It's the Start of an Exciting New Era for Gotham City

New York Comic Con is a monumental event in pop culture, occurring every year in the fall to mirror San Diego Comic Con, which takes place every year in the summer. With hundreds of thousands of attendees walking its halls, the convention is on the bucket list of anyone invested in manga, films, shows, merchandise, and, of course, comics. Time can be spent flitting through the show floor, getting memorabilia signed, admiring the cosplays of others, showing off your own costumes, getting to meet one's favorite creatives, hanging around in afterparties, and more. Something that always draws a crowd at NYCC is its panels. Attendees will stand in lines at least an hour in advance to secure good seats, sometimes even reserving spots in line weeks in advance if the panels are monumental enough, just to be the first to be kept up-to-date on the specifics of their favorite comics, creatives, shows, and more.

There is always a range of panels prepared for NYCC that vary in scope, but DC and Marvel both tend to pack a full house for their panels detailing “what’s next” for their respective companies…and sometimes, they still manage to pack house for panels that seem to be less impactful on the wider DCU, like with the “Gotham City” panel that took place on the second day of the convention. Moderated by DC editor Rob Levin, the panel had the talents of Tini Howard, Babs Tarr, Jorge Jimenez, Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, Che Grayson, and Erica Henderson in attendance, ready to talk about existing titles like Batman and Absolute Batman, works in progress like Harley and Ivy: Life and Crimes, and all-new announcements revealed for the first time that day, like Sirens: Love Hurts and Absolute Catwoman.

The Gotham City Sirens Are Back With A Black Label Miniseries

The Gotham City Sirens have had a peculiar publishing history. Their original series is a staple of the late Post-Crisis era, an endearing comedy that did a great job exploring its three major leads, the premiere villainesses of Gotham City: Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn. Even though the team-up appeared here and there in random books over the years, the title remained on ice until 2024. Since then, there have been two minis featuring the trio that had their issues released weekly, titled Gotham City Sirens and Gotham City Sirens: Unfit for Orbit, both written by Leah Williams and illustrated by various artists.

Now? The Sirens are back with something a little meatier, their own Black Label miniseries titled Sirens: Love Hurts. Written by Tini Howard and illustrated by Babs Tarr (though the latter did say at the panel she has help in the form of a layout artist and background artist, neither of which were mentioned by name) the duo seem incredibly excited to tell a story with Sirens. The last time they had worked on anything relating to the team was a story in Harley Quinn: Black, White and Redder #6, which ended with a tease that the trio’s adventures would be continued “sooner than you think.” Well, three years later, they’re back in action!

Howard described the book as being like “Long Halloween for the girlies” and “the hot girl Gotham book we’ve been craving.” The crux of the series will be the friendships of the Sirens—plus Black Canary, as an honorary girl of Gotham—and their love lives, each issue taking place in a different season as one year passes through the comic. They’re all figuring out different situations. Harley’s got a breakup to figure out, Pamela has her loneliness, Selina is trying to figure out how things are going between two different guys, and Dinah is figuring out her marriage to Oliver Queen, including the struggle that comes with being the fiancée to someone so incredibly high-profile. But the four of them have each other and a new villain to face. A design wasn’t shown, but Howard teased that she’d be a serial killer that’d be a tonal combination of a more modern, gritty sort of villain from the Absolute universe, and a more classic foe from the Batman ‘66 show. She also joked that she’d be the “most evil, toxic version of Tini.”

All in all, Love Hurts seems like a cute adventure for the Black Label line. It seems like it’s part of the company’s policy to try and branch out in terms of style and tone, as Howard and Tarr described the book as being nuanced, sexy, and heavily inspired by romance manga. It’ll be dropping in February 2026 and will last four issues.

Jorge Jimenez Chatted About His Several-Year Stint On Batman

It isn’t too often that a creative gets to stick around on a mainline ongoing title for a character as big as Batman for several years. Jorge Jimenez stands as an exception to that, as he’s been the interior artist for the main Batman ongoing since 2020 or so. He’s got a rather impressive streak working with creators from James Tynion IV to Matt Fraction and is able to reinvent his style in subtle ways every time the run gets a new writer.

Jimenez went into detail about this during his time on the panel. He’s always in a state of wanting to push himself and trying to do something new when it comes to his art. When it came to plotting the current Batman ongoing with Fraction, he said the success of the first issue felt “crazy,” and who can blame him? It’s already sold half a million copies and is currently being reprinted. Jimenez said he wanted to go for a vibe that was more synthetic and iconic; many of Jimenez’s previous issues and designs for Batman were very cyberpunk, very detailed, but here he wanted to scale back and illustrate these characters in a more “classic” way to better fit Fraction’s sensibilities. Jimenez is a class act in how he credited his various colorists throughout his time on Batman, giving Tomeu Morey credit for the more flat and retro coloring style he’s using for this run.

Jimenez was asked what his favorite gadget to draw was, as the Fraction run so far has a heavy emphasis on them, and he responded with the fact he loved all of them. He’s having fun playing with all the tools Batman has in his arsenal, designing them and putting them into action—speaking of designs, Levin asked Jimenez about the Minotaur, a new villain who will be gracing the book in December. Jimenez joked that Fraction asked him to keep anything about the new villain a secret and to “be careful.” It’ll be interesting to see how the Minotaur and his organization, Taurus, will be able to stand alone from other secret society villains, but we’ll see how that comes along in December. In the meantime, temporary tattoos were handed out to the audience with Taurus’ logo, with Jimenez and Howard joking about the former trying to get a real tattoo of the logo done.

We Learned About How Far Absolute Batman Can Go

“It only gets worse” was one of the first things Scott Snyder said when asked about the future of Absolute Batman, and it’s a pretty easy sentiment to believe. Snyder, Dragotta, and Martin have been slowly dialing up the heat under this iteration of Batman since the conclusion of the first arc, with him suffering tremendous physical and emotional damage at the hands of this universe’s Bane. How could it get worse? Well, it seems through the Joker, as Snyder and Dragotta revealed the monstrous, demonic design for this universe's take on him only a couple of weeks before the convention.

Snyder had a lot to say about Joker in this universe. While he’s been a mysterious figure in the main Batman title, readers got to see a bit more of him in the recent Absolute Evil one-shot. Here he’s depicted as an unsettling straightman to the others, fixated on the concept of order and chaos. Here, the villains are the order of the universe, disrupted by the chaos of the heroes. Joker has realized that Batman is the chaos in the world and many fans have speculated that he will grow to be envious of that fact if he ever learns about his mainline counterpart—Batman is free as he breaks the system and the order of the world, yet saving people all the while, while Joker is resigned to what the universe has in store for him.

We’ll officially be getting the origin of Absolute Joker in the series’ 15th issue, out in December and illustrated by Jock. Dragotta and Snyder had nothing but kind words to share about the superstar artist. The former went into the creative process they had when designing Joker’s monstrous form, joking about the rule of cool and how they sought out reactions to maximize the horror that exists in every corner of the book. The latter went into how he actually started his friendship and creative relationship with the artist. Snyder really wanted Jock to be a part of the comic Black Mirror, but was informed by his editor that it would be unlikely, as Jock was a superstar while Snyder was new on the scene. Still, the writer persisted and even took a flight to California to meet Jock. They did so at a bar where they got drunk and Snyder tried to sell him on the book, and ultimately did so by revealing the more personal elements of the story to the artist. Jock was endeared to the pitch and signed on right after.

It’s wonderful to see how well Absolute Batman is progressing, especially as its horror elements will be amped up with the introduction of Scarecrow and Poison Ivy in the next arc, and the fact it will have its own spin-off miniseries.

Absolute Catwoman Has Finally Joined The Absolute Line

Everyone was completely gobsmacked at the original three Absolute books when they were shown off, then once more when the second wave was revealed. Everyone has been loving the books for the most part. However, there was still a lot of speculation as to whether any more would come. Lots wanted more obscure characters to get a spotlight, and plenty speculated that Darkseid’s Legion of Superheroes would get a title at some point. This speculation was temporarily satiated at the 2025 San Diego Comic Con when Absolute Green Arrow was announced and then became a frenzy when Oliver Queen was brutally killed off in the recent Absolute Evil special.

Well, consider the hornet’s nest kicked up once again with the most recent reveal: an Absolute Catwoman miniseries written by Che Grayson and Scott Snyder, and illustrated by Bengal. Spinning off from the character’s appearances in Absolute Batman, this universe’s take on Selina Kyle is striking out on her own as fans will get to see her embark on a solo adventure. We have seen hints of her past and a significant part of her present in Absolute Batman, but this six-issue series promises to dive into all the meaty details. Snyder himself said that while he was developing this universe’s take on Selina, he found that she had “too much story” to be done justice as a supporting character in Absolute Batman, which led to him approaching Grayson to headline a solo book with the character.

Snyder and Grayson made it clear that Selina in this universe is meant to occupy a role similar to mainline Batman in terms of resources. Batman’s gadgets are all engineered at home from scraps Bruce can get his hands on as a sort of DIY project. Catwoman is the one decked out in expensive new technology. She’s wearing a helmet reminiscent of Black Mask’s (a connection promised to be elaborated on in the run, especially as it was mentioned in Absolute Batman #13), she has a robotic tail that can act as ammunition, a grapple, or a handy whip, can camouflage herself, and more. She’s got resources, connections, vaults, and safehouses located at the tops of the world’s tallest buildings in order to assert her power.

Catwoman in this universe is a sort of information dealer on top of being a thief. It was described that she “doesn’t just steal, she finds,” though that doesn’t mean she’s above a heist every so often. In fact, that’s what the book is structured around: the biggest heist of Catwoman’s career, interwoven with her origin story. Grayson described Selina as trying to match power with power, wanting to shoot for the stars to escape her roots. “She’s a thief who is trying to buy something money can’t buy. She is trying to buy freedom…how much does that cost?” was a question Grayson floated. The comic will place Selina in a reverse Icarus situation, in which she learns that she can’t win by staying at the top all the time, that taking more than you can give to the world has consequences, and that she needs to remember and embrace her roots. Will she do so successfully? Only time will tell as the comic will be released sometime in 2026.

Harley and Ivy’s Romance Is Getting a Dedicated Origin Mini

Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are characters that have been reimagined in many different ways over the years, both as individuals and in terms of their relationship to one another. As a result, the origin story behind their romance has been reinvented many times over the years, as well as how Harley left the Joker in the first place, to the point that the continuity behind it has gotten a little murky. That’s what Erica Henderson’s new series, Harley and Ivy: Life and Crimes is set to fix. Releasing November 5th, the mini will be an origin dedicated to just how the duo met and fell in love, as well as all the surrounding challenges.

Henderson was very excited about the project, getting to toy with established continuity to create something concrete. She likened “breaking the rules” in the mini to be similar to how the creatives working with Absolute got to break the rules and is having lots of fun in developing the book even if she is restricted in some ways—an example she cited was needing to have Joker walk around with his face ripped off because that was the canon of the time, though she liked it because she got to write Harley breaking up with an actual monster.

Henderson also detailed the balance between being someone who is illustrating and writing a comic, and how that comes with its own unique problems. She joked that sometimes her artist self gets upset at her writer self for writing scenes that may be difficult to illustrate, though mentioned there is one scene in a later issue she had a fun time with in which Joker slides his hand under his detached face and contorts it. While Life and Crimes seems to be more of a short and sweet mini, it ought to have a more grody punch to it as well.