Since Zero Month is such a great opportunity to attract new comic book readers, I’m going to review everything this month. And that means I’m going to be very busy this week with the origin of Batwoman, what Jason Todd did after his resurrection, how Dick Grasyson became Nightwing, the first team up of Batgirl and Black Canary, Selina Kyle’s past, AND there will even be a little Batman Beyond action in there for good measure.
Here’s a list of all the Batman comics coming out this week, September 19th, graded on a scale of my own anticipation.
None. – I’ll get to it…eventually – Eh…meh. – Bring it. – TAKE MY MONEY
Scroll to the bottom of the page and post in the comments section what books you’re most looking forward to this week!
September 19th
BATWOMAN #0
Written by J.H. WILLIAMS III and W. HADEN BLACKMAN
Art and cover by J.H. WILLIAMS III
1:25 B&W Variant cover by J.H. WILLIAMS III
32 pg
$2.99
Anticipation Level: Bring it.
Batwoman already had a zero issue just a little over a year ago and that was a damn fine comic book. It’ll be interesting to see how this creative team approaches yet another #0. And with J.H. Williams III (who recently won Harvey awards for Best Artist AND Best Cover Artist) back at the pencil, it’s sure to be gorgeous.
NIGHTWING #0
Written by KYLE HIGGINS
Art by EDDY BARROWS, RUY JOSE and EBER FERREIRA
Cover by EDDY BARROWS
32 pg
$2.99
Anticipation Level: TAKE MY MONEY
This is the origin of Dick Grayson in the New 52 and it promises to cover both his becoming Robin and the transition to Nightwing. How much will be changed from the origin we know? Without Dick ever being a part of the Teen Titans in this new continuity, how different will his Nightwing origin be? How much will the Court of Owls be referenced in the Haley’s Circus bits? Not much I hope. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m fine with forgetting about that and just going back to believing it was a regular circus. Anyway, I’m looking forward to this. Eddy Barrows is back on art and Higgins has been writing one good issue after another.
BIRDS OF PREY #0
Written by DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI
Art by ROMANO MOLENAAR
Cover by STANLEY “ARTGERM” LAU
32 pg
$2.99
Anticipation Level: Eh…meh.
“After Team 7, how did the Birds of Prey come to be?”, “The first meeting of Black Canary and Batgirl…is not at all what you expect!”– I don’t know what Team 7 is. I haven’t read that comic yet so I don’t know whether to be excited about its connection to the BoP or not. And as for Black Canary and Batgirl’s meeting not being what I’d expect…I really don’t have any expectations for that. I guess I would figure it’s the typical “both heroes who are chasing down the same bad guy run into each other and fight because they think that the other is working with the bad guy but they sort out the misunderstanding and work together” thing. If it’s not THAT then yes, it will not be what I expect.
CATWOMAN #0
Written by Ann Nocenti
Art by RAFA SANDOVAL
Cover by ADRIANA MELO
32 pg
$2.99
Anticipation Level: Bring it.
Thankfully fans caused enough of an uproar over the original, awful cover for this comic that Guillem March Adriana Melo redid it. The new cover is an improvement. She’s human in her proportions and she even zipped up. I wish that the pose itself had been changed, but oh well. Moving on. This book is the first issue by new writer Ann Nocenti so that’s a good reason to get excited because we can compare her brand of Catwoman to what we’ve been seeing for the past year from Winick. And we also get the story of how Catwoman came to be which I’m excited about. Heck, we didn’t even get to see that in The Dark Knight Rises.or even the Animated Series now that I think about it. Am I wrong here? Didn’t she just show up as Catwoman in that as well? Hmmmm *stares at DVD boxed set*.
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #0
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art by DWAYNE TURNER
Cover by KENNETH ROCAFORT
32 pg
$2.99
Anticipation Level: Bring it.
Would you like to see how Jason Todd came back to life after being murdered by the Joker? I would. I think if Lobdell handles it somewhat close to the DVD Under the Red Hood then fans will be happy. I still hate that Jason Todd was ever revived but I’m interested to see how they explain his resurrection this time around.
BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #8
Written by ADAM BEECHEN, J.T. KRUL, DUSTIN NGUYEN and DEREK FRIDOLFS
Art by DUSTIN NGUYEN, DEREK FRIDOLFS, HOWARD PORTER and NORM BREYFOGLE
Cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN
48 pg
$3.99
Anticipation Level: Bring it.
Bruce Wayne is in the hospital, the Jokerz army is on the rise, the Justice League is taking the fight to Kobra, and who knows what else will happen in this comic. The thing is huge and there are always like 3-5 stories squeezed in. You want bang for your buck? You check out Batman Beyond Unlimited. Last month’s issue was the best one yet.
Graphic Novel Watch
The TPB of Penguin: Pain & Prejudice comes out and it includes Joker’s Asylum: Penguin #1 as well. I’ll try and get a review of Knightfall Vol. 3 Knightsend up for you guys too.
UPDATE: I overlooked that Justice League #0 is coming out this week as well (I’ll be exhausted when this week is over). This issue is going to focus entirely on Shazaam’s origin and it’ll offer up a prelude to the upcoming DC event “The Trinity War” which Batman will play some sort of role in. Since the Shazaam backups have been amazing in the Justice League series so far, my anticipation level for this book is at a TAKE MY MONEY. Thanks to @natemayes on Twitter for pointing out what I forgot.
