An old Catwoman did what Batman couldn’t

Tom King and Clay Mann’s new DC comic Batman/Catwoman covers three potential timelines of Batman history: When Batman and Catwoman first started their romance, when Batman and Catwoman solved a present day crime, and a future timeline in which Batman has died of cancer and Catwoman is settling their affairs.

Batman/Catwoman is a spiritual coda to King’s run on Batman, but as a book in DC’s Black Label imprint, it doesn’t have to fit inside the main DC Comics canon. That meant that this week, Selina Kyle did something everybody has been asking Batman to do for decades: kill the Joker in cold blood.

What else is happening in the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the last edition, read this.)

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Batman/Catwoman #2

Bruce’s dying wish was that Selina not immediately kill the Joker once he was gone. And honestly? I respect her for this.

Cable #7

Image: Gerry Duggan, Phil Noto/Marvel Comics

I’ve never found Cable compelling until the grizzled old man character, created by a man who was nearly still a teenager himself, was transformed into a teenager. Throwing teen Cable up against adult Stryfe, an evil clone of old Cable, is something I can’t wait to see.

Rain Like Hammers #1

Image: Brandon Graham/Image Comics

On the entirely other spectrum of emotion, Brandon Graham is back with a new Image series, Rain Like Hammers. I knew nothing about it going in, but as you can see in the illustrated motivational words above, it’s a surprisingly soothing story about a man in a sci-fi working class prisonscape.

Future State: Nightwing #1

Image: Andrew Constant, Nicola Scott/DC Comics

Future State: Nightwing has everything you would want from a Nicola Scott drawn Nightwing comic. Mainly, Dick Grayson in hand-to-hand combat in nothing but a towel.

Future State: Superman Worlds of War #1

I enjoy looking at Mikel Janín’s gladiator Superman. I thought you might too.

Rorschach #4

Image: Tom King, Jorge Fornés/DC Comics

Rorschach is starting to uncover more of its plot, which is to say, there’s a new conspiracy theory in the post-Doctor Manhattan Watchmen world that states that the squid invasion is back but it’s invisibly taking over people’s minds now, and Doctor Manhattan destroyed the physical forms of all his superhero friends and put their minds in the unassuming bodies of normal people so that they could continue to work to save the world so anyone out there could be Rorschach and not know it we just have to find the right guy and...

And in a world where Doctor Manhattan demonstrably exists, it’s hard to argue anyone out of the idea. Let’s just say that with a plot this ... contemporary, it continues to be easy to forget this is even set in the Watchmen universe.

Sensational Wonder Woman #3

Image: Andrea Shea, Bruno Redondo/DC Comics

I don’t always check in on DC’s weekly one dollar digital first comics, simply because there are just so many of them. But Sensational Wonder Woman caught my eye with Bruno Redondo on art and it did not disappoint in the slightest. Look at this page!