Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1

Holy cow, it’s Godzilla! Written by Goon creator Eric Powell! With a sweet Alex Ross cover! Do you even have to ask me to describe it beyond that?!

Okay, okay, it’s basically a reboot of the Godzilla legend, with the monster’s initial emergence in the modern day. When the Japanese government, desperate to stop its rampage, hits it with an atomic bomb, it not only survives, but acquires the ability to breathe nuclear fire. But though Godzilla may be a disaster for Japan, it’s certainly going to cause problems around the world, too…

Verdict: Thumbs up? Oh, yeah, thumbs up. Good giant monster action, with some nice dramatic touches and even a bit of comedy here and there. I’m disturbingly excited about this title — I don’t know if I’m just more of a Godzilla fan than I thought, or if I’m just jazzed about seeing Eric Powell put his stamp on the Big G.

American Vampire #13

A new storyarc for this series. American vampire Pearl Jones has been with her human husband Henry Preston for about 20 years — he’s getting older, and she’s still staying young. Henry’s joined the military, hoping to fight against the Axis powers in World War II, but he’s considered too old for combat, so he and Pearl (she’s serving as a nurse) are stationed in Hawaii. But Henry gets a visit from Agent Hobbes of the vampire-hunting Vassals of the Morning Star — he offers Henry a chance to serve the war effort by accompanying a squad of the organization’s soldiers on a visit to Taipan to wipe out nests of vampires in advance of the U.S. invasion forces. And unbeknownst to the rest of the squad, they’ve got someone following them — the original American vampire, Skinner Sweet.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The series starts its second year with a great beginning for a new story. Excellent dialogue, characterization, and intrigue. Not a whole lot of fanged monsters running around this time, but the excellent personality work for both Henry and Pearl makes this a solid winner.

Today’s Cool Links:

• This is both hilarious and horrifying. Of course I loved it.
• Kalinara writes about gender and competence in fantasy parodies.
• Here’s an awesome video for Jonathan Coulton’s great zombie tune “Re: Your Brains.”
• Getting close enough for Easter yet? Time to start being terrified of the Easter Bunny.

American Vampire #12

We finally get another issue focusing on Skinner Sweet. He’s gone to visit a Wild West Show in Idaho in 1919 that includes some actors recreating the popular retelling of the gunfight that supposedly killed him. Sweet’s not impressed with the historical inaccuracy, nor with the has-beens and losers who make up the show’s stars — one of whom is a former madam of a famous brothel, and one of Skinner’s lovers. But he’s willing to let the inaccuracies stand, until he learns that his former lover actually betrayed him to the authorities. He kills some of the actors and lets the rest kill each other, but his confrontation with his former lover doesn’t turn out the way he expected.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Loved the story — the Wild West Shows always struck me as particularly bizarre sideshows, and they’re certainly a perfect place for a monster like Skinner Sweet to go on a rampage. Wasn’t real fond of the artwork in this one — it’s not by the regular artist, and he had some trouble drawing the “American Vampire” style of bloodsucker. Pretty pale palette of colors, too…

Detective Comics #874

Batman and Red Robin are investigating some animal smugglers, but Dick is still suffering occasional hallucinations from the poison he got dosed with last issue. Meanwhile, the bulk of this issue focuses on Commissioner Jim Gordon, who has a rare meeting with his estranged son, Jim Jr., a character I wasn’t previously familiar with. Junior is a clinical psychopath, his sister believes he’s a murderer, and his dad doesn’t know what to believe. The question is whether Junior’s mental illness is controlled by medication… or whether it isn’t.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I enjoyed the lengthy dialogue between Commissioner Gordon and his son a lot more than I was expecting to. Jim Jr. doesn’t come off as a mentally healthy person, but there’s also enough doubt there to make you wonder whether or not he’s a bad guy.

Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science #4

That scoundrel Thomas Edison is making his schemes while Robo and Mr. Tesla try to figure out the connection between all the robberies. When Robo later meets up with Jack Tarot and his daughter (and Robo’s girlfriend) Helen, he tangles with another of Edison’s giant robots and then realizes what small detail all the robberies included. All that, plus Helen discovers that Robo is, um, underage…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Loved this one so much. The dialogue between Robo and Helen was excellent and hilarious.

Today’s Cool Links:

• A nice video of Dwayne McDuffie talking about the perils of Writing Comics While Black.
• Congrats to Shane and Chris Houghton, whose “Reed Gunther” series is going to be published by Image Comics.
• What were H.P. Lovecraft’s favorite words?

American Vampire #11

Pearl and her husband Henry have stumbled into a nest of vampires, all courtesy of Little Feet Beale, a smuggler who’s handing his old musician pals over to the vamps. Pearl makes short work of the vampires, while Henry chases after Beale. But Henry doesn’t have Pearl’s resilience. Meanwhile, Pearl’s old roommate Hattie, newly freed from captivity, begins making her way across the country in pursuit of her former friend, leaving a long trail of bodies behind her.

Verdict: Thumbs up, as always. Great action, excellent interpersonal stuff (Pearl and Henry have a nice talk about the nature of vampirism on their relationship and their future), and of course, awesome, bloodthirsty vampires who never, ever sparkle.

Detective Comics #873

Dick Grayson’s disguise as William Rhodes, a wealthy, debauched tycoon slumming it among psychotics, has been pierced by Etienne Guiborg, the gas-masked loon behind the Mirror House. Though dosed with a hallucinogen, Dick manages to escape, but can he throw off the effects of the poison to bring Guiborg to justice? And as long as he’s suffering periodic hallucinations, can he trust anything he sees?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Some fun surprises, some excellently well-done hallucinations, and a nice examination of just how crazy a large chunk of the Gotham population may be…

Hey, I just realized I reviewed two of writer Scott Snyder’s comics today. Yay for semi-random synchronicity!

Today’s Cool Links:

• Congratulations to SpaceBooger on four years of drawing his own webcomic.
• Here’s a short fan film about the endlessly awesome Axe Cop.
• Jill Thompson draws Jughead Jones and Betty Cooper. And it is glorious.
• Oh my word, this is fairly hilarious. I wonder if he’ll consider attending a Tech game any time soon. Or if he’ll even campaign in Lubbock. He’ll either need a disguise or a huge contingent of bodyguards…

I’m at least two weeks behind on all my comics reviewin’, so let’s try to get as many done as we can over the next few days.

American Vampire #10

Everyone remember Hattie Hargrove? Pearl Jones former friend who sold her out for a shot at vampirism and stardom only to get killed by Pearl? Turns out she’s not dead — she’s being held prisoner by another vampire so he can try to figure out how to kill her and the other American vampires. Meanwhile, Pearl and her beau Henry are living in Arrowhead, California, where Pearl is worried that she’s going to vastly outlive her lover. There’s also a chance for them to get out and enjoy themselves at a new jazz club where Henry gets to sit in and play guitar in a set. But of course, those happy times can’t last forever, can they?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots of things to like here — the return of Hattie, the intense weirdness of the relationship between Pearl and Henry, from Pearl’s immortality to her tendency to feed on him during lovemaking, the great sequences in the jazz club, all the way up to that awesome last page. For once, Skinner Sweet doesn’t appear at all, and we don’t even miss him much.

Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine #4

We finally get a proper introduction to a couple of our villains here — the Czar and Big Murder, a couple of hoods with a diamond-studded time-travel bat. Meanwhile, Spidey and Wolvie have been dropped into different parts of each other’s origins — Wolverine has to masquerade as a wrestler hanging out with teenaged great-power-and-no-responsibility Peter Parker, and Spider-Man is stuck covered in meat and throwing down against a young James Howlett, mostly feral and mostly not knowing how to stop killing people. Both of ’em get ambushed and knocked around by Czar and Big Murder, and they end up getting burned at the stake in medieval times. So who’s the ultimate mastermind in this whole thing?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Really nice character work getting done in this one, particularly in the Wolverine-meets-selfish-Petey-Parker section. But the entire thing is great fun.

Batman Inc. #2

After Batman saves Catwoman and Jiro Osamu’s girlfriend from the giant octopus in the downstairs apartment, Jiro’s girlfriend dumps him because he was working for the late Mr. Unknown and thus putting her in danger. Jiro reveals to Batman and Catwoman that Mr. unknown was 56 years old and had spent the last few years as the detective behind the scenes while Jiro did all the physical work. He wants to help Batman go after Lord Death Man, but Bats is angry ’cause Jiro used a gun to attack the villain. Meanwhile, Lord Death Man resurrects in the hospital and goes after Shiny Happy Aquazon of Tokyo’s Super Young Team. Can Batman and Jiro save Aquazon and defeat Lord Death Man?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Good story, wonderful art, and a nice beginning for this series.

Detective Comics #872

Dick Grayson is on the trail of William Rhodes, a former Gotham businessman who’s now wanted by the police for his involvement with “Mirror House,” an organization that auctions off illegal memorabilia from Gotham City supervillains. But when Rhodes gets killed in an accident, Dick decides to disguise himself and investigate the Mirror House in person. He finds a building full of wealthy, gas-masked, evil-worshiping psychos. Is there a way for Dick to get out alive, especially when the auctioneer realizes he’s got an uninvited guest?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A nicely devious plot with a really nasty twist. The dialogue between Dick and Babs Gordon is also excellent.

Green Lantern #61

Atrocitus is on the trail of the Butcher, the rage entity looking for a new host on Earth. It finds one in the person of James Kim, a father who wants revenge for his murdered daughter, but the Spectre intervenes because he thinks he should hold the monopoly on enraged vengeance. Atrocitus is able to capture the Butcher, but not before it possesses James Kim and executes the criminal. Now the Spectre wants James Kim dead, too. Can one rage-fueled monster talk another rage-fueled monster into not passing judgment?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A nice spotlight issue for Atrocitus, and it’s also nice to see anyone, even a villain like the Red Lantern, confront the Spectre about the moral bankruptcy of his “holy” quest.

Today’s Cool Links:

• The Adventures of Superhero Girl
• More bigots who are angry about comics — in this case, the new Muslim Batman in Paris…
• If you ever have trouble with your personal technology, I think you’ll enjoy this.

I don’t think I’ve ever tried to do a year-end retrospective list — it’s always too difficult for me to pick out a list of things I enjoyed the most out of 12 whole months. But what the heck, I’m gonna try it today.

This list is strictly listed in alphabetical order. I can’t claim it’s a list of the best comics — I haven’t read all the comics, after all — but it’s the list of the 15 comics that I enjoyed the most.

American Vampire

Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Stephen King came together to re-invent the vampire for the rough-and-tumble American West. Outstanding characters, close attention to setting, and rip-snorting horror make this a must-read for anyone who loves non-sparkly bloodsuckers.

Batgirl

The adventures of Stephanie Brown as the newest Batgirl are full of great humor, great action, great dialogue, and great characterizations. This is one of the best superhero comics around.

Batman and Robin

Grant Morrison’s triumphant run of Batman comics had its most epic stretch in these stories of Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne, as well as Alfred, Dr. Hurt, and the Joker. The scale of Morrison’s storytelling here was breathtaking.

Blackest Night

Possibly the most successful crossover storyarc in years, this grabbed readers’ imaginations and didn’t let go for months. Even better than its commercial successes were the overall excellence of the plotline. At its height, there was nothing as good as this story about zombies, power rings, and emotions.

Crossed

I’m not a fan of the new series, but Garth Ennis’ original Crossed miniseries was the most harrowing, brutal, relentless, depressing, and terrifying horror comic to hit the stands in a long, long time.

Daytripper

This was, without a single doubt, the best comic series of the entire year. Nothing else came close. Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon deserve to win so many awards for this one. If you missed this series in the original run, you should definitely keep your eyes open in the next few months for the trade paperback.

Detective Comics starring Batwoman

Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III didn’t create the character, but they crafted her best stories. While Rucka brilliantly fleshed out her backstory, personality, and supporting cast, Williams took the stories and created some of the year’s most beautiful artwork and design.

Hellboy in Mexico

This story of, well, Hellboy in Mexico was my favorite, but I also loved all of the other collaborations between Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and fantasy artist Richard Corben. These two meshed together creatively in ways that very few creators are able to do, and all of us readers were the beneficiaries.

Joe the Barbarian

Grant Morrison’s fantasy story is both epic and mundane in scale, which is really quite a trick — Joe is in diabetic shock, and he’s hallucinating that his home and toys have turned into a fantasy kingdom. But what if he’s not really hallucinating?

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit

The second chapter of Darwyn Cooke’s adaptation of Donald Westlake’s crime fiction is a beautiful tribute to Cooke’s retro-cool art sensibilities and the pure fun of good pulp crime novels.

Power Girl

Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and Amanda Conner created the best version of Power Girl ever for a year’s worth of funny, smart, sexy, exciting superhero stories. These creators loved this character, and you can tell that in every story they published about her. I still hope they’ll be able to come back to this title eventually.

Secret Six

Far and away DC’s best team book, Gail Simone has hooked us a bunch of people who are extremely likeable and also completely crazy and prone to trying to kill each other from moment to moment. This shouldn’t work as well as it does, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s colossal fun to read every single month.

Strange Science Fantasy

Scott Morse’s retro-pulp series packed a heck of a lot of audacious fun into six short issues. This was a treat visually, emotionally, intellectually — even on a tactile level, what with the heavy, rough paper it was printed on.

Thor and the Warriors Four

The Power Pack go to Asgard. I didn’t really expect much of it, to be honest, but readers were treated to godlike quantities of humor, excitement, whimsey, and awesomeness, thanks to writer Alex Zalben and artists Gurihiru, and to Colleen Coover’s excellent backup stories.

Tiny Titans

Probably the best all-ages comic out there right now. These comics are smart and funny and cute and just plain fun to read.

Aaaaand that’s what I got. There were plenty of other comics that just barely missed the cut, but these were nevertheless the ones that gave me the most joy when I was reading them.

So farewell, 2010. And hello, rapidly onrushing 2011. Hope you’re a better year for all of us, and I hope we can all look forward to plenty more great comics to come.

Now y’all be safe and have a good time tonight, but call a cab if you need it — I want to make sure all of y’all are here to read me in 2011.

iZombie #8

Gwen’s latest brain dinner was from the mother of one of her childhood friends, and the dead woman’s only wish is that Gwen tell her estranged daughter that she loves her. Of course, that would leave Gwen’s secret unlife as a zombie in jeopardy, since her friend knows that she’s dead. Meanwhile, Horatio and Diogenes fight off the vampire babes from the paintgun park, and Amon remembers his entanglements with Galatea, a beautiful mad scientist and Frankensteinesque reanimated corpse. Speaking of Galatea, she’s also in town, having just resurrected one of the vampires to use as a servant. And Scott the wereterrier has to deal with his late grandfather, now reborn into the body of a deeply resentful chimpanzee.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Looks like we’re still in a position of ramping up new storylines, but good grief, there’s a lot of cool stuff in this issue. Galatea is beyond awesome, and I’m loving the way Gwen gets nagged by her newest brain tenant.

Strange Science Fantasy #6

The final issue of Scott Morse‘s outstanding series focuses on two men exploring a forgotten jungle valley in the 1930s. They discover dinosaurs and other wonders, apparently all fueled by the power of human imagination. How is this possible? The explorers soon meet a tribe that reveals the jungle’s secret — an ancient city hidden beneath an inland sea — the “Manga-Ka,” the birthplace of all stories! But will destruction and betrayal doom mankind’s birthright of imagination?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Love the way the previous issues in this series are referenced within the stories told in Manga-Ka. And as always, this is really great, audacious pulp storytelling. If you haven’t read this series yet — well, pity upon you, folks, but at least keep your eyes open for the eventual trade paperback.

American Vampire #9

Chief McCogan is still pretty gobsmacked that his own adopted father turned out to be a vampire — Agents Straw and Book from the Vassals of the Morning Star tell him that his father’s species of vampire was thought wiped out centuries ago by other vampires — they needed little blood and specialized in shapeshifting, but they just couldn’t hold out against the more prolific Carpathian vampires. McCogan demands that they let him speak to his father one last time before they kill him. But the Carpathians come looking for them — can Skinner Sweet help even the odds? And even if he can, can anyone keep him from betraying everyone?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The story flips from heartwarming to brutal, and it’s all pretty good.

Secret Six #28

Two different teams of the Secret Six are hanging out in the fantasy world of Skartaris, fighting a war against each other and the people who live there. Black Alice is feeling useless, since she can’t access any magic powers here. Deadshot has run out of bullets, and the rest of them are fairly gleefully slicing other people up with swords. But then Skartaris’ current leaders gets possessed by the spirit of a demon called Deimos, turns into a snake-dragon, and starts whuppin’ up on everyone. How will they manage to defeat the monster and extract themselves from Skartaris? Once they’ve returned home, Amanda Waller offers them a deal — work for her as a new Task Force X — though some choose to leave the group willingly (or in the case of one, very unwillingly and painfully).

Verdict: Thumbs up. I can’t believe King Shark was so much fun in this series. I do hope they’re going to keep him around. We get a nice closer for Black Alice’s story, and Dwarfstar gets exactly the ending he deserved.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Hey, look! Someone made a TV commercial for Lubbock’s Star Comics! See how many of your friends you can recognize…
• The Avengers tackle a few real-world issues.
• Happy Hanukkah from Jack Kirby and Ben Grimm.
• Who said there’s anything wrong with combining Christmas and zombies?

American Vampire #8

Pearl Jones and her beau Henry get a visit from Abilena Book and Linden Hobbes, representatives from a vampire-hunting organization called the Vassals of the Morning Star. And they want Pearl to tell them how to kill her and Skinner Sweet, in exchange for a promise not to come after her right away. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Chief McCogan is skeptical about Agents Straw and Book’s claims about vampires, but he’s becoming more convinced as more bizarre deaths pile up. But is he prepared for the true identity of the murderer?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great storytelling and art — I’m loving the way Rafael Albuquerque draws his monsters. The western setting really does help the stories feel more unique and interesting than some other vampire stories out there…

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – New World #4

Things are still going good and crazy. The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is short-staffed in the wake of the Houston volcano, Johann Kraus is shirking his duties to be close to the artificially-grown humanoid he wants to inhabit, and Panya is slowly taking over the entire facility. Meanwhile, Abe Sapien and Ben Daimio meet a guy who’s trying to find his wife — he got back from the war soon after his wife had their baby, wouldn’t let him see the kid, and finally knocked him on the head and disappeared. Sure enough, he’s found out the baby’s really dead — so what was his wife cradling around the house? And what’s her connection to the giant monster that keeps following Abe and Ben around? To make things even worse, the long-missing wendigo shows up, and Ben is getting set to go were-jaguar on everyone.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots of chaos, lots of cool artwork, lots of excellent action and creepiness. And a pretty good cliffhanger, too — looking forward to seeing how this all plays out next issue…

The Unwritten #19

Tom Taylor, Richie Savoy, and Lizzie Hexam have traveled to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, hometown of “Moby-Dick” author Herman Melville, on a semi-magical hunch that this was where they needed to be. While they explore Arrowhead, Melville’s former home-turned-museum, Pullman the assassin visits a toymaker named Rausch, an elderly woman who’s a high-end sorceress of some kind. Pullman wants her to ally herself with the Cabal, but she’s reluctant — unless Pullman has something important he can bargain with. All that, plus Savoy gets sick — but he has no idea how sick he really is.

Verdict: Thumbs up. A more relaxed pace to this story, which is a relief after how furiously previous issues have run. Good dialogue all over the place, too. A lot of mysteries moving forward, which is a nice benefit. And I really enjoyed all the stuff in Pittsfield — no idea how accurate our glimpse of Arrowhead and the town are, but they’ve got some nice touches.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Hey, look — “Sandman” creator Neil Gaiman just got hitched to a rock star.
• Frequently rude cartoons of things that people have actually said in comic book stores.
• This is an incredibly awesome and adorable movie.
• Not particularly local — as in the wrong end of the country — but there’s an actual geek-and-gaming-themed bar in Washington state.

Liberty Annual 2010

Here’s one of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s periodic fundraiser comics, designed to both raise some money for the organization and educate readers about the continuing need to support the CBLDF and oppose censorship of comics.

We get a big variety of comics by a whole lot of creators — a Conan story from Darick Robertson, a story from Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, a Milk and Cheese comic from Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer, a Megaton Man story from Don Simpson, and other stories from Garth Ennis, Scott Morse, Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Gail Simone, Larry Marder, and a ton of pinups from Jill Thompson, Frank Miller, Terry Moore, Jeff Smith, Skottie Young, Colleen Doran, Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, and more.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Anything to support the CBLDF, man. It’s five dollars, but it goes to a worthy cause. Pick it up.

Strange Science Fantasy #4

Scott Morse’s pulp-inspired series continues with a look at the life of Private Charlie Gantic, who gets thrust from the Pacific Theater to a global war against invading aliens. A scientific experiment gives him the ability to grow to immense size, and he takes the fight to the aliens as G.I. Gantic — but is he prepared for the mind-blowing secret the aliens have been hiding?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Beautifully illustrated and a great story that effortlessly jumps from one genre to the next. This entire series has been a ton of fun — we’re lucky to be getting the chance to read it.

American Vampire #7

Chief McCogan and his two fed sidekicks, Agents Straw and Book, confront Mr. Smoke — better known to us as Skinner Sweet — but they get booted out of his HQ when Book can’t control her dislike for the vampire crime lord. We learn that Book and Straw both belong to a vampire-hunting organization that’s promised not to touch Sweet, and McCogan’s investigation into the grisly murder of a Vegas businessman leads to the grisly death of another Vegas businessman.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great storytelling, great characters, and lots of great stuff with rotten, loveable Skinner Sweet.

iZombie #6

Most of this story is Spot’s origin — how he lost his parents, lived with his retired-voice-actor grandfather, became a were-terrier, and met up with Gwen and Ellie. His grandfather finally dies after he and Spot (barely) reconcile — and Spot meets a new old friend at the zoo.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a good story, excellent art, but what I think I enjoyed most was Spot’s pop-culture daydreams where he imagines himself as a superhero, in the “Scooby-Doo” cartoon, and in “Star Wars.” It says a lot about what kind of guy Spot is, underneath all that hair.

American Vampire #6

It’s 1936 in Las Vegas, and Police Chief Cashel McCogan is struggling with a vastly expanded population, thanks to the still-being-constructed Hoover Dam, and a shortage of prison space or police officers to deal with the resulting crime wave. He gets some small amount of assistance from two federal agents, Jack Straw and Felicia Book, but two feds aren’t gonna make much of a dent in the crime situation, especially with one very high-profile murder — local businessman Howard Beaulieu, found withered and drained in his hotel room bed. His only companion for the night was a working girl in the employ of the notorious Mr. Smoke. Hey, don’t Mr. Smoke look kinda familiar to y’all?

Verdict: Thumbs up. You might notice that Stephen King’s name isn’t at the top of this comic anymore. Well, he’s moved on with the end of the first storyarc, but Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque are still on board and lightin’ things up. We don’t see much of Pearl Jones or Skinner Sweet this time, but we don’t even miss ’em that much — it’s good fun getting introduced to McCogan and his supporting cast and getting a handle on our new Depression-era Vegas setting. Plenty of time to catch up on our American bloodsuckers soon enough…

Batgirl #14

More vampires! This all gets started when Supergirl shows up in Gotham City to hang out with Stephanie Brown (Not real sure why — I guess it’s just tradition for Batgirls and Supergirls to be friends, kinda like Flashes and Green Lanterns). And when you’re not rockin’ the spandex, Gotham can be as dull as anywhere, so they go to take in an old vampire movie. And due to a spectacularly unlikely accident with spectacularly unlikely hologram technology, there are suddenly 24 black-and-white Draculas running around the city. Unfortunately, they’re able to hurt Supergirl, but the local spectacularly unlikely scientists realize that the Draculas will disappear if they’re staked by high-tech control rods. So Batgirl and Supergirl run all over the city staking cheesy Draculas.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a spectacularly unlikely premise, but it’s all used to cook up some spectacularly awesome jokes. Anything that includes Draculas on Segways and in photobooths, and jokes about Stephanie’s “bat-bra” — well, I’m always in favor of hilarious stuff, right?

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – New World #2

Two major plotlines working out here — first, Johann Kraus does not trust ancient Egyptian mummy Panya, who seems to be trying to get some keys so she can release her hybrid monsters. They both get on Kate Corrigan’s nerves and she gives ’em a well-deserved chewing-out. Meanwhile, Abe Sapien has run into Ben Daimio — long thought either dead or turned into a wendigo — in the Canadian wilderness. They’re both trying to discover where a small town’s population has vanished to. Abe and Ben follow the trail to a local lake, and Abe goes for a swim, finding what one might expect to find in a supposedly bottomless lake nicknamed the Hell’s Kettle…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great to see some actual character development for Panya, and even more wonderful to see Ben Daimio again. And the last page brings the creepy stuff that Guy Davis seems to do so very well.

American Vampire #5

New vampire Pearl Jones and her non-vampire friend Henry bring the fight to the Euro-vamps who’ve taken over Hollywood and take ’em down without too much trouble. But Pearl has one last score to settle — Hattie Hargrove, her former friend who sold her out to become a movie star. But Pearl gets a rude surprise — Hattie used Pearl’s blood to turn herself into a vampire! Who wins out when American-born vampire fights American-born vampire? And in our Old West story, written, as always, by Stephen King, former Pinkerton agent James Book has been turned into a vampire by Skinner Sweet, and he’s trying to control his ever-growing bloodlust by sticking to eating sheep and prairie dogs. He finally convinces Abilena Camillo, daughter of his oldest friend, to kill him, but Abi’s fallen in love with him, and she wants something from him first.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Excellent horror storytelling all around. Loved the reveal about Hattie, loved the hints about one of Pearl’s still-unrevealed weaknesses, loved every single appearance of Skinner Sweet, loved the reluctant and still a little creepy love story between James Book and Abi. Good stories, nice endings for the first storyarcs, and I’m definitely looking forward to more.

Madame Xanadu #25

I think Matt Wagner has been watching a lot of “Mad Men” lately. This latest issue is set in ’63 and focuses on a fast-talking Madison Avenue advertising salesman, pitching new ad campaigns to big companies in New York City. But he’s starting to hear voices. Specifically, he’s starting to hear people telling him terrible things, trying to goad him into attacking and killing them. He soon meets up with Madame Xanadu, who tells him that he’s being haunted by an evil spirit that exists to make people go mad and commit murders and other atrocities. She offers a magical rattle he can use to fend off the spirit, but he balks at the idea of waving a rattle around his office. Is there any way to help him if he won’t accept mystical aid?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Laurenn McCubbin‘s art works very well for the early ’60s setting. It doesn’t have the more upbeat ending that we often see in this series, but it has a realistic feel to it — in the modern, rational world, how many people would choose to be driven mad by a demon if the alternative was for their coworkers to think they were nuts for waving a rattle around the office…?

Today’s Cool Links:

• Markets of Britain
• Ants in a scanner
• You can make yourself pretty angry by reading about awful stuff in history.