[Harry Knowles Twitter via CHUD]

OMAC is one of those characters that has a great concept that almost no-one has been able to do anything with: Basically, he's a nobody who gets retrofitted without his knowledge or consent to become the ultimate soldier, One Man Army Corps (or OMAC, for short). After years of attempts to update the character, work the character into regular superhero universe continuity and just generally redo the concept altogether, the comic version of the character seems pretty broken, but the Brave and Bold version managed to get everything right by... well, playing it relatively straight.

"When OMAC Attacks" wasn't the show's best episode, nor an obvious choice to bring the show back after its summer break - Both of those would be next week's musical episode - but it was entertaining enough, even for non-Kirby enthusiasts (Kirby fans like me would've spent the episode going "Is that really Kafka from the comic? Seriously? Awesome!"); using OMAC as an illustration of classic cartoon moral "Sometimes, it's better not to fight" was a smart move, balanced by the use of alter ego Buddy Blank as last-minute coward-made-good, saving Batman from mysterious villain Equinox. Where it fell down was a lack of the self-aware, more-than-a-little-goofy humor that's often the show's best quality... In fact, if anything, the episode seemed too sincere and straightforward. But perhaps that's because next week used up all the crazy pills.

In the end, it was nice to see the show back, and that goodwill alone was enough to make what was really a middling episode seem better than it actually was. But, having seen next week's "Mayhem of the Music Meister!," I know that much, much better things are around the corner. Better luck next time, then.

The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog confirmed Spider-Man's inclusion, and mentions that, although the character first appeared in a story by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Kirby was "key in the character's early development." But how key, exactly?

Lee has gone on record (more than once) naming Ditko, not Kirby, as the character's co-creator, and Ditko's account of Kirby's involvement tends to support that argument:

Kirby had pencilled five pages of his Spider-man. How much was pure Kirby, how much Lee, is for them to resolve.

The splash was the only one with a drawing of Spider-man. A typical Kirby hero/action shot. But the costume is what is important... I'm uncertain about the abstract chest design. The closest thing to it is the one on Ant-man. Kirby's Spider-man had a web gun, never seen in use. The only connection to the spider theme was the name.

The other four pages showed a teenager living with his aunt and uncle. The aunt was a kindly old woman, the uncle a retired police captain, hard, gruff, the General Thunderbolt Ross type (from The Hulk), and he was down on the teenager.

Next door or somewhere in the neighborhood there was a whiskered scientist-type involved in some kind of experiment or project. The end of the five pages depicted the kid going toward the scientist's darkened house.

That is the Spider-man "given" to me.

That is the total of Kirby's Spider-man "creation." That is what he "created," brought into existence - five un-used pencilled pages of an unfinished story... Almost all of the bits of this "creation" (the scientist, magic ring, etc.) were discarded/never used. So what is left of the "original creation"? A name, a teenager, an aunt and uncle. Is it to be believed/held that a name or its "idea" could "cause" a rejection "creation" and "cause" others to "create" a complete, accepted, and successful one? How is that accomplished?

Above: Ditko's comparison of Kirby's Spider-Man design to the finished character.

The Kirby family claim seems to be based in Kirby's rejected work - which didn't resemble the character as he eventually appeared, other than the name - and a claim Kirby made in a 1982 interview with Spirit creator Will Eisner:

Spider-Man was discussed between Joe [Simon] and myself. Spider-Man was not a product of Marvel.

This is, again, misleading; that "Spider-Man" also never saw print, but instead became 1959's The Fly, and was a reworking of a previous Joe Simon character (co-created with artist CC Beck) called the Silver Spider. Simon has suggested that the discussion of a character called "Spider-Man" - or actually "Spiderman," according to the unused logo from that time - led to Kirby suggesting the name to Stan Lee years later, at Marvel Comics.

According to comics historian Al Nickerson, as recently as the start of this year, Lisa Kirby, the artist's daughter, rejected the idea that her father was involved with Spider-Man's creation:

I had asked Lisa Kirby (daughter of Jack and Roslyn Kirby) about her father's connection to the creation of Spider-Man. Lisa told me: "Neither one of my parents ever mentioned that my father created him, in fact I have heard my mother correcting people if they alluded to that fact."

So why does he end up on the list of characters named in the lawsuit - and will the battle over Kirby's contributions to this character derail discussion over characters he has a much clearer claim over?

The heirs to Kirby, who co-created the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America - and had a hand in creating Spider-Man, pretty much completing the set - have sent out 45 notices of copyright termination to companies including Marvel Entertainment, Disney, Paramount (distributors for Iron Man, Hulk and the next five Marvel movies), Sony (the studio behind the Spider-Man movies, 20th Century Fox (X-Men and Fantastic Four) and others, expressing intent to own copyright on Kirby's creations. The notices did not only involve comic books and movies; apparently, Hasbro and Universal also received notices, for the toy and theme park rights as well.

The Kirby estate is taking the claim seriously, hiring Marc Toberoff, the attorney who's been representing the Siegel estate in the recent Superman/Superboy lawsuits. While Marvel itself has offered no comment on the notices yet, Disney issued a statement saying, essentially, that it's not a big deal:

The notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition.

Considering Kirby's importance to the creation of the core characters in the Marvel Universe, losing any control over the rights of his creations could be costly at best, devastating at worst, for Marvel and Disney. Considering that the Kirby estate was on good terms with Marvel as recently as 2006, when Marvel released a series based upon the previously unseen Kirby concept Galactic Bounty Hunters, expect some form of negotiations to be taking place sooner rather than later.

In Wake of Disney-Marvel Deal, Cartoonist's Heirs Seek to Reclaim Rights [New York Times]

Dynamite announced their revival of the character - created in 1954 by Captain America's fathers Joe Simon and Jack Kirby - at last month's San Diego Comic-Con, but it took a story about the revival at Comic Book Resources to get Simon upset about the news. According to a press release from Simon's son, Jim,

Simon turned down Dynamite's proposal in no uncertain terms. Apparently [Dynamite owner, Nick] Barrucci did not know the meaning of the word no and he proceeded anyway.

That same press release says that the artwork that accompanied the CBR story was produced without permission, and Joe Simon told Newsarama.com that the project was "announced without his approval or participation."

Not exactly so, says Paul S. Levine, attorney for the estate of co-creator Jack Kirby. He told Newsarama.com that Simon's own attorney, Tedd Kessler,

had been informed and approving of negotiations between himself and Nick Barrucci regarding the Fighting American "from the very beginning" and every step of the way for several months prior to the Comic-Con announcement, including the drafting of contracts for the deal between Dynamite, the Kirby Estate, and Simon, unsigned at the time of the announcement.

For now, the Fighting American revival is dead - Not only has Simon distanced himself from the project, but the Kirby estate has also pulled out "in observance of Joe Simon's wishes and due in part to the strong language being used by Simon in condemning it," according to Levine (They're still working with Dynamite on projects involving characters owned solely by the Kirby estate, however). But what happened? Was Simon's attorney unaware of his client's "in no uncertain terms" refusal? Did Simon's released statement feature some embellishment on a last-minute change of heart? And why was the project announced before contracts had been signed, anyway? We may never know... but we're already wondering how long it'll be before we hear about a new Fighting American deal, and from whom.

Kirby Estate Responds to Simon On FIGHTING AMERICAN [Newsarama.com]

Taken as individual issues during their initial release, Final Crisis felt weirdly insubstantial, as if they needed to be experienced as a whole to gain the weight that you were somehow convinced that they secretly had, hidden away somewhere - and, to an extent, that's true... It's just that the whole they need isn't the whole that DC's new collected edition gives to you. Yes, the handsome $29.99 edition collects all of the Grant Morrison-written issues of the storyline, and puts them all in chronological order, but in doing so it entirely disrupts the experience of reading either the core Final Crisis storyline or the Superman Beyond tie-in series that's also included here (There's a third story, the one issue Submit, but the less said about that, the better; when placed beside the other stories, it feels even more unnecessary and inconsequential than it did originally).

The plot of Final Crisis, for those who missed the original serialization, is essentially that Earth is invaded by Darkseid and his minions, the few remaining "New Gods" from the 1970s Fourth World comics by comic great Jack Kirby, and that Darkseid takes over the world, eradicates free will, and in doing so, brings about the end of everything. Included within this are sequences about divine intervention bringing fire to humanity, Superman transcending reality to save the love of his life and the universe - in that order - the return of the Flash and the death of Batman, amongst many others, and if that description makes it seem very scattered and overly busy, then that's not entirely an unfair complaint (Add in that deadlines on the original publication meant that multiple artists draw the core Final Crisis series, and that their styles aren't always a good match for each other, and you have another complication, although I admit that this particular one didn't bother me at all).

Sadly, one of the things that saved the series in its original format - the consistency of tone, despite the (intentionally) choppy storytelling - is sacrificed here, as Final Crisis itself takes a break after three issues for the Submit and Superman Beyond issues; while Submit is in keeping with the increasingly bleak, disturbing feel of Crisis, Superman Beyond is a much more inspirational story, and ends with a moment of triumph entirely at odds with the continuation of Crisis that immediately follows (In its original release, Superman Beyond's conclusion was released concurrently with the final episode of Crisis, which makes more sense, tonally); reading the collection straight through, there's a wrench going into, and coming out of, Beyond that damages the coherency of the overall story in a way that it struggles to recover from for a long time afterwards.

Like the majority of Morrison's superhero work, this isn't a story that will satisfy fans of the literal; it's very much an allegorical, lyrical story (Literally, on that last point, by the time you reach Darkseid's final confrontation with Superman), with narrative clarity sacrificed on occasion for artistic effect - It's very much a story you feel as much as anything, and because of that, re-reading it becomes a strange celebration of the successful moments with an increasing awareness of its faults; you notice the plots that disappear, or moments that defy sense more clearly, but throughout the entire thing, there's something so ambitious and self-aware about its own superhero comic nature that you can't help but be won over at times nonetheless (The amount of times may rely on how much you enjoy the melodramatic dialogue patterned after Jack Kirby's, or the importance of the spectacle over the minutiae, however). Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream, as one of his heroes once advised, and you'll be fine.

(A word or two about the art: Morrison has spoken, since the series ended, about the shift from original artist JG Jones to Doug Mahnke, who went from the Superman Beyond two-parter to the final chapter of Final Crisis, saying that he felt that the change was organic, and that Mahnke's art suits the more dynamic conclusion as much as Jones' more realistic style suited the downbeat, mundane beginning. He's right, and there are scenes at the end that I can't imagine working under Jones' more photo-realism-tinged brushwork. Although the discontinuity between the artists - and additional artists Carlos Pacheco and Marcos Rudy, lending hands in between - is the kind of thing that'll annoy some purists who'd rather imagine what could have been, everyone involved in the art in this collection offers amazing work, bringing their own strengths to the page without overshadowing anyone else, and Alex Sinclair's coloring throughout manages to hold everything together without becoming too obvious on the page.)

It's difficult to wholeheartedly recommend Final Crisis, especially in this particular form; I wish that they'd placed Superman Beyond later in the collection (Between the fifth and sixth issues of Crisis, perhaps), and can't help but feel that pushing the "Director's Cut" extra material of the original script to Final Crisis #1 to the paperback Final Crisis Companion is a cynical marketing move that lessens this collection, as is the weird inclusion of only a few pages of the Final Crisis Sketchbook preview, which reads as if they just needed some filler material to close out the book and grabbed some pages at random. It's certainly not anyone involved's best work, nor even Morrison's best superhero work (His Seven Soldiers cycle is much, much more successful, although the Mister Miracle arc pretty much belongs at the opening of this story). But, at the same time, there's enough of interest, and enough raw ambition and unfulfilled potential, here that I can't help but feel as if it's something approaching a (at times severly) flawed masterpiece. It's a story, and a collection, that will entertain, inspire, frustrate and potentially even move you, and for that alone, I find myself loving it, even if it's not what it could have - and should have - been.

Final Crisis is released today, and available in all good - and some evil - comic book stores.

As those who read this week's comics have apparently already seen, Bruce Wayne is dead. He died at the end of Final Crisis #6, meeting his end while trying to save the planet from evil god Darkseid in DC Comics' much-delayed blockbuster, and if you need proof of his demise, you not only see him being hit by Darkseid's Omega Beams, Superman appears on the last page holding his corpse. Case closed.
Or is it?

Aficionados of Jack Kirby's Fourth World comics - where Crisis' villain Darkseid comes from are somewhat familiar with the Omega Beams, and the effects they have on people. Particularly the effects they had on the title characters from Kirby's Forever People, in the sixth issue of that series, where they too were hit by the Omega Beams, and apparently died... only to be sent back in time, as was revealed in the next issue. While we're not sure what the explanation is for the skeleton in the Batman costume, we're sure of one thing: Somewhere, somewhen, Bruce Wayne is alive... and waiting for whenever DC Comics are ready to bring him back.

Final Crisis [DC Comics]

Sky Doll:
This French story about a sexbot who stows away with space truckers to find her true destiny reads like a more enjoyable The Fifth Element, mixing spirituality, sexuality and awkward humor to create a beautifully-illustrated not-so-guilty pleasure.
(Published by Marvel Comics, $24.99.)

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus:
This four-volume series of hardcovers collects all of the various comics that made up X-Men and Fantastic Four co-creator Kirby's 1970s magnum opus about godlike aliens bringing their war to Earth. Ignored and cancelled due to low sales at the time, these have since taken their place as some of the all-time best American SF comics.
(Published by DC Comics, each volume $49.99.)

The Babysitter Collection:
You probably won't have heard of Andy Ristaino's mind-bending story of Setsuko Kagaku, the Japanese schoolgirl who happens to be the world's greatest babysitter, but once you've seen this amazing, mind-bending book that gleefully rewrites the rulebook on how comics work and questions the nature of reality, you'll never be able to forget it.
(Published by SLG, $29.95.)

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer Season 8:
Surely you need no explanation why the official comic continuation of the TV series - overseen and written in part by Joss Whedon, with the other writers including Cloverfield's Drew Goddard - makes this list. If you have to pick just one of the four collections to date, we'd suggest the Brian K. Vaughan-written "No Future For You", which brings back Faith and Giles for some ass-kicking in good ol' Blighty that doesn't rely too heavily on the uber-arc for the season.
(Published by Dark Horse, each volume $15.95.)

Laika:
Nick Abadzis' semi-fictional biography of the First Dog In Space is subtle, beautiful and enough to break the heart of even the most cynical bastard. If you're an animal lover, then you'll probably be in tears by the end.
(Published by First Second, $17.95.)

Scott Pilgrim:
Bryan Lee O'Malley's enjoyable series of graphic novels - Probably my favorite current series, not that that really matters to you - blends twenty-something ennui, surreal humor (Wait until you meet the vegan in the third volume), video game references, and some wonderful artwork to create something that's both timeless and effortless contemporary. Plus, where else do you get to read about a boy who has to fight his girlfriend's Seven Evil Ex-Boyfriends in order to win her heart?
(Published by Oni Press, each volume $11.95.)

All-Star Superman, Vol. 1:
Superhero comics may not get much better than this recently-completed series by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely; pulling the genre away from angst-ridden punchfests, ASS - yes, I know - instead offers a more contemplative and imaginative Superman who falls victim to Lex Luthor's ultimate masterplan and still tries to save the day, every day. This volume collects the first half of the series; a second is due next year, so you can give it to someone this time in 2009.
(Published by DC Comics, $12.99.)

100%:
Yes, I'm stretching the "recent" thing for this 2005 collection of Paul Pope's series about life in a future New York, full of love stories and artists and people in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it'll always be an amazing book, the closest we'll ever get to Robert Altman directing a science fiction Bukowski. Or something.
(Published by DC Comics/Vertigo, $24.99.)

The Doctor Who Storybook 2009:
Is this too non-comic-booky? Possibly, but each year in the UK, a Doctor Who Storybook is released for kids, featuring brand new stories written by the TV show's writers (The 2006 edition featured the first version of "Blink," by Steven Moffat; this year, Mark Gatiss, Gareth Roberts and James Moran are all contributing), as well as a "Letter from the Doctor" written by the showrunner (This year is Moffat's first; Russell T Davies has done the last couple). If it helps, there's a comic strip in there too, but I don't think you'll need much more convincing.
(Published by Panini Books, price depending on whatever you pay on import; £7.99 in the UK.)

Any Showcase or Essential Collection:
Help a friend or family member relive their misspent childhood with these black and white phonebook collections of comics from the 1960s and '70s. DC's brand is "DC Showcase Presents", Marvel's is "Marvel Essential," but both offer over 500 pages of reprinted goodness for $16.99; you can find a list of each line here (Showcase) and here (Essentials).
(Published by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, $16.99.)

Two Additional Stocking Stuffers That Aren't Really Comics, But Still:
Fables: Covers by James Jean:
All eleven volumes to date of Bill Willingham's wonderful Fables would make ideal stocking stuffers as well, but the pride of place has to go to this stunningly beautiful collection of illustrator James Jean's covers to the first 75 issues (and ten collections) of the series. Breathtakingly illustrated in paint, pencil and digitally, the work contained in this book is awe-inspiring.
(Published by DC Comics/Vertigo, $39.99.)

Thrill Power Overload:
Another import that's well worth tracking down, David Bishop's history of the first thirty years of British comic 2000AD is both salacious and educational, filled with gossip and stories about the creation of characters like Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper and the early careers of creators like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and even Neil Gaiman. Enjoyable even if you've never read an issue of the comic itself.
(Published by Rebellion Books, price depending on whatever you pay on import; £34.99 in the UK.)

The character - who started life as Mr. Machine before Ideal Toys pointed out that they owned the trademark to that name, thank you very much - started life as a very traditional robot whose purpose was to ask "What does it mean to be... human?" on a regular basis, despite work by Hulk and Captain America co-creator Kirby and Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko in his early years. After multiple attempts to make something of the character - including a cyberpunk-inspired series in the early 1980s - the character fell into limbo until Warren Ellis brought him back in 2006's Nextwave series as a somewhat drunken bastard version of himself that... strangely... clicked with audiences. Now, with his new series, writer Ivan Brandon attempts to explain just what turns a sensible, staid robot to drink:

It's hard to get too far into explaining it without spoiling what's a really strange structural animal...let's say being a Kirby character is what drives the Ellis character to drink, if that makes any sense to anyone. Also, let's say that Niko Henrichon is really great at drawing the Hulk, and a dozen other characters I won't name for the sake of being a horrible person.

The funny thing is beyond NYC Mech, they all sort of grew their own legs without my help. We'd gotten a lot of interest from other creators who wanted to play in the NYC Mech world in some way and we took that and built 24seven out of it, trying to give them more room and a bigger stage to play on, something that wouldn't just speak to our own existing readership. With Machine Man, my editor suggested him and I loved the idea more for the fact that he's the perfect Marvel/Kirby weirdo than for him being a robot.

That said, ROBOTS! Who doesn't love 'em? When they run things, it might get me in good.

Comic Talent - Ivan Brandon [Heavy Ink]

Image Comics' Transhuman is a new series by Pax Romana and The Nightly News creator Jonathan Hickman and artist JM Ringuet that oozes potential joy for the faithful. A "mockumentary" about genetic engineering, superheroes and the effort to mass-market a combination of the two, the series looks set to confirm Hickman's reputation for both visually-arresting work and an ability to play well within the SF genre. If you want to know more, you can find a 5-page preview of the first issue here (PDF).

Another premiere that's worth paying attention to this week is the first volume of Flight Explorer, the kid-centric spin-off from popular anthology Flight - It may not all be science fiction, but with a new story about the top-heavy monster Jellaby, and another strip called Zita the Spacegirl, this should be considered for the childlike near you. Even if that happens to be you yourself.

(You can read some more about the book, including seeing preview pages, here).

The third book appearing for the first time on Wednesday is Star Trek: New Frontier #1, a new mini-series tying into the New Frontier novel series. Both the novels and the comics are being written by Peter David, allowing for both coherent continuity and full-on nerditry, both of which are heartily approved around these here parts.

Elsewhere, it's all about the collections. Marvel is putting out hardcover collections of their popular time-travelling 1980s Iron Man versus Doctor Doom stories in Iron Man: Doomquest and their not-so-popular "The Devil annuls Spider-Man's marriage" story in Spider-Man: One More Day.

Meanwhile, DC pulls in some of the best of their 1980s output with the complete run of Dan Jurgens' greedy jerk anti-hero in Showcase Presents: Booster Gold, and then reprints some comic history with the fourth and final volume of Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, which not only reprints Kirby's final stories starring Orion, Mr. Miracle and Darkseid, but also does its best to return Kirby's final work with the characters, graphic novel The Hunger Dogs, to the way it was before editorial forces demanded rewrites and changed the ending to make the production of more Super Powers figures that little bit easier. Previously unseen, reworked and re-inked art, and restored script and structure on the strip provides something like a Director's Cut version of one of the lost masterpieces of superhero comics by one of the greatest comic artists who ever lived... which has to be worth a look, right?

As ever, a full list of the week's releases can be found here, and the place to find your personal comics emporium can be found here. Now go and buy the Fourth World book and make a dead comic mastermind a happy ghost already.

Eight years after the release of the movie version of Clarke's novel, Marvel Comics not only released an oversized adaptation of the film by Fantastic Four, Hulk and X-Men co-creator Jack Kirby, but also let Kirby loose on a follow-up series. While the movie adaptation didn't lack for ambition (The cover announced that "The Ultimate Trip Becomes The Ultimate Illustrated Adventure!") and had a weird charm in over-the-top narration like this -

The great Monolith makes a soft sound - - A simple, maddeningly repetitious sound which hypnotizes all who come within its spell. Moonwatcher and his tribe cluster like sleepwalkers before the cube. It is talking to them... and the man-apes are listening - - Moving closer - - Touching - - Responding to communication from the infinite...

[The New Seed] will always be there in the story's final moments to taunt us with the question we shall never answer. The little shaver is, perhaps, the embodiment of our own hopes in a world which daily makes us more than a bit uneasy about the future ... in the meager space devoted to his appearance, he brightens our hopes considerably. He is a comforting visual, almost tangible reminder that the future is not yet up for grabs. And wherever his journey takes him matters not one whit to this writer. The mere fact that the chances of his making it are still good is the comforting thought.

I place Kirby's 2001 book in the same category as William Shatner's schlock vanity singing album. Kirby did it because it was something he wanted to do, even though there was no market demand for it.

2001: A Space Odyssey Comic Book [SciFi Dimensions]

The first great reprint arriving Wednesday is Doom Patrol Volume 6: Planet Love, which finishes Grant Morrison's 1990s run on DC's freakshow version of the X-Men, complete with very '90s themes like nanotechnology and Lewis Carroll-revisionism. Despite its dated qualities, there's a surreal pop joy to Morrison's Doom Patrol that makes it one of the best superhero books of the last twenty-five years, and something that's well worth searching out, if only for the Madchester-inspired appearance of the Love Glove midway through the run.

Talking of surreal pop joy, that's exactly what Jack Kirby's comics were made out of, making Countdown Special: The New Gods - an 80-page "best of" taken from his three 1970s Fourth World series New Gods, Mister Miracle and Forever People - easily the best use of $4.99 you're likely to find this week, especially if you've never come across this material before. Pitched somewhere between the most dynamic superhero comics you've ever read and crazy religious texts, with art that's both brutishly dynamic and exquisitely designed, these are visionary works that must be read to be believed. Plus, they were Star Wars years before George Lucas made his first million, which is always worth pointing out.

If you still have money left over after picking those two books up, then you might want to look at the oddest book of the week: Marvel's Essential Marvel Saga. Marvel Saga was a mid-80s series that reprinted old comic books by cutting them up and putting expositionary narration in to replace the boring bits, resulting in this weird mash-up history of the Marvel Universe. Putting this into the cheap, phone-book-sized Essentials format seems perverse (It's a reprint of a reprint, after all), but also strangely alluring. And in a week as quiet as this at the comic store, that's enough to make it worth picking up.

As for new comics, it's a very slow week. There's absolutely nothing worth pointing out from the independent publishers' output at all. Okay, there's the third issue of IDW's Angel: After The Fall series, plotted by Joss Whedon and following on from the cancelled TV show. There's also the second issue of the same publisher's high concept series Zombies Vs. Robots Vs. Amazons. But in terms of new books? It's pretty much a dead week from the smaller houses.

Actually, the same could be said for the larger publishers as well. Marvel Comics launches a revised version of their Sliders rip-off, New Exiles, while DC launches... actually, DC doesn't launch anything at all this week.

A list of the week's releases is available in full here, and as ever, you can find your nearest comic book store here. Tell them that io9 sent you, just to see the confused looks on their faces.

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: Jack Kirby and George Lucas. The former wrote and drew the series, the latter ripped it off and made a fortune.

Crunchy goodness: 5

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: Never mind the countless revivals of the characters by lesser talents across the years, this is pretty much source material for a lot of Star Wars. The main character who wields the Astro-Force, which is an almost religious experience, is revealed to be the son of the main bad guy Darkseid. Which is pronounced "dark side." Darkseid's home planet, by the way? Looks like the Death Star.

Stunt casting: Real-life comedian Don Rickles finds himself not only guest-starring midway through the series, but he also gains a fictional bizarro twin, "Goody" Rickles. Who manages to explode after being too nice to people.
Most painfully dated moment: Far too many to mention, but the Hairies - square sidekick Jimmy Olsen's introduction to hippie counterculture - must be pretty far up the list.

The New Gods Library

Famous names: Jack Kirby and George Lucas. The former wrote and drew the series, the latter ripped it off and made a fortune.

Crunchy goodness: 5

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: Never mind the countless revivals of the characters by lesser talents across the years, this is pretty much source material for a lot of Star Wars. The main character who wields the Astro-Force, which is an almost religious experience, is revealed to be the son of the main bad guy Darkseid. Which is pronounced "dark side." Darkseid's home planet, by the way? Looks like the Death Star.

Stunt casting: Real-life comedian Don Rickles finds himself not only guest-starring midway through the series, but he also gains a fictional bizarro twin, "Goody" Rickles. Who manages to explode after being too nice to people.
Most painfully dated moment: Far too many to mention, but the Hairies - square sidekick Jimmy Olsen's introduction to hippie counterculture - must be pretty far up the list.

The New Gods Library

Famous names: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who created the first hundred and two issues (plus occasional special editions) of the self-styled "world's greatest comic magazine" at the same time as coming up with other pop-culture icons like the Hulk, Iron Man and the X-Men.

Crunchy goodness: 4. What else?

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: Too many to list, but look at the cast list of characters who made their first appearances in this series before going on to have their own comics: Doctor Doom, the Silver Surfer, Galactus, the Inhumans and the swinging Black Panther.

Design breakthrough: Kirby's dynamic distortion of the human figure and unusual page design got people so excited about what comics look like that even college students starting to read them.

Most painfully dated moment: Surprisingly not the race to outer space to beat the Communists from getting there first; when the Thing gets a Beatles wig in the mail and wears it, calling himself a living doll, then you know exactly what decade the stories came from.

Fantastic Four Plaza

Famous names: The Omnibus reprints the Surfer's short-lived late-60s solo series by Lee and artist John Buscema, with co-creator Kirby returning for the final chapter in time to bid the character a fond farewell as he headed towards cancellation.

Crunchy goodness: 3

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: Even before his appearance in this year's Fantastic Four movie, the Surfer had already managed to crossover into video games and animation - He headlined his own Saturday morning cartoon in the '90s, which was canceled when someone realized that children get scared by naked silver men on surfboards.

Elevator pitch: Hang loose with the alien who matches the power of a God with the mind of Alan Alda.
Most painfully dated moment: He's a pacifist who wants everyone to love each other while weeping over man's inhumanity to man. The entire book is a painfully dated moment.

Silver Surfer at Marvel