What I Bought 1/23/2026

I had to run to the next town over on Friday to meet with Alex and hammer some things out before what will hopefully be the only Winter-geddon we get this year. It did give me the chance to stop at the store there and pick up a couple of comics from earlier in the month. Then it was back into my apartment, where I largely remained the rest of the weekend. Depending on the roads, I may not leave Monday either. I made the mistake of driving to work on the hilly, snow-covered roads of this town last winter, and I'm not sure my teeth can survive the experience again.

Babs: The Black Road South #1, by Garth Ennis (writer), Jacen Burrows (artist), Andy Troy (colorist), Rob Steen (letterer) - Great, Babs is swinging her sword in the wrong direction. The dragon's behind you!

Babs enters a gladiator battle for the specific purpose of killing a guy who smashed her sand castle when she was a child. But, having successfully completed that task, and with lots of people betting on her, she sticks around and takes out the entire "Matazax Hack-Pack," which includes a panda with a unicorn horn. Panda-corn? Pandicorn?

Eh, whatever. Point is, her friend Izzy bet on her and they made a lot of money. They splurge on a nice room, hit the tavern, and engage in medieval fantasy karaoke, about Red Sonja. Mostly about how horny "the Sonj" is, because nobody can beat her in a fight, so, you know, no nookie. This takes three pages, but the crowd gets into it (minus the lute-playing elf bemoaning how this isn't really music.) Burrows has a lot of fun with the crowd reactions, people gradually get more hyped until they're jumping off the stage and swinging from chandeliers. Plus, in some real Flintstones' shit, the microphones are little geckos with a funnel up their butts. It's a livin'.

After a little more fun, they wake up the next morning, hungover (and wearing each other's outfits), with no money. While they run around like idiots, we learn via flashback there's some set-up where you can invest in heroic quests, and get a share of the proceeds when the party returns. But they invested in a quest to Mordynn, which may or may not be a shithole. Either way, Babs is adamant she'd rather kiss the money good-bye than go back there. Too bad.

I can't decide if Ennis is going to take the route of Babs and Izzy constantly running into trouble on the Black Road, and never even catching up to the party, or they do catch up and get swept up in trying to keep the band of likely bungling idiots alive. I'm guessing the latter, if only because the merchant mentioned some 'balls-up' from a few years ago, which Babs is probably connected to. So she gets to see the end result of her handiwork.

Batgirl #15, by Tate Brombal (writer), Stephen Segovia (artist), Rain Beredo (colorist), Steve Wands (letterer) - Don't be fooled, there is very little that's calm in this issue.

Batgirl is having weird dreams about being betrayed and learning truths, then lashing out at Tenji. Jaya tries to tell her she has to stop feeling guilty about where she started, face her past, blah blah blah. I'm especially suspicious of the part where she talks about Shiva becoming "more" the day she abandoned her vengeance, which she defines as the day Cass was born. Wouldn't it be the day she agreed to fuck David Cain, the guy who killed her sister?

Also, the "more" Shiva became includes a person who kills a lot of people without batting an eye. Maybe it would have been better for her to stay "less."

While Batgirl confronts Nyssa about her complicity in the destruction of the monks who used to live there, Tenji goes snooping and runs into the big oaf of an Unburied in a cell. Guy is pretty calm, because his people know the underground, and they've been tunneling in. Batgirl's discussion with Nyssa gets nowhere, because apparently Cass can't read if Nyssa's lying or not, possibly due to the no emotions thing. So she's going to leave, but wants to say good-bye to Jaya first. Too bad Jaya is working for the Unburied. When Tenji warns Nyssa of the sneak attack, Nyssa says everything is going according to plan.

Brombal is spamming the hell out of the "surprise betrayal" button.Props to Segovia, who draws Jaya with this very open face. Huge, expressive eyes, always leaning towards people and offering comfort. It at least makes her look "innocent", so the betrayal should, in theory be a surprise. However, I'm not sure Brombal has completed the part of the deal where I have to care about most of these characters, especially with how many betrayals we're seeing. Also, now both sides are doing the, "you thought I lost, but it was part of my plan," shtick!

And what the hell does any of it have to do with Shiva, or Cass' connection to her mother?! I am fully onboard with Batgirl just leaving them to it and going home to Gotham. She's not getting anything out of this, especially since she couldn't trust any of what Jaya said, given her apparent true loyalties. Although there's still a part of expecting Shiva to turn up as leader the Unburied, and this is all part of some mindfuck to make Cass stronger.