In a thoroughly modern genesis, Danica Novgorodoff’s Refresh, Refresh is based upon the screenplay of the same name by James Ponsoldt, which in turn was adapted from the short story by Benjamin Percy. Refresh, Refresh follows three boys in rural Oregon whose fathers have been sent off to war.

Simon Dark Vol. 3 collects the final issues of the series of the same name. The story centers on a mysterious youth living in a strange, Bat-Family-absent corner of Gotham City, and is far from a typical super hero tale, even as it incorporates its fair share of slugfests and action.

The several plots in Forgetless swirl around an event: some sort of epic club in New York that’s about to open its doors for the last time. The book is rife with modern pop culture-isms—such as texting, tweeting, and viral video provocateurs—and age-old truisms—such as disaffected youth in search of counterfeit identification for the purposes of obtaining alcohol and such. Those elements, especially the pop culture stuff, can pretty easily muddle a story, let alone when you mix in the kickoff plot—that of a down and out model-turned-assassin coming to the event to commit her first kill.

These days, Geoff Johns’ work for Green Lantern (vol. 4) is almost beyond reproach in comcidom and even eclipses DC’s Batman and Superman series. Agent Orange is no exception. It stopgap miniseries further illustrates the blockbuster scribe’s adeptness for the comic medium after successful runs for 52, Infinite Crisis, Justice Society of America, and Teen Titans. And even as a prelude to the still continuing Blackest Night tentpole event, it is well written and expertly visualized space opera of the emotional spectrum.

In the debut issue of Joe the Barbarian we meet Joe Manson. His mother constantly berates him to get his head out of the fantasy world of his sketchbook, and like many geeky adolescent boys he gets bullied at school.

One Model Nation, an original graphic novel from Image, has a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and even the “who’s who” is a little muddied. “C. Allbritton Taylor” is also known as Courtney Taylor-Taylor, lead singer of The Dandy Warhols. Credited as “historian” is Donovan Leitch, of Nancy Boy, Camp Freddy, and some movie acting roles. The two are co-credited as coming up with the original concept as well.

One of the most underappreciated Batman stories is also one of the foremost examples of the superhero genre. That distinction belongs to Batman: The Cult: a miniseries created by writer Jim Starlin (Adam Warlock and the Infinity Watch, Captain Marvel), horror illustrator Bernie Wrightson (House of Mystery, Swamp Thing), avant-garde colorist Bill Wray (Punisher, Wasteland), award-winning letterer John Costanza (Swamp Thing), and the iconic editor Dennis O’Neil (Batman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow).

This lame crossover trade paperback collects the Deathtrap storyline, and includes Teen Titans Annual 2009, Titans #12-13, Teen Titans #70 and Vigilante #5-6. Writers Sean McKeever (Gravity, Sentinel, Terror Titans) and Marv Wolfman (Blade, The Tomb of Dracula) do little to rectify the creative funk this once-thriving second-tier series is in at the moment.

Juggernaut-scribe Geoff Johns (The Flash, Green Lantern) and former film executive Jeff Katz (Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash) inject a ton of cheeky humor and witty plotting into Booster Gold’s second time traveling volume (finally available in paperback). The big thrill of reading Blue and Gold (issues #0, #7-10, and #1,000,000) is seeing artist and Booster creator Dan Jurgens (Death of Superman) return not only to Michael Jon Carter, but his lesser known 1990s creations.