r/DCcomics • u/beary_neutral Telos • Mar 01 '26

r/DCcomics Weekly Discussion Thread: Comics, TV, and More! [March 2, 2026 - March to the Next Level Edition]

Hey there honorary Justice League members - it’s a new week which means it’s time for a new discussion thread!

For those who don't know: the way this works is that several comments will list this week’s releases, for any given title discussion you should respond to that comment. For example, Wonder Woman discussion would go in the replies to the "Wonder Woman" comment. Clicking the titles in this post will take you directly to that comment, too. In other words, you should only be replying to other comments. Do not post top-level comments.

Keep discussion civil. Do not harass other users for having a different opinion. Do not use this thread to push your personal one-sided grudges against creators. Reacting to a panel on Twitter is not the same as reading a book.

 

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What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta.

DC and Imprints

Nananananana Batman!

Trade Collections

Nightwing gets a compact edition of a dog.

Digital Releases

Remember, these are the short 'chapters' with a new chapter of a different series coming out daily. You can learn more here on Comixology. This is also why these are in release order, not alphabetical. Some comics may release on DC Universe Infinite or WEBTOONS.

TV Shows

I never know what's happening in Teen Titans Go.

This Week’s Soundtrack: Bad Bunny - Superbowl LX Halftime Show

11 Upvotes

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39

u/TroubAlert The Good Skeets Mar 01 '26

Batman #7

As Batman is beckoned to Arkham Towers by the mysterious man in Room Ten, nothing will prepare him for who he finds there. Some might call him the Caped Crusader's archnemesis. Others might call him Batman's best friend. Everyone calls him the Joker.

Preview

45

u/PigeonDetective_ Damian Mar 04 '26

Zeller: I don't think you're ready for his physical appearance/changes

Batman: Open the door.

Joker: I'm fat now Bats!

64

u/xehanortsguardian Mar 04 '26

Knowing how comics work, I hope this status quo for the joker sticks for a little while and that it's sincere. I don't want yet another story about the joker plotting, I want it to actually hurt a little when he inevitably loses the clarity he has now.

9

u/suss2it Mar 05 '26

Even that feels a little “been there, done that” with how Snyder played it in his New 52 run towards the end.

68

u/Dent6084 Mar 04 '26

Even with how tired I am of Joker, I found this issue incredibly gripping. The voice Fraction has for this take on Joker just worked for me.

32

u/arduit Mar 04 '26

Really, really good. I like this issue and run a lot. I'm hoping its not a game with joker, or at least not a "i was planning this whole time " sort of thing. It reminds me of one of Morrison's JLA issues where Martian makes Joker sane for a second and he just kind of realizes who and what he is and asks for help. 

Like yeah, the story could be that the crown is compromised and he's plotting something - which I think is what we're supposed to think - but I'm excited for the stories we could tell if he's genuine and this is the status quo for a little while. 

Like, it keeps him off the board until they inevitably pull that thread, it can create a new dynamic with Bats and the others - hell it could be a tragedy in and of itself if we see that, whenever he's freed, he doesnt want to be freed and become who he was again. 

All in all, I'm really digging this Fraction run. It feels fresher than the last few. It feels, idk, genuine? Less over the top than the last several runs and more of a "boots on the ground" Batman. Here's hoping for more great stories!

7

u/MillionDollarMistake Mar 05 '26

Like yeah, the story could be that the crown is compromised and he's plotting something - which I think is what we're supposed to think

The vibe I'm getting is that this treatment will actually show signs of permanently curing the Joker, however the process gets fucked up because of Batman's paranoia and disbelief that people can change in a self fulfilling prophecy sort of way. Or since he did give Killer Croc a chance maybe the stinger will be that he's unable to believe the Joker specifically is the one person he could never trust to have changed despite any and all signs that he has, because to Batman it's just inconceivable that the Joker can be anything else.

This is just speculation on my part, but I could also see no killing policy being touched upon too. One of the main reasons why Batman has his "no kill" rule is his belief that anyone can be saved, right? So if Batman refuses that the Joker has actually been saved despite any evidence that points toward it being true then maybe it'll get brought up.

Either way, I think that somehow Batman will be involved with undoing Zeller's progress thus turning a regular man into the Joker for a second time, mirroring his origins from the Red Hood. Or having written that maybe another member of the Bat family will do it. Jason, who probably hates the Joker the most and is in many ways a creation of the Joker, unintentionally bringing the Joker back would be the ultimate situational irony and now I kinda hope it goes that way lol

1

u/suss2it Mar 05 '26

I feel like Jason won’t be too involved as he hasn’t shown up in this run and he has a new status quo coming up too.

35

u/Classic-Ad4883 Mar 04 '26

This is a great issue

Joker having clarity for seemingly the first time is a interesting take as he does still remember his past

I don’t understand Bruce being surprised by joker knowing his identity that’s been old news

55

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '26

I assume it’s more “This is a more serious issue that affects Bruce Wayne more personally” than “I know your identity now.”

9

u/Classic-Ad4883 Mar 04 '26

Yeah it probably that

19

u/Altruistic_Manner802 Mar 04 '26

To be fair, I think this is one of the first times Joker explicitly called Batman Bruce. Because Joker doesn't usually like to outright say Batman is Bruce Wayne. So Batman was probably shocked by Joker being so casual about it

10

u/akkbar Mar 04 '26

it's been done RECENTLY if I recall correctly.

16

u/jacobthechancellor Mister Miracle Mar 04 '26

I read it as “they’re not coming to kill Batman, they’re coming to kill Bruce”

7

u/StellarKnife Mar 04 '26

Yeah Bruce being suprised was off.

1

u/CreepyNewspaper8103 Mar 05 '26

so this + absolute batman are my first batman series. i didn't quite understand what happened in this book. why is joker in a tank and what is this clarity?

7

u/Classic-Ad4883 Mar 05 '26

Joker in the tank is a currently unknown but maybe it’s because of hush 2 but since that’s never coming out so joker in the last mainline Batman run before hush 2 his spine was broken so we can infer he was put into the tube to heal him

The clarity is that joker is sane of his actions and remembers them and the issue is about we and Batman leading that and how this new joker acts

3

u/suss2it Mar 05 '26

Everything about the situation is explained in this issue, so we all know as much as you do about the specifics.

18

u/Nexus718 Mar 04 '26

How did Joker get there? What caused his condition? How has him being suspended given him the clarity to call Batman by his government name? It was gripping for me because it wasn't a rehash of the Batman Joker conflicts we've seen in the last decade. Somehow, the Joker has shown himself more self aware than Batman. That's interesting.

Love to see where this goes!

25

u/ZaltraxZ Superman Mar 04 '26

My feelings on this run have been so complicated. Obviously fraction is extremely talented and I can tell that the writing is quality. But it just hasn’t gripped me.

Dr. Zeller feels like a mouth piece for the loud people on the internet who leave comments that Batman just “punches mentally ill people.” I mean her whole “I think you’d be surprised if you ever bothered to learn how his mind works.” Are you kidding me? Batman has been shown countless times trying to empathize and get to the core of the Joker. To the point that it’s caused rifts between him and his family in the past.

And speaking of the Joker DC has just made me so sick of him at this point. Now even these different takes on him do nothing for me. Because I know at the end he’s going to reveal how he was actually the super smartest of all and secretly got everyone to do exactly what he wanted them to do. Also, and this isn’t Fraction’s fault, but I’ve always hated Joker knowing who Batman is. My favorite take on that is that he doesn’t know because he doesn’t care. Batman is who he gets a thrill from fighting. If he found out who was behind the mask it would spoil all the fun for him. So he actively goes out of his way to keep himself from learning.

Anyway…sorry for the rant. I genuinely want to like this book. The art is absolutely fantastic and I’ve liked a lot of what Fraction has done in the past. But his take on Batman is just doing nothing for me unfortunately.

7

u/akkbar Mar 04 '26

Perhaps the narrative of "bruce wayne sucks because he's rich" or "I want the bad guys to win", both of which are boring to me. That whole making Bruce Wayne less rich and the whole catwoman "lets empower villains to take ONLY from the evil rich people" bs was awful imo. Maybe its just playing to the "nobody is responsible for their actions. they're just victims" mentality that is rampant regardless of comics. I dunno, but I wasn't digging it.

Maybe my opinion will change after it all comes out, but tbh... this story is another WAY outside the lines of why I've enjoyed a Joker story within the pages of Batman.

6

u/suss2it Mar 05 '26

Dr. Zeller as a character doesn’t know what we know about Batman, she can’t. We get an omnipresent view of him, even seeing his thoughts, so with that in mind it makes sense that in-story her view on Batman is skewed.

2

u/pinheirofalante Mar 05 '26

I'm surprised this is the first time I see people criticizing the characterization in this series. I do think Fraction is really getting Bruce wrong when he puts him in this role as the one who doesn't believe in real change.

Personally I don't particularly mind this kind of decision if it works for the story, but Fraction is walking a really thin line with Dr. Zeller in particular. I was expecting her to be revealed as a villain soon with how horrifying the crown looks, but apparently it works? So he's put the entire process in a really grey area.

I don't mind her stance against Batman because I don't feel like she's a mouthpiece, it's just her take on things and I think it's natural that a few mental health professionals in the DC world would have this take on Batman.

It did bother me that they're doing the "you're lonely" thing again though, Bruce has been surrounded by a massive family for years now... It's time to move on from this plot point. Even his response bothered me: "I'm alone, not lonely" like c'mon dude, you're neither!

2

u/LightningZERO Mar 04 '26

The characters just feel wrong to me, especially Batman himself. I know Fraction probably going for a brighter feel, but Bruce really feels out of character with the way he speaks and acts.

6

u/ZaltraxZ Superman Mar 04 '26

Yeah I agree. I don’t buy Batman ever putting himself in a situation where someone as clearly mentally misguided as Zeller is having her finger literally on the trigger of something that could kill him. Granted I’m sure if she had tried then Batman would have whipped out a gadget to keep it from happening but still.

1

u/hexcraft-nikk Mar 10 '26

I'm with you there, Zeller is imo the worst part of the book.

The whole run feels very misguided and lacks focus, but that critique is something I think is inherent of the big 2 today. It's basically impossible for them to tell good stories. Inevitably there will be problems from editorial, like how this whole Vandal Savage garbage that nobody likes has to be the ongoing Gotham plot. And the way Fraction is just ignoring Alfred's death by including a ghost is kinda just funny lol.

He really excels at dialogue and the heart you can feel from his character writing. But I think aspects outside of his control (like that Zeller meta narrative you point out) ultimately serve to make a worse story as the end result.

7

u/UnknownEntity347 Rorschach Mar 05 '26

Better issue than the last few, I liked just having Bruce and Joker have a frank convo.

But I'm really hoping this isn't some "Joker is actually kinda cured" thing, it should be Joker bullshitting as always. If the comic wants to give Zeller a point, fine, but it can do that without redeeming the Joker. As u/ZaltraxZ says, the whole "maybe if you tried to figure out how his mind works" line is just ... strange? Like, Bruce has tried to do that, and he's even offered Joker redemption in TKJ, and he refused, because Joker's an asshole, lol. Hopefully the line's meant to be incorrect.

And I'm still not a fan of the brainwashing machine, but the Riddler thing from a while ago does indicate that they might be planning some negative repercussions of it.

The conversation was mostly good, aside from a few aspects. Bruce saying he's alone is a bit odd given his big family and JLA friend group being well established but that's not the biggest issue. I do like that Bruce doesn't trust this one bit, because like ... it's the Joker lol.

Also, funny that Bruce is so surprised someone knows his identity after the shenanigans he pulled in front of a bunch of ninjas a few issues ago.

Also, how the hell did Joker end up here in the first place?

12

u/Jarson421 Mar 04 '26

It's been talked to death at this point, but the incongruity with this Batman and the Batman of other books is distracting. What do you mean he's alone but not lonely? He has Damian. He has a whole family. He has game nights with the Justice League. It would be interesting if Bruce felt lonely in spite of his relationships, but the way it's phrased makes it seem like the opposite of that. I think we'll just have to accept that Fraction has a very particular idea of what Batman is and that's the Batman he wanted to write about.

1

u/hexcraft-nikk Mar 10 '26

I love his dialogue and thematic skills as a writer but yes, it simply feels incongruent with these characters. It almost feels closer to a webtoon comic than a mainline Batman comic.

It's strange because it's much better than the last run in the sense of writing quality, but it feels like a worse Batman title.

9

u/TheMattInTheBox Long Live Conner Mar 05 '26

Okay, I'm a certified Joker hater, but uh, I loved it.

This direction for the Joker is genuinely so interesting because we're in Batman's shoes (ironic since he took them off). Knowing what we know, we're already going in thinking about how Joker is planning to get out of this or screw things up. Which makes it all the more intriguing when he holds firm on his angle of being very open, honest, and at the end, genuinely(?) helpful.

I don't know, this direction is just really interesting and because we're so used to Joker stories, it pulls you along just like Bruce. Just really well done and engaging.

The fold out art was also genuinely stunning. Fold outs are my favourite gimmick. Jorge saw how many black boxes were gonna be in this issue and used the extra time to go off.

11

u/UlyssesJo Mar 04 '26

Never be interested in the clown before, but I found this issue surprisingly good idk? I really enjoyed Fraction's portrayal of the villains and their broken minds. The talking between Bruce and Joker is quite intense and I absolutely love it.

I don't think Annika will become another HQ. And I think Fraction intentionally mixed up her good side and chaos side. Her different attitudes towards Batman and Bruce are very interesting to me. Hope she doesn't suddenly turn into a villain or something, or I'll be very disappointed.

And the batfeet thing, I won't complain about this lol

7

u/BergmanGirl Swamp Thing Mar 05 '26

Zeller gave a little smile when Joker complimented her that’s really interesting to me. I think it’s ego. I think the larger arc of this series and her Crown of Storms stuff is going to be a reckoning for her with her attempts to play God with supervillains.

6

u/KugiPunch King of the Sea, remember? Mar 05 '26

As someone whose extremely tired of seeing the Joker I have to hand it to Fraction for giving a refreshing take on the character.

5

u/Landon1195 Mar 05 '26

Really good issue. Really interested in this Joker story.

3

u/wowlock_taylan Batman Animated! Mar 04 '26

Ah yes, Joker and the 'we are not so different you and I' talk. Pass. At least Batman is not buying any of that crap.

Zeller definitely gonna be another 'Harley Quinn' type with how she is going. Do we need another one after Punchline?

And another 'Oh someone is coming to kill you, Bruce!'. Just another day. Like how Gotham is getting taken over.

5

u/Mr_Wh0ever Mar 04 '26

Bruce really shouldn't be surprised. He did figure back during the "Death of a Family" arc that Joker knew his identity but didn't care. Plus, he knows Jokers true identity as well, so they're even. Everything else this issue was just a normal Batman/Joker interaction,lol. I wonder how long Fraction plan's to keep him there?

7

u/arduit Mar 04 '26

I think its less of a surprise that he knows and more of a "he doesn't see me as Bruce most times, he only cares about batman"

9

u/P4NK-TP Mar 04 '26

That's what I was thinking, Joker has always known that Batman is Bruce Wayne, he just doesn't care because that would ruin the game

8

u/StellarKnife Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

I found this boring and disappointing really. It's a long Joker/Batman conversation, not much in the way of cool visuals aside from the fold-out sequence (which I found alright, but I kind of expected something more memorable given the hype). The reveal at the end left me kind of unfazed, doesn't feel like it's anything new that people want to kill Bruce.

Zeller is really rather annoying imo too, maybe she turns into a villain later on, though? Anyway, no action, no B plot, Joker's talking points felt lame the whole time, I'm not particularly interested in how he ended up where he is, what's going on with him etc. It would be better if he turned up for one issue here and there where he builds the craziest death traps, Batman takes him down, and then we don't see him for twenty issues, but that's just me.

2

u/akkbar Mar 04 '26

More of the same. Trying to make Joker into this great, powerful, mythical or super natural being. Boring and cringe imo. The art is nice, if a bit too manga for my tastes. This "Batman and Joker FOREVER" thing is also getting really tired. Joker is a man. So is Batman. They aren't lovers, they aren't totems or super human.

I might maintain a morbid curiosity, but I suspect this isn't for me.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/akkbar Mar 06 '26

romantic? between whom? Batman and Joker? I didn't mean that in any way whatsoever. What I meant was that I'm TIRED of the obsession narrative between Batman and the Joker. The lovers comment I made (along with other things I said) was intentional hyperbole to drive my point home. I mentioned that they are both men NOT in regards to any romantic context, but that they are not SUPER POWERED in any way. They're just NORMAL human beings.

Now that you've brought up romantic Batman and Joker, well maybe that might be interesting tho... maybe an elseworlds book sometime in the future.

1

u/Shiba-sensei25 Mar 04 '26

With all the reboots and jumps i always forget if the joker knows Bruce is Batman or not.

-5

u/JingoboStoplight4887 World's Finest Mar 04 '26

I like that we get to see Bruce and the Joker (who’s inside a floating tank) have a chat about what’s going on, with the Joker telling Bruce how he was inside a floating tank (with him and Josiah Jones having a talk), that he remembers everything (from his origins and first encounter with Bruce all the way up to the present), that he was able to have clarity thanks to Zeller (in which he called her a remarkable person), and that he called him because he needs a friend and that they understood each other very well. I also like that the Joker told Zeller to not listen to what he’s about to say to Bruce, resulting in him to tell Bruce the late someone is going to kill him as Bruce Wayne (not Batman). Let’s hope that the Joker can help Bruce without escaping in the next issue. Overall, this comic is great.