Can you believe another week of comics has come and gone? I missed last week because I was away for the holiday. And I’m back this week with the likes of Absolute Batman and Fury of Firestorm.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Daredevil #4 for the most exciting shock ending.

Meanwhile, did I mention that I watched and very much enjoyed Widow’s Bay? Great show! Lives up to all the hype and word of mouth it’s getting. I’m currently working my way through Maniac, a Netflix show from a few years ago. Not great, but alright. And I recently finished reading all Dunk and Egg novellas from the Game of Thrones universe. Those were fun. Should make for some entertaining future seasons of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

Comic Reviews: Absolute Batman #22, Absolute Catwoman #2, Daredevil #4 and Fury of the Firestorm #4.

Absolute Batman #22
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Werther Dell’Edera
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Tom Napolitano

I thought this storyline would be a bit more contained than it is, but I suppose I don’t mind jumping all over the place.

Batman is on a mission, and Harley does her best to either stop him or talk him out of it, but he’s having none of her sass. Harley gets fed up and breaks ties with Batman. While the Scarecrow continues to twist the knife in terms of trying to convince Bruce that his whole life is a lie.

The real bulk of the story is Harley Quinn’s origin, from a scared young girl living with her mom and discovering her terrifying connections to both Ark M and Jack Grimm! She’s trying to tell this story to Batman as a warning, but he’s not listening and doesn’t hear the ending.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I think this is a solid, entertaining origin for Absolute Harley Quinn. We already knew she wasn’t going to be like her mainline counterpart, and this version absolutely works for the character we’ve met so far. I don’t want to give away the big twists at the moment, but suffice to say they are cool and well done. They definitely add to the character and to the overarching narrative. And having Harley try to tell this story to an obstinate Bruce works well too. The man is being driven crazy by his enemies, and Harley just can’t get through to him no matter what she tries in this issue. Scarecrow’s latest twist of the knife is also really fun. I’m definitely leaning toward none of this being real — but it still might be! That’s the fun of the story.

The only real let down this issue was the artwork.

The artwork is good in some places — such as Harley’s origin section — but it definitely didn’t work for me for the Batman sections. A lot of it just looks like what I posted, all mishmash and ill-defined lines and colors. And it just took me out the issue, for the most part. It definitely works as stylized art for Harley’s origin, but the Batman sections look really rough. Great artwork has been a pride of the Absolute line, and they whiffed it just a bit with this issue. But that doesn’t fully detract for the excellent storytelling, of which I remain a big fan.

I also loved some more classic villain horror cameos in Ark M!

TL;DR: Some less than stellar artwork doesn’t detract too much from an otherwise great origin for Absolute Harley Quinn.

Absolute Catwoman #2
Writers: Scott Snyder and Che Grayson
Artist: Bengal
Colorist: Giovanna Niro
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni

I’m enjoying Absolute Catwoman so far. Good stuff all around, I’d say.

Holly tried to steal some weird orb thingie, which Selina now has possession of. She puts it up for auction on an illegal, black market auction site in order to figure out who wants it, then she heads to the physical location for the auction. The buyer is Victoria Sage, and her bodyguard is Helena Bertinelli. We see through flashback that Victoria and Helena rounded out the Calicos when Selina and Holly and them were teenage cat burglars in Gotham City. Cassandra Cain then shows up to attack and steal the orb, while Selina grabs Victoria and Helena to make their getaway.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

So Absolute Catwoman seems to be a spy adventure, and I’m cool with that. It definitely works for the character we met in Absolute Batoman, and it works to separate itself in the Absolute line. It pushes mainline Catwoman to the height of her thievery/international woman of mystery thing. And it’s being written well. We’ve got tech, we’ve got intrigue, we’ve got high society chicanery; all tied together with a likable main character and a growing cast of classic characters — though I had to do a Google search for Victoria Sage, who turns out to be a gender bent Vic Sage. That’s fine. I hope they prove to be good supporting characters. It’ll be nice for Selina to have people to bounce off and interact with.

TL;DR: Second issue keeps things moving along nicely, with some quality guest characters added to the mix.

Daredevil #4
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Lee Garbett
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: VC’s Ariana Maher

More Daredevil? Sure! I’ll gladly keep reading.

Daredevil begins to lose the fight with Omen and is rescued by the Owl, who manages to shoot Omen several times. Owl takes Daredevil prisoner, but Daredevil easily breaks out and takes off, convinced that he can’t take on Omen as he is. Meanwhile, the two police officers continue their investigation and run afoul of Omen. It does not go well.

Comic Rating: 9/10 Great.

I’ve been enjoying this Daredevil series so far, and then the final page surprise in this issue really kicked everything up a notch! I applaud Phillips and the creative team for going where it did, especially with the little bit of foreshadowing we got earlier in the issue. That big move kicked this rating up a notch for this reader. The issue it just as strong as previous issues have been, but that ending is a damn good shocker. No spoilers though.

Honestly, I’m still not digging Omen. He’s weird and just a bit too…I dunno…created? Is that a complaint to make? Obviously he’s created, but he seems overly created so far. I love Owl poking fun at the idea of Daredevil giving Omen his name. So it’s lampshaded a bit, at least. I dunno. He doesn’t seem so scary or badass as to warrant putting Daredevil off his game to this degree. But at least it’s giving us some good Daredevil content. I enjoyed Owl saving him and then tying him up, and Daredevil easily dealing with that. Owl has been a fun supporting character so far. But Daredevil remains the star, and a strong one at that.

TL;DR: A big ending makes for a strong issue, and all the stuff leading up that ending is good too.

Fury of Firestorm #4
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Rafael De Latorre
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni

Is Fury of Firestorm my favorite comic of the year? So far for sure!

Firehawk interrogates Martin Stein about Project: Firestorm and she just keeps getting angrier, especially when she finds out that Project: Firehawk was also manufactured, and she was given her powers as a way to keep Ronnie Raymond under control. I think a lot of this origin was something retconned recently, but I don’t know and I don’t particularly care.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This is the issue where we start delving into the retconned origin for Firestorm and really dig into the new status quo for Martin Stein, and it works very well. He’s presented as quite the little monster in this one. Firehawk has been an excellent main character for the series so far, and she does a great job of interrogating Stein to get all the answers we want and need. I’ve liked Firehawk ever since I was introduced to her in Identity Crisis of all places. She’s got such a cool design. And it’s fun to watch her command a series like this one. She and Stein make for an excellent duo for storytelling.

We don’t get much from Firestorm directly this issue, and that’s fine. He’s a danger building in the background, and that is also working splendidly. I have to wonder if Firestorm fans are considering this character assassination. I don’t know and I don’t care. This has been a great character revival! The artwork has been fantastic. I especially enjoyed one creative page where Latorre and Maiolo used old-school comic book artwork and coloring to emphasize the artificiality of Firehawk’s relationship with Firestorm. That was a blast!

TL;DR: This fourth issue starts getting into the nitty of gritty of what’s been doing on with Firestorm and it provides some nice backstory, along with strong character work.

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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