Spoilers and review follow for Batman #6.
Gotham Girl is dealing with the fallout of the death of her brother Gotham last issue at her hands for the greater good.
Claire has shaved her head and is talking to her dead brother Karl as Batman, Alfred Pennyworth and Duke Thomas marvel at her crime-fighting, but worry about her health. Duke Thomas implores Batman to help Gotham Girl.
Gotham Girl continues to speak to Karl, and seemingly hear him to talk to her, as…
…Batman seeks an intervention.
She originally leaves Batman, but later on he decides a direct approach after asking Alfred Pennyworth he helped him as a little Bruce Wayne deal with his parents deaths.
They meet again and Batman reveals his secret identity to Claire, the trauma he felt when his parents died, and revealed that he talks to his dead parents too sometimes.
They both feel tremendous pain at the loss of their loved ones.
The book ends with the set up the next major Batman arc “I am Suicide” as Amanda Waller seeks Batman help to break the Psycho Pirate free from the Bane’s clutches.
Batman will be assembling his own Suicide Squad in that arc in Batman after the Monster Men arc set to cross-over the Batman books for two issues in each series as I recall.
Beyond the deeply emotional drama of the issue, the humor is also worth noting with Gotham Girl tangling with a who’s who of Batman d-level villains in Colonel Blimp…
…Captain Stingaree and…
…Kite Man.
So…
Overall a nice breather issue. Tom King is an amazing writer who can do sci-fi as evidenced with Omega Men, but also iconic super-heroes like Batman and his constellation of characters. Ivan Reis is a nice replacement artist to David Finch for this arc as this book was mostly drama with action as accompaniment. This was the best issue of this series so far in the DC Rebirth era.
Spoilers and review follow for Superman #6.
This appears to the Endgame of the Superman Family vs. the Eradicator.
Superman is supercharged fueled by the spirit of the Krytonian life-forces who were trapped inside by the Eradicator parasite.
He also manages to free…
…Krypto from the Eradicator’s clutches!
Eradicator is defeated and…
…the essences of the Kryptonians can now rest in piece.
We get an iconic Superman shot on the moon and the issue also reveals who well Superman is embraced by those on Earth. This in sharp contrast to when the New 52 was launched and heroes, even Superman, were feared.
The book ends with Superman’s son Jon Kent gain a secret identity and familiar look and…
…being introduced to Batman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League as DC Comics’ latest…
…Superboy with a new logo and everything!
DC is going to be selling those Superboy hoodies for Christmas don’t you think?
So…
Half of this issue was action-packed and the second half was an epilogue of sorts showing Superman embraces by citizens and the debut of Superboy. Writer Peter J. Tomasi and writer-artist Partick Gleason are established great collaborators and this was an amazing issue that continues the set-up and lead into the eventual Damian Wayne / Robin and Jon Kent / Superboy team-up ongoing series Super Sons in 2017. A fun issue.
