The Gutter Goyim

Well, here we are again. I'm trying this one writing piece per day thing until I get bored and go on hiatus until the next Olympics. You may ask why write these when most eyes are glazed over from TikTok shorts and are unwilling to do an honest day's reading? Welp, I suppose writing is a therapeutic business, so let's just take this as our lotus pose for now and get on with it. Battle Beast is a cool little space romp starring a pissed-off lion who is desperate to be killed so that he'll be a little less pissed off. This series kind of hits like Saitama from One-Punch Man, if he were a little furrier and more deliberate with his approach to finding a worthy match.  Hang on a minute, though, we need a few sidekicks for this adventure to tick all the right boxes, and so our Battle Beast in question is joined by both a disgraced prince and an AI that is gifted with a robotic form. The former is eager to take his rightful place on a throne that was forcefully taken from a ...

  I'm going to write now, or attempt to write now with very little regard for good spelling, style, grammar, syntax, etc. For in the age of AI, crap writing is the new good writing, apparently. Authenticity is the goal in a world where anyone can sound like a literary genius. But enough of this prattling, let's cut to the chase and say at the outset that Wrestle Heist is a good comic and a must-read at a time when the internet has yanked the curtain of mystery before the world of pro wrestling and exposed all its naughty bits for us to see. But far from removing the allure of this fascinating form of sports entertainment, the nuances of the business have presented fresh avenues for enjoyment and appreciation, demonstrating once more the desire for stories of good vs. evil.  Wrestle Heist presents us precisely with this unique and fascinating world of politics, power structures, tight outfits, and belts -  and prep yourself, dear reader, wrestling terminology is fast appr...

The Hype Is Real If anyone still doubted that Absolute Batman was more than a flashy line-wide reinvention, issue #17 should continue to bring that view to a swift close. This series doesn’t just expand its rogue’s gallery, it rewires it. And the result is electrifying. #17 continues to provide complete re-imaginings of the Bat's famous rogues gallery, and it's Poison Ivy's turn to step up to the plate and get the Absolute treatment. She emerges not merely as an eco-terrorist or seductive botanist, but as something far more ideologically coherent and far more dangerous. Her motivations feel sharpened, less operatic and more systemic. Visually, the issue leans into the grotesque beauty of Ivy’s domain. The art team balances lush, invasive growth with urban decay, making every panel feel like a battleground between concrete and chlorophyll. Gotham doesn’t just host the conflict, it becomes the canvas for it. Most importantly, #17 confirms something long-time readers have...

Won't the Real Hulk Please Stand Up? The Infernal Hulk comic series grants Bruce Banner his wish of separation from his monster, but the progression of the story reminds us to be careful of what we wish for. One of the most unsettling ideas in The Infernal Hulk is not that Bruce Banner loses the Hulk, but that losing him doesn’t bring relief. Banner is free of the monster, yet he is weaker, disoriented, and haunted by something that refuses to stay gone. The Hulk persists, not as a body, but as an absence that still shapes Banner’s life. This dynamic closely mirrors what philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty describes through the phantom limb. Amputees often continue to feel sensations in limbs that no longer exist. For Merleau-Ponty, this happens because the body is not merely a physical object, but a lived structure, a body schema through which we orient ourselves in the world. When something is removed, the body’s orientation does not immediately adjust. Banner’s condition in The ...

  Dear Journal I was straight up giddy to be handed the latest issue in the Absolute Batman series, one that proves that the Dark Knight is the best superhero in any universe. Issue 11 left us with the ominous scene of Bain standing over Batman's closest circle of friends, who, in the regular universe, positioned themselves as his greatest foes. I guess it just goes to show that Bain is positioned against Bruce, no matter which timeline they traverse, although this time, he shows that there's more than one way to break a bat beyond bending a back.  In one go, Bain becomes the common origin source for The Penguin, Two-Face, Croc, and the Riddler, and what a way to do it. Halt, hear all ye squeamish ninnies, the visuals from #12 will give you nightmares, but the response from Batman and Alfred has me salivating, and while the entrance of a very cool looking Cat Woman was welcome, it's Joker's (hopeful) entry that I'm hoping and holding out for. Now what to read whil...

         A colleague of mine plopped Everything Dead and Dying onto my desk, assuming that my love of titles with all things dead and dying would position this little title right up my alley. He assumed correctly - and I came to be particularly drawn to the Little House on the Prairie font style, with the Cattle Decapitation cover art (check that band out, folks). Indeed, the soft colour palette complemented the dark gore that lay within, even augmenting it by way of betraying the senses, making us think we were in for Lassie as opposed to Stephen King's Cujo.  I speak of course of general tone, so don't think you're in for a ravenous dog attacking the good towns folk, but a virus has swept through a sleepy US town, Resident Evil style, and infected everyone save a farmer who ejected stereotypes right out of the window and went ahead and got himself a husband and even adopted himself an African American child. I guess you could say what you're walking in o...