By Cat Wyatt

In Batgirl #19 we last saw Burnside suffering from a sudden and unexpected snow storm (courtesy of a hacked weather app). If that wasn’t odd enough, that fact combined with Penguin being…kind and helpful was certainly enough to get Batgirl’s attention. Issue #20 concludes the story that’s already begun.

By Cat Wyatt

Issue #8 of the Rat Queens doesn’t waste any time, throwing us right into the thick of things. The opening scene is that of Hannah and Sawyer Silver on a ship facing towards what has to be the gloomiest island I’ve ever seen. That combined with Sawyer’s statement of ‘this is the end,’ and I’m more than a little concerned about what is happening to Hannah, and worried about where the rest of the Queens are.

By Kelly Gaines

*Obligatory spoiler warning, which I apologize for not including more often*

Raven: Daughter of Darkness #2 is an in-depth look at a half demon’s crash course in empathy. Raven, current alias Rachel, is splitting her time between typical high school and telepathic superhero business. We left off with Raven coming face to face with a superhuman creature. The girl, who Raven calls Azure, is able to conjure horrifying illusions straight out of her enemy's nightmares; a power that currently leaves Raven in a tight spot. Raven is unable to tell if she’s the hunter or hunted but remains as determined as ever to help Azure- if helping her is possible at all.

By Cat Wyatt

Do you think the Lumberjanes will ever get tired of their explorations and adventures? We saw in the last issue that they’re capable of getting scared (not that I blame them, ’The Voice’ is super creepy). Beyond that, I’m not sure these girls are capable of slowing down. When we last saw our campers back in issue #46, they were back in their cabins, but there’s a hitch (isn’t there always for this group?); while they had given up on their quest, their newly acquired friend did not.

By Cat Wyatt

To recap, the Silencer is a new DC series about a woman named Honor (ironic, I know) who is a retired assassin. In the last issue, we were introduced to her quiet home life, which was then rudely interrupted when her ex-organization’s enemy decided to try and go after her again. The second issue continues showing us the fallout from those actions and events.

By Ben Snyder

Days of Hate #2 picks up with Amanda Parker and her partner on the run and Parker’s ex-lover Huan Xing picking up the case on their heels. While this issue doesn’t necessarily advance the plot further, it does provide the quiet character moments that were lacking from the first issue. So far writer Aleš Kot and artist Danijel Žeželj adhere to a traditionally successful formula. Days of Hate #1 makes us care about the world and Days of Hate #2 makes us care about the characters involved.

By Cat Wyatt

In Wonder Woman #40 we saw a lot of events occur, along with the defeat of Silver Swan, we saw something happen to Jason, Darkseid making a move, and Steve unintentionally getting in the way of said move. Issue #41 picks up all those loose threads and continues to weave them together.

In the last issue, we saw Darkseid’s Female Furies (love the alliteration there) take on Steve and his crew in an attempt to gain access to the relic inside the Topkapi Palace. His team won (go Steve!), and they even managed to capture two of the furies while they were at it. Darkseid is very displeased with their failure, a fact he’s currently making clear.

By Ben Snyder

Abbott #2 does enough to meet the lofty expectations set by its introductory issue by introducing a wide variety of interesting characters and leaning more into the supernatural elements of the story and still maintaining it’s detective story roots. Writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Sami Kivelä experiment enough in this issue to stretch out their roots and reach for the even higher heights in future issues. However, I do have some hesitations that the story may go down the traditional “Chosen One” story path that we have seen time and time again.

By Cat Wyatt

You’ll probably remember that in issue #35 of Suicide Squad it was revealed that Hack was back (I didn’t mean to rhyme there, I swear), but not quite in the flesh. She remembers that she was murdered, but not knowing who did it she’s decided to take out her anger and frustration on all of Belle Reve, Waller, and the Task Force X; which leads us to issue #36, which picks up her witch hunt where it left off.

By Jonathan Edwards

With a title like The Beef and a cover featuring the subtitles “tainted love” and “a biochemical romance,” I went into this first issue expecting a story along the lines of Image’s Plastic from last year. And, since Plastic was the best thing I read from Image last year, I was pretty stoked at the idea of a similarly nontraditional love story, this time utilizing an inverse metaphor and theme (that is to say, about meat rather than, well, plastic). Of course, that was a pretty big conclusion to jump to, so it’s not all that surprising that it turned out to be an inaccurate one as well. Yet, that by itself isn’t the most disappointing thing about The Beef #1. Instead, it’s the story’s utterly familiar setup and stark lack of any meaningful variation that turns this issue into one big missed opportunity.