Griffin’s Picks for the week of 1/7/2026 - Happy New Year!
1: Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century - Marvel/DC
If you’re like me and love intercompany crossovers from Marvel and DC, check out the one that started it all! At least when it comes to superhero comics anyways, they actually collaborated in order to publish a Wizard of Oz adaptation that laid the groundwork for this to take place. Gerry Conway wrote this iconic crossover with Ross Andru doing the pencils but John Romita Jr and Neal Adams were uncredited with basically touching up/re-drawing some of Andru’s art.
Now I know that this comic is 50 years old but in an effort to keep my reviews from being stale and due to the fact that this is the first time that I’ve read the story, here we are! Like many of you, I grew up with a love and fascination in my heart for comic books and reading this was a reminder of why I fell in love with costumed heroes and paneled pages in the first place. The story is by no means something to write home about, but that doesn’t detract from my enjoyment in any way, shape or form – in fact, the simplicity is part of its beauty. I wish that this was something that I had as a kid, because it’s something that I know I would have spent hours upon hours pouring over in awe, wondering how it could be possible that Superman and Spider-Man could possibly be in the same book.
If there’s a comic-curious adolescent in your life, I’m not sure if there’s a better comic to put in their hands to get them started than this one. An incredibly basic knowledge helps, but is not required and if they love it, there’s another treasury sized crossover between these two characters coming in a few months.
2: Batman #5 - DC
It’s not too late to hop onto the Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez run on Batman, which has exceeded my expectations after not reading the mainline series for a couple years now. It harkens back to the feel of Batman in the 80s in that Bruce isn’t a complete jerk and the story has a more serialized feel.
Issue #4 revolves around Bruce Wayne picking Dr. Zeller up for what may or may not be a date, but things go south due to a bounty that’s been placed on Dr. Zeller’s head, Bruce has to evade the killers and protect her without cluing her in on his secret identity as Batman. First appearing at the beginning of this run, I think that Dr. Zeller has been a welcome addition to Batman comics so far. For me, a new love interest that isn’t Catwoman is a breath of fresh air. Also making an appearance in this is Ojo (formerly known as Lady Death Man).
What I continue to appreciate about Fraction’s run on Batman is that each issue really stands on its own, despite the fact that there is an overarching narrative going on. Something that drives me crazy about the landscape of current comics is that you can’t just jump into a random issue and have some semblance of what’s going on. As much as comic fans complain about it, that’s a large reason why the constant re-launches take place. But I digress.
3: Twilight Zone #3 - IDW
Written and drawn by James Stokoe, Twilight Zone #3 is another installment of IDW’s continuation of the TV show.
The art in this issue is gorgeous and if you haven’t read anything by James Stokoe, I would recommend changing that. The story in this one is about a war-mongering tribe that’s presumably pillaging any village/encampment that they come across. That is until they’re met with a deadly surprise. As with many Twilight Zone premises, the less that’s said, the better so I won’t divulge any more than that.
The past two times that I’ve reviewed this series, I’ve said that it’s a great fit for you if you’re a fan of the original Twilight Zone series, but the more of these that come out, the less that I feel like that’s accurate. That’s not to say that I haven’t genuinely enjoyed each one that’s been released, but they feel less and less like they were made specifically for this series but rather existing scripts that were slightly tweaked to fit the bill. Twilight Zone in the Twilight Zone perhaps?