Batman: Cover to Cover

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The Flash #53 (1991), in which villain-turned-hero Pied Piper comes out to his friend the Flash and helps thwart a dastardly villain Apes alive! When Solovar, leader of Gorilla City, is apparently assassinated by pro-human extremists, Gorilla City’s new government declares war on humanity. Part of their plot involves turning the JLA into human-hating gorillas to help carry out their bidding. The story of the deaths of Martha and Thomas Wayne has been told so often that even casual Batman fans have probably begun to roll their eyes whenever it starts to play out again in front of them. Although Batman 404 (the beginning of the Year One arc) wasn’t the first time that their deaths had been recounted, its particular version of those events has become, like so many other things in Year One, the definitive take on this seminal moment in the life of Bruce Wayne. You’ve seen the Gotham of the past and present as it is ravaged by the Golden Iris Virus, menaced by villains across time, and protected by its respective heroes. Now, in this final pulse-pounding issue, see this story that has spanned centuries come to a close, and bear witness to the events that lead to the hit game! Each issue will also offer a code for readers to redeem in the Gotham Knights game for an exclusive item. For issue #6, readers will receive a code for an exclusive Signal Colorway! (Red Hood Signal Colorway shown, also available for Batgirl, Nightwing, and Robin). Readers who redeem the codes for all six issues will receive a special seventh item! *Terms apply. See the FAQs on dc.com for details. This cover by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Alex Sinclair, however, is the perfect image of Batman. There’s nothing necessarily complicated about this cover. In fact, you’ve probably seen a million variants of it in other Batman comics and movies. That’s kind of the point, though.

At the moment Punchline needed him the least, The Joker has returned to interfere with her war to take over as Gotham City’s queen of crime. In The Joker’s damaged and defeated state, will he help his former partner, or will he burn her the way he’s burned everyone else? The epic conclusion to the bestselling Punchline miniseries is here, and it will change the shape of Gotham’s villain world forever! Nightwing is a great leader, not just because Batman trained him, or because of how Alfred raised him, or even because he has a heart of gold—it’s because of his friends, and now that the Titans are in Blüdhaven with him, they can leap into the light together…which is perfect timing for the demon of darkness Neron to do something about it. Meet a new Korean hero named…City Boy! Or at least, that’s the best translation of what the cities call him. City Boy, a.k.a. Cameron Kim, is just getting by, using the powers the cities have offered him to find the lost, the missing, the valuable. But when the cities speak, it can be overwhelming. Especially when powerful human forces aligned with one of the DC Universe’s greatest threats try to take control! UNCOVER THE DCU’S GREATEST CONSPIRACY! Who are the Vigil? Meet a mysterious new South Asian superteam operating in the shadows. Given powers they didn’t want, Arclight, Saya, Dodge, and Castle are determined to shut down metahuman research and weaponized illegal technology created for military applications at any cost. Along the way they’ll encounter strange individuals that could be allies or enemies—not a surprise for a group that exists to shut down state-sponsored superhumans—and clean up the mess before any hero or villain arrives, as if both the crime and the Vigil were never there.The Lazarus volcano has erupted, releasing clouds of its unique lava into the atmosphere and causing bizarre and dangerous rainstorms all over the world. Those who survive exposure to the storms are transformed: those without superpowers gain powers, and those who had powers before—including some of the DC Universe’s heaviest hitters—find their abilities amplified or changed in unexpected ways…or both! With Batman out of commission, it’s up to Robin to assemble the world’s greatest heroes to stop the storm and defeat the deadly villains who caused it.

Batman 251’s story is about what you’d expect a Batman comic from the ‘70s to be about. In it, The Joker has escaped yet again and has devised an elaborate plan to capture and kill Batman as well as some former gang members that he believes have betrayed him. It does include a surprisingly poignant moment where the Joker refuses to kill Batman because he ultimately captured him by chance, not because of the brilliance of his elaborate scheme, but for the most part, this is your standard Batman vs. Joker fare. Before the Suicide Squad sets their sights on the corrupted Justice League in the upcoming videogame Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, join us for this thrilling prequel and witness them kill Arkham Asylum! Amanda Waller has taken control of the recently rebuilt Arkham, and her brutal tactics and merciless methods have led to the most secure asylum Gotham has ever known. But when the cell doors open, and the inmates are left in a freefor-all deathmatch, Waller’s true intentions reveal themselves: identify the strongest, smartest, and most brutal to serve her on Task Force X.

Detective Comics #854 (2009), the thrilling beginning of Batwoman’s first solo series, which would launch her into stardom

The Metropolis of the future is here today, but can it survive a terrorist who’s out for revenge against its builder—John Henry Irons, a.k.a. Steel—and his company, Steelworks…and who possesses secrets that could undo everything John has worked so hard to build? At the time of A Death in the Family’s original run, a contest was run that allowed fans to call into a special hotline and vote whether they wanted Jason Todd to die or not. As the story goes, the results of the call-in poll were alarmingly close - but nonetheless in favor of killing Todd. So, writer Jim Starlin and his team had no choice but to conclude the following issue with the reveal that The Joker had not only beaten Robin bloody with a crowbar, but succeeding in blowing him to bits.Elsewhere, but still related to Batman, I'm excited to see a new Red Hood solo series. Poor old Jason Todd has been put through the wringer these last few months, but Red Hood: The Hill sounds like it will give him the chance to grow now that he's apart from his former mentor.