DC’s Batman: Shadow War crossover begins with Ra’s al Ghul .’s death

This week, writer Joshua Williamson kicked off Shadow Wars cross events (told in the pages of Death stroke, Robinand Batman) with the assassination of Ra’s al Ghul.

You see, Ra’s realized that he had been poisoned using the Lazarus Pit, and decided to engage himself and share his vast alchemy knowledge for the betterment of the world. But in the speech in which he announced this, someone dressed as Deathstroke inserted a bullet into Ra’s head and then vaporized his body with a grenade. Now, thanks to all this trusty business, Deathstroke is on the run from every assassin Talia Head can muster. And she’s the head of the League of Shadows, so that’s a lot. Batman must keep Deathstroke from dying and at the same time find the real killer.

It’s a pretty typical start to a horror movie, including a shocking death you’re comfortable with, all of which goes up in smoke – however, I can’t be mad at it, because Shadow War: Alpha simply a fun read.

What else is happening in the pages of our favorite comics? We will let you know. Welcome to Funnies Monday, Polygon’s weekly list of the books our comics editors loved over the past week. It’s the social pages of superheroes’ lives, the reading recommendations section, the “look at this amazing piece of work”. There may be some damage. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the final edition, read this.)

Image: Joshua Williamson, Viktor Bogdanovic / DC Comics

Everyone knows that Batman’s family is dead, and that he has built himself a new family of orphans and friends. And Shadow War: Alpha reminds us that Batman has another, problematic family of international terrorists, through his biological son, Damian, whose mother is Talia Head.

I enjoyed Williamson’s recent work with Damian in Robinfeels like a manga about a real teenager because the Teenager. And what raised this Shadow War Opening from its comic twists, the emotional circuitry of the story is clear: This is about Damian’s complicated emotions of admiration and disappointment in basically every character his parents ever had.

Image: Kieron Gillen, Lucas Werneck / Marvel Comics

Speaking of twists, Immortal mutant # first just revealed the greatest final page I’ve read all year, in which we see that Mister Sinister has created clones of Moira MacTaggert to use her timeline regeneration powers to cast spells. his personal reset technique- 8 balls. It was both completely insane, and the obvious thing that Sinister would do.

Image: James Tynion IV, Werther Dell’edera / Boom Studios

Something is killing the children is back with a new arc and it’s still great. The scene has moved out of “every neighborhood” of Archer’s Peak to the American Southwest, and artist Werther Dell’edera and colorist Miquel Muerto have redrawn the new desert landscape for all it’s worth. Just look at that sunset.

Image: Chip Zdarsky, Jacob Phillips / Image Comics

This is just to say that Newburn Also a great comic. Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips’ short crime anthology about a private eye who only works for gangsters hasn’t failed to provide a satisfying bit of story on every issue.

Image: Si Spurrier, Matías Bergara / Image Comics

And finally: Bloody step by step Still a beautiful manga. Can’t wait to see more of this world. No notes.