The Gutter Goyim

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...

  A plunge into the depth with The Dark Knight. But Constantine is their to hold his hand through the blaze. A must read before Batman: Full Moon.  Batman: Damned

  Akira live-action film canned, but the original manga is coming out as a hard copy in August 2025. Make sure to pre-order your copy at Forbidden Planet .