Batman fights alien invasion in Fortress from Star Wars writer Gary Whitta

Gary Whitta is a writer for Star Wars and Animal Crossing. He’s currently digging deep into Batman with Darick Robson, his comics colleague. They launched Issue 1 of the magazine together. Batman: FortressThis movie is billed as Batman’s triumph over a global extraterrestrial menace at a moment when Superman seems unnervingly absent.

So, we knew the series would show Batman stepping up and out of Gotham City to a much larger purview, and with the name of the series and Superman’s absence, it seemed clear that somehow the story would point to the Man of Steel’s secret base/trophy room/museum, the Fortress of Solitude.

What we didn’t know is the particular and odd wit that Whitta is putting into the story, as in a scene where Batman arrives home after a night of pacifying rioters, muggers, the Penguin, and the Joker all during a global electric blackout. Alfred asks him how the city was, and Batman replies “Crimey.” Is this stupid? Yes. Yes. It is also yes.

You might argue that Batman shouldn’t have a sense of humor, and I might argue that his jokes should simply be terrible, but the best gag in issue is actually at Batman’s expense.

Is there anything else happening inside our favourite comics’ pages? 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. You may not have enough context. However, there will be many great comics. This is the latest edition.

Image by Gary Whitta and Darick Robertson/DC Comics

Commissioner Gordon compares Gotham’s situation to that of the Purge franchise. Batman has no clue what it is. But it’s Robertson who sells the emotion here, not of a normal person expressing skepticism at a wild movie concept, but of Batman reacting with horror that some folks would make entertainment out of a situation he finds himself in about Every other month.

Image: Si Spurrier, Matías Bergara/Image Comics

Step by Step Bloody Step wrapped up this week, with artist Matías Bergara pulling out all the stops. Do I know how I feel about it? But I do know that this wordless book can be a captivating and wonderful interlude.

Image: Si Spurrier, Jan Bazaldua/Marvel Comics

Similar SBBS, the latest book in Marvel’s X-Men line, Legion of XSi Spurrier has written a book called ‘, with many more words. Spurrier and artist Jan Bazaldua have the high-concept task of figuring out what policing looks like on the paradise of Krakoa when most people can’t even figure out how to do that in real life.

Meanwhile they’ve introduced this idea that the strength-obsessed Arakkii mutants will allow the presence of no god that cannot defeat their entire people in arena combat, an absolutely buck-wild idea. If Thor ever meets them, God help him.

Image: Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos/Dark Horse Comics

On the cover, writer Brian Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos’ Pearl is about a young woman with the skills of an expert killer — and a unique ink-less tattoo that only becomes visible when she’s mad — taking her mother’s place as the operator of yakuza business in San Francisco by bloody force. In practice it’s about Pearl Tanaka, tattoo artist, shooting the shit with her normie friends and occasionally having to deal with some mafia stuff, and this is just to say: I really enjoy the comic about Pearl Tanaka shooting the shit with her friends and occasionally doing some dope mafia stuff.