Having Buffy the Vampire Slayer come back from television death in comic book form has been largely successful for Joss Whedon and Dark Horse Comics. Before the series reached this fourth volume of stories, Mr. Whedon had begun to pass writing duties off to others instead of penning the run exclusively. Unfortunately, Whedon couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have his Buffyverse crossover into the universe he created with his future vampire slayer series Fray.

Issue 1 of Citizen Rex opens the door to a futuristic society in which our lead character, Sergio Bauntin, exists. With autonomous robots operating among the citizens of some undisclosed and corrupt city, this first installment only leaves questions.

North 40‘s Conover County seems like any of the multitude of podunk American towns. There’s nothing much to do except drink, fight and gossip in any order possible. That static cycle forever shifts into the horrific realm after two stupid high school kids open what looks like a Necronomicon, or book of the dead, at the town library. After reciting an ancient incantation, night falls, people black out for several hours and all hell literally breaks loose.

In his first graphic novel—the result of his university thesis—Niklas Asker has created a colorless but emotionally vivid world existing somewhere between the real world and the authorial machinations of one Jess (no last name).

In part one of Search For a Hero, scribe Fabian Nicieza described the pre-Batman R.I.P. Tim Drake best when he fed him an off-handed Brady Brunch joke while fighting Jason Todd. The fallen hero may be the insecure Jan Brady to Drake’s precocious Cindy but the shattering events of Batman’s “death” have left the best detective Batman’s raised in a perpetual state of bewilderment.

The Saga of Solomon Kane follows in the footsteps of the omnibus series, The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. Within the black-and-white volume are over twenty fantastical, surprisingly violent adaptations of Robert E. Howard’s original pulp stories from various Savage Sword of Conan and Conan Saga issues, Kull and the Barbarians #2 and #3, Marvel Preview #19, Monsters Unleashed and Dracula Lives.

Peter Milligan pulls no punches in his latest series from Vertigo, Greek Street. The concept: classic stories based on Greek myths, reinterpreted and intertwining in modern-day London. DC/Vertigo’s decision to charge a mere dollar for the first issue essentially means “no harm, no foul” for anybody looking to take a chance on it. But Milligan’s proven throughout his career that his stories aren’t for everyone, and they must each be taken individually. Human Target, X-Statix, The Extremist, and Shade, for instance, all push completely different buttons and enjoy varying levels of success.

Really? It seems impossible that in more than seven decades of fighting crime, Superman and Batman haven’t fought vampires and werewolves. Nobody’s written this story yet? Surely this has already been done by now, right?

Madame Xanadu Vol. 1: Disenchanted collects the inaugural ten-issue run of Vertigo’s latest monthly series. Writer Matt Wagner (TRINITY, Grendel, Mage), artist Richard Friend (#3-10) and the meteoric Fool’s Gold creator/illustrator Amy Reeder Hadley (#1-2) helm the mesmeric and captivating trade.