How many Batman books is too many Batman books? Depending on who you ask there ain’t no such thing! We try to stay up on what’s going on at DC, but we can’t always dig deep into every issue. The solution? Our weekly round-up of titles coming out of DC Comics. Today, we’re discussing Batman/Superman 24, Catwoman 44, Justice League United 13, and Starfire 4.

Batman Superman 24

Michael: Books like Batman/Superman can fall prey to putting too many ingredients into the pot. Batman and Superman’s respective worlds are full of concepts and characters that are excellent in their own right. When you bring these two worlds together however, the picture can get a little cluttered — leaving the overall narrative unfocused. Batman/Superman 43 shows us the latest with de-powered Clark as he continues to try to stop Urkur’s underdweller plans from within. And as the cover suggests, Clark no longer has just the subterranean people to connect with, but also Aquaman (whom I know very little about currently, besides that he has a new look.) So Clark is trying to gain the trust of an underground civilization, a new Batman and his old pal Aquaman. There’s too much going on already to have to deal with “New Superman” and “New Aquaman” meet and engage in a pissing contest.

In a way I’ve always felt like Batman/Superman was Greg Pak’s side experiment, with Action Comics being the primary focus. I find it a little strange that Gordon takes a breather to bone up on his Clark Kent trivia at the Daily Planet – showing once again that Superman is the focus of the book. Don’t you think that anyone named “Batman” would more concerned with the urgent (expositionally complicated) matter at hand? I guess not — Gordon doesn’t worry about mini-suns and instead focuses on Perry White complaining about Clark lying about being Superman. Sidebar — I hate when writers confuse Perry White for J. Jonah Jameson.

The resolution of the conflict is basically what all super hero books do: “let’s stop fighting and start talking so we can overcome this classic misunderstanding.” I can mostly appreciate that approach, until Pak pulls the rug from under us and makes this book inevitably cross over with Action Comics. One thing I did enjoy about this issue was Clark’s relationship with Bruce Wayne. I liked how Clark’s monologue veered into “talking to the dead” territory, when Clark didn’t know what else to do. I also liked the mirroring that Pak did when he had Clark confront the amnesiac Bruce in the nightmarish park where they first met in Batman/Superman 1. Unfortunately, original artist Jae Lee didn’t cover those pages, which were instead pencilled by Yildiray Cinar. I appreciate the effort nevertheless.

Catwoman 44

Drew: Much of Genevieve Valentine’s run on Catwoman has focused on how inappropriate Selina Kyle is as a choice to run a massive crime syndicate — not because she’s disinterested or incompetent, but because she simply works best on her own. Issue 44 finds Selina throwing in the towel, though it may be too little too late. Black Mask has already nearly killed Eiko, and this issue finds him following her back to the Hasigawa compound, concluding that the Hasigawas must be working with Catwoman. It’s a classic case of mistaken identity — at home in both superhero stories and classical tragedies, which this issue draws from in equal measure.

The real tragedy, though, is that Selina seems to finally be learning how valuable friends and family can be. This issue finds her relying on the kindness of Killer Croc, seeking out Spoiler for help, and even enjoying a family dinner with her cousins. These are all foreign experiences to who is otherwise a generally solitary figure, but are clearly positive ones. I fear that Selina’s lesson from what happens to the Hasigawas may be to keep everyone at arm’s length — a lesson that might return her to her Platonic ideal, but at the expense of whatever growth she’s experienced over the last year.

Justice League United 13

Mark: When did Justice League United become the spiritual successor to Bruce Timm’s Justice League Unlimited animated series? I dropped off on Jeff Lemire’s run so I can’t speak to how that ended, but post-Convergence Jeff Parker has done a great job with Justice League Unlimited‘s raison d’etre of taking B and C-list Justice League members and making them stars. Sure, there are still some duds (can anything make Steel interesting?), but watching the likes of Animal Man, Vandal Savage, Batgirl (the team’s biggest name), and Robotman bounce off of each other is a lot of fun. Part of that fun is the issue’s structure, with bookend appearances by Sergeant Rock. Opening during World War 2 and ending with a mashup of time and space, the issue feels likes an episode of Justice League Unlimited. It’s hard to give an issue higher praise than that.

Starfire 4

Spencer: It’s hard to read Starfire and not notice what a “talky” book it is. Characters have long conversations that meander into tangents about weather patterns or the minute details of their powers or backstories — at times it can be overwhelming, even for a book that revolves around low-stakes, slice of life adventures. If Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti’s goal is to show how frustrating it must be to explain life on Earth to an alien with no concept of our customs, they’ve succeeded.

Yet, despite all that, it’s hard to stay mad at Starfire; at its core it’s just so sweet that every time a moment frustrates me, the next scene will charm my pants off and make me forget I ever had a problem with it in the first place. Starfire 4‘s emotional core — and sweetest moments — come from the fast friendship forming between Kori and Atlee, who can’t get one sentence into a conversation without fawning over each other. It’s totally adorable.

Atlee’s been sent to the surface world as an ambassador for global change, and while she says she’s living in Key West to better fit in among humans, it does seem counterintuitive to her environmental goals. Both she and Kori can fit in and learn quite a bit in Key West, but there’s very little they can do to change the world from there. This mission has the potential to alter the entire direction of this title, and while I doubt that will happen, I am curious to see how Atlee’s continued presence changes Kori and the nature of their Key West.

 The conversation doesn’t stop there, because you certainly read something that we didn’t. What do you wanna talk about from this week?