Welcome to a couple of comic book reviews! It’s been a very busy week at work for me, so I wasn’t able to review everything I might have wanted. And actually, it’s a Scott Snyder heavy week, what with DC K.O. Oh, also, New York Comic-Con is this weekend. I’ve been to that in the distant past! Huzzah!

Comic Book of the Week goes to Absolute Batman #13 for the excellent setting up of some hopefully exciting comic bookery.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a 3-day weekend for the holiday so I will finally be cracking into Ghost of Yokei! Can’t wait! Though I’ve also barely scratched the surface of Silksong…perhaps I’ll juggle both. I mostly liked the Peacemaker season 2 finale, but I did not like how it ends on nothing but set-ups and cliffhangers that will probably never get answered for who knows how long. What a weird choice.

Also, this week I’m finally introducing Short Reviews! I read the first issue of Robert Kirkman’s takeover of Transformers and I didn’t care enough to give it a full review. So check out my short review at the bottom of this article!

Comic Reviews: Absolute Batman #13, DC K.O. #1 and Transformers #25.

Absolute Batman #13
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Nick Dragotta
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

We finally meet Absolute Catwoman! Feels like she’s been teased forever.

Selina Kyle has returned to help and she and Bruce waste no time in refamiliarizing themselves with one another. Wink wink, nudge nudge. But Bruce ultimately doesn’t want her help because he wants to take Bane head-on, and takes over the airwaves to challenge Bane to a duel! Also, we meet Absolute Harley Quinn! Batman is working on something that’s probably gonna be pretty big.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

Excellent issue with a lot of moving parts that all hint towards Batman pulling off something big and awesome in his battle with Bane. The villain has been sufficiently set up as nigh unstoppable, and the world around Batman has been sufficiently fleshed out to promise something good, and now it’s time to bring it all together in epic comic book fashion. I’m ready. My mind and body are ready. This is a powder keg of a comic and it’s ready to go off! I like seeing all of the little pieces fall into place. Will Catwoman be one of those pieces? Were all their butting heads scenes in this issue a double bluff?! We’ll see!

If I have any nitpicks, it’s that Absolute Catwoman wasn’t really anything special, at least not yet. She seems pretty much like regular Catwoman. And, ultimately, I don’t think she added anything in particular to this issue, unless we will indeed get some kind of double bluff reveal next issue. She just seems like a highly skilled thief who hooks up with Batman, which is regular Catwoman. But her design is great, her voice is great, and I’m ready and willing to see what becomes of her going forward.

Unfortunately, I had the Absolute Harley Quinn reveal spoiled for me online, so that was a bummer. Snyder has picked a good spot for her and I look forward to seeing her develop. I don’t remember if we got any real use out of the Red Hood Gang earlier in the comic or not…

Also, it was hinted at in a post or a comment or something that Absolute Robin(s) might work for the Joker or be bad guys, and while I fully support that as a solid Absolute twist…I’m also slightly bummed that we might not get Robin as a sidekick to Absolute Batman. Seeing him work but also butt heads with Catwoman in this issue really makes me want Absolute Bats to have a real pal.

TL;DR: This issue does an excellent job of setting up the tension an the potential exciting for the next big issue.

DC K.O. #1
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artists: Javi Fernandez and Xermanico
Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

The next Big Event is here and it’s a tournament! Those are always fun.

Building upon DC All-In and the Absolute Comics, the next chapter is K.O., where Darkseid arrives on Earth and completely absorbs all existence into his being in seven days. I haven’t been reading all of the lead-up comics, but the Quantum Quorum is a group of time travelers who have come back to warn the Justice League. They all put their heads together and spitball that they can use the Heart of Apokolips that Darkseid put at the center of the Earth to transform one of them into a King Omega to rival Darkseid. And for some reason, the Heart itself is going to going to choose the King by pitting everybody who shows up against each other in a fighting tournament. It’s their only and best idea, so they run with it.

The event is so big this involves a montage of alerting world leaders and building arks for humanity to survive. Then they all bum-rush the center of the Earth, some shenanigans ensue, not everybody makes it and the tournament is a go!

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

DC K.O. strikes an interesting balance in that it seems both pretty cool and pretty silly at the same time. Fortunately, I like silly, even if this can be really silly. So let’s get that silly part out of the way. In what is a very, very weird exposition scene, the heroes just sort of stand around and just kind of explain to one another that it’s a totally reasonable idea that their plan to take on the Heart of Apokolips will lead to a fighting tournament. Obviously the idea for the fighting tournament came first and this just felt like a very, very ham-fisted way to make the heroes OK with it. Pun intended. And then the issue speeds through some rather major events, like having the entire world’s population just up and move into giant arks. And then the meat of the issue plays fast and loose with character deaths, giving the whole thing a very slapdash feel. Like we’re just speeding through nonsense because, ultimately, none of this will matter? I dunno.

And on the other hand, who am I to care about being serious? If you want to have a big hero vs. villain vs. comic book guest stars from other universes fighting tournament, then just do it, baby! Spackle on some exposition and lets get down to the action, Jackson! We get some great action scenes with excellent artwork. And again, all the exposition is out of the way, so we can just get to the hopefully awesome stuff. I wasn’t a big fan of the narration and the sometimes awkward lettering, but the character writing is solid and gets us through all the set-up with panache. There’s definitely a lot of energy and style at work here. And that can always lead to something good.

Though I was also hoping for some bigger reveals toward the end. Like something truly shocking. And honestly, the reveal at Comic-Con that all these other guest stars — Sub-Zero, Vampirella and even that bear from Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees — would be in DC K.O., that is exactly the sort of big, shocking reveal I wanted from the final pages of this issue. But. I guess you gotta save your best material for Comic-Con.

Also, what was with this panel?

The writing said that Mr. Terrific and the Titans would be staying behind, and we had one panel of the Titans. But now Mr. Terrific is staying behind with Batman Beyond, Electric Superman, 90s Aquaman and what looks to be a female Nite Owl from Watchmen? Just weird is all.

TL;DR: The cool factor struggles to overcome the silly, somewhat rushed nature of the set-up; but hopefully the resulting coolness makes up for it.

Shorter Reviews:

Transformers #25 by Robert Kirkman, Dan mora, Jorge Corona, Mike Spicer and Rus Wooton.

I dropped off the new Transformers comic ages ago because it got too messy. It stated out with a straightforward narrative, but then just went off the rails with so many different robots and a chaotic plot and a lopsided battle of good vs. evil. Maybe longtime Transformers fans are used to this robot chaos, but I was hoping for something new building from the ground up. Anyway, I caught back up with Daniel Warren Johnson’s final issue, and it was fine. Solved none of my concerns. And then I read this new issue, with Kirkman taking over (loving Void Rivals).

And the new issue still does nothing for me. Kirkman picks up right where Johnson left off, which is understandable, given the Energon Universe nature of things. But the story is still rather chaotic and swarming with magic robots! I liked the government guy working with Optimus Prime, but it also felt duplicitous, which would betray my liking it. But again, ultimately, it’s just a mess of plotlines and random robots.

The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

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