Coming late to the party (again!), with DC Animals’ Mother Panic, which is set in Gotham City. Calling her an ally of Batman’s would a major overstatement, but she’s not really a villain either. Competitor might be the most appropriate description.

The features two storylines, one detailing Mother Panic’s origins (dead father, crazy mother, abandoned in a Catholic boarding school by her indifferent brother), and her crusade against… well, we’re not really sure.

Telling the origin in snippets of flashback has become a bit of a cliché, but such is the nature of comic books. There are only so many ways to tell such a story, especially one involving a new character – or a new variation on an old one.

I’m liking Tommy Lee Edwards artwork here. I used to be unimpressed by his work, but here it seems so well suited to the Bat-universe. I could easily become a fan.

And speaking of fans, I was thrilled to see the reunion of Phil Hester and Ande Parks on the back-up feature, “Gotham Radio,” written by Jim Krueger. I adored their work years ago on Green Arrow, and it’s only gotten better since then. The team says more in three pages than most writer/artist teams say in 10.