I picked up “Hellboy: The Troll Witch” because I’ve been greatly excited about the movie after seeing the hilarious set of Hellboy promos here (which you should definitely check out, by the way - they’re hilarious, and all based on the premise of Hellboy interacting with TV hosts/shows from NBC, Bravo and Sci-Fi).

Anyway, I’ve long held that the best Hellboy isn’t about fighting Nazis or H.P. Lovecraft, but instead, about the Right Hand of Doom in a variety of short stories. Some are inevitably better than others, but for what its worth, this one did pretty good. The best Hellboy stories are all illustrated by creator Mike Mignola, but this one posed the exception to the rule - a Hellboy story illustrated by master P. Craig Russell.

Probably the best thing about the Hellboy trades is most of them are so darn cheap. They cost $17 cover price, and you can find them even more cheap online. Definitely worth a read - especially if they’re Mignola (or Russell).

I feel like a change, so I think I’ll start with DC today. Not all that much happening it seemed - a pretty pithy amount of titles are coming to the shelves, but let’s see if quality can beat quanity.

Detective Comics #846 by Paul Dini is not only part of “Batman RIP” but also the first part in the new story “The Return of Hush.” This is made all the more interesting by a series of promos DC released showing Nightwing, Robin, Jason Todd and Hush with “I Am Batman” written under each picture. This is the one series that was everyone scratching their heads as to what - if anything - will happen to Bruce Wayne.

Final Crisis: Requiem by Peter J. Tomasi offers a final tribute to Martian Manhunter, who perished in Final Crisis #1 in the oft-predicted opening salvo of the not-too-hotly-anticipated crossover. But thing certainly got too hot for MM, and these quieter one-shots could be where Final Crisis really makes its mark.

Green Arrow/Black Canary #10 gets interesting with the addition of Batman as well as the revelation that the League of Assassins - and their leader, Ra’s Al Ghul - were in fact behind the attempted assassination of Connor Hawke, which left Green Arrow’s son in a coma.

Justice Society of America #17 keeps turning up the heat, as the powerful villain Gog has revealed himself as a supposedly benevolent - and borderline omnipotent - being who has made an offer to the JSA that has split the entire team down the middle. The issue also apparently guest-starts the Justice League.

Gail Simone’s Wonder Woman #22 continues Diana’s adventures in a mythic realm, which is interesting enough. What’s even more interesting is that a misunderstanding has lead to all-out war between the Department of Metahuman Affairs . . . and Diana ape allies the Gorilla Knights. Apes and G-Men. How can you lose?

On the Marvel side, Jeph Leob and Tim Sale have come up with another color-coded treat - Captain America: White. The issue, which resembles a vintage comic straight out of the newsreels, focuses on Bucky’s origins and how he came to be Captain America’s sidekick. Given Bucky’s future role as the Winter Solider and Cap’s eventual successor, this should be a fairly interesting read. These color-coded series can be quite underrated, I’ll also add - I liked “Daredevil: Yellow” a great deal more than “Batman: The Long Halloween”.

Captain Britain and MI:13 #3 is yet another Secret Invasion tie-in, but I like the premise, which has a group of British Marvelites ranging from the Black Knight to Pete Wisdom struggling to fend off the Skrull Invasion. This is something I really need to pick up - and might even act as a tie-in to Marvel’s answer to “Books of Magic” - “Mystic Arcana.”

Genext #3 - Chris Claremont’s much-hyped X-Men tale in real-time - opens with its third issue this week. The story focuses on the offspring of the X-Men in modern day - assuming the first X-Men came together in the 1960’s. Like Captain Britain, this is one book that I really need to pick up, but the hype surrounding Claremont remains strong - and the past issue has been sold out at my comic store, so you might want to reserve it if you can.

Guardians of the Galaxy #3 features the return of Starhawk. Yeah. I don’t have anything on him either, but this - along with Nova - is certainly one of my favorite titles, as well as one Marvel needs to really consider opening the subscription routes to already!

I haven’t been the comic store to pick up Nova #15, but after 12 good issues so far, I’m honestly not too worried about it going downhill anytime soon. This issue focuses on Nova trying to stop Galactus from chomping down on a planet - by taking it up with the big guy himself.

Secret Invasion #4 launches this week with - finally - the return of Nick Fury, who might be the one person able to stop the invasion with his brand new Howling Commandos. The issue also showcases the Young Avengers standing behind them, so I’m really anxious to see those characters getting some play in particular - although they really, really next to get back to their own series. I don’t care who writes it. I just want them back on the shelves. Period.

Young X-Men #4 also has the new X-Men team tangling with the Hellfire Club. This is pretty interesting in and of itself, because not only is there at least one traitor on the team, as well as possibly one casualty waiting to happen, but in the previous issues, when the Young X-Men attacked their targets, they didn’t seem to know quite what the X-Men were talking about. Clearly something else is going on here.

That’s it for this week - see ya next time!

If you liked that, try...

1. Comic Rundown: Nova Still Rocks and Captain Marvel’s a Skrull
2. Comic Rundown: Not So Brand New
3. Comic Rundown: Grant Morrison Writes Everything
4. Comic Rundown: Hellboy and What the Hell is up with Green Arrow?
5. Comic Rundown: Hey Hey We’re the Monkeys

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