Living Dead Girl

Madame Xanadu #6

Nimue is trapped in a cell during the French Revolution. Unable to get to her youth-restoring potions, she’s growing older and older by the minute. Desperate to save herself, she casts a spell to summon Death herself — as in Morpheus’ uber-cool goth sister from Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” series — to persuade her that it’s not actually her time to die.

Verdict: Thumbs up. First, because Death is such an impossibly awesome character. And second, because Amy Reeder Hadley draws such impossibly awesome pictures of Death.

Birds of Prey #124

The Calculator has betrayed the Birds of Prey to the Silicon Syndicate. Luckily, they have some backup — namely, Black Canary, Manhunter, Green Arrow, and Speedy. But the more significant battle is back at Oracle’s HQ, where the Joker has come calling again, having finally realized that the girl in the wheelchair was really Barbara Gordon, the girl he paralyzed all those years ago. Who’s going to come out on top in this rematch?

Verdict: Thumbs up, entirely because of the Barbara-vs.-Joker fight. The rest of it was pretty forgettable.