#annotated dc

Apparently the one-shot takes place between issues of Absolute Catwoman (#3 and #4 I think it was), and while we don't know much or really anything about Abs!Cass, I'd still like her to meet Abs!Steph and such.

A Cass/Selina match up oddly isn't something we've seen much of in the regular comics, which is a shame as on some level they've got kind of similar personalities, in the sense that they've both got that kind of weird Olympian, perfectionist drive to be the absolute best at this chosen field of interest (stealing things in Selina's case, combat in Cass'), and that's without even getting into their respective homeless childhoods, abusive parental figures etc. etc.

Haven't really a clue how this would apply to Cass and Selina's relationship in the Absolute DCU (Selina being a woman who went from orphan living in Gotham's social care system to billionaire super-thief who robs other billionaires while Cass in this universe was seemingly raised by her mother following the Joker killing off the rest of the League of Assassins years previously).

Like, I could see a riff on the old manga/film series Lady Snowblood going on with Cass (where a woman in 19th century Japan is framed for a crime and sent to prison, so she trains the daughter whom she has in jail to go out and get revenge on the people who destroyed their family), with Abs!Lady Shiva turning her into a human cruise missile to aim at the Joker in retaliation for his crimes against them (which would bring Cass into conflict with Steph, what with Steph having been indoctrinated into thinking that "Jack Grim" is a philanthropist the same way that regular universe Bruce Wayne is)...

But considering how the Joker/Batman conflict is pretty much the main story arc of Absolute Batman and how the Joker is literally a giant immortal demon thingy, I kinda doubt at this stage Cass will be trying to take a run at him, at least at this stage.

It should be noted that the Paramount/WB absorption hasn't been fully finalised yet (and with the many, many law suits from customers, state governments and even reps from the UK and EU regarding the monopoly and security concerns it doesn't look to have a swift resolution either), so them shuttering Paramount+ just on the assumption that they'll win speaks to the same arrogance that lead to David Ellison getting rejected 10 times before WBD accepted his offer to buy the place.

I mean, yeah, he's got his own show, he doesn't need to appear much other than to indicate a shift in the status quo since the last movie (ie he's kingpin of Gotham's underground now) as in terms of the Batman-related plot he's a side-character.

I don't know, maybe if the speculation that the movie is an adaptation of Mask of the Phantasm he provides Bruce/Batman with more info on previous Mob stuff, but we'll see. Considering how his show ended with his getting connections within Gotham City Hall, I could see them going for a Penguin for Mayor plot in the second season or something (what with his populist but ultimately self-serving rhetoric getting him a lot of support from both regular people negatively effected by the Riddler's floods whom emergency aid wasn't reach and from the folk who decided siding with him was better than getting scraps from the former heads of the Gotham mobs).

In our discussion in the build-up to season three, (producer Brendan) Clougher joked, “We’re hoping for two more seasons and a movie! When we pitched season three to the studio, we did pitch it with a season four. Hopefully, if we do get a renewal, we are ready for that. There are ideas in the canon to go far beyond that, if we’re so lucky.” Without diving into spoiler territory, it’s clear from season three that the showrunners are building toward something big on the horizon, though we’ll leave that for Adult Swim viewers to figure out. On top of talking about Clark, Lois, Jimmy, and Kara’s future here, the showrunners also took the opportunity to hint at the progress of another DC hero receiving a makeover.

Begins shooting in a week? Sweet, means we should start getting behind the scenes set photos too.

Aside from the introduction of Kara to the proceedings (her having joined Clark, Lois and Jimmy as the fourth main character), we get a colour look at the intro preview image we saw way back at SDCCC in 2024 or so.

Original image

New version

So from top left to right: Silver Banshee (who appeared in the new trailer for the season) and Rough House from the show's version of Intergang; Cyborg Superman; bald!Lex; big-haired buff bloke with Jack Kirby power lines on him (no idea); Mr Mxyzptlk.

Bottom left to right: a group I thought originally were the Legion of Superheroes now I'm not so sure; Amanda Waller; a potential third or fourth flying person?; Deathstroke; and finally Match.

We are introduced to the show's version of Superboy...

Who has a sword and ends up mysterious disappearing while Lois and Clark reach for him...

Hm, between the jacket, sword and mysterious disappearing, I think that I'm back on the train that this is actually a version of Jon Kent doing a Future!Trunks DBZ homage by coming back in time with a sword to prevent a robot/cyborg apocalypse situation.

The fact that Future!Trunk's storyline was inspired somewhat by the Terminator franchise, as was the appearance of Cyborg Superman, the possibility that Superboy in the show may be a Jon/Conner smash-up is pretty amusing considering... ya know.