Hey everybody, you may have noticed a longer-than-normal absence of content. I just had a bunch of different obligations a few weeks in a row, but now I’m back! And I have a fucking obnoxiously large stack of comics to get through! There are a ton of new releases pretty much across the board, with a few new series popping up now. I also have a few different things for after-credits to get through soon. For now though, let’s jump into all the books!
Detective Comics #991
This one definitely gets closer to the Detective Comics format I love. I want mystery, detective work, opportunities for me to try and figure out what’s going on. I wouldn’t mind a bit of noir edge to it as well.
The entire comic is Batman, Two-Face, and Jim Gordon talking. We get to see where Batman’s detective work led him, what Two-Face has been doing, how all of this got started – we even get to see a bit more of Two-Face’s ideology. While Detective Comics is at its best when it’s a team book, this is very much a story about Batman the Detective and not Batman the Superhero. That distinction grounds the book and especially this issue. Two-Face is also an interesting “villain” to use due to Harvey Dent being an intrinsic part of him. The arc seems to be gearing up for big action paying off on this slower issue, so jump down a line to see what’s next!
DC’s “Black Label” series started this week with the first issue of 
Remember when I said I wanted limited mention of the Bat/Cat breakup in 
The finale to the “On the Outside” arc delivers both in terms of plot and themes. Last issue, Karma attempted to kidnap a school bus and make Batman choose between them and his family. Thanks to Black Lightning’s help that didn’t work out. So this time, Karma takes over the Wayne Enterprises building for his endgame, and takes a hostage to force Batman to act. Batman recognizes his guilt in the situation and resolves it to be “what they both deserve.” It’s a pretty satisfying moment. A lot of the issue gets spent on setting up a new book, 
The series wraps up in appropriately spectacular fashion with the conflict between Elatha and his brother Balor reaching its peak. Wonder Woman intervenes directly in the conflict, while Batman returns to Gotham to deal with the faery folk who have crossed over through the newly opened pathways. A bit surprisingly, a lot of this issue actually focused on Elatha and not as much on the actual DC characters. I really really enjoyed this story, and the last page ends with a cliffhanger and the words “End of Book One” so there’s hope for me getting more. 
The line of cool introspective comics continues as Karma pushes the BatFam apart by targeting all of them separately. He has the power to read minds and uses it to great advantage, both determining Bruce’s identity and easily countering his surprise and strategy based fighting style. He appears to have some other tricks hidden in his magic or whatever helmet as well. It seems unfair to be putting Bruce through this much bullshit given what happened in his main book, but I’m curious to see how it plays out. Putting another rift in the family feels a bit like piling on. It’s also unclear how much this lines up with the main book, I have no fucking idea how that works. Regardless, Karma seems like a pretty rad villain and I want to see his motivations and see more about who he is and where the powerful helmet came from. There’s some dialogue from Bruce I really like toward the end, and I really like Black Lightning’s role in the story. 
After the brief one-shot last time, we’re back launching into a full arc. Some villain calling himself Batman’s Karma is targeting the members of the Bat-Family, claiming they weaken Batman and that he has become a brand more than a symbol. I’m really liking the stuff this creative team is tackling honestly. Batman’s usual fights with villains are pretty well contained in the main 
The penultimate issue of the 
Dang what the fuck? The story arc is over for like 5 seconds and they throw in a weird one. The issue seems to be a one-shot dealing with a villain called Blackfire. Batman remarks that he’s never been sure if Blackfire is an actual ghost or a metahuman who believes himself to be one. He gains power from people believing in him, and he’s used the city’s homeless population to capture a child for an evil plot. Batman has to track down the kid, fighting through possessed homeless people and Blackfire’s evil influence on his own mind. It’s a super weird issue that has an almost 
The “Batmen Eternal” storyline actually ended up having a really excellent final issue! The threat of Brother Eye and brainwashed Tim is resolved fairly quickly, if in a slightly anticlimactic way. However, that left a lot of room for resolving the moral and ethical problems facing the many Bat-family members. This was a really strong follow up to the way some of the moralizing was posed earlier in the story. It’s not quite a magical happily ever after, but everyone sort of talks out their issues and at least manages to get to a point where they know they can count each other even if they aren’t always close. I’m curious which members of the family the story will follow going forward. Tim and Steph are following one path, Batwoman is off on her own (and has a solo book), Batwing is taking a break, Azazel has a role in one of the new