Comics Briefly: American Vampire #8, Batgirl #15, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6, Birds of Prey #6, Dungeons & Dragons #1, Khan: Ruling in Hell #2

Wide assortment of books this week, and they were all good to great issues.

My Favorite Book of the week is American Vampire #8, even though Return of Bruce Wayne #6 and Khan #2 were both awesome.

All issues were new in stores on 11/10/10


American Vampire #8, (Devil in the Sand Part Three)
Written by Scott Snyder
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque

Yay! More Pearl! (If you've missed this series, check out the graphic novel of the first arc. Pearl Jones, flapper era actress turned new breed of vampire, is one of my favorite things in comics right now.) This entire issue was really solid, I thought. All the parts of this arc are coming together nicely, and the art was pretty fantastic. I know I've said that I don't like “scratchy” art, but the heavy blacks really work for the tone here.


Batgirl #15
Written by Bryan Q. Miller, Pencils by Dustin Nguyen, Inks by Derek Fridolfs

Bought this one because I enjoyed the Batgirl issue of the Bruce Wayne: Road Home so much. It wasn't quite that level of glee this time, but that's only because I read the first few pages on the internet earlier this week. The rest of Stephanie's current adventure is fine, but those first panels are fantastic!

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6
Writer: Grant Morrison, Penciller (some pgs): Lee Garret
Art (other pgs): Pere Perez, Inks: Alejandro Sicat

This marks the end of this much delayed mini-series, and it actually had a decent wrap-up! I wouldn't have believed it, given the scattered nature of the five previous issues. I think it works because Batman is written well, and all the other superheroes are written really well. The time-busting effect was awesome, too.  It is not my favorite book of the week, though, because there were some weird plot jumps in the middle that I had a lot of trouble following.


Birds of Prey #6
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Alvin Lee

Didn't actually purchase this issue, just skimmed through it in the store. Seemed fine, better than the first few of this run, but I'm waiting for the collection at this point. High point: Huntress got to be badass, always nice to see.


Dungeons & Dragons #1
Writer: John Rogers, Artist: Andrea Di Vito

And I didn't purchase this one either, although it was a near thing. It's a cute adventure romp, full of entertaining action and plenty of quips. If it had made me laugh once more or been 2.99 instead of 3.99 I probably would have bought it.


Khan: Ruling in Hell #2
Written by Scott & David Tipton
Art by Fabio Mantovani

I really, really liked this.  It's sad and lovely, close to heartbreaking, a fitting prequel to Star Trek II. Well, almost.  I am continually distracted by the woman wearing nothing but nets. It made some sense as a real costume on a real person in the 60's. Drawing it just looks silly.

There are a couple of awkward bits of dialogue, but overall the dialogue is amazing, and it is very close to a perfect book.