Batman

I'm a sucker for stories that explore what life in a superhero universe is like for the regular people who live there, so I've been pretty interested in the DC superhero sitcom Powerless, debuting February 2 on NBC, ever since it was announced. The thing is, while I knew it was set in a superhero-adjacent business in the DC Universe, and that relatively obscure characters like Crimson Fox were going to show up, there was one connection to the larger DC that I was extremely surprised to hear about; Vanderveer "Van" Wayne, Bruce Wayne's terrible, terrible cousin, played in the show by Alan Tudyk. That dude is an extremely deep cut, showing up in one issue back in 1962, but really? If you're looking for a grandstanding and somewhat oblivious boss for a piece of the Wayne family's corporate empire, he's pretty much perfect.

Welcome to Wayne’s World, the latest ComicsAlliance TV recap series, jumping right into the middle of the third season of Fox’s Gotham, the show about the childhood of Bruce Wayne and the world of Batman before Batman. This week, the city of Gotham plunges into chaos as Jerome takes Bruce Wayne out to the carnival in the Gotham winter finale.

A story, told in headlines: Here’s us on December 18, reporting on Ben Affleck’s voicing of slight misgivings about his tentative gig as the director of the new Batman solo film:

If Gotham’s Joker-heavy “Gentle Art of Making Enemies” serves as any kind of reminder, it’s that the FOX drama will often rise as close as it can to costumed Batman villains without taking the plunge. That said, one of its most enduring creations may finally suit up, as Cory Michael Smith’s Edward Nygma appears to become a costumed Riddler in the April return trailer.

If you like your toys to be as meta as possible, then you’re definitely going to want to make a little room in your budget for The LEGO Batman Movie LEGO sets. Yes, the LEGO version of the iconic superhero is getting his very own LEGO sets, featuring LEGO Bat-vehicles, LEGO Bat-villains and much more. As we’ve noted before, it’s kind of amazing to see toy sets based on a movie that’s based on a toy that’s based on a superhero.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years on the Internet, it’s that there’s no aspect of comics that can’t be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there’s no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we’re taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Five lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. There's nothing fun about the topic, but death is unquestionably a huge part of superhero comics, and this week we're looking at five of the deaths that had the most profound effect on the DC Universe.

To celebrate the birthday of DC’s Geoff Johns, Joe Manganiello has shared a new photo of Deathstroke, and it’s…a little blurry. In case you’d forgotten, the actor is playing the Batman villain in Ben Affleck’s solo film, simply titled The Batman — but we might get a peek at the baddie in action a little sooner than that, as Deathstroke is rumored to be making a brief appearance in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Gotham never exactly hid the fact that Cameron Monaghan’s “Jerome” was intended as a prequel stand-in of sorts for The Joker, but boy, if the final Season 3 episode until spring isn’t punctuating it with a bang. See for yourself in a “white-band” trailer for next week’s “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies,” as FOX finally confers a certain Joker name, amid all the madness.

Every month, comic publishers release their solicitation announcements to provide information to readers and retailers on comics that are coming out in three months’ time, but there’s so much information dropped at once that a lot can slip through the cracks. This month in DC’s April solicitations, we’ve got guest artists galore, fan-favorite team-ups and a clue towards the incoming return of a classic DC super-team.

Welcome to Wayne’s World, the latest ComicsAlliance TV recap series, jumping right into the middle of the third season of Fox’s Gotham, the show about the childhood of Bruce Wayne, and the world of Batman before Batman. Your Gotham guides are Dylan Todd, an old hand at the recap game, but completely new to the show; and Tara Marie, a new recapper, but a dyed-in-the-wool Gotham fan. In this episode, Barbara schemes, Selina gets played, and the proto-Joker's face gets taken out for a spin. "Smile Like You Mean It" was directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, and written by Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt.