Happy American Thanksgiving! The big day was two days ago and I had a really nice meal with family, and that’s why I didn’t read and review many comics this week. Mostly just indulged in my love of the Absolute Comics.

Comic Book of the Week is Absolute Batman #14, which is pretty much the pinnacle of what modern comics should and could be.

Meanwhile, I finished all five seasons of You’re the Worst and had a great time! Very enjoyable show. And I splurged on the Black Friday sale for Astrobot on the Playstation 5. Fun platformer so far. Lots of neat Easter Eggs that I mostly understand, because I’ve always been a Playstation man (only missed the PS3). Next up, I’ll be watching the Stranger Things episodes, get into the second season of Hazbin Hotel and will go see Wake Up Dead Man this weekend!

There’s also still time to order your copy of LobStar #1! The Kickstarter will end in the week ahead, and my peeps are looking to raise as much money as they can to make more comics!

Comic Reviews: Absolute Batman #14, Absolute Wonder Woman #14 and Infernal Hulk #1.

Absolute Batman #14
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Nick Dragotta
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

Here we go! Batman vs. Bane! The Absolute Universe delivering everything it has ever promised in a single issue! And just in time for the holidays!

I’m not going to give away anything that happens in this issue. Just know that it’s Batman vs. Bane in the most ultimate, badass, unpredictable battle you could imagine for these two characters. This is Batman comics at their finest.

Comic Rating: 10/10 – Fantastic.

Pedal to the metal, baby! Balls to the wall! You want to understand comics? Read Absolute Batman #14. This issue is an encapsulation of everything we love about modern comics. It’s amazing in its own right — with writing, artwork and storytelling at the absolute peak — but it’s also the climax to an expertly crafted story arc. Snyder and Dragotta have been building up this confrontation for a long time now, and the payoff is absolutely perfect. Every moment is huge. Every page turn is a new surprise. And at the heart of it is Batman, being Batman, doing Batman things; this is why we love the character. This is why we love comics.

If we dig into the issue itself, it’s just plain awesome. It’s one extended fight between Batman and Bane, two characters who have definitely been given proper set-up and exploration so far. We know our combatants, we know the stakes for each of them, and we know the various players in the game. Snyder doesn’t bring in any outside force to disrupt things or surprise the reader. He does all of that with known elements that have also been properly set up. He creates expectations for the reader and the characters, and then zags when we expect him to zig, and that just further reinforces Batman at his core. And makes for a more exciting issue, where anything could happen and usually does.

TL;DR: Everyone one could possibly love about comics — writing, artwork, storytelling, characters — is at an absolute peak in this climactic and hugely entertaining issue.

Absolute Wonder Woman #14
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Matias Bergara
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Becca Carey

Absolute Batman defines the Absolute Universe. Absolute Wonder Woman just has a nice, powerful issue.

Wonder Woman has realized that she is fighting some chaos spirit created by the universe to be her equal, opposite reaction, so that there is balance of good and evil in the world. And the only way to defeat it is for Wonder Woman herself to be dead. But her friends remind her that the world is way out of balance with all the evil. So Wonder Woman goes to great lengths to commune with Mother Gaia herself to point out this imbalance, and how Wonder Woman doesn’t need some direct agent against her. Gaia agrees and takes care of the chaos spirit.

Meanwhile, Zatanna makes her first move against Wonder Woman.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

So the whole chaos magic spirit as a villain didn’t quite come together for me. I wasn’t entirely sure exactly what we were dealing with. But I very much enjoyed Wonder Woman communing with Mother Gaia and then Gaia just trashing the creature. Wonder Woman’s connection with the Gods/Goddesses and whatnot is a very enjoyable part of this series as a whole. I really enjoyed the whole process Diana must go through to summon an audience with Gaia, and how it’s part of her firmly established bag of tricks in this series, to commune with the various deities and spirits. That takes up the bulk of the issue and works very well to flesh out Wonder Woman’s power. Even if it’s done so against a mostly faceless, meaningless foe.

The real highlight of the issue is the arrival of Zatanna.

It’s just a brief scene, but it’s gorgeous! Zatanna appears in that ethereal form and always talks in backwards language all the time. It was slightly difficult to read, but that was hardly a problem. The moment is just wonderful, connecting these two characters for what will no doubt be an exciting confrontation later on. Considering how steeped Absolute Wonder Woman has been in magic and witchiness, it makes perfect and total sense to bring in Zatanna as an antagonist and definitely builds the hype for future stories. Absolute Batman had the Joker hanging over its head since the beginning, but Wonder Woman doesn’t have a villain like that (even though I’m also looking forward to Absolute Cheetah). Zatanna is a perfect choice for an impending future foe, and her introductory scene in this issue is everything one could hope it would be.

TL;DR: This quick little two-parter comes to a solid ending, where the real pleasure is in the side elements instead of the superhero fight itself.

Shorter Reviews:

Infernal Hulk #1 by Philip Kennedy Johnson, Nick Klein, Matthew Wilson and VC’s Cory Petit

I haven’t been reading any of the Hulk stuff recently (though Immortal Hulk omnibus is on my Christmas List!), so Infernal Hulk wasn’t on my radar. But I saw somebody give it high praise on Reddit and decided to check it out, since I’m always willing to check out a new #1 issue to see if it hooks me. This one didn’t hook me, but it’s still a solid first issue. The real strength is in the artwork, with a lot of really crazy body horror stuff going on. And the Infernal Hulk has a great design. We don’t really get a lot of understanding of what he’s all about or what’s been going on or where all of this is going, but we do get a very crazy, very horrific, very stark look at this new Age of Monsters. I’m sure that will be right up some people’s alleys, just probably not mine.

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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