There were parts of the story where I was bothered that no background was drawn in, just dialogue or action in a white void. This is an odd situation the creative team has created, as Tynion and Johns did have the active King and Queen of Diamonds (Bluff's parents) in the Punchline backups. So there are at least seven other people in Gotham's Royal Flush Gang who could oppose Punchline as leader.
Frankly it felt like the story was all over the place, and that the XO addicts were a last-minute attempt to make the story cohesive. I know I'm being biased and it's hard to see the perspective of the writers, but it's as if DC wanted to shift direction with Punchline and her cast with this new book, and create a stronger story for Catwoman. With the events of the last pages, it certainly feels like the Row siblings (and Harper's investigation into Punchline) is being put on the shelf.
I'm currently reading Batman, Detective Comics, DCeased: Dead Planet, Dark Knights: Death Metal, Daredevil, Thor, Nightwing, The Rise of Ultraman and Red Hood and The Outlaws. I'm also trade-waiting the Hickman-era of X-Men comics.
The series finished off with a good issue. It felt like we finally got a lot of payoff for things that just seemed to be happening for no reason. The story has spent a lot of time on things that do not necessarily contribute to a main plot (which if we take to be get some people hooked on XO is pretty weak) which I would like to see continued on in a book dedicated to Punchline. I am not sure I want to follow it to another book though.
I agree. It felt incomplete as a story to me. I would be more disappointed if I bought this as a graphic novel because there wasn't much of an end to this arc. I don't see why this just couldn't have been in the Catwoman series. I do like the King and Queen of the Royal Flush Gang though and hopefully they'll stick around.
The series certainly could have done with at least one less issue as there didn’t appear to be enough story for the actually run. In fact you could probably lose two issues without impacting the story at all. Overall vaguely disappointing if they were trying to showcase the character of Punchline.