Batman #139 starts out incredibly strong with a back-to-basics approach to Batman that feels both compelling and fresh. The art and writing set the mood perfectly for its psychological noir thriller tone. However, the cracks begin to show with an overreliance on call backs to far too many other titles. This would be fine if not for the fact that it all culminates in a reveal that sinks any hope of what seemed to be a straight forward Batman story, instead turning yet again into an overly convoluted premise.

Bereft of any creativity or joy, Batman: FaZe Clan #1 just a hollow corporate shell of a product designed to promote brand awareness. I'm sure you'll be happy to learn that the FaZe/Batman-branded merch that is prominently displayed throughout the comic is available for purchase, but aside from that there is little to be gained here. The plot is a paper thin excuse to showcase how cool FaZe Clan is supposed to be, but just comes off as aggressively insistent. This is an advertisement through and through, but if they were going to charge money for it then they should have at least made it an enjoyable one.

Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic #1follows up on Batman Beyond: Neo-Year by hitting all of the shortcomings of its predecessor. Its bright visuals can't distract from clumsily handled social commentary and overly ambitious attempts at profound writing. The problems of old are compounded with the questionable addition of a half-human, half-cat sidekick who spends too much of his presence making cat puns.

Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic #2 manages to pivot towards an approach to its story that resonates on a personal level. Still too much time is given to pontificating monologues, but when it's able to let the characters be characters, it succeeds. Its intriguing journey and exciting action sequences are only somewhat dampened by an ever more ill-suited anthropomorphic sidekick.

Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic #3has plenty of interesting ideas with ultimately uninteresting execution. The focus is put on all the wrong aspects of the story instead of what could make a truly compelling tale. There's plenty of flashy, well drawn fights and villains, but beneath the surface there's simply nothing of any depth to give it the meaning it purports to have.

Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic #5is a bad comic. What once was a series that relied on spectacle over substance doesn't even have spectacle to rely on anymore. The plot beats are a mix of disposable afterthoughts and bewilderingly bad narrative decisions. Anyone who is a fan of the classic DC characters featured in this issue will walk away either disappointed or angry at their mishandling. The saving grace is knowing that the story is almost over.

Batman Beyond: Neo-Year #2 struggles due to not giving enough focus to any of the ideas that it puts forth. Either a high concept science fiction story about an antagonist with a shared consciousness, or a gritty detective story of Terry working in the shadows while the city itself is out to get him could have been really interesting. However, since neither of those premises are given enough space to fully develop, what's left is a story that feels inconsequential.

You can tell the kind of story that Lanzing and Kelly are trying to tell, but they're struggling with the execution. They want to say something meaningful about about how the rich abuse their power for personal gain, but they're written as such caricatures that it loses much of its bite. They want to write a detective story where Terry investigates how to track down the Gotham AI, but he hardly does any investigating and is so passive that plot events need to happen to him. The book is not bad, but it can be frustrating to clearly see the writers' lofty ambitions while failing to live up to them.

This is a well done fight issue that's tense and exciting. It's fun to read a story where it feels like the hero is constantly has their back up against the wall and can barely keep going. The attempt to tie that fight to something deeper is commendable. However, that connection is often tenuous and doesn't always work the way the story wants it to when you step back and think about it.

Batman Beyond: Neo-Year #5 is the best issue of the series yet. It takes the time to slow down from all the action and look at how everyone has been affected by everything that's happened. These moments of introspection allow Terry to grow as a character in meaningful ways, which can be a rarity in a lot of comics. The dark, cramped artwork work alongside the narrative to create an atmosphere that brings emotions to their lowest point in preparation for the big finale.

Far from the crescendo that the series was building up to in recent issues, Batman Beyond: Neo-Year #6 highlights all of the problems the series has had up until now. What interesting ideas were suggested up until this point turn out to be damp squibs as they're resolved hastily at the last minute. The writing frequently attempts to punch above its weight class but fails; it has all of these deep ideas that it wants to tackle like corporate greed, emergent AI, and systemic corruption, but none of it is explored in more than a superficial manner. It's flashy, but no matter how hard it wants to be something more, beneath all the spectacle there is not much there.

Batman: Legends of Gotham #1 is an adventure where Red Hood infiltrates a criminal lair. It's a fun premise that mostly works, but is brought down by long-winded dialog/exposition, some questionable narrative logic, and an unsatisfying ending that seems to be meant to tie into some other unnamed story. Pick it up if you want more Red Hood stories, but this doesn't do much to set itself apart for a character in need of a clear direction.

Instead of exploring the character on a deeper level like the series' namesake, Batman: One Bad Day: Clayface #1 falls back on tired clichs, and in the process actually flattens what depth Clayface already had. The fact that Basil Karlo was an actor becomes his sole character trait to the point where nothing else about him matters. Some truly impressive art is not enough to elevate this middling story to anything that will define the character.

Batman: One Bad Day: Ra's al Ghul #1focuses less on exploring the character of Ra's al Ghul, and more on using him as a soapbox to oversimplify important global issues. Doing so requires that Ra's' character and motivations be altered, and the world itself bend over backwards to fit that rhetorical goal. It's a comic that wants you to come away thinking “wow, maybe Ra's was correct” but can only accomplish that by creating the perfect scenario where he would be, regardless of whether it makes sense.

This first issue of Batman: The Adventures Continue Season 3 is a marked improvement on the first two seasons. It tells a focused, self-contained story that's both engaging and dramatic. Muscle is elevated from a generic thug to a three dimensional character who struggles with how to handle being betrayed by his employers. The art is moody and is able to make every page feel alive with emotion and movement. Seeing a one-shot like this that uses the drama of minor characters to flesh out the world of Gotham is a real return to form of what made Dini's original comics so great.

Batman: The Adventures Continue Season 3 #2 is a team-up story between Batman and Harley Quinn that can never quite figure out how to meaningfully include them both. The addition of a new character tied to both of their pasts feels contrived, and forces retcons which are hard to buy. A mix of messy artwork and muddled story results in a disappointing second issue after such a strong debut.

Batman: The Adventures Continue Season 3 #3 is an interesting first chapter that manages to introduce a lot story elements, but it's unclear how well it will follow through. It leans into the story's mysteries which provide an interesting angle to explore the new characters, and allows their pasts to shape the conflict. The success of the rest of the story hinges on how compelling of a character Straightman will turn out to be.

Batman: The Adventures Continue Season 3 #4 is a bit of an awkward read. There are plenty of story beats thrown in, but you're jerked from one to the next so suddenly that it feels disjointed. Taken on their own, the individual scenes vary in quality from stiff to engaging. However, the overall story never comes together into a satisfying narrative.

After a shaky first couple of issues, Batman: The Adventures Continue Season 3 #5 manages to deliver a solid finale to the Straightman story. It's an exciting climax while still being genuinely funny, which is critically important when writing the Joker. The pacing can at times still feel hectic as it jumps from one scene to the next, but it still remains engaging all the way to the end.

Batman: The Adventures Continue Season 3 #6 sets the pieces for the series' final arc with just enough intrigue to make you want to know what will happen next. Ra's and Talia are as scheming as ever as they draw you in for one last story. The logic for how everything comes together doesn't always make the most sense, but it's never so egregious so as to spoil the narrative.

While not all of the plot threads are fully realized, the story still feels satisfying as an ultimate finale. From Joker's wacky hijinks earlier in the season to Ra's' grandiose master plan here, there's enough of an exciting climax to make the ending feel worthwhile. With a smile and nod to camera, Batman and Robin's drive off into the sunset moonset lets you know that, yes, the adventures will always continue.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #1 is a mostly really solid collection of distinct stories, ranging from suspenseful thriller to action packed team-up. Not all of them work, but for the ones that do it's a wide array of first chapters that show a lot of potential.

it's a story that I'm very split on. It showcases some of King's best and worst tendencies as a writer. It takes an existing concept and adds layers of depth and complexity, but at the same time feels the need to press that perceived maturity to the point where it loses sight of what makes the story work.

Aside from the first one, every story in this collection manages to successfully do what it sets out to. Stormwatch continues its action filled missions, Superman explores the importance of memory, and Batman fights a vampire lord in a gothic Gotham. Batman: Brave and the Bold #3 continues the series' pattern of offering up a satisfactory collection of tales.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #4 is a rougher entry than the first three. A combination of obligatory tie-ins and questionably paced beginnings leaves little to highlight. Nothing is so notably bad that you won't be able to enjoy at least some of it, but still an overall forgettable entry in this anthology series.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #5is ultimately a passable collection of stories. Most of them are fine, but there aren't really any standouts like in previous issues. All but the black and white short story at the end are middle chapters of ongoing narratives, so unless you're already invested in those there isn't much here to recommend.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #6 is a collection of mostly good stories that would work better in another format. They're often either the opening to what is clearly meant to be an ongoing, or a story broken up into too small of chunks to flow properly. The highlight is easily the final short story by Sean Lewis and Javier Fernandez.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #7 is a varied collection of mostly new stories. Each of them offer something different that still manage to entertain in their own way, whether that be a lampooning superhero satire, a pulpy underwater sci-fi, or an atmospheric supernatural detective story. There should be at least something here for everyone.

What's here is fun and exciting, but feels like a step down from the previous issues due to its lack of novelty. The characters continue to be well written and the art shines in both big action scenes and conveying the subtlety of characters' emotions. I'm invested in seeing where Bruce's journey will take him next. However I hope that this doesn't become just an extended version of the same globetrotting training montage we've already seen so many times before.

Bruce learning the spy game is interesting and at times thrilling; it could just use more space to really flesh out the concept.

Batman: The Knight #6 gives the series a much needed break in the story's pacing to focus on character development, but it's unfortunately cut short to focus on Anton's story. The time spent examining what the "no kill code means for people from different circumstances is the kind of introspective story that I want to see from this series. It's a shame that less than half the issue gets to be about that, while the narrative focuses on a character that often feels like they don't belong.

Batman: The Knight #7 is a great look into Bruce's first exposure to the world of magic, and his relationship with Zatanna. The book uses magic as a way of examining Bruce's perspective on the world, and how it has left him intractable to anything that he can't control. This is the kind of story that I've been wanting from this series: a character study framed in the context of learning something new about Bruce's life. Aside from a somewhat repetitive tone and art in some parts, this is an excellent origin story.

Batman: The Knight #8 gets far too distracted by all of the disparate plot elements it wants to introduce, causing it to lose focus on Bruce's character development which is what the story was supposed to be about. Anton's return feels like an intrusion as Bruce is forced to constantly think about what he's doing. The story is as well illustrated as always and the brief moments we get to see Bruce grow into Batman are well done, but that is quickly derailed by the introduction of a series main villain that feels unnecessary.

Batman: The Knight #9 delivers a new spin on the first time Bruce and Ra's al Ghul met, moving it back to before he even became Batman. Some of the changes offer a refreshing new modernization to the fateful encounter, while others feel unnecessary or even detrimental to the dynamic it's meant to be establishing. It's no small task to try and rewrite such a famous Batman story, fitting it into a new Batman origin no less, and Zdarsky responds to the challenge with mixed results.

This final issue is fast-paced and action-packed, but fails to satisfyingly justify the overall premise of the series as a whole. Transforming Bruce's entire pre-Batman training into one continuous story is restrictive more than anything else, and having Ra's as his final challenge does not work for so early in his career. It's great to see the lessons learned over the course of the series come together so that Bruce can prevail, and the art makes that triumph compelling to watch, even if critical turning point which brings him there feels flimsy.

This issue is a mixed bag. We got two different looks at what it's like for a young hero to fill the role of vigilante, an Etrigan story with maybe more action than there was room for, some political commentary, and a bit of Alfred playing detective. While most of the stories aren't anything spectacular, Chris Burnham's opening chapter of The Pennyworth Files was incredible and I look forward to reading more chapters soon.

Catwoman: Lonely City #1 is one of the best new comics I've read in a long while. It creates an atmosphere of nostalgia and manages to zero in on what people like about Batman comics by exploring a scenario with all of those signature elements taken away. The characterization feels natural and three-dimensional, evoking sympathy when you realize the circumstances the characters have been put into. It's a story of very human struggles set against a backdrop of an exploration of what Gotham is and what it means.

It's a funnier story than the first issue, but that in no way takes away from the heartfelt character moments that make everything feel so meaningful. The importance of costumes and what they can mean is a new theme introduced this issue, and it's one that helps really understand the impact a character like Catwoman can have.

For the most part, Catwoman: Lonely City #3 continues the excellence that the series has held up so far. It further explores Selina's personal feelings towards her relationship with others, and how much she is willing to open herself up to that sort of vulnerability. The issue hits you with emotional despair that makes the stakes feel personal and real. However, the latter half of the story struggles a bit to find ways to get the plot where it needs to be.

Catwoman: Lonely City #4 is a great ending to a great series. It ties together the core themes of the story in such a way that elevates everything up until now. While some of the plot lines may not have had as much time to breathe as they might have deserved, the series finishes as a wonderful character-driven story with rich dynamics and a complex look at our relationship to their world. If you've been waiting for the series to finish to check it out, it's time to read one of the best comics all year.

Detective Comics #1074 leans into its atmospheric storytelling by using setting to explore the central characters. It makes little headway in terms of plot progression, but its diverse set of characters and perspectives keeps your attention the whole way through regardless. No one in Gotham quite understands what's going on, and the story pulls the reader into that same mindset as conflicting accounts coupled with surreal art paint both a city and hero in chaos.

just an incredible short story that explores Bruce's emotional trauma in a poetic and visually beautiful way.

Detective Comics #1076is in many ways a transitory comic. Both the main story and the backups seemingly exist to wrap up the events of previous events, and set up what's to come. It's mostly all very well drawn and consists of individual scenes with good character moments, but there's a sense throughout that the story itself is incomplete. The series' pacing issues continue to plague the overall narrative.

Detective Comics #1077is an atmospheric story that drags its feet delivering anything but atmosphere. The art and writing do a wonderful job immersing you in the desperate city of Gotham on the brink of collapse, but the story is content to cover largely the same ground as the previous issue. What plot we do get raises questions about the details of how and why everything is supposed to work. Watters' backup provides a refreshing tale of family and the struggles that come with letting yourself be close to the ones you love.

Detective Comics #1078 is a beautifully written, and even at times poetic, chapter in this “Outlaw” intermission. The plot gets kicked into high gear as Catwoman launches her plan to rescue Batman from the clutches of the Orghams, and seeing its realization is a delight. The art and action blend into a gripping sequence that keeps the reader eager to know what will happen next. The action gives each of the characters a chance to shine, and Watters' backup continues to shed light on the supporting cast.

Dawn of DC Knight Terrors Free Comic Book Day Special Edition offers a glimpse into the nightmares to come from the Knight Terrors event that will dominate DC for two months. It's an interesting premise with some beautifully drawn fight sequences that successfully leans into the hallucinatory nature of the situation. There's not enough to render full judgement on what the rest of the stories will look like, but as a preview at least it delivers intrigue.

The new direction Future State: Gotham is taking with this issue is interesting, but it stumbles out of the gate. Too many pages are devoted to reprinting older comics, which harms the overall narrative and artistic flow. Once the main plot is able to finally begin, it's filled with enough intrigue and adventure to get you hooked for what comes next. The comic would benefit immensely from actually focusing on that part of the story.

Future State: Gotham has struggled for a while to figure out what it wants to be about, and the seams are starting to show. We've got five different Batmen running around, and the circumstances that get them all in a position to inevitably fight feel manufactured. The characters from the other plot lines show up to remind the reader that they're still here, but otherwise seem to be waiting for something to do. This issue's main goal is mostly to set up for the big battle for the future cowl, so hopefully that payoff will be worth all this.

Future State: Gotham #15 feels like a rushed, sloppy story that puts little effort into its plot, dialog, or art. I know the creative team is capable of putting out better material than this, because the series wasn't always like this. The issue is comprised primarily of characters spouting obligatory one liners as lead-ins to poorly drawn fights and nonsensical shock twists. The sooner this poorly conceived arc ends, the better.

DC recently announced that this series will be ending in October, and it seems that the series is content to simply spin its wheels while we wait for this to be over. All of the criticisms I laid out last month still apply, except they are only getting worse. Future State: Gotham #16 is a poorly drawn, plotted, and scripted comic that relies on cheap attempts at melodrama to cover up for a presentation that has seemingly had little effort put into it.

Future State: Gotham #17 is still not a very good story, but it's definitely an improvement from where the series has been. The art looks decent, and most of the annoying aspects of the plot are cut off. While the plot still doesn't make a lot of sense, I can see this as a course correction towards a somewhat satisfying series conclusion. That being said, the twist at the end is schlock of the highest order and makes no sense.

With Future State: Gotham #18, DC seems to have finally closed the book on the Future State setting that was at one point supposed to be the future of all DC Comics. It's tough to imagine a more disappointing way for that editorial effort to be remembered. The series' final arc is filled with characters whose decisions make no sense, stilted dialog meant only to deliver bad one-liners, inconsistent art at best, and an incoherent plot. This final issue can be entertaining to read if you just turn your brain off, but once you move past the absurdity of it all, all that's left is the ending to a bad story.

Gotham City: Year One #1 takes its time building up its mystery, meaning that we're only offered a glimpse at the overall story by the time the issue ends. It's difficult to say at this point whether the extended introduction will be worth it, but the hooks are enough to make you want to come back to learn more. Dual themes of moral decay and racial prejudice create a complex narrative that hopefully future issues will be able to successfully execute on.

Gotham City: Year One #2 is an intrigue-filled issue that continues to take its time building its characters and its mystery. The slow burn continues as more information is revealed piece by piece. There's a lot we don't know and it's tough to say if the payoff will be worth the wait, but what's here is an engrossing story that draws you in. Any fan of classic pulp noir detective stories should check this out.

Gotham City: Year One #3 is a gripping detective story that explores the characters of its titular city in a meaningful way. Slam's investigative work is captivating and keeps you guessing without ever feeling like it's just pulling answers to mysteries out of nowhere. Both the main characters and the residents of Gotham who only appear for a page are fleshed out such that the entire city comes alive as the story digs deeper into its hidden depths. Every issue reveals a new facet to this complex mystery and I'm excited to read what comes next.

Gotham City: Year One #4 offers an exploration of Slam at his lowest point. Seemingly everything and everyone has turned on him. King continues to deliver a gripping, character driven detective story with plenty of twists and turns. The past three issues have set up all the pieces, and now everything is coming together. If you have any interest in detective fiction in your Batman stories, be sure to pick this up.

Gotham City: Year One #5 is an incredible story that retroactively makes everything up until now even better. This issue is filled with so many shocking twists that force you to reevaluate everything you thought you knew about the characters. It keeps you on the edge of your seat as you're fully thrust into this world of intrigue and conspiracy. If the series can finish as strongly as it's been so far, it will be one of the best Batman comics in a long time.

Taken on its own simply as a detective story, Gotham City: Year One #6 is an incredible ending. It manages to tie up all the loose ends, meaningfully place a thematic poignancy on the characters' actions, and remain tense and exciting through to the end. If this were a standalone comic I would have almost no complaints. However, it's not a standalone comic. It's also (indirectly) a Batman story, and the way it relates its Gotham with the one we know doesn't work. Overall, Gotham City: Year One is a mostly great story that is held back by its messy connections to the titular city.

Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: Legion of Bats! #1 starts the series off by recapping and revisiting the show's last season. It gives the reader a glimpse of the new status quo, and sets up the new plot lines for the comic. Unfortunately, some of those plot lines are a little too similar to what has just been covered by the TV show. Fans of the show and of its previous tie-in comics will still find plenty to like, especially if they're supporters of romantic Harley/Ivy moments, so long as they don't expect anything too radical.

Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: Legion of Bats! #2 splits its time between light romance and setting up the main plot for the series. For the most part it succeeds. It continues to struggle with handling the show's conflicts without being allowed to resolve them, but when it gets to focus on its own story it manages to manage to be sweet while still providing a fun adventure for the characters.

Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: Legion of Bats! #3 is unfortunately a step down from previous issues in the series, both in writing and art. The plot feels directionless and the art style has lost the stylistic liveliness that used to tie the comic to its TV counterpart. There are entertaining segments of the story, but it's all so disconnected that it's difficult to form a coherent vision of the whole. It's not terrible, but it's not especially good either; it just feels like it's there.

Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: Legion of Bats! #4continues to struggle to nail down what the story is actually about. It's awkwardly caught in the middle between seasons of a show it can't interact with. As a result the narrative is drawn out and inconsequential, despite some fun character interactions found within. The art is split between two wildly different artists' styles, with the lion's share going to the lesser of the two. It's a mixed bag to say the least.

Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: Legion of Bats! #5 finally moves the story's plot forward, albeit with some hiccups along the way. The behavior of both the plot and some of the characters don't always make the most sense, but there's enough to like for those who are fans of the series' characters. Most of the time is still spent with them passively waiting until something happens, though those moments are still able to offer some fun moments.

Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: Legion of Bats #6 is a disappointing ending that fails to deliver on any of the promises which it's built up over the course of the run. Every plotline outside of Harley and Ivy's relationship drama is completely forgotten about, and the drama itself doesn't feel satisfying either. At its best it's a retread of stories better executed by the show, and at its worst it's a disposable tie-in that doesn't even give the effort to care about what it's telling.

Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: The Real Sidekicks of New Gotham Special is a decent collection of short stories focusing on some of the characters from the show who don't always get a chance to be the center of attention. None of them are going to be your favorite story featuring the characters in question, but they're a nice and entertaining extra helping for fans of the show and of Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour.

Knight Terrors #1 is a comic that plays it safe. There's a formula here for a standard superhero comic with just enough exposition for the rest of the event, and it checks all the boxes. The action is fun and well drawn, and there's not really many overt flaws to criticize, but at the same time there's nothing exceptional to praise. For better or for worse, Knight Terrorscontinues to serve mostly as a springboard for its many tie-ins.

Knight Terrors: Night's End #1is exactly what you would expect from an event finale. It's full of spectacle, grandiose speeches, and a big moment to make it "important to canon. None of it resonates particularly deeply, but that's not why you're here. This exists to wrap up a two month long intermission in DC Comics' stories as loudly as possible. I'd make a joke about it being a nightmare, but honestly it doesn't leave enough of an impression to warrant that sort of reaction.

Knight Terrors #2 is a story that's stretched out in order to take a simple premise and have it last as long as necessary. It jumps from flashback to dream sequence to flashback with not much narrative momentum or consequence. The overall tone wavers between goofy and spooky, resulting in a cheesy horror story that might appeal to fans of camp.

Knight Terrors #3 manages to move the story forward enough that you care about what's happening in the moment. The narrative still struggles to get you fully invested due to how disjointed the various set pieces are, but individually their smaller character moments carry the scenes. Has it quite reached the point that the series feels “worth it” outside of an event framing device? Not quite, but it's improving.

Knight Terrors #4 is the final issue to a series you'll need the special epilogue one-shot to get any sort of conclusion. It reveals that the only purpose this entire series served was to deliver an overused villain origin and prompt you to read the rest of the tie-ins. Pick this up if you really feel the need to complete your Knight Terrors collection, otherwise there's not much to recommend.

Knight Terrors: First Blood #1 is a comic written like it has job to do rather than a story to tell. In many ways that's because it does. It primarily consists of big set pieces that include as much of the DC universe as possible, strung together with exposition and mixed attempts at humor. If you're looking for a prologue for the dozens of tie-ins to come, this adequately delivers on that promise but not much else.

World's Finest: Teen Titans #1 is an exploration of the early days of the team with the fondness and excitement we've come to expect from Mark Waid. It uses those simple, optimistic adventures as a way to explore the character relationships of the young heroes who will eventually grow into the characters we know. Robin takes center stage as we see his first steps into a leadership role and the uncertainty that comes with it.

World's Finest: Teen Titans #3 manages to balance the low-stakes fun of the Titans attending their own convention, Robin's continuing internal conflict about what kind of hero and leader he'll be, and exciting action. The heart remains Robin's personal coming of age journey, but enough time is dedicated to the rest of the team that we get to see what kind of people they are while fighting both villains and hordes of fans.