i finally read batman (2025) #4 & here are my thoughts on the teased romance between annika zeller & bruce: i think annika has a really fun & interesting personality; she’s brilliant, obsessive, and compassionate. and jorge jimenez always brings it with the character designs. i loved her weird girl genius workout fit. i think she has a lot of potential as a character in of herself
but so far what i’m seeing of her dynamic with bruce is that he is the one who is much more experienced with dating & willing to put himself out there, he’s the confident one out of the two of them when it comes to relationships. and that’s just not a type of vibe i’m interested in for a bruce wayne romance. i like it a lot more when the other person is more experienced, or more forceful, or more physically affectionate & that trips him up a little & he’s trying to play catchup in some way.
my prediction as this book continues is that i think i’m gonna grow to like annika more & more but still feel lukewarm on the romance. we shall see though. it could be really interesting too if they go on a couple dates & decide they’d be better as friends/business partners. i haven’t seen that happen with him before & that could be fun.
overall this book is generally not the tone & style that i like from batman comics, but it is well written & jorge jimenez continues to do a great job with the art. i like that the book is establishing civilian characters pretty early on, including the schoolboy, huston, and the former reporter he’s trying to help out, jack. annika is defintely a civilian character i wanna see more of as well
