So first of all, those Marvel hardcovers. Guardians Of The Galaxy and Annihilation: Nova, both by the Annihilation writing team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, promise to be a couple of bite-sized looks at the aftermath of the Annihilation wave and the invasion that followed.

In GotG, the two back-to-back Annihilation wars have weakened the boundaries of our universe. (I hate a universe with bad boundaries.) Dark gods and monsters are trying to push through, and it's up to Star-Lord and his squd of butt-kickers to hold the line. Meanwhile, Richard Rider is the last surviving member of the Nova Corps (a space cop squad, sort of) and he has to use his near-limitless power to police the entire universe. (I'm just guessing he lets some of the universe's petty vice crimes slide.)

I'll be honest: the Buck Rogers collection is the one that's jumping out at me though. It's from Hermes Press, and it collects 900 daily newspaper strips in a 9" by 12" landscape format. (Two strips per page.) They run from January 1929 to some time in 1931. Hermes says the strips include "space ships, anti-gravity belts, space pirates, invaders from other worlds, nefarious villains, and, of course, heroes."

Meanwhile, it's not a hardcover, but DC is putting out a sweet dollop of space opera in Legion Of Super Heroes: The More Things Change paperback. It collects issues 7-13 of the series, from when the dream team of Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen were working together. Someone has constructed a factory in another dimension, and they're building a new Sun-Eater. (For the unitiated, Sun-Eaters are bad. Matter-Eater Lad, on the other hand? Awesome.)

And if that's not enough space action for you, Dynamite Comics is putting out a trade paperback of the first seven issues of Battlestar Galactica: Season Zero. It's not Caprica, but it is another BSG prequel. Discover what happened on the Galactica crew's first mission together, two years before the Cylons fried Caprica.

It's not just space opera this week, of course. DC still hears its Bat-cash register ringing, with a two-part storyline following up on "Batman R.I.P." Written by old-school Bat-writer Denny O'Neil, the story "Last Rites" deals with the people of Gotham trying to figure out what the heck just happened, and how the city will survive without the Bat. And you can read a six-page preview of the story here, and it looks like it features a dead ringer for Dark Horse's spectral superheroine Ghost. Meanwhile, Batman: The Joker's Asylum collects five one-shot "Joker's Asylum" issues featuring The Joker, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and Penguin.

Not only that, but the pairing you probably never wanted to read is finally out in a collected edition: Painkiller Jane Vs. The Terminator pits the woman with all the powers of Advil against a murderous cyborg from the future.

If you like your media tie-ins just a bit more dino-tastic (and who doesn't?), you might want to check out Transformers: Maximum Dino-Bots #1. (And you can read the first six pages of the issue here, to help you prepare to maximize your dino-bot excitement.)

But probably the best value of the week — and the most likely stocking stuffer — is a reprinting of Watchmen issue #1, for just $1.50. If you still have any friends who haven't read (arguably) the most acclaimed graphic novel of all time, this is the cheap and easy way to get them hooked.

As always, a complete list of new comics is available online here. And if you're lost and disoriented and need to find a comic-book shop pronto, a complete directory of them is here.

It's an especially heavy week of multimedia tie-in books — Dark Horse has two great collections for you to pick up, Serenity: Better Days and Star Wars Omnibus: Early Victories (which includes the comic version of Splinter Of The Mind's Eye, which is awesome in so many ways). Meanwhile, IDW goes for the coffee table audience with The Art of IDW's Transformers and the brokenhearted-thanks-to-the-Wachowski-Brothers audience with the first volume of Speed Racer: The Next Generation.

If you're missing Sci Fi's greatest show — No, not Eureka, although stay tuned for that comic in December — then Dynamite has the first issue of Battlestar Galactica: Ghosts, a new series that spins away from the cast that we know and love to provide its own brand of psychodrama. With the exception of the first issue of the beautiful must-have (previewed elsewhere on the site today) Ender's Game: Battle School, the most interesting tie-in book this week is probably The Ferryman, a new series about the ultimate black-ops operative, written by Entertainment Weekly's Marc Bernardin Marc Andreyko (thanks, Alex) from an idea by Joel Silver. As far as I know, it's not in the works as a movie or TV show... yet. But keep your eyes on this one.

In terms of original comic stories, there's a lot worth paying attention to this week — there's the third series of Marvel Zombies, which we've already written about. But if that doesn't float your boat, then the hardcover collection of Warren Ellis' superhero-political-drama Black Summer or DC's collection of 1950s and '60s monkey tales, DC Comics Goes Ape, represent two ends of the spectrum available to you from this week's releases.

(Marvel's Young Avengers Presents collection and first issue of Wolverine flashback storyline X-Men Original Sin fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, both both are worth leafing through, if nothing else).

But the gold star of original material this week is easily Annihiliation Classic, a hardcover collection of various space stories that led to Marvel's new intergalactic franchise that includes an issue of 1980s weirdness Rocket Raccoon featuring very early art by Mike Mignola. Everyone must see this, trust me.

If you need more than just Hellboy's daddy drawing spacebound raccoons, you can find a complete list of this week's new comic releases here, and then the the Comic Shop Locator Service will help you find your closest local store. Remember: TV may offer you moving pictures, but only comics can offer you Beatles-influenced mammals fighting aliens.

Probably the big book of the week is IDW's Angel: After The Fall #1, which follows in the footsteps of Dark Horse's Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight in letting Joss Whedon himself (co-writing with Brian Lynch, with art by Franco Urru) tell you what happened after the cancellation of the Angel TV series. You can learn more about it here, if you're so inclined.

Other multi-media crossover books this week include Marvel Comics' Iron Man: Director of SHIELD Annual #1 - written by Law and Order's Christos Gage - and Incredible Hulk #111 - written by io9 favorite Greg Pak - laying the groundwork for next year's big summer blockbuster movies. If you're more of a video game person, then Image Comics' Dark Sector #0 might be your thing if you're the kind of person who wonders where your black ops avatar got his super-powers ahead of the game's release at the start of next year. Alternatively, you could pick up the long-delayed second issue of Marvel's adaptation of the Halo franchise, Halo: Uprising, which manages to make it into stores only two months late. Hey, space carnage takes time.

If alien war is your thing, then Marvel are also putting out the third collection of their Annihilation series, in which bug-like aliens decimate various alien planets while space-bound superheroes get their asses kicked trying to stop them (Imagine Star Wars meets X-Men, but with more death). There's an interlude of Earth War in DC Comics' very enjoyable 52 Volume 4, but you might miss it in between the other moments of sci-fi genius (Parallel earths! An island populated by mad scientists doing the bidding of a giant evil talking egg!). Equally idea-packed from DC is Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Volume 3, which takes you into the last half of the inspiration for the successful part of George Lucas's career.

My pick of the week, however, would be Casanova #11. Matt Fraction's post-post-modern mash-up of every spy movie, science-fiction book and superhero comic ever made continues to amuse and delight with every new issue, and this latest chapter promises no change. How could anyone resist this come-on?

Her name is Suki Boutique, and she runs the most powerful and glamorous criminal casino on Earth. Through her bank flows the countless illicit fortunes that keeps the underworld turning on its axis. Through her doors pass a veritable who's who of fabulous supercrime. And tonight, Zephyr Quinn has come to collect a bounty. Has she met her match?

Angel image courtesy of IDW Publishing, Casanova image courtesy of Image Comics

Famous names: Keith Giffen, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Simon Furman, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Scott Kolins, Renato Arlem, Kev Walker, Jorge Lucas, Gregory Titus, Andrea DiVito.

Crunchy goodness: 4

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: Two one-shots focus on the Heralds of Galactus after the brutal smackdown they received in the series. In 2007, Marvel launched an ongoing Nova comic and published a followup set of miniseries called Annihilation Conquest. Also, Marvel is publishing What If: Annihilation, which shows what would have happened if the Annihilation Wave had reached Earth.

Sights you'll never unsee: The evil Thanos captures Moondragon, the lesbian daughter of Drax the Destroyer, and rips off her ear to send to Drax.

Elevator pitch: It's like if the Borg teamed up with Darth Vader and Ming the Merciless, and beat the crap out of the Klingons and the Romulans.

"Annihilation" MegaReview