Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: The Legion of Bats #1 - More expansion of the Harley Quinn animated series universe is always a win by my standards. The best thing about the tie-in issues to the series DC has done is that the humor, violence, and language of the show is maintained all the way through the comics. This issue does take place immediately after season 3 ends but Harley gives a nice little wrap up so need to worry if you’ve missed it. Harley is joining the Bat-fam, again, after Bruce Wayne was arrested. And Ivy has been given the keys to the Legion of Doom, she’s been tapped to take over and now she can finally create the Edin she’s always wanted. So while Harley’s out fighting baddies Ivy is going to be gathering her own team of villains… nothing can go wrong there right? Those two always seem to be fine so long as they have each other to lean on.

  

GCPD: The Blue Wall #1 - Commissioner Gordon is out, finally being replaced with the new Commissioner Renee Montoya. She’s worked tirelessly for GCPD, put in the long night and moved up the ranks to get to where she is. Only now she feels useless, like she was able to do more for the citizens when she was on the beat instead of now trying desperately to inspire the next generation of Officers to create the “Blue Wall’ necessary to protect Gotham from the destruction that is constantly threatening it. John Ridley is doing a phenomenal job flipping between the perspectives of the newest class of Officers learning on the job and Commissioner Montoya talking about how lost she feels given the state of Gotham. Being a cop is hard, it's even harder when vigilantes are doing your job better than you and with more support than you. The GCPD desperately needs help, in any form, but that doesn’t mean Montoya wants the vigilantes running around with the cops making even more messes. They need their own to step up and do the right thing when the time comes. But even the best officers can have failings in a moment of panic.

  

Eve Children of the Moon #1 - The follow up series to the first volume of the sci-fi post apocalypse series Eve from Boom is finally here! Eve and Wexler have saved the world and brought back a new green era once again, sort of. They’ve managed to get some semblance of society back together, there are small outposts all over the United States with children all working together to get things a little bit closer to how they used to be. Now her sister is setting out with her trusted but deadly teddy bear to save the day once again. It seems no generation of Eve is allowed to rest when there’s humanity to be saved, or re-established. There’s still plenty of question marks left for what Eve’s parents planned for the girls and the world before they died. Just how many outposts are there and do they all know that the Eve’s have made the world safe again? Do they care?

  

Ten Thousand Black Feather #2 - This issue focuses on Trish and Jackie during their high school years, it's a quick flash through time that shows how their friendship developed. We see them bonding over their ‘otherness’ in school and create their own world to escape to where they can be whomever they want and defeat any evils they face (and create). Watching them switch between their fantasy personalities while having normal conversations is a fun way to show what they’re seeing in their own heads as they work on their books that Trish has become so famous for. We see their relationship begin to fracture and the little things that cause Trish to move so far away for so long. But this is a Jeff Lemire horror book and things can never be too happy for too long. After all, at the end of the day Jackie is still dead.

  

Miracleman #1 [LGY #23] - Gaiman and Buckingham are back like they never left! It’s been six years since they abruptly ended the series (see my review of Miracleman #0 for all the hot-goss), but have no fear of being lost because we get a recap in this issue. Young Miracleman has just been woken up, and Miracleman catches us both up on what was missed in the past 40 years. Marvel reprinted volume one of the original series so you can see for yourself, but I’m still trying to get my hands on Alan Moore’s 1985-1993 run. The year is 2003 A.D., but the people of the world refer to it as 19 E.M. (The Era of Miracles). The Miracle Family keep order now with Miracleman leading the pack, but will Young Miracleman be able to handle the truth of his origins? Gaiman knows world-building lore, and Buckingham services up classic, detailed art which he is known to switch up stylisctly. Buckle in for the much anticipated completion of the Miracleman tale.

  

Rogues #4 - Black Label delivers another twisted take on classic DC characters (who cares if we can’t store these jumbo issues)! If you haven’t been keeping up, the trade will be on the shelves November 29th, and this is not a series you want to miss. The Rogues have put the criminal life behind them...or at least that’s what their probation workers think. It’s been 10 years since they pulled a heist together, but Leonard Snart aka Captain Cold has had enough of the blue-collar life. Snart has devised a plan to pull off a score so big he’ll be free of the law for good, but he can’t do it alone. It takes some convincing but in the end he gets a “you son of a bitch, I’m in”. With all the Rogues on board, though a bit older in the teeth, Snart reveals his plan to hit the central bank of Gorilla City. Grodd rules with an ‘iron monkey paw’, but the gold stored in the city is enough for them to never have another worry in the world. As you can imagine, going up against a gorilla army won’t be easy, but the Rogues are in Gorilla City and there is no turning back now. I won’t spoil this final issue, but this neo-noir takes a crazy turn in the end!

  

One Bad Day: Penguin - These One Bad Day one shots have not missed, and having a new creative team on each issue keeps it fresh! This time John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) who brought us the unique series, The Other History of the DC Universe, that delivered a beautiful/sociopolitical view on DC superheroes who come from traditional disenfranchised groups. Now Ridley uses his complex view to deliver a story that makes us, and Batman, see Oswald Cobblepot in a whole new light. We join Penguin at an all time low. His criminal enterprise has been taken over by former associate, Umbrella Man, but he doesn’t plan on taking this lying down. Cobblepot returns to Gotham and reaches out to his old connections, but they don’t remember their relationship as fondly as Cobblepot. Still, a beaten up Oswald reenters Gotham with only $5 and a gun loaded with a single bullet, but you have to see the journey that ends him back on top! (...and his heart grows 3X, too) If you’ve read Flashpoint, you know there is a universe where Cobblepot and ‘Batman’ work together, but it turns out our world’s Batman needs Penguin, too! Three one-shots down (four if you count Killing Joke) and five to go, and I can’t wait to see what Gerry Duggan, Matteo Scalera & Dave Stewart have in store for Mr. Freeze!