Gotham City Sirens #1 brings us back into the kick-ass world of our Sirens, holding nothing back. It has heart-pounding action, beautiful eye-grabbing art, and a cliffhanger, leaving us needing more. You had my curiosity but, now you have my attention DC. Read Full Review

Ok so I am coming into this one with some really hot-takes.

First I dont think this is a bad book. Is it a good book? Not really but it isnt as bad as people are making it out to be. Lets honestly go over the pros and cons to get to my point.

Pros
Harvey and Ivy act like villains. For those who think they are heroes, you are wrong, sorry to say. Harvey at best should be highly conflicted villain rare times a hero and Ivy should be a sympathetic villain which she was for decades. Either way I enjoyed them just offing people cause they are terrible people. That was at least written in character which it doesnt feel like happens much anymore.

Human meat puppets concept is sort of interesting. It at least feels like something we havent seen too much recently so that is something (look I know the bar is low but DC cant even clear that half the time).

Punchline actually makes sense here. She usually social media for horrible purposes. Seeing her adapt and use the Gotham equivalent of Twitch, Youtube, Tic Toc ect is actually quite in character for her. She has been treated terrible the past couple of years for the most part but Williams actually seems to get her point. Is the bathwater stuff going to become dated? Yeah, but Punchline because she is based around Social Media will always be changing much like how social media is always changing. This checks out.

Subpoint to the punchline point but some of the plot is shown not told, like all the XO Punch ads ect. Punchline is adapting her drug trade. Her flexibility is quite interesting to see.

This is a personal one but I like the fact that social media is portrayed so toxic. Punchline functionally has an army of people worshipping her ('Simps' as one might say in 2024), and based on how social media is as of this review... it is honestly quite an accurate portrayal. Social media influences encourage people to do horrible trends (like the 'punch a stranger tic toc trend that happened last year), so the idea that eventually it would just be murder for fun, and do drugs for a chance to hang out with your 'favourite influencer' feels on point.

Neutral:
Lolli is a good artist but they kind of phoned this one in. Could have been better but could have been worse.

Cons:
Plot has some interesting points but is all over the place. This plotlines need to be tied together.

Too goofy. Like its ok to be a bit but Williams always takes it too far and that is annoying.

No consistency with other books. While I prefer Harley and Ivy being villains that is clearly not what DC wants to do so there characterization here is a bit off from the main books (but I personally think that is a plus).

....why the cowboys. I just cant help but chuckle at how silly it is. And like why is outside of Gotham limits its like a desert. I dont remember that being a thing.

All in all not a terrible book. I think for the most fair review, I would check out Casually Comics on Youtube. She does a great job giving it a far review.

Williams does a lot of poor work, and while I dont think this is the best book, its an ok one for sure. Plus if you like Punchline like myself, it is nice to see her logically evolve her trade as she finds her place. The social media space is wildly misused in DC books so having her be that villain would be great. more