Griffin's Picks for the week of 6/3/2026

1: The Deadman #1 - DC

            The team that brought you Ice Cream Man (W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo), brings you the newest Deadman series, The Deadman. This is their second swing at a DC title, albeit their first in mainline continuity since Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum was a Black Label title.

            The series begins with a recounting of Boston Brand/Deadman’s origin but to quote Maxwell Prince in the issue “All the best origin stories are, like, super compressed..”, it’s quite literally only a page though and I wish more comics would move things along that quickly. Deadman is operating as a spiritual custodian in the town of Robertsville, assisting souls to move on and helping with any complications that may come up when it comes to the afterlife. But the thing about Robertsville is that it acts as a hub for spirits that have failed to transition into the “Great Whereafter”. But demons begin interfering with the spirit's ability to transition and in order to balance the spiritual math of the afterlife Boston Brand must stop the balance of life and death from being thrown off kilter. 

            It makes me so happy that the success of Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum led to this, because I love Deadman as a character and I think tonally, the Ice Cream Man team is perfect for this book. It’s funny, weird and was a complete first issue that didn’t feel like it was just setting up the rest of the series. If you’ve been reading my reviews for any extended amount of time, you’ve probably noticed that that’s a consistent complaint of mine when launching off a new series. Plus! The team-up teased in the second issue feels tailor made for me. Read it!

2: Batman #10 - DC

            Vandal Savage’s war on the Bat Family continues in the tenth issue of Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez’s run on Batman. If you’ve read the first issue of Barbara Gordon: Breakout then I’d recommend picking up this issue and the previous one, because they’ll give some added context. 

            In the last installment, Barbara Gordon gets herself arrested (you’ll have to read her series to find out why though) and Vandal Savage’s police force destroys dozens of Batman’s secret bunkers hidden across Gotham. Bruce begins the issue continuing his investigation into the mysterious Minotaur, realizing that whoever they are, their behaviour is much closer to a business person than a cold-blooded criminal. But as Vandal Savage declares the end of the Batman, Bruce knows that he has to make a statement to the people of Gotham. 

            In comparison to the early issues, I feel like this series hit a little bit of a lull, but the past two issues have really revitalized my interest in the series. If you’re unaware, each issue of this series is meant to be self contained, that doesn’t mean that the issues don’t connect but all the context you really need is there. If you’re thinking about getting into Batman, I would pick up #9 and #10, coincidentally, both are available at Time Warp! Call it serendipity!

3: The Twilight Zone #7

            Written by Tony Fleecs with art by Andy Price, the seventh issue of The Twilight Zone is perfect for purists when it comes to fans of the show. I’ve commented on how some of these issues have felt tonally different from the show but this is staunchly inline with what one would expect from this series.

            Henry Wallanowski is the town taxidermist, whose mother is constantly badgering him to put himself out there and find a woman but due to Henry’s introverted nature, he feels inept when it comes to the task of romance. But one day a beautiful woman comes into the store and deeply appreciates his morbid profession. Will their love blossom or will it become a beautiful moment lost to the sands of time? 

            As The Twilight Zone goes on, the issues feel more and more tailor-made to the tone of the original series and #7 really solidifies that. It might be recency bias but I think each new issue becomes my favorite of the series. For an anthology, it’s incredibly consistent, especially the past three issues. But I’ll honestly be surprised if any of the next ones surpass this one in terms of story quality. It also reminded me a bit of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho for a fairly obvious and shallow comparison.