*Oracle's voice:* Welcome to the Batcave This is a space for me to keep track of what comics I've read recently and my thoughts on them. Please don't take anything I say too seriously, this is meant to be my *fun* hobby. Click on the tabs to see the logs per month, and then click on any cover to see my review on it. Reviews might contain spoilers. Check out the archive tab to see my previous logs.
Archive
January '26
Artist: Jorge Jiménez
Year: 2025 - ongoing
Batman #5
★★★★⯪
I loved this, it got me twirling my hair and giggling. Dr. Zegler grew on me. Very fun issue, I liked the pacing of it. I complained that the previous issue felt like a filler, but it's totally worth it for this cute little story. It does end in a cliffhanger. Can't wait to see how Batman girlbosses, gaslights, and gatekeeps his way out of admitting he is Robin's dad without compromising Batman's identity.
Artist: Nicola Scott
Year: 2025
Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League
★★★★☆
I've been reading this month to month but I didn't want to comment on it until all the 6 issues were out. I only have a surface-level understanding of the majority of these characters, so take anything I say with a grain of salt.
I really liked the art, even though I think they could've made an effort to give Jade more asian features. I love how Barbara looks. I thought Lian's and Featherweight's designs were cute. On the topic of Featherweight, maybe it's my own fault but I was under the impression she was around the same age as Lian, maybe 2 or 3 years older max?? Anyways she dresses like I would've done when I was a teenager. The final issue reveals that Alya is trans, and that sparked a lot of debates about her physicial appearance. Idk I thought her style was cute, if slightly dated.
What I did dislike was the romance subplot with Klarion. From what I understand, and in my head, Klarion isn't a literal child. He is like an older entity that keeps the form of a young witch boy for funsies. Perpertually a child, but in an inhuman way. It's weird that Alya basically says to give it a couple of years, as if waiting for Klarion to grow up. Weird because it paints the trans character as a predator, and weird for Klarion's lore. Would he ever be Klarion the Witch Young Man? No, I don't think so.
Teenage cast aside, this was a fun story and I really liked the plot twists at the end. I really should read more Wonder Woman stuff.
Artist: Davide Gianfelice
Year: 2022 - ongoing
Poison Ivy #40
★★★★⯪
This issue brings Ivy back to Gotham, and we get to see Ivy dealing with the current GCPD. It heavily reinforces the current police brutality plot in Matt Fraction's Batman. I think all of this would've been even better if DC didn't fire a trans woman the second right-wing bigots started crying about one tweet, you know?. Would've made it more believable. Whatever. I do appreciate the work both Fraction and Wilson are doing.
I thought it was really funny how the cops are trying to coerce Ivy into greenwashing their A.I. crap. Love to see the ecoterrorism back.
Artist: Randy Green
Year: 2003
Emma Frost (2003)
★★⯪☆☆
I don't even know where to begin. I wanted to read more about Emma, but the covers made me have 0 interest in this series. The first few covers, there's current-day Emma in her often oversexualized white suit paired with the hyperrealistic early 2000s digital painting style it makes it look like a playboy magazine cover. I have a love/hate relationship with the covers, as I do with most of the stuff in this book to be honest. I'm fascinated by the technique but at the same time it rubs me off the wrong way to have her hypersexualized outfits on the cover of a book that starts when she is in high school, long before she is the White Queen. I understand it was probably done that way because of marketing reasons, and at least the later covers are a better match for the content of the story.
Now onto the story, I almost stopped reading around issue #3. I can appreciate the idea of Emma, rich privileged Emma, being bullied at school (and having a bad home life). Very normal teenager issues. But oh my god the way the bullying is written is so bad. In what world rich teenage girls bully each other over not getting straight As. The most quintessential high school trope is the nerd being bullied by the popular kids. Listen maybe I have too much experience being bullied by teenage girls in high school, but you can tell this was written by a man who has no experience dealing with teenage girls.
I could see it if it was more along the lines of Emma being "ugly" compared to her peers, and it being something she learns to overcompensate for later on in her life. But grades really?? You're not fighting over whose family has more money no no you're fighting over getting straight As. Okay sure.
And then there is the topic of Ian, her high school art teacher. I'm assuming she is supposed to be in her senior year of hs? But uhm, again, I might like the concept of Emma having a difficult home - family situation because of her abusive father, and she takes comfort in the only adult that seems to care about her and her wellbeing. And he unsurprisingly develops an inappropiate relationship with her to the point where she tries to kiss him. And I, the reader, I'm supposed to side with Emma and think oh yeah her dad is an asshole because he got her favorite teacher fired, because she loved him. I think that her dad is in fact an asshole, but not for that, I'm sorry he did what a responsible adult should do in that situation and its weird how this comic handles it.
Anyways I kept reading, and now comes the topic of Christian, Emma's older brother. That story did fuck me up. Homophobic faimily stories always hit a little too close to home for me, but Chirstian's is so heartbreaking. Kinda wished I had been warned about that ngl. 2000s homophobia I don't miss you.
You got no idea how happy I was when she graduates high school, and I foolishly thought that meant no more of the early things I disliked about this series. We get one full arc of her figuring out her own life without any help from her parents, probably my favorite arc, and then she goes to college. And I'm back to square one. Ian is not only a professor at this university too, but he is also dating Emma's roommate, whom I might add is an art student there. So you get fired because you had an inappropiate relationship with one of your high school students, and the next thing you do is start an even more inappropiate relationship with one of your university students?? She most likely isn't a minor but I'm pretty sure that's breaking some sort of code of conduct, if they're both in the same department.
And then it becomes a cat-fight over a guy (who has been a professor to both of these young girls) between Emma and her roommate. Awful. Last arc is so bad imo.
Artist: Andrea Di Vito
Year: 2025
Emma Frost: The White Queen
★★★★☆
Unlike with her previous solo I don't have anything to complain about in here. It was a fun story, I liked the ending, kinda wish there was more. Clearly I've been enjoying reading about Emma.
Artist: Jacopo Camagni
Year: 2024
Scarlet Witch (2024)
★★☆☆☆
Every single complaint I had about Scarlet Witch '23 gets exacerbated after reading 24~ish issues of the exact same thing. I'm gonna be honest I stopped properly reading and started just skimming through this after issue #5. I swear all the action scenes in the entirety of Orlando's Wanda runs feel the same.
Orlando's Scarlet Witch feels somewhat similar to Sophie Campbell's Supergirl, but for some reason I highly prefer Campbell's writing. I don't enjoy the villian of the week in SW. Everything feels so pointless. Wanda is never gonna lose a fight, Wanda gets to feel sad or conflicted or something for like 3 panels before Darcy makes a sarcastic remark, another magic villian appears and Wanda wins a fight again. I kinda like Agatha. I despise Amaranth's character design, why does she look like Wanda and Agatha's designs were thrown in a blender. Why can't she have a more unique look to her?
Overall I found this boring, only vaguely finished it because I did want to read The Vision & Scarlet Witch. Which is another mini series that could've and should've just been part of a longer Scarlet Witch (2023) ongoing, since there is nothing differential to it.
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artists: Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan
Year: 2019 - 2021
Read: #1 - #12
X-Men (2019)
★★★★☆
I've been really into the X-Men this month, haven't I? However for this series I only managed to read up to #12 right before the X of Swords event. Which is like 23 issues?? So I'm reading that next month, I completely brushed over X of Swords when I was reading X-Factor lol.
I will say this was kinda confusing at first. Every issue, for the most part, follows a different story and it feels very non-liniear when reading back to back. I did sometimes feel like I was missing something. Maybe thats just my own fault for reading things out of order.
Nonetheless, I've enjoyed reading this so far. I really liked the Mystique issue, I'm very intrigued by her and Destiny and their role in Krakoa.
Artist: Matteo Lolli
Year: 2019
Read: #1 - #12
Marauders (2019)
★★★★☆
Gonna preface this by saying that I have never read anything with Kitty Pride before this so once again please take everything I say with a grain of salt. Anyways. This was fun! It wasn't even on my reading list for this month, but my brother got me a couple of X-Men trades in Mexico (side tangent but I love Panini's formatting for the X-Men trades I wish they were easier to buy internationally).
This is one of the series in the TPBs, so I decided to read it from issue #1. Like I did with X-Men (2019) I stopped reading after #12, so I can properly read the X of Swords event. Eventually. This is a lighter read than Hickman's writing imo. It was fun, it's cool to see another side to Krakoa's politics. I liked most of the characters and the story so far. But I do need to complain about the tattoos. I got 0 tattoos myself so maybe my opinion isn't relevant, but oh my god the face tattoo Pyro gets is horrible. And Kate having 0 tattoos getting knuckle tats is wild. Very funny that she got them done twice though.
Artist: Phil Noto
Year: 2022
Devil's Reign: X-Men
★★★★☆
I read this at the begining of the month and I wasn't gonna log it in here since it only has 3 issues and I don't have a lot to say about it. But I ended up reading so much Emma Frost this month I figured I might as well log it.
Love love love Phil Noto's art. One of my favorite artists. I liked the story, there is something sweet about Emma constantly trying to help young girls out, even if she isn't the best at it.