There was a Justice League piss-take team called The Authority at the end of the ‘90s created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. Both The Authority and Ellis have been cancelled, in different meanings of the word, since then (Hitch is still knocking around) and one of the founding members of that team was Jenny Sparks, the Spirit of the 20th Century.
There suddenly exists a distorted mirror version of Gotham called Gotham Below where everything’s a little bit spookier for no reason. Now it’s affecting the rogues in the real Gotham and Batman Below (who has tentacles coming out of his mouth for no reason) has kidnapped some kid to be his Robin for some reason. Batman and a Talon from the Court of Owls have to portal over to save the day. Yay…
Edward Nashton is a brilliant but underachieving and meek accountant who discovers his accountancy firm is laundering money for the mob but feels helpless to do anything. Which is why he becomes so fixated on the new masked vigilante that appears in Gotham: The Batman. He represents justice and positive change to all the wrongs Edward sees in his everyday life. But the obsession soon sours, warping Edward into the Riddler we meet in the 2022 movie.
An alien spacecraft crashes into the ocean and suddenly the race is on to recover it and unearth its secrets - but what awaits inside…?
A young artist paints a man with eyes for teeth in painting after painting - what does it mean? So asks The Corinthian, the nightmare serial killer with eyes for teeth that Morpheus created yonks ago, stepping out of the Dreaming into the real world, for some reason. There’s a chase - a couple of obscure Hellblazer characters, Mr Agony and Mr Ecstasy, are after the artist for some reason - and there’s a billionaire who wants something because whatever. Yeah, I had no idea what was happening in this one.
Danger Street is Tom King’s latest re-something of an obscure DC title which must make money regardless of their esotericism because they just keep a-coming (though any interest generated never seems to last).
If you think you’re being targeted for assassination, call for Christopher Chance, aka the Human Target, to dress up like you and take the hit instead so you can find out who’s really gunning for you. Except Chris’ latest job as stand-in for Lex Luthor sees him accidentally poisoned - by someone from Justice League International! With just 12 issues, sorry “days”, to live, Chris has to interview everyone from the JLI to find out who’s killed him - but will he make it in time?
DC needs to put out another Batman title to make up their quota of 20 Batman books a month and Fables is relaunching because nostalgia-bait, so why not bundle up the two in one crappy crossover - it’s time for Batman vs Bigby! A Wolf in Gotham.
It doesn’t say it on the cover but the Batman/Catwoman Special is essentially a tribute issue to artist John Paul Leon who died of cancer last year. His last work is printed here - the first 13 pages of the extra-long Tom King story - which is finished up by Bernard Chang, Shawn Crystal and Mitch Gerads, using John Paul’s breakdowns (which are also printed in full).
In Peacemaker: Disturbing the Peace, Peacemaker/Christopher Smith undergoes a psych eval (he’s applying for a spot on a “new team”, whatever that is) in a military cemetery where he relates his bloody life story and warped personal philosophy of justice to a psychiatrist. Disturbing indeed…
Someone - or something - is systematically mutilating Gotham’s supervillains. But who - and why?Garth Ennis usually only tangentially writes about superheroes in his comics, and often subversively, like in The Boys, The Punisher, Kev, etc. - they’re never the main feature. And, aside from a short run on Ghost Rider, I don’t think he’s ever written a mainstream superhero comic and has only written Batman as a side-character in books like Hitman and Section Eight.
Christopher Chance is The Human Target. Hired to be you, he takes the hit, dies, then gets up and takes out the killer. Except, after his latest job impersonating Lex Luthor, Chance discovers he’s been fatally poisoned and will die - for good - in 12 days. Can he find out who killed him in that time?
The remnants of humanity have been forced underground while the hybrids rule the surface. But a mad holy man plots to alter the virus that nearly wiped out humanity by placing it in an unsuspecting hybrid and sending them to the surface world. That hybrid is a little boy called Gus…
The Batman is a new vigilante that seems to be cleaning up crime in Gotham City - but at the expense of big business. As the rich elite grumble about lost revenue, footage emerges of Batman seemingly executing prisoners on a rooftop - but is it the real Batman… or an imposter?
Adam Strange is the hero of two worlds: Earth and his adopted homeworld Rann, which he saved from alien invaders, the Pykkts. Following the publication of his memoir, allegations of war crimes surface about Adam’s actions during the Pykkt war and his squeaky-clean hero image is called into question. Adam’s life is strange… but is it fiction?
2020, and President Robert Redford is seeking re-election. But his four-term tenure looks to come to an end as Turley, the Republican nominee, is picking up steam. And then an assassination attempt is made on Turley’s life, almost twarting his campaign. The would-be assassin? An unrecognisable old man in a Rorschach mask with Walter Kovacs’ prints. But Kovacs (the original Rorschach) died nearly 35 years ago - didn’t he…?
John Constantine: Hellblazer, Volume 1: Marks of Woe is another really poor Constantine book without any interesting stories. The opening oversized issue and the second one both repeat themselves: Timothy Hunter (the OG Harry Potter) grows up to be evil for some reason. Ok - but that goes nowhere and seems to hint that we need to read the Books of Magic series to find out why, so… that’s unsatisfying. I mean, why have this much space in a Constantine book for what amounts to a trailer for another series?
Part origin, part prequel-ish tale from before Joker became Batman’s legendary nemesis and Harleen Quinzel became Harley Quinn, maybe even alternate world story, Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity sees Harley on the side of the Gotham City PD as they team up to stop the Joker’s art-influenced serial killings.
A mysterious ring sends The Question on a trippy journey through the past that will make him face the question: who is The Question really?
Members of the wealthy elite are turning up dead in unusual circumstances: nekkid, impaled, and wearing angel wings. Coincidentally the beat for all these deaths is Liverpool, John Constantine’s hometown, and, with the help of a childhood friend we’ve never seen before (and prolly won’t see again) and Lucifer Morningstar, the Hellblazer is on the case to find out wha happen, like.
