Let's start with Electropolis, the new Dark Horse collection of Dean Motter's Retrofuture Deco Noir story (Preview here). Filled with robot detectives, femme fatales and the power of electricity, it's just one of many off-beat genre books appearing at comic book stores this week.

And if Electropolis' pulp fiction is your thing, then maybe the Batman/Doc Savage Special (Dark Knight Detective versus Man of Bronze!) will also float your boat, after all. Or maybe Sky Doll: Doll Factory, a collection of unseen material from the awesome European strip Sky Doll, will provide your reading material for the next few days.

But if you prefer your heroines a little less suggestible than Sky Doll, the first issue of Tank Girl: Skidmarks is probably more your speed. Unsurprisingly, we'd also point you in the direction of the debut of Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows, but we're biased.

Maybe you're looking for something you've already seen in major motion pictures? That's okay; not only is there a preview issue of the new series of Wall-E, but there's also Star Wars Purge: Seconds To Die, which follows a young Darth Vader killing off as many Jedi as possible, post Revenge of The Sith. And that's not all! There's also a paperback collection of DC/Wildstorm's recent The X-Files series.

For those who can't get enough of those superheroes, then I'd recommend the first issue of Warren Ellis' Supergod, his latest "What if superheroes were bastards?" series. Or, on the opposite end of the superhero spectrum, the Absolute Justice hardcover, collecting Alex Ross' expansive love letter to the Super Friends (No, really).

In between those two extremes, there's Dynamite's Project Superpowers: The Black Terror Vol. 1 collection, DC's Green Lantern: Agent Orange collection, which leads into the current Blackest Night storyline, Supergirl: Who Is Superwoman? (in which Sterling Gates and Jamil Igle manage to undo years of abuse and make Supergirl a likable, working character again - good job, people) and the Authority: The Lost Year Reader (reprinting Grant Morrison and Gene Ha's two completed issues of their abandoned run, ahead of Keith Giffen and other artists aiming to complete the story in their absence).

There's also Marvel's PunisherMax (Yes, one word. It's the new "mature readers" title for the character, and maybe Marvel thinks pushing words together is more adult?), Green Hulk/Red Hulk collection (Heroes' writer Jeph Loeb writes a couple of gamma-irradiated monsters in a couple of adventures), the first issue of Strange (Mark Waid's reboot of the former Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme). And also, there's all manner of X-Men books: the Dark Avengers/X-Men: Utopia collection, as well as collections of Wolverine: Tales of Weapon X, Wolverine Weapon X: Adamantium Men and Wolverine/Gambit. All your Wolverine needs should definitely be met this week, let's face it.

If there are any other needs looking unserviced, I'd recommend checking out the complete list of books shipping from Diamond Distributors this week, and then remembering that your local comic book store can be found here. If this week seems overly expensive, don't worry; there's an entire skip week at the end of the year to get some of that money back. Look at it as a loan. Or something.

DC Comics have a pretty hefty week of important launches hitting stores tomorrow. (And, no, I'm not including "WWII Heroes Fight Dinosaurs" book The War That Time Forgot, the first collection of which is released this week.)

You can catch a glimpse at how Gotham City has been affected by the disappearance of Batman in Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead?, or follow Superman as he abandons Earth to kneel before Zod in the first issue of Superman: World of New Krypton. You can even catch up with the storyline that led to the creation of New Krypton in the hardcover collection Superman: Brainiac, which also includes the last days of poor Pa Kent. There's even a brand new space superhero series launching from the cosmic-awareness addled mind of Jim Starlin, called (appropriately) Strange Adventures.

Marvel are heading into space themselves, with the launch of their new "Intergalactic War - Again!" series, War of Kings; it's one of a number of launches from the House of Ideas this week, which include the Hulk anthology mini-series Hulk: Broken Worlds, a continuity-heavy Dark Reign: Fantastic Four, the wonderfully goofy one-shot Spider-man & The Human Torch in Bahia De Los Muertos (The plot of which is "Spidey and the Human Torch go to Puerto Rico and meet monsters." Seriously, how could you resist?) and the surprisingly fun New Avengers: The Reunion, which offers marriage counseling via superheroes and evil mad scientist cults.

(If you're jonesing for some Wolverine ahead of the upcoming movie, Marvel are there for you as well; they're re-releasing both Barry Windsor-Smith's classic Weapon X and Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's even-more-classic Wolverine mini-series in new editions, just in case you've never read them before.)

Of course, all of the above pales before IDW's Galaxy Quest: Global Warming, which proved that apparently comic book spin-offs of minor SF comedy movies years after they came out can still manage to be more fun than the movies themselves. Just don't let writer Scott Lobdell know I said that.

All of these releases, and many more, can be found by perusing the complete list of this week's new comic releases, and then purchased - if you have "the green" - at your local store which can, as ever, be found using the Comic Shop Locator Service. Although, really, you should know where it is by now. What're you waiting for?

An original story developed by X-Force writers Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, Hulk Vs. Wolverine is an direct-to-DVD animated feature with just about every villain (or, in one or two select cases, antihero) who's associated with the Weapon X program, and has what can generously be described as a pro-impalement policy. While the infamous "gingerbread Logan" scene from Damon Lindehof's Ultimate Wolverine Vs Hulk wasn't featured, the scene with Deadpool making jokes while chasing after his freshly sliced-off arm almost makes up for it.

Other big pluses for the feature include a nifty little flashback segment utilizing designs from Barry Windsor-Smith's classic Weapon X storyline, a compact running time that works its hardest to feature an explosion every 90 seconds, and witty dialogue (particularly when the above-mentioned Deadpool is on the scene), as well as Deathstryke, Omega Red and Sabretooth.

In a brief panel after the screening, writer/supervising producer Kyle mentioned additional upcoming features, such as Hulk Vs. Thor, which he promises will be "equally as violent, but in a different, epic, gods-smashing way." If they manage to retain the right amount of wit, blood, fanservice, cameos, and concision, Marvel and Lions Gate will have potential hits on their hand. Hulk Vs. Wolverine is currently scheduled for Blu-Ray and DVD release in January 2009, but if positive word of mouth pushes the release closer to the 2008 holiday season, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.