Andrew

Absolute Batman #22

When I started this issue I went into it thinking it would be boring because I heard that it was about Harley's backstory in this verse and...im so sorry, im just not a Harley fan. I honestly didnt have an opinion on her in this verse specifically, so i just kinda went into it with the same indifference I would for mainline Harley.

Having said that...oh my god? I was literally thinking to myself "im gonna have nothing to talk about this week bc this issues lowkey kinda boring" like I felt that Harley was kind of stating the obvious when she was talking about Scarecrow and stuff, but the twist with Jack being her father...I thought i saw it coming, hoped i was wrong, was DISGUSTED that I was right. Not in a bad way tho!! i can see if benefiting the story a lot. Before starting this issue and seeing that her mom worked for the whole organization, I kind of expected Harley to be an ex of Jack or something that turned to work for the other side of things and thats why she seems to be in the know. Im honestly really glad that Snyder skewed from that storyline tho. I think this is VERY interesting way of going about things, and like I said, it put a pit in my stomach bc it feels so fucked up lol

Now as for the Thomas Wayne reveal...not very often do plot twists take me by surprise, but i think I audibly gasped when I realized what was happening. First I was so shocked that, after lashing out at Harley (very rude, Bruce), Bruce not only visited his father's grave, but dug it up??? That kind of thing always icks me out, but to dig a grave and it be empty...chills!! Then the immediate call from Scarecrow showing "Thomas" (putting it in quotations bcm.. well come on)...insane!! Really sets in stone the fact that eyes are constantly on Bruce/Batman right now and gives me a secondhand sense of paranoia, which I like in this instance lol

I think this issue also kind of set in stone something that i talked about earlier, which is the fact that Jason is most likely the Robin who is most dedicated to Jack, as we can see by his actions when it came to hunting down Batman and Harley while the other Robins told him to give it up. It also left more to be uncovered tho with Dick asking him multiple times what his problem is. That pivots the dynamic from, okay yeah hes just like that on this verse, to, somethings possibly changed recently to make him want to double down harder than the other Robins seemingly want to

Overall, i started this issue kinda bored, but ended it very excited to see more!! once again no predictions, im just ready to ride the wave of the story and see what happens :)

Absolute Catwoman #2

I hadn't read abs catwoman yet when I started doing these weekly reviews, but i really liked how it started! This early in the series, I really dont have much to say about it other than express my anticipation for more to come. To be completely honest, I dont know much about mainline catwoman! So, i can't do many comparisons. I really like Selina in the abs universe tho. she's so cutie but also badass.

I also am not familiar with her little "gang," other than Helena. I saw Bertinelli when they were hacking into that computer and got excited, so to see that Helena is so integrated into the story is really exciting!! I know its older (and possibly no longer Canon? i dont pay attention to that tbh, if its been written, then its happened somewhere out there, in my book) but I read Huntress: Year One and OH MY GOD. Immediately one of my faves. I highly reccomend. And with that, im excited to see what she'll be like in the abs universe.

On the other side of that, I'm not sure if Holly is a parallel of someone? if so, i have no idea who lol and I honestly didnt know who Victoria Sage was, but i cheated a little and before I even read the issue I saw that shes a genderbent The Question, so i actually wasnt lost there!! I personally dont mind genderbends sometimes, tho I know not everyone likes them. I'm not sure if it was a one time thing or something, but didnt The Question have some kind of romance with Helena somewhere? I think in a show? Or is it just a really popular fanon ship? I'm too lazy to look into it because who knows if it will influence anything anyway, but if it IS a Canon ship somewhere out there...potenial wlw 👀 between vic and Helena? perhaps? it looked like Victoria had a husband and child in the flashback to Holly visiting her, but FUCK them kids and FUCK that man. Don't let ur husband stop u from finding your wife fr. Immediate ship I need ppl to read abs catwoman and write fics about them

Anyway! Very excited for more of this series!!

Supergirl (2025) #15

I somehow didnt include #14 in my previous review on Supergirl (2025), but i skimmed thru it, and i just don't think I really had any lol other than im glad they didnt completely erase Lesla's growth, and that carries over into this issue

I also appreciated Supergirl expressing her feelings of hatred going hand-in-hand for her want to help people. She made it very clear here that she is extremely powerful, and rather than that being power that she can't control, she KNOWS what she can do, and she purposefully uses her power to help people rather than to punish or even exterminate. I also appreciated her joining forces with her friends to go forward to take Superman's place since hes still apparently absent (I have NOT been keeping up with the rest of the Reign of the Superboys storyline, but it seems like I'll either need to go back and catch up or find a summary since its FINALLY tying in more blatantly). i was originally upset that Kon wasnt getting as much "screen" (page?) time, but that was before I started to get more familiar with Supergirl as a characer. For anyone who hasn't seen some of my other posts...im now very passionate about my girl Kara!! She's become one of my favorites in the past couple of weeks and im now really glad that she got some spotlight. I will say that i wish Kon played a bit more of a part since it IS the reign of the superBOYS, so its really a balance of, how much would it have taken for him to overshadow supergirl in her own run? to be completely honest, with everything going on the in realm of supergirl, I would say im glad he got less rather than more.

im definitely ready for the next arc in this series, tho I liked how this little bit closed up! again, I like that lesla got her character arc back and they only slightly regressed her (or seemed to at first) for this storyline, and by the end she was back to being a hero, or perhaps even more of a hero than she previously was! she was lowkey annoying at first, but ive come to like her :)

Clayface: Celebrity Dirt #1

Similar to Catwoman, I don't have a whole lot to say about this one since it's a first issue, BUT, I can say that i enjoyed this quite a bit! While i dont know a ton about Clayface other than basics from being into Batman, he seems like such a tragic character, and it seems like this series is really gonna tap into that.

exploring identify thru someone who can become anyone or thing that they please is a very interesting storyline, and im excited to see what goes on with the imposter stuff. my first thought is of course to say that the "Basil Karlo" that he saw is an imposter, but you never know! maybe HES the imposter. lots of possibilities I think

Also some panels were horror movie level stuff imo. not in terms of gore but just like..creepiness. im pretty sure I've heard that the clayface movie is gonna he pretty horror-y, and im excited for that too! clayface seems like the perfect character to pivot into that genre. while hes obviously perfect for body horror, there's also a lot of psychological routes that can be taken, and i feel like this series specifically is really going to tap into that aspect of it.

Excited to keep reading!

after reading woman of tomorrow, which the supergirl movie was "based on" im convinced this entire thing is a humiliation ritual to downplay supergirl as a whole within the future of the DCU. I could genuinely write an essay on how the lack of marketing, stiff writing, taking the film out of theaters so soon, and inability to NOT compare the film to the masterpiece of the comic was all in an attempt to try to make audiences think that female superheros aren't worthwhile and thats why we "should" focus on the male superheros like superman. they did a complete disservice to supergirl and milly alcock with the film, and thats coming from someone who didnt think it was half bad as something on its own, not compared to any comics, let alone the one it was supposedly inspired by, if you can even say that.

a true adaptation would have been mind blowingly gorgeous and meaningful. instead the script writing duties was given to someone who didnt understand the story she was supposed to be adapting and a MALE director. im so scared for the alleged upcoming wonder woman project if its being written by the same person bc its so obvious that DC would rather give audiences surface level stories rather than deep introspective pieces. People are defending supergirl and saying it didnt have to redefine the genre, but it COULD have. a story that would have done so was dropped into their laps and they cast it aside to give us the same superficial storytelling that's plagued female characters forever. if they wanted another run of the mill superhero story (which theres nothing wrong with tbh), they wouldnt have even mentioned woman of tomorrow aside from borrowing the character of ruthye.

i walked out of the theater trying to convince myself that it was okay that supergirl wasn't ground breaking and to be glad that she got her own film, but after looking into her character more, its clear to see that she DIDNT get her own film. she was given a film as a vehicle to promote other characters and the future of the male centered DCU. Im not surprised bc why would I be. but im so so devastated about what we could have had and what we were given. kara deservd better. milly deserved better. women. both fictional and non fictional, deserve better. and yea, it is that serious.

im not gonna overly praise something because beggars can't be choosers. that's not fair. the movie was pretty decent (on its own, not bad by any means, and ive said that before in my review) and I think people should watch it, but I also think people should speak out when theyre cheated. its truly just not fair. again, coming from someone who LIKED the movie on its own.

go read woman of tomorrow but pirate it bc tom king sucks as a person and we need to keep him away from wonder woman too