Issue one of DC Universe Legacies, the first in a 10-issue limited series that’s a purported trip through DCU history, shows that a veteran like Len Wein still has the “write stuff.”

Madman Atomic Comics Volume 3 collects Madman Atomic Comics issues 14-17, plus plenty of guest pin-ups and a bonus section with a closer look at the art, with some notes and other back matter.

While most of Jeffrey Brown’s books are more focused, dealing with mostly with one relationship (Clumsy) or general subject matter (Incredible Change-bots!), Undeleted Scenes represents a pretty good cross-section that thankfully highlights plenty of humor along with relationship woes (which, as much as I enjoy Brown’s work, can get a little too navel-gazing and tiresome).

At the end of DC’s big event book from a few years ago, Final Crisis, Batman was presumed to have been killed at the hands of Darkseid’s Omega Sanction. In fact, that most evil of New Gods banished Bruce Wayne to a journey through time. Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne seems that it will resolve that yet-untold journey.

While my appreciation of Paul Pope’s Heavy Liquid is on record, I’ll submit that his 100% series, published in the early 2000s and now collected in a single edition from Vertigo, was definitely a step forward in maturity, subject matter, and storytelling. Not better, necessarily, but a natural and appropriate follow-up.

In the introductory forward of The Flash: Rebirth comic writer Matt Cherniss admits that when it comes to superheroes, “keeping them dead is often harder than actually killing them in the first place.” While ending the life of beloved character always carries a level of gravitas to it, death in comic books is more or less like hitting the creative reset button

Vertigo Crime delivers another pulpy treat, this time in the form of Native American exploitation thriller The Executor. Writer Jon Evans (Dark Places, Invisible Armies) and artist Andrea Mutti (Break Point, Le Syndrome de Cain) team up for the first time to tell the story of former hockey star Joe Ullen.

Vertigo has this habit of launching new books at a $1 price tag. I, Zombie is the latest to get this treatment, and it’s certainly a better investment than other notable things you can get for a buck, like a McDonald’s Double Burger, for instance. I, Zombie is far meatier, brainier, and goes down a lot better.

The Unwritten is an ongoing comic book series from DC’s Vertigo imprint. The first trade collection, Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity is available, and collects issues 1-5, plus it includes some background and sketch material at the end.