I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I don’t always get to the comic shop every Thursday (new comic day in the UK), and this is another example of such a catastrophic event: it includes my haul of books from two weeks, with the comics in this post coming out on 4 November.

Batman and Robin #16
The final issue of Batman and Robin as written by Grant Morrison, as he wraps up his story of bringing Bruce Wayne back to the present (you need to read Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne as well to get the full story). It’s also about the evolution of his son Damian into the role of a superhero, and a fascinating new chapter in the concept of Batman (I’m amazed DC let Morrison do it, but we’ll see how long it lasts). It’s a shame that this book needed three issues to complete it, but at least we get Cameron Stewart and Frazer Irving, two great artists, and there are some great lines (particularly for Alfred). It’s been a lot of fun seeing Dick Grayson and Damian as Batman and Robin, and I look forward to Morrison’s next Batman story.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #38
I think it’s my OCD collector mentality that is making me see this through to the end, because it’s not the story any more. The strangest thing about the comic book is that it has made the series more like a comic book with its obsession with connections and including all aspects of back story, such as having the Master showing up. I don’t really care about the Seed and Twilight and new universes; the only thing going for it in these last issues is that it’s written by Joss Whedon himself – the dialogue has that lovely ring to it, with the characters sounding as they should and the usual pop culture references. However, it’s not enough for me, at least; I just want to know how it ends.

Chaos War #3
In which things get even worse for our intrepid heroes. Fred Van Lente and Greg Pak have taken to heart the dictate (by Jack Kirby, I believe) that the villain should be more powerful than the hero and gone even more extreme – it seems almost impossible that Hercules and Amadeus and the God Squad can beat the Chaos King, especially after he tricked Hercules into revealing the Council of the Godheads and the revelation of the assistance he has been receiving from a certain member of the Hercules cast … There are some nice dialogue flourishes (such as Amadeus and Thor) and this is a comic where a reincarnated Zeus and Galactus fight, and Khoi Pham does a great job showing the different god worlds from different cultures, but I honestly can’t see how our guys are going to turn this around for the win. Which is a good thing.