1. Batman: Black and White #1 by Various Artists (DC)
I'm a huge Batman fan and loved the original series so this one was pretty much a shoo-in as soon as I heard it announced. That's right, the award-winning anthology title, Batman: Black and White, returns this week with a host of big names in its first issue. Look at this roll-call: Chip Kidd, Michael Cho, Neal Adams, Maris Wicks, Joe Quinones, John Arcudi, Sean Murphy, Howard Mackie and Chris Samnee. Marc Silvestri draws the cover and even the original series editor, Mark Chiarello, has returned! With such a roster of high quality talent, it's no surprise that I really enjoyed each of the five Batman stories here. Each one is thoroughly entertaining but does something different in each one, drawing your attention to something you don't normally see in Batman stories. Neal Adams' Batman Zombie for example initially seems like a joke story where Batman is somehow a zombie shuffling through the streets of Gotham ineffectually unable to stop any crime, but Adams' rather on-the-nose social commentary spurs Bruce Wayne to realise he can do tremendous good without the cowl, through his enormous resources as a billionaire. How does that whole zombie angle work into it? You'll have to read it to find out but Adams also provides the art and who could resist that? Robin gets his turn in the spotlight in one story and in another, the brilliant duo, Harley and Ivy, return for an adventure of their own in a story NOT scripted by Paul Dini but by the excellent Maris Wicks. Sean Murphy and Chris Samnee both draw Batman/Bruce Wayne for the first time and as you'd expect both do an amazing job. I would love to see both on a regular Batman title. I won't go into too much detail for each one, but I will say that each story here is highly entertaining. The only complaint I had was with Murphy's Batmobile which is frankly one of the worst designs for the Batmobile I've ever seen. It looks like a kid's novelty bed shaped like a Batmobile but with an exposed engine and looks far too rigid to drive - horrible! If you're a new reader wondering at the subtitle, Black and White is exactly the presentation of the comic - no colours are used, just pencils and inks for every comic. It lends the stories a noir-ish angle that suits Batman like a (black) glove but in the case of certain artists, like Samnee who uses thick black ink, can make their art stand out even more starkly and effectively. I'm so glad DC brought the title back, especially when the quality of the stories is so good and can't wait for issue #2 - Batman fans, ignore the Villains' Month rubbish and pick this one up instead! * So those are my picks for the week. I know, I know, I missed out a lot of big titles: Infinity #2, Battle of the Atom #1, Chew #36, Forever Evil #1, and a whole bunch of Villains' Month one-shots. But really, those comics were just ok as opposed to awesome like these five, so they just get an honourable mention at the end. What are your picks for the comics of the week? Let me know in the comments below!