Batman and Batfamily Solicitations for November 2018

[Lucas 35]

DETECTIVE COMICS by JAMES ROBINSON seems to be so annoying. I miss when the writer was Tynion. I miss all, Tim, Steph, Cass, Azrael and the others, it was cool to have a batfamily comic, now it's just a normal batman magazine, What's the fun of having two comics with the same premises? Always reading Batman's individual adventures?

[millernumber1]

BATGIRL #29
written by MAIRGHREAD SCOTT
art by PAUL PELLETIER and NORM RAPMUND
cover by SEAN MURPHY
variant cover by JOSHUA MIDDLETON
In the finale of “Art of the Crime,” Batgirl may have uncovered Grotesque’s real plot, but that only means she knows the real danger that faces Jim Gordon and the GCPD! Can Barbara take down Grotesque before he pulls off a massive heist and ruins the GCPD’s rep in the process? Maybe, but it won’t be a paint-by-numbers job!
ON SALE 11.28.18
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T

Batgirl still sounds balanced on the knife edge of "better" or "more of the same." That cover is pretty exciting - I'm very interested that Murphy is so closely connected with the title without actually doing any interiors.

BATMAN #58
written by TOM KING
art and cover by MIKEL JANIN
variant cover by FRANCESCO MATTINA
The Dark Knight waddles into a turf war with the Penguin! Still reeling from the attacks on his Bat-Family and reputation, the Caped Crusader looks to track down the mysterious operator lurking behind the scenes in Gotham City. As the hunt rages on, Batman runs “a fowl” of Oswald Cobblepot. But the Penguin is on Batman’s side for once, and the crime boss sees dangerous things on the horizon. How can he convince the Caped Crusader he’s on the level?
ON SALE 11.07.18
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T

BATMAN #59
written by TOM KING
art and cover by MIKEL JANIN
variant cover by FRANCESCO MATTINA
Caught between Batman and his unseen enemy, the Penguin has to think on his feet to avoid being taken down by either side. If he chooses one way, he goes to jail; if he chooses the other, he ends up dead. Then again, the choice seems obvious. Is Batman ready for a new kind of avian sidekick?
ON SALE 11.21.18
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T

Batman and Penguin...maybe this is how Bruce gets the next clue that leads him to Bane...that would be interesting. Actually, in general, this all sounds quite interesting, even with the horrible puns.

DETECTIVE COMICS by JAMES ROBINSON seems to be so annoying. I miss when the writer was Tynion. I miss all, Tim, Steph, Cass, Azrael and the others, it was cool to have a batfamily comic, now it's just a normal batman magazine, What's the fun of having two comics with the same premises? Always reading Batman's individual adventures?

100% with you! We shall see, though.

I really feel the shrinking of the Batfamily (which I'm sure is all to the good for several fans, but makes me very sad). Nightwing's "injury plotline" sounds interesting, but I don't know how that's going to work, since the covers seem to promise that Dick is still doing the Nightwing thing.

[Kurisu]

That Old Lady Harley cover is preeeeetty great.

[Frontier]

Thoughts:

- Batman: Damned seems to be turning into Brave and the Bold with supernatural characters.

- I wonder if that cover is just taking artistic license or if Babs' means of stopping Grotesque ends up turning the GCPD against Batgirl?

- I'm curious to see how King writes Penguin given he's probably the most "normal" of Batman's villains by a longshot.

- Selina's still in jail? Reminds me of that one issue of Tieri's run. "Cagey Creel" reminds me of Absorbing Man from Marvel. And it took them this long to make an "Orange is the New Black" joke ?

- Another Two-Face death fakeout? Well, at least they probably won't keep us as much in suspense as the last one did.

DETECTIVE COMICS by JAMES ROBINSON seems to be so annoying. I miss when the writer was Tynion. I miss all, Tim, Steph, Cass, Azrael and the others, it was cool to have a batfamily comic, now it's just a normal batman magazine, What's the fun of having two comics with the same premises? Always reading Batman's individual adventures?

I like the idea of a Batfamily book even if I think Tynion's take on it wasn't always my cup of tea.

Personally I've always liked Batman and Two-Face teaming-up so I think this might be a fun story .

[Armor of God]

DETECTIVE COMICS by JAMES ROBINSON seems to be so annoying. I miss when the writer was Tynion. I miss all, Tim, Steph, Cass, Azrael and the others, it was cool to have a batfamily comic, now it's just a normal batman magazine, What's the fun of having two comics with the same premises? Always reading Batman's individual adventures?

The general idea is that Batman can afford more than one book and if someone doesn't like one of the books they can turn to the other. Its worked for Superman and it worked for Batman for decades.

[Aioros22]

1- King using Penguin so soon is beyond laughable. It makes no narrative sense and it cheapens the whole bout that just happened between his own son, Penguin and himself to the point where nobody comes out looking effective and the titular character of this book ends up coming out the worst.

2- That Catwoman cover is weird as heck.

[Restingvoice]

Well, that Penguin thing is just annoying.

[JasonTodd428]

I suppose its possible the story in Batman happens before RHATO #25 not that I believe that to be the case. That being said I'm not all that surprised over it either. I was actually expecting exactly this to happen because Penguin is still a well-known rogue even if he's no Joker so DC wasn't going to allow him to be on ice for long. I'm also not surprised that other Batman writers are not acknowledging what happened in RHATO since I never ever expect them to anyway. It annoying and disappointing but not entirely unexpected either. All this really does is make Bruce look like even more of an asshat than he already does and IMO he deserves it.

[Aahz]

The penguin is one of Batmans oldest villains, and was during the Golden Age basically the second biggest villain behind the Joker. There was no way that they could kill him of permanently.
Imo they should have taken a smaller villain that they could have let die. And maybe one you really have to kill.

[JasonTodd428]

The penguin is one of Batmans oldest villains, and was during the Golden Age basically the second biggest villain behind the Joker. There was no way that they could kill him of permanently.
Imo they should have taken a smaller villain that they could have let die. And maybe one you really have to kill.

Except a small time villain wouldn't have the cred behind them making this particular story have the necessary weight because of how connected Jason was to Bruce at the time. It almost had to be someone from Bruce's own gallery and it also had to be someone with status within that gallery. I get what you're saying because then at least presumably the death would stick for a bit but at the end of the day neither way is ideal. In both cases it just makes things a bit wonky and fans unhappy with the results. Either they'll complain that DC will "never allow Jason to kill a big name villain" or they'll complain that "DC is letting some writer use a character that should be out of the picture right now". In all honestly they need to start creating a rogues gallery for Jason because of things like this, characters he can actually kill if need be. It might put an end to things like this. He even has a good set up for an ever changing gallery of enemies to fight with his war on crime which is after all never ending.

[Aahz]

I think there are some "medium sized" villains you could kill of a let stay dead, that would have been still big enough (Black Mask, Falcone, Hush, KGBeast, White Shark, Zsasz ...).

[SixSpeedSamurai]

I've determined that Scott Lobdell takes place on a different earth.

Also, I don't think the explicitly stated the Penguin was dead. I thought Batman said he was in the hospital and Jason would have to answer for it if he died?

[JasonTodd428]

I think there are some "medium sized" villains you could kill of a let stay dead, that would have been still big enough (Black Mask, Falcone, Hush, KGBeast, White Shark, Zsasz ...).

Most of them would probably be off-limits for that though and that's what I was getting at. DC isn't going to let Jason permanently kill any of Batman's rogues and that's the end of it.

[JasonTodd428]

I've determined that Scott Lobdell takes place on a different earth.

Also, I don't think the explicitly stated the Penguin was dead. I thought Batman said he was in the hospital and Jason would have to answer for it if he died?

It does seem like RHATO is it's own thing really (at least at times anyway) and I really think it works better with that set up then having it attached at the hip to the rest of the Bat titles. Maybe that's what the new direction is attempting to do and if it is then I'm all for that.

Penguin was in a coma last I checked not dead but he really shouldn't be up and about yet either, which is what the complaint is basically about.

[Armor of God]

The solicits even seem to hint at a possible death for Oswald at the hands of the shadowy operator who is clearly Bane if one just examines the outline. Should that happen then it would be bigger eff you imo.