August 6th 2025 Comic Pulls

[babbling_bookends]

Batgirl #10:

Some sibling drama in this issue and a little bit of backstory on Tenji, Cass's recently-revealed brother. Cass is not happy about having to share her mother with someone else (relateable older sibling experience, honestly).

Birds of Prey #24:

Hail, hail, the gang's all here! The Birds launch their rescue-Barda plan and face down the Shadow Army. It was fun getting to see Birds from previous arcs come back for an issue (even though big casts mean you don't get a lot of time to focus on individual characters much).

Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #1:

Gory and a little horny about it. (Gory for a mainline DC rogue story, anyway, so not really that gory). This first issue was mainly character work for Jade and Barbara and set-up for the premise of the whole series: what they're stealing. I'm excited for what comes next, but I do wish there was a little more meat to this first issue. (Ha! Meat. Maybe not the same kind of meat that Cheetah was eating.)

Monkey Meat: The Summer Batch #5:

Final issue! Three stories in this one, all of them with the same Juni Ba humor and wit. I liked the stories in this issue, though none of them were my favorites from this 5-issue run; that honor goes to the entertaining and meta Batman-and-Robin parody in issue #1 and the vacationing family in issue #4. Still, I think the things Ba had to say in these stories were once again thought-provoking and funny, and I highly reccommend picking up the trade paperback when it comes out in October if you can't get your hands on the individual issues now.

Notes:

I'm quite annoyed with my comic book store. I still haven't gotten Birds of Prey #23 and it's been a month. I had to read the issue online. It will be very irritating if they don't get it in and I'm missing one comic out of the whole run, since I've been subscribed since the series started. I'll have to track down the issue and buy it online somewhere, likely at a premium, and then pay shipping on top of that. To be fair, it's not entirely the comic store's fault; they said they ordered it and it just didn't come. The interesting thing is that Batgirl #9 also didn't come in that week, but they reordered it and it has since arrived.(Side note: Two female-character led titles didn't arrive on time? I [jokingly] cry sexism!) I suspect this is once again my nemesis Lunar Distribution playing mind games with me. The store blamed Diamond's bankruptcy, which is a convenient excuse. Surely it's far more likely that Lunar Distibution hates me personally.

Oh well. It gets here when it gets here.

 

Comments

[queenslayerbee]

I do wish there was a little more meat to this first issue

Pun aside lol, that was my impression. It set (some of) the pieces up, but hardly got into it. I think it's a 6-issues mini, right? I'm guessing that #2 will pick up the pace significantly.

BTW, do you know of any previous interactions between Barbara and Jade? I was kind of taken aback by how friendly they were LOL (Barbara using a nickname completely took me out of the story, tbh. Several times). I realised I expected a more adversarial situation going in. We'll see how that shakes up.

One thing I really liked was seeing Jade in Mad Scientist mode. She IS a (thee) poisons expert, it fits so, so well. And it's a trope I love, ngl.

ETA: this comment on scans_daily was entirely too accurate ñalkdfj.

[babbling_bookends]

I checked the TPB info on League of Comic Geeks and it says it collects six issues, so yes! I think you're right that it will pick up next issue. There's nothing I hate more than a limited series that has too many issues, and is too slow, or that has too few issues, and is too rushed. The sweet spot of pacing is a hard one to hit for any media, but still, I'm not too concerned.

I didn't know of any previous interactions (I'm not too familiar with either character, to be honest, beyond being able to identify them on a comic cover), so I checked Comics.org for comics with both of them and it shows at least eight comics they appeared in. How accurate of a count that is, I don't know, but they worked together (along with Poison Ivy) in Wonder Woman (1987) #94-95, and they also fought on the same side in Justice League of America (2006) #15.



^from Justice League of America #15.

They don't really interact individually on panel much in these, but they've definitely worked together, and they don't seem unfriendly! (Though Barbara did knock Jade out in Wonder Woman #95 asdfjkla)

[queenslayerbee]

Limited runs seem to be a bit hit or miss in DC lately, but if I am going to put a little trust in an author even now, at my most cynical with DC comics xD, Rucka is not a bad choice.

And thanks a lot for the info!