Dr. Horrible #1

If you loved “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” — the genre-busting Emmy-winning web-based musical-supervillain-romantic-tragicomedy created by “Buffy”-creator Joss Whedon and family, and starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day… Wow, I’ve already forgotten how this sentence started. Anyway, Dark Horse Comics just put out a one-shot comic about Dr. Horrible! The story is written by Zack Whedon, who is not only Joss Whedon’s brother but one of the screenwriters! This looks like a prequel, with Dr. Horrible’s origin and his earliest misadventures. See Dr. Horrible plant bombs in parking meters! See his first pain-filled confrontations with the heroic but dim-witted Captain Hammer! See the whinnying villainy of Bad Horse! See Dr. Horrible’s terrifying conveyance, the Horrible Mobile! See Dr. Horrible’s plot to even the odds against his arch-nemesis by giving himself Captain Hammer’s powers!

Verdict: Thumbs up. Loooooved it. Great story, great art. Don’t know what else I could say about it — if you were a fan of the “Dr. Horrible” miniseries, then you’re probably going to love this one, too. Here’s hoping they’ll be able to turn this into an ongoing series.

Batgirl #4

I’ve had enough people tell me this was a good series that it finally wore down my resistance. For those new to the series, it stars Stephanie Brown, who used to be the Spoiler and, briefly, Robin. She’s now taken up the mantle of Batgirl, with the technological assistance of Barbara Gordon, the first Batgirl and the current wheelchair-bound super-hacker Oracle. Much of this story is told during a blackout in Gotham City — Barbara needs to see to a personal matter at Leslie Thompkins’ clinic, leaving Stephanie to take care of much of the city’s chaos by herself. She stops a purse-snatching and takes on the electricity-powered supervillain Livewire.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Outstanding dialogue and lots of good, humorous situations going on. The subplot with Wendy, formerly the Teen Titans’ resident code-monkey before she was attacked and paralyzed by a shapeshifting demon dog, was very good. It’s too bad “Birds of Prey” isn’t around anymore, but I’m glad to see there’s still a place in the DCU for Barbara Gordon.

The Unwritten #7

Tom Taylor is stuck in a French prison, suspected in the brutal murders of a half-dozen people — and he’s just met Frankenstein’s monster, who seems to want to help him, except Tom doesn’t want to believe he exists. On his way back to his cell, he’s attacked by a bunch of guards who’ve been paid to kill him, but he’s saved by Savoy, his cellmate — and one of the guards is accidentally killed. Lizzie Hexam, meanwhile, has gotten herself sent to the same prison, hoping to help Tom out of his predicament. Tom and Savoy are placed in isolation cells after the guard’s death, and Savoy reveals that he’s not really in jail for any crime — he’s a journalist who bribed his way into the prison so he could write about Tom. And while Tom is telling the story from “The Song of Roland” — when they see a vision of Roland himself, blowing his horn to summon Charlemagne. Does this portend more bad things for Tom? Probably…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Weird, spooky, literary stuff. Oh no, not literary! Settle down, young ‘un, it won’t hurt you to learn something once in a while. I am grooving on the “Song of Roland” stuff, and I’m dying to see how it’s all going to play out.

I mentioned “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” earlier this week, but this is a good time to remind everyone about it, because the third and final episode is now online. Go watch it right now!

I just got done watching the entire thing, and it really was much better and deeper than I was expecting it to be. I thought it’d be a nice little distraction, lots of jokes, several nice songs… but I was repeatedly surprised by how great it all was. The music is really, really fun, and very catchy and singable — I’m sure a soundtrack is forthcoming, and it’ll probably be worth spending some cash on.

And it’s a lot more dramatic and exciting than I was expecting — by the end of the second episode, I hated Captain Hammer, just like Dr. Horrible, and was really looking forward to Dr. Horrible’s inevitable triumph over goodness and justice. Of course, dreams never come true the way you planned, and the bad doctor’s victory ends up being pretty depressing for everyone involved. Definitely not your typical musical…

So go watch it right now. And you’d better hurry — they’re taking it offline at the end of the day!

If you haven’t heard of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, you need to go get acquainted ASAP.

What is it? It’s a musical about a supervillain, written and directed by “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator and former “Astonishing X-Men” writer Joss Whedon and his family. It stars Neil Patrick Harris (“Doogie Howser,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Harold and Kumar,” too many others to mention) as Dr. Horrible, Nathan Fillion (“Firefly” and “Desperate Housewives”) as the heroic but egotistical Captain Hammer, and Felicia Day (“Buffy” and “The Guild“) as Penny, Dr. Horrible’s idealistic love interest.

So what’s the deal? Well, first, it’s very funny, and that should be enough reason all by itself to go watch it. If you enjoyed the musical episode of “Buffy” back in 2001, you should enjoy the music, since Whedon wrote the music and lyrics for both. How much superhero action? Well, not a ton. The budget’s not real grand, so don’t expect too much.

But listen, if you want to see it, you have a limited amount of time to do so. The first episode debuted today, Part II hits this Thursday, and Part III appears on Saturday. And then the whole thing goes offline on Sunday! Of course, it’ll be released on DVD eventually, but this is going to be your only chance to see it for free, so don’t miss out!