The Fan Who Would Be King: Spoiler-y Questions For DC Comic Nerds Not In Prison Currently

August 18th, 2026

Being a Big House comic nerd bites sometimes. Making discoveries behind the Ultimate Firewall® frustrates from me wondering what's been discussed, dissected, poked, and prodded past it. Messaging around two years back, my home-girl Nicole caught up talking a Batman story with our Dark Knight hitched to Selina Kyle with their grownup kid investigating Joker's murder written by some cat named Tom King. This longtime chum and I only chatted a couple times but off her word, "Batman/Catwoman" intrigued me enough on sight in our permitted Bargain Books catalog I snagged its hardcover. Simultaneously, I added "Batman/Elmer Fudd" and "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow" from Hit Pointe only knowing the upcoming theatre joint adapted it. Before this cram session turnt lovefest, the guy wasn't even on my map.

Said with certainty past that defense mechanism, comics' Mr. King has been discussed to death. This former CIA Counterterrorism Expert I'm going to study like Aristotle or Ernest Gellner after I split July 2027 obsessively I KNOW is that fan soulmate of mine, but isolates the emotional cores of his subjects far past any calculus I could imagine. Most recently for me Princess Di da First in "Wonder Woman Volume 3: Fury" and most exquisitely "Black Canary: Best of the Best" where I realized this guy picked up the same books as me, especially '80's-'90's "Secret Origins" joints I slobbered over, rereading plumb to pieces. Transcendentally came "Jenny Sparks" woke up from undue death to be a sci-fi superhero rejoinder to Constantine's magic one what with the fags (Brit, not Me kind) and irreverent wisecracks. That middle odyssey drew ugly tears, inconvenient in prison making me a Trigger Warning-required puss-bag. Thankfully I was alone, sitting al fresco in the bullpen. Otherwise I'd have had to bump off a family member I don't talk to as the only plausible reason to weep outside the shower stall. Hell, they might be dead for all I know. Still I'd snot all over myself about Dinah Lance's dependence on her dying super-heroine mom than my actual Aunt Paula croaking from some stomach ailment I'm sure. That Facebook-posing pompous redneck ain't scripted by King, if we're being fair.

Melding fan-service with freshness and uncanny emotional resonance, his comics represent that beautiful evolution where smart writers grow up not reading but loving the same comics we did. Watching Dan Slott starting about two decades back, incorporating the She-Hulk run its Omnibus of takes gobs of my severely limited locker space, to love the books and see these guys work completes the experience not only complementing it like those mere damn good ones.

What readers get from King is something closer to a prestige TV series from HBO Max, Netflix, or such than even the accepted risen industry mores of the past decade plus with the bonus of beautiful sequential art, particularly in the case of "Sparks" with the powerhouse grace of Jeff Spokes. King's built a better best, merging fine episodic literature with his visual medium. Experiencing comics growth following me in the 1980's when we both left childhood behind they traveled with me, unfortunately dumping groceries and pharmacies for seducing the innocents. Spending the last 11 years in an atmosphere of intensity, absurdity, and enhanced reality so far past the status quo average titles don't get second glances then I barter on a prison yard over locker space. Kings are keepers.

SPOILER - IF YOU'VE NOT READ BATMAN/CATWOMAN DO BEFORE YOU READ THIS, THEN COME BACK. I'LL CHILL. REALLY.

 I'm not hanging here alone to BJ this funny-book author. Loaning Batman/Catwoman to a fellow fan fresh from another satellite, I rethought the finale and it dawned on me great purpose sat in those last panels. Out there, are people discussing Selina committing "suicide by criminal"? Bashing Helena earlier as a spoiled brat missing motivation to mimic Daddy's career, did she strut down Crime Alley showcasing her pearls to inspire her own murder inspiring Batwoman to be the hero she needed to be, maybe saving her life even when she smack-mouthed the gunman? Nobody here (of four criminals surveyed) considered this until my 11th hour epiphany. What's being said on the mean streets? Was this addressed when Hel traveled back through time (learnt from "New History of the DCU")? Writing this I remembered Helena's OG "Secret Origins" intro had Selina's murder the impetus for the Huntress. Maybe I cracked my own case there!

One thing I miss, wish I'd get more of here, and cannot wait to do out there is bull$#it comics. Inmates read them, but getting robust viewpoints from wider audiences is something I miss about social media. Sharing books is risky here. That's a category 4.15 write-up "Unlawful Transfer of Money or Property". Veneration keeps me from petty paybacks usually. After my repeated offenses if any inmate gets caught with my books particularly and they're confiscated the book automatically is donated to our library and I ain't mad at it. Kinda turns it into a fun game. Myself I've gifted around 30 to what was only one book, Johns and Connor's "Power Girl" (picture the response to Karen's dig ol' biddies in a majority sex offender institution, or don't). Some books won't leave my sight, like any of the DC Compact titles I'm piecing a cute lil' shelf of, that Shulky Omnibus, the Black Adam Box Set, and my Kings. Collections all, meant to be shared with the other lovers, those who read and maybe some that write.

Explaining all this to one quiet convict I got my "Girl From H.O.P.P.E.R.S." Jaime Hernandez book back from as I split his wing and he started yacking about getting me with a knife to the throat. This even after telling him he could finish it on the bullpen sitting with me. Coming between a lonesome old inmate and his Latina lesbos was riskier than I realized, looking in my rear-view. Be thankful for the sweaty fat boy with bad breath and too-tight T-shirt transferred with a sexy cosplay style chick. Worst thing he's hitting you with is standard Wednesday discomfort I'd pay good money to feel with the option to split and go pore over my tasty stack at an amazing American hog-trough of Indian or Chinese chow. 11 months and counting. You go do it for me this week and revel in that luxury.

Any nerd trying to holler on this, I'm all ears with plenty of time! Love, your Batmama