It's a bit weird to read the Dark Reign Frakencastle side by side with the hard core MAX version version of the Punisher. Whether he's supposed to be serving angels or romping through one of Garth Ennis' ridiculously overblown wonderworlds of sleaze and crime, there's something surreal about taking a character who's basically a one note cliche, itself an imitation of every vigilante revenge story out there, and treating him like he's Wolverine. But on the other hand Frank Castle is about the only Marvel character who isn't completely ridiculous, probably because unlike them he's actually human.



Then there's DC which is big on the hit and miss. Batgirl so far is playing like Buffy in a batsuit, which isn't a bad thing. It's nice to see a teenage girl in a comic book, who actually is a teenage girl instead of cleavage and a scowl. So far DC seems to have really brought back Batgirl, which after all the Birds of Prey nonsense and mute asian Batgirl, is a real step up. Secret Six also rocks in a dark and ruthless way that makes me wonder what would ever happen if Frank Castle met the gang.

On the miss side there are the continuing adventures of Firebird and Nightbrat, or whatever their names are supposed to be. The cover does feature Lois Lane being arrested, mainly in order to trick readers who normally wouldn't pay hard cash to read about Flamesparrow and Nightwuss into buying it.

Going beyond DC and Marvel, BRPD War of Frogs is one of the best yet with a disturbing and surreal look at a monster afterlife. The whole concept that takes us from killing the monsters to having their ghosts wander around afterward looking for an afterlife is fantastic. As is the revelation that monsters do have a heaven too.

And of course a shoutout to Brian Lynch who continues doing fantastic work on Angel that puts Buffy Season 8 to shame. This issue has the Halloween spell being used at a Comic Con, creating a whole lot of superheroes and a Spangel, or Spike Angel. I skipped the Angel puppet three issue, but here Lynch proves he can do the lighter side of Angel, just as well as the dark side.