Forthcoming titles:

Doctor Fate gets a new ongoing title by legendary comic creators Steve Gerber and Paul Gulacy that spins out of The Helmet of Fate mini series. Gerber or Gulacy alone would be enough to get my attention but together this becomes an essential purchase. On sale April 18. Anticipation factor: 8

Madman Atomic Comics marks the return of Mike Allred’s creation and it starts with what could be the end of the Madman universe! Then again this being issue 1 it probably won’t be. On sale April 4. Anticipation factor: 7

Final Girl sees David Hutchinson bring the slasher film to comics as a group of young girls find themselves in a town under siege by killers. Not just any killers but Freddy/Jason won’t stay dead even when you shoot/stab/cut them into little pieces style killers. And to add to the fun you get to vote online to decide who will survive. On sale April. Anticipation factor: 7

Nova gets a new ongoing series in the wake of Annihilation and while that title failed to impress I’ll be picking this up as I have fond memories of the original series. Here’s hoping that writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and artist Sean Chen can recapture the spirit of that title. On sale April 11. Anticipation factor: 7

Runaways 25 sees a new creative team take over the title. Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan will take the group in a new direction both figuratively and literally as they head for New York. On sale April 4. Anticipation factor: 8

Justice League of America 8/Justice Society of America 5 begin a five part crossover between DC’s two big new team titles. These should be bursting at the staples with classic DC characters as the two creative teams (Brad Melzer & Ed Benes/Geoff Johns & Dale Eaglesham) join forces . On sale April 4 (JLA) and April 25 (JSA). Anticipation factor: 8

Alan Moore: Wild Worlds sees one of the biggest names in comics working on some of Wildstorms biggest characters. Featuring WildCats Vs Spawn plus Deathblow, Majestic, Voodoo and lots more in this 320 page title. On sale May 30. Anticipation factor: 8

This month's reading:

‘68

It was bad enough being in America when the dead started rising in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, how much worse would it have been in Viet Nam? That’s the premise behind this new Image one-shot but 25 pages just isn’t enough time to fully explore the idea. Characters assume that the dead are rising everywhere without any real reason to in order to propel the story along. Writer Mark Kidwell is clearly a fan of Romero’s classic and with more time, maybe a four issue series, he would have been able to turn the soldiers into real people that the reader could care about. As it is they die every other page and we don’t give a damn, it leaves you wondering if everything was built backwards from the final in-joke reference to Night of the Living Dead. Nat Jones art is good with some nice gruesome deaths. Jones is a horror comics regular and also a fan of Romero’s work (you’ll fine a painting of Bub from Day of the Dead on his My Space page) and it’s this love of the genre that really comes through. Grade: C+