around children and families so I could see a monstrous family dynamic being the highlight of his run. Soule I found dull on Daredevil but otherwise I don't know his work. Lemire's superhero and horror work that I've read is most apt to be guity of being all flash, dazzle, and bad metaphysics with a few solid scenes but not much substance.
2. Sara
  February 15, 2025
  I've never liked Croc very much, and I blame the inconsistency in what sort of character he is. He's never a criminal mastermind anymore, which is fine since we've got too many of those. But Croc as a big, dumb, harmless lug (who can rip you in half) has got to be one of the stupidest character evolutions in Batman comics.
  Lemire and Snyder are both overrated writers. They'll take a good idea and make you wish nobody had ever had it.
  The only Swamp Thing solo run I've read is Moore's. That's an all-timer, yeah. Not all of the things Moore introduced carry over well into other writers' work. Whenever he shows up anywhere else, I find the ellipses in all his dialogue so irritating that I have to block them out.
  A couple years back I tried to read some Jon Fosse (fashionable high literature author) and he has this, like, tic, where he keeps injecting "he said," "she thought," and similar subjectivizing phrases into his paragraphs. Over and over and over, with nauseating repetition, like somebody tapping a pen between his teeth (or against your skull). It's the biggest pain to read. Like, physically painful. I hate it so much that I slapped Aliss at the Fire against the edge of my desk to make it shut up. I don't care if that doesn't make much sense. Like I said, physically painful. Violence was my outlet. The ellipses in Swamp Thing comics aren't nearly that bad, but they remind me of that.
  1. Madeleine
    February 15, 2025
    I agree about Croc, mostly. I don't mind him having a semi-reformed status. I prefer that to full reforms that take away characters' edge. I'd like them to stop declawing and doping characters who straddle the good and bad sides. From terror of the sewers to silly goose is a pretty steep downgrade.
    I read a collection of stories about childhood by Fosse. It was all right, a minor work, probably early. I liked the first novella best. I do recall some stories in the book having too many saids and thoughts. I'm on the autism spectrum and am easily vexed by repetitious noise including in written form so Aliss is going to be a pass for me... Thanks for the warning, haha.
    1. Sara
      February 15, 2025
      Norway can't be the utopia it's chalked up to be if it's breeding up psychopaths who build triggers for sensory processing disorders into their novels.
      For his crimes, Fosse was rewarded with a Nobel prize.
      Oh, the humanity.
      WhY IS noBodY TalKIng AbOuT ThIS?
    2. Robin MB
      February 16, 2025
      I get that way with too much noise going on. I didn't know it could trigger in written form too. Learned something new on this site huh
      1. Madeleine
        February 16, 2025
        I think it can get to me in written form because it's already registering as visual noise but it's visual noise with an audio equivalent that my brain stubbornly supplies no matter how I try to will it not to.
Sara
February 15, 2025
I'll believe in that Batman and Robin: Year One review when I see it.
Wouldn't it make more sense to drop all reference to reviewers who can't be arsed to do the jobs they agreed to do?

Batman News Archive

Upcoming Comics February 19, 2025

Upcoming Comics

Beyond the Bat

Graphic Novel Watch

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