Batman Annual #2 (DC Comics)

Runners Up: Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #33 (DC Comics), New Talent Showcase 2017 (DC Comics)

Though this is a small week for the big publishers, DC truly earned their dominance.

I’ve written quite a bit on how much I appreciate continuity, but sometimes it is appropriate to move it aside to get your point across. This is the case in King, Weeks and Lark’s Batman Annual #2. As we move closer to the wedding of The Bat and The Cat, King takes a moment to further examine their relationship, past and future. The book takes on an old school “imaginary tale” feel at points, but also establishes that after decades of debate, the romance between Wayne and Kyle dominates their shared narrative. Catwoman’s time as a pure thief has shrunk more and more over the years.  King’s pitch perfect characterizations shine in this book, especially where he addresses their early encounters. Clearly influenced not only by comics, King uses notes from Catwoman and Batman’s most popular portrayals in film and television. He really finds a pure interpretation of their bond. This is only bolstered as he moves the story past our current DCU and into a possible future for the pair. I fear this future may not come to pass, but long-time fans will catch a glimpse of someone that has been lost to the multiverse for a long time now.

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps continues to carry the banner of action packed, fun storytelling in the DCU. You won’t find something intensely cerebral in this issue, but Robert Venditti and Jackson Herbert re-introduce another of the great Lantern adversaries. I personally love how much this book reminds me of the pre-Parallax days without negating any of the hardships the Corps has faced.

My final pick is the DC New Talent Showcase 2017, a result of 2016’s Talent Development Workshops. While I wouldn’t say that the Workshops were steeped in controversy, many (myself included) were a bit disappointed by the tough standards a writer had to meet to be considered for them, as it initially seemed that it was to be a broad talent search. Along with their instructor Scott Snyder, each workshop member gets to strut their stuff in a segment of this anthology. Though there is a lot of promise here, I was especially impressed with Al Letson, Siya Oum and Cris Peter’s Nightwing tale What We Talk About When We Talk About Family. Obviously, there are no mind blowing twists or turns, but the crew craft a well paced tale with some great art.