Let's quickly get the superhero stuff out of the way, shall we? DC is launching a new Azrael series, mixing Batman and The DaVinci Code for a new religious hero to light Gotham's streets. Or something.

DC is also putting out a hardcover collection of the much-delayed, but much-awesome Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds series, that redefined the Legion of Super-Heroes franchise at least until the next reboot.

Marvel sees that collection and raises Captain America: Road to Reborn, another hardcover collection, this time of the Cap issues leading up to Steve Rogers' return. Marvel also offers Dark Wolverine Vol. 1: The Prince, a collection of the first solo stories starring Wolverine's bastard (in many senses of the word) son, and the special issue Dark Reign: The List - Hulk, in which gamma irradiated monsters come face to face with Marvel's current New World Order (I predict smashing).

Keeping outside of monsters for the time being, Nexus: Space Opera and Star Trek: Mission's End offer your fill of interstellar drama for the week, with the former bringing back the cult space cop superhero from its 1980s indie comic heyday and the latter offering a take on the final days of James Kirk's original five-year mission. Sticking with movies, the first issue of GI Joe Movie: Snake Eyes lets Ray Park, the movie's own silent ninja, co-write a story about his own character.

But none of those, as fine as they are - and Nexus and Star Trek are both particularly fine - hold a candle to Image Comics' reissue of Five Fists of Science, Matt Fraction and Steven Saunders' alternate-history tale of Twain and Tesla teaming up to save the world from forces more ancient and deadly than many could imagine. If ever there was a book I could eagerly recommend to the majority of io9 readers, it'd be this one. Go forth and buy.

Oh, but not yet. We've still got the Hallowe'enish books to go! You know about Angel Vs. Frankenstein after yesterday's preview, but IDW also has Frankenstein's Mobster, a pun-laden, funny gangster romp recasting of Mary Shelley's misunderstood monster, and Spike Omnibus, a collection of stories about Joss Whedon's other vampire with a soul, for horror fans this week.

Marvel, meanwhile, has the first issue of The Stand: Soul Survivors, a new series adapting part of the Stephen King novel, and DC are putting out their annual DC Universe Hallowe'en Special filled with spooky shorts starring superhero favorites. 'Tis the season, after all.

Whether you're looking for things going bump in the night, or giant steampunk inventions designed to scare the world into peace, you'll be able to find it on this week's shipping list from Diamond Distributors, and then inside your local comic store. But, seriously: At least leaf through Five Fists Of Science. You'll thank me afterwards.

Let's go with the two non-death-related new books of the week first, shall we? GI Joe Movie Prequel: Duke is IDW's way of giving you a glimpse of this summer's toyline-come-explodo-movie a few months early, as well as filling in the blanks of Dennis Quaid's character's history before you hit the multiplex this August.

Less attached to a major motion picture - but arguably more fun - is Warren Ellis' Anna Mercury Volume 1: The Cutter, the first collection of self-styled "internet Jesus"' latest SF noir femme fatale as she breaks hearts, and into buildings, across the retro-future city.

Otherwise, it's all about deceasing this week. Batman's supposed death leads to many successors stepping forward in Batman: Battle for The Cowl (Our money's on Dick Grayson, but only because Tim Drake's a little bit too short right now).

Meanwhile, Resident Evil's kinda-undead also get their own DC comic book to infect the world with. Talking of infections, Marvel's The Stand adaptation not only gets a new series (American Nightmares), but the hardcover collection of the first series, Captain Trips... which is only going to be released in comic book stores, thanks to the weirdness of publisher licenses.

More familiar undeadities can be found in IDW's new Angel series, Blood and Trenches (a flashback to Angel's adventures during World War I) and Dynamite's new series Super Zombies, which lives up to its title by offering superheroes who happen to be zombies (It's written by io9 favorite Marc Guggenheim, and promises to be more fun than my snark suggests, if you're curious).

That said, the book we're looking forward to most this week may be the first issue of Super Human Resources, which I don't even have to explain, because they've created their very own trailer:

If your tastes demand a little more than any of the above, check out this week's shipping list to find something closer to your still-beating heart, and then find your nearest comic store via the Comic Shop Locator to know where to pick up the comics, whether alive or dead.