Review: Batman/Superman World's Finest #53

Batman/Superman World's Finest #53 came out this last week, wrapping up the three part Warlord crossover story. As always with this book, there are a lot of fun moments. But this story never really grabbed me.

Writer Mark Waid continues to do a great job with characterization in these stories for sure. In this one, it is Robin who gets the bulk of the work with our title heroes under a sorceror's spell for most of the book. Not only to we get to see how smart and funny this young Dick Grayson is but we get to hear what he has been taught about by Superman and Batman. There is a sanctity to life even if the life lived has been one of evil. Waid always shines with that stuff.

But the villain  plot here about a pilot getting magical powers and then trying to augment them with Atlantean tech all seems to come out of nowhere as does his defeat. 

Clearly I don't know what I want. I don't want decompression. But I don't want super-compression either. I wonder if this was more Waid just wanting to play in the Skartaris sandbox for a bit.

The art is again split between Adrian Gutierrez and Vicente Cifuentes. Both artists seem to be enjoying this savage land setting and these characters. 

As I have said before, I expect unparalleled excellence from this book. When it merely entertains (which this issue did) I somehow feel let down. On to the details.

Review: Superman Unlimited #15

The Kingdom Of Zod is about to explode onto the Superman Family which means the Reign of the Superboy stories need to end. And so we get Superman Unlimited #15 which sprints to the ending of the Tomorrow Man story, bringing about events and changes and deus ex machinas to basically get us back to where we at the beginning of the story. 

Truly, a lot of stuff happens here. Somehow Kryptonite self-replicates! It has been weaponized by El Caldero for some reason! Lana is changed! Kryptonite is now harmful to humans! Txyz (remember him) does some tomfoolery! Batman has a one-time trick!  And Superboy ... that is Ultra Boy ... that is E3 Superboy is gone. It all felt a bit too fast. There are too many things that come out of nowhere. But here we are.

There are zero complaints about the art though. Lucas Meyer is thriving on this book. We get battles. We get the supermobile! We get energy crackles and brutal punches. It is all so beautiful. Glad he is here!

On to the book. Expect some nit-picking.

Review: My Adventures With Superman S3E5 - The Death of Superman

 My Adventures of Superman S3 E5, titled 'The Death of Superman', came out this week and was a high action, rather brutal episode for this series. If you are looking for the usual food jokes and whimsy the show is known for, look elsewhere. This is Zach Snyder meets Dragon Ball Z as the Super-family battles the Cyborg Superman to stop a dystopian future from unfolding.

With Bizarro, the Cyborg Superman, and a Conner-esque Superboy all here, the show has been leaning into the Death of Superman/Reign of Supermen famous comic storyline. We get a peek at another famous of those characters at the end of this episode. And what an ending, worth of Trunks time-traveling for sure.

But we have to get there first. And to get to that finale, we need a knock-down, level the city brawl between the threat of the Cyborg and his Kryptonian drone cronies vs the Supers. And it isn't easy. The Cyborg has all the powers of Superman, and the ability to link to technology (like in the comics), and a heart of Kryptonite.

While the buildings are toppling, the Cyborg is becoming more monstrous, and our heroes are turning green, we still get to see the best of our heroes character come through. Superman continues to look for the best in people. He levels up at the end. Kara shows she has come far from Brainiac's weapon. And Lois shows she is fearless. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the episode was written by Marguerite Bennett, a comic writer I liked best on DC Bombshells. Cool to see her name in the credits. On to the show.

Revamped Supergirl Shrine

For those who don't know, I recently moved into a new home. That means setting up a new office/comic book room/sanctum sanctorum. 

It also meant packing up the Supergirl collection and bringing it all back out. 

I was excited to get the display up to give me a sort of anchor amid the unpacked boxes and piles of stuff. 

With the new set up established, I thought I would share it here.

Rather packed shelves meaning, incredibly, I might need to think hard about either increasing the shelf space or being more selective in my merch purchases. But I think it looks pretty slick in total.

Keep reading for a sort of shelf-by-shelf breakdown.

DC Comics Solicits - September 2026

Nearly a month ago, DC released their September solicits. But the Summer of Supergirl, an increase in super-titles, and the My Adventures With Superman show have pushed this post back to mid-July. Champagne problems. When there is so much Supergirl content that I have to shuffle posts, it is a good thing.

Here is a link to the entire slate: https://aiptcomics.com/2026/06/18/september-2026-dc-comics-solicitations/

And it looks to be another great month for DC and another bad month for my wallet. Right out of the gate, I can tell you I am buying Gotham City General, a book about working in a hospital in Gotham City. I am very interested in reading it. But there is also a new Doom Patrol and as a fan of the Patrol I will surely give this new take a try. There is also a new Teen Titans, and another new book that I will discuss later. Lastly, there is a facsimile edition of V For Vendetta #1 coming out. I think DC is putting that out because I have been doing in-depth coverage of the series over on Billy D's Magazines and Monsters podcast. Everyone should be listening and reading along. 

But let's get to the Super books! First off, love Lucas Meyer is doing an interlocking cover collage on all the books!

SUPERGIRL #17
STORY: SOPHIE CAMPBELL
ART: JOE QUINONES
COVER A: LUCAS MEYER

After the shocking events of last month's crossover, Ursa and Supergirl are on a time-traveling battle to Krypton's past! They have beef with each other, but they must be careful not to get lost in time! Or, y'know … accidentally rewrite time again! The rest of Super-Force are either locked up in the Kryptonite Kingdom, injured, or fighting a losing battle to stop the spread of Zod's deadly K-Zone!
ON SALE 9/9/26

I am not the biggest fan of time travel stories back to Krypton. But it will be interesting to see Kara back on Krypton and will she try to somehow stop the planet being destroyed. I do think the idea of Ursa being a Supergirl arch-villain is an interesting wrinkle.

Review: Supergirl #15

Supergirl #15 came out this week, ending the Reign of the Superboys story as well as the Lesla Lar/Black Flame Kandor story at the same time. 

There is a lot to like about this issue as writer/artist shows once again that she understands the character of Supergirl. She is hopeful. She has compassion. She doesn't kill. But if she needs to knock some sense into you to defend the helpless, she will. There is a 3 page face-to-face with Black Flame that should be printed out and given to future creators as a sort of distillation of Kara's ethics. 

On top of that, we get some interesting development in ThunderGirl and Lesla too. The Argo City plot thread is intriguing. On top of that, we even get a beautiful finale of the arc with Kara sort of looking to her own future and declaring herself the heir of the House of El. That is amazing.

Campbell's art really explodes off the page this issue as well. There are more solid battles sequences and even a little bit of body horror. 

That doesn't mean there aren't some things to quibble about. Lesla, as has been the case for much of this series, gets to skate a little despite her past. And her being named the hero of Kandor so quickly after being one of the instigators of its near-destruction is a little strange. 

Still, I really liked this issue.

Review: My Adventures With Superman S3 E4 - Guess Who's Slammin' to Dinner

My Adventures with Superman S3 E4 'Guess Who's Slammin' to Dinner' came out this week and propelled the storyline for this season forward in a fast way. New character, emergence of the main villain, and a cliffhanger that seems to preview the dystopian future we saw last episode. 

I was a little surprised at how fast this moved along until I realized that this season is only 10 episodes long. Turns out every season has been that long and I forgot. Perhaps because these episodes pack so much inside them that they feel longer or meatier than just 10 episodes.

This episode brings in Jon Kent, the future son of Lois and Clark who looks very suspiciously like Conner Kent from the comics. When I saw the previews, I figured it was Conner given the cloning side of this season. But bringing Jon to another medium is just as cool, even if everything about him - clothes and personality - scream The Metropolis Kid.

In fact, Jon is outright fun here, saying everything is "slmmin'" and he is enjoying himself perhaps a bit too much for a kid sent from a world on fire. I suppose meeting your young parents and eating pound cake might make you forget your terrible present makes sense.

I will also say that I appreciate all the Silver Age riffs and comic homages the show is dropping into the show. And I love this sort of brash Kara learning and loving her new world. After saying goodbye to Brainiac early this season, we haven't seen much overwhelming trauma in her.

Loving this season so far. On to details.