Upcoming Comics March 26, 2025

Welcome back to Upcoming Comics! In preparation for Hush 2, (I'm sorry, H2SH) I decided to reread the original story from 2002. Doing so reminded me how much it feels less like a story, and more just a showcase of everything Batman, drawn as a series of splashy set pieces. The overall narrative barely holds together, the mystery is obvious from the very beginning, and Hush's motivations are really dumb, but none of that seems to be important. Its real goal is to cram as many Batman characters in a single comic as possible with big, beautiful art drawn by Jim Lee at his best.

Despite not being a particularly good story, I get why it was so recommended for so long. It's almost a sample platter of everything Batman has to offer, and it presents all of it in a way that's easily digestible to new readers. Every time a character shows up, we get a detailed narration by Batman explaining who they are and what their deal is. Joker gets pretty much an entire issue of just explaining his history, and he doesn't even really do anything in it. If you want a really good Hush comic, go read Heart of Hush by Paul Dini. If you want an excuse for some gorgeous artwork of everyone in Gotham loosely strung together, read Hush.

Upcoming Comics

Batman #158

Jeph Loeb! Jim Lee! An all-new epic saga begins here. Hush returns!

Written By: Jeph Loeb
Art By: Jim Lee

Thoughts: They're really not pulling their punches about what the draw of this will be with that solicitation. Two of the biggest names in comics are returning for the sequel to one of the biggest Batman comics. It's looking to break records on pre-orders alone, so let's see if it can live up to the hype.

Batman News Critic: Jackson

Justice League Unlimited #5

The keys to the mysterious super terrorist organization Inferno begin to be revealed as the Justice League realizes it’s an intergalactic threat led by one of their oldest foes! Time is running out to save the world with the help of…the Legion of Doom?

Written By: Mark Waid
Art By: Dan Mora

Thoughts: One more issue then it's time to start this big crossover event between JLU and World's Finest

Batman News Critic: Akash

Batman The Long Halloween: The Last Halloween #6

A chilling foe takes center stage in this issue as The Last Halloween continues to heat up!

Written By: Jeph Loeb
Art By: Enrico Marini

Thoughts: Enrico Marini is one of my favorite comic artists right now, so I'm looking forward to reading this one.

Batman News Critic: Chris

Harley Quinn Fartacular: Silent Butt Deadly #1

I’ve been holding in all my very worst bits of bubble guts for the last 32 years, and it’s all been leading up to this epic expulsion! Your nose will never be the same! You’ll gag, you’ll cry, you’ll feel things you ain’t never felt before! This fine publication is a celebration of all things passed, pre-scent, and toot-ure. Sequential art’s place in the annals of history is about to change with the release of the Harley Quinn Fartacular: Silent Butt Deadly, a comic that promises to have the highest concentration of gas per page (GPP) ever committed to print. Emphasis on committed, because everyone who worked on this comic is getting thrown into Dr. Fartley’s Home for No-Good Gassy Gals ’n’ Guys. Read the comic that Abraham Lincoln called “a joy from fart to finish” moments before he died! WARNING: We aren’t kidding. If you are grossed out by farts, then this comic isn’t for you (and that’s perfectly okay!…though I am judging you!). Unless you want to put your feelings to the test…in which case this comic is for you.

Written By: Joanne Starer
Art By: Brandt & Stein

Thoughts: If someone who hated DC were to come up with a comic idea that made them look bad, they'd have to work pretty hard to beat this

Batman News Critic: Jackson

Harley Quinn #49

Rich lady tell Amygdala hit clown lady. Amygdala hit clown lady. Clown lady hit Amygdala on head but he not feel owie. Amygdala hit back. Bad dogs bite Amygdala too but no feel owie. Everyone fight. You buy?

Written By: Elliott Kalan
Art By: Mindy Lee

Thoughts: Just a normal Harley Quinn comic? It feels almost pedestrian now.

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: Batman #158- Good or bad, Hush 2 is one of the biggest comic stories of the year, so I'm at least excited to see what happens.

Least Excited: Harley Quinn Fartacular: Silent Butt Deadly #1- I'd ask who this is for, but I saw the view numbers on the announcement post. I know what you sickos want.

Wild Card: Batman The Long Halloween: The Last Halloween #6- This title still has a ways to go to establish itself as a worthy successor to The Long Halloween.

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

16 comments

jrvc

March 22, 2025

I don't know either if it will live up to the hype, but yeah, that solicitation is basically why I'm so stoked for Hush 2

Kaingerc

March 22, 2025

Somehow the comic cover that features Harley abusing a mentally handicapped person is the less offensive Harley cover this week.

Sara

March 22, 2025

Marie Javins seemed actually proud of the Fartley Quinn comic.

Hush was always a vanity project for Jim Lee (whos art I don't even like). H2SH will be more of the same. All I care about is that they said Jason would play an important role. I never trust DC, but for the moment I'm non-hostilely interested. Not excited, though. I am sick of Loeb's meandering, rogues-on-parade plotting style. I'm not even reading The Last Halloween anymore, and I was truly hoping for something good from that. I'm not hoping for something good from H2SH. Just something... usable? Something better than Zdarsky's ragebait run? My standards have fallen so low.

Far more interested, right now, in the announcement (or confirmation, since we've pretty much known about it) of Batman and Robin: Jason Todd. I'm not the biggest fan of Lemire's work, but a Jason Todd Robin story that is not a Joker story is a welcome change of pace. Not that it will stop the writers from defining him by ADitF. But what I'd really like is it they can start using this to reset Jason's childhood to his pre-New 52 canon. I want a modernized retelling of that origin story that keeps the essentials but develops them better.

Madeleine

March 22, 2025

"I know what you sickos want."

Controversy? Fans are never more engaged than when outraged it seems.

There are some Batman comics I'm curious about this week but nothing I plan to read.

I read Lemire's Absolute Flash #1. It was a good start but too thin and tropey. It took no time to read and I felt like I gleaned hardly more from the complete issue than I did from the 4 page preview. Robles' art was the star.

The most interesting DC release this week won't be the overhyped Hush 2 but Absolute Martian Manhunter. I'm also planning to read Absolute Green Lantern in April. I don't know Camp but I've heard great things, I do know Ewing a little and am happy to see him writing for DC.

Kaingerc
March 22, 2025
Personally, Absolute Flash, despite being a bit tropey like you said, was the first Absolute title that I actually liked and that had an actual engaging protagonist.
I wouldn't really call Wally heroic yet, but I do care about what happens with him, (unlike Psycho Batman, Temper Tantrum Superman and Disengaged Wonder Woman)
1. Madeleine
  March 22, 2025
  Agreed. I liked Wally and sympathized with him. I liked the issue in general despite mild criticisms. I'm keen to see where Lemire will go.
2. Sara
  March 22, 2025
  I never hear anything about AbSupes, but I've heard AbWW is actually good?
  Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else think the Trinity is practically a dry well? I don't care about these three anymore, after being told over and over and over that the fate of the dumb, fragile, yet somehow never annihilated universe depends on them doing the same thing every time, with the same outcome.
  1. Kaingerc
    March 22, 2025
    Absolute Superman is extremely off-putting.
    They basically made him into a 'Social Justice Warrior' angrily lashing out against the "System" and the "Man" with no real plan or future thinking (they also depowered him somewhat so he will still appear as an underdog)
    Instead of the 'S' being the symbol of the house of El, it's now the symbol of the lower worker caste on Krypton (to give you a feeling of how on the nose the writing in this comic is)
    Regarding Wonder Woman... I don't know, the art is eye catching, but she has a similar problem to the main universe version of her, where she feels too alien and detached from normal people for you to really engage with her.
    1. Sara
      March 22, 2025
      I really liked Aaron's Vertigo crime series, Scalped, but subtle it was not. He doesn't seem to go in for subtlety. Which would be fine, but sometimes being unsubtle is the whole deal.
      Wonder Woman is kind of like Thor for me. I'm not into fantasy. And the stilted "By Zeus and all his eagles! Hold thy tongue, mongrel, or I shall smite thee!" "Forsooth, I am smote! Oh, ye Gods of Olympus! To have forsaken a so loyal servant!" dialogue is not my cup of tea, either.
  2. Madeleine
    March 22, 2025
    Maybe not a dry well but the water quality isn't the best... Tainted from too many bodies cast down over the years...
    It's the second and third rung characters, MM, Flash, and GL, whose Absolute I find myself really wanting to read and not thinking about reading just due to hype or habit. Big headline acts are ruining the show... The only thing that could get me to read more Absolute Batman is if Snyder finally bothered to develop the rogues. So far they're wholly defined by how useful they are to Bruce. The whole cast is.
    1. Sara
      March 22, 2025
      Yeah, it's funny how when they're villains, the rogues have lives and agendas of their own, but when they're Bruce's friends, that's it. GROUP HUG!!
      The series could have stood to have a smaller cast in the first arc. At the breakneck speed Snyder seems to plan to move at, I don't see how any character can be developed properly.
Raphael Howard
March 22, 2025
Absolute MM has a very unique and individual style - I know next to nothing about his mythos, but I’m interested in reading these issues…
1. Madeleine
  March 22, 2025
  Javier Rodríguez is a really fun artist. I first saw his work in a Green Arrow anniversary book and fell in love with it then.
  And family man MM looks like a sympathetic character.

Kirru

March 22, 2025

Doing so reminded me how much it feels less like a story, and more just a showcase of everything Batman, drawn as a series of splashy set pieces. The overall narrative barely holds together, the mystery is obvious from the very beginning, and Hush’s motivations are really dumb, but none of that seems to be important. Its real goal is to cram as many Batman characters in a single comic as possible with big, beautiful art drawn by Jim Lee at his best.

Fair assessment.

Official:

MOST ANTICIPATED SEQUEL IN COMICS HISTORY!

HUSH HUSH HYPE HYPE!

Kerk Lastnameless

March 23, 2025

I don't think Heart of Hush is a particularly good story...Partially because it re-treads Hush's motivations from the original story. Also...what exactly was the point of removing Catwoman's heart, instead of just killing her?....Anyway, he is a one-note character, and so the sequel is one-note.

But maybe Hush2 will prove me wrong.

Blockhead Jr.
March 23, 2025
I think the retread is exactly what makes it a good alternative. If the character is ever adapted, I hope it borrows from both stories.

jrvc
March 22, 2025
I don't know either if it will live up to the hype, but yeah, that solicitation is basically why I'm so stoked for Hush 2
Kaingerc
March 22, 2025
Somehow the comic cover that features Harley abusing a mentally handicapped person is the less offensive Harley cover this week.
Sara
March 22, 2025
Marie Javins seemed actually proud of the Fartley Quinn comic.
Hush was always a vanity project for Jim Lee (whos art I don't even like). H2SH will be more of the same. All I care about is that they said Jason would play an important role. I never trust DC, but for the moment I'm non-hostilely interested. Not excited, though. I am sick of Loeb's meandering, rogues-on-parade plotting style. I'm not even reading The Last Halloween anymore, and I was truly hoping for something good from that. I'm not hoping for something good from H2SH. Just something... usable? Something better than Zdarsky's ragebait run? My standards have fallen so low.
Far more interested, right now, in the announcement (or confirmation, since we've pretty much known about it) of Batman and Robin: Jason Todd. I'm not the biggest fan of Lemire's work, but a Jason Todd Robin story that is not a Joker story is a welcome change of pace. Not that it will stop the writers from defining him by ADitF. But what I'd really like is it they can start using this to reset Jason's childhood to his pre-New 52 canon. I want a modernized retelling of that origin story that keeps the essentials but develops them better.
Madeleine
March 22, 2025
"I know what you sickos want."
Controversy? Fans are never more engaged than when outraged it seems.
There are some Batman comics I'm curious about this week but nothing I plan to read.
I read Lemire's Absolute Flash #1. It was a good start but too thin and tropey. It took no time to read and I felt like I gleaned hardly more from the complete issue than I did from the 4 page preview. Robles' art was the star.
The most interesting DC release this week won't be the overhyped Hush 2 but Absolute Martian Manhunter. I'm also planning to read Absolute Green Lantern in April. I don't know Camp but I've heard great things, I do know Ewing a little and am happy to see him writing for DC.
1. Kaingerc
  March 22, 2025
  Personally, Absolute Flash, despite being a bit tropey like you said, was the first Absolute title that I actually liked and that had an actual engaging protagonist.
  I wouldn't really call Wally heroic yet, but I do care about what happens with him, (unlike Psycho Batman, Temper Tantrum Superman and Disengaged Wonder Woman)
  1. Madeleine
    March 22, 2025
    Agreed. I liked Wally and sympathized with him. I liked the issue in general despite mild criticisms. I'm keen to see where Lemire will go.
  2. Sara
    March 22, 2025
    I never hear anything about AbSupes, but I've heard AbWW is actually good?
    Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else think the Trinity is practically a dry well? I don't care about these three anymore, after being told over and over and over that the fate of the dumb, fragile, yet somehow never annihilated universe depends on them doing the same thing every time, with the same outcome.
    1. Kaingerc
      March 22, 2025
      Absolute Superman is extremely off-putting.
      They basically made him into a 'Social Justice Warrior' angrily lashing out against the "System" and the "Man" with no real plan or future thinking (they also depowered him somewhat so he will still appear as an underdog)
      Instead of the 'S' being the symbol of the house of El, it's now the symbol of the lower worker caste on Krypton (to give you a feeling of how on the nose the writing in this comic is)
      Regarding Wonder Woman... I don't know, the art is eye catching, but she has a similar problem to the main universe version of her, where she feels too alien and detached from normal people for you to really engage with her.
      1. Sara
        March 22, 2025
        I really liked Aaron's Vertigo crime series, Scalped, but subtle it was not. He doesn't seem to go in for subtlety. Which would be fine, but sometimes being unsubtle is the whole deal.
        Wonder Woman is kind of like Thor for me. I'm not into fantasy. And the stilted "By Zeus and all his eagles! Hold thy tongue, mongrel, or I shall smite thee!" "Forsooth, I am smote! Oh, ye Gods of Olympus! To have forsaken a so loyal servant!" dialogue is not my cup of tea, either.
    2. Madeleine
      March 22, 2025
      Maybe not a dry well but the water quality isn't the best... Tainted from too many bodies cast down over the years...
      It's the second and third rung characters, MM, Flash, and GL, whose Absolute I find myself really wanting to read and not thinking about reading just due to hype or habit. Big headline acts are ruining the show... The only thing that could get me to read more Absolute Batman is if Snyder finally bothered to develop the rogues. So far they're wholly defined by how useful they are to Bruce. The whole cast is.
      1. Sara
        March 22, 2025
        Yeah, it's funny how when they're villains, the rogues have lives and agendas of their own, but when they're Bruce's friends, that's it. GROUP HUG!!
        The series could have stood to have a smaller cast in the first arc. At the breakneck speed Snyder seems to plan to move at, I don't see how any character can be developed properly.
2. Raphael Howard
  March 22, 2025
  Absolute MM has a very unique and individual style - I know next to nothing about his mythos, but I’m interested in reading these issues…
  1. Madeleine
    March 22, 2025
    Javier Rodríguez is a really fun artist. I first saw his work in a Green Arrow anniversary book and fell in love with it then.
    And family man MM looks like a sympathetic character.
Kirru
March 22, 2025
Doing so reminded me how much it feels less like a story, and more just a showcase of everything Batman, drawn as a series of splashy set pieces. The overall narrative barely holds together, the mystery is obvious from the very beginning, and Hush’s motivations are really dumb, but none of that seems to be important. Its real goal is to cram as many Batman characters in a single comic as possible with big, beautiful art drawn by Jim Lee at his best.
Fair assessment.
Official:
MOST ANTICIPATED SEQUEL IN COMICS HISTORY!
HUSH HUSH HYPE HYPE!
Kerk Lastnameless
March 23, 2025
I don't think Heart of Hush is a particularly good story...Partially because it re-treads Hush's motivations from the original story. Also...what exactly was the point of removing Catwoman's heart, instead of just killing her?....Anyway, he is a one-note character, and so the sequel is one-note.
But maybe Hush2 will prove me wrong.
1. Blockhead Jr.
  March 23, 2025
  I think the retread is exactly what makes it a good alternative. If the character is ever adapted, I hope it borrows from both stories.

Batman News Archive

Upcoming Comics March 26, 2025

Upcoming Comics

Beyond the Bat

Graphic Novel Watch

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