Dark Horse Presents #8
Stories by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, Evan Dorkin, Tony Puryear, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Alan Gordon, Brian Wood, Martin Conaghan, Rich Johnston, M. J. Butler

Art by Duncan Fegredo, Jill Thompson, Tony Puryear, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Thomas Yeates, Kristian Donaldson, Jimmy Broxton, Simon Rohrmüller, Mark Wheatley

Colors by Dave Stewart, Moose, Jesus Aburto, Thomas Yeates, Lori Almeida

Letters by Clem Robins, Jason Arthur, Ken Bruzenak, John Workman, Jared K. Fletcher, Jim Reddington

Creative Concepts by Tony Puryear, Erika Alexander, Robert Alexander, Thomas Yeates

Covers by Duncan Fegredo with Dave Stewart, Kristian Donaldson with Brian Wood

Back Cover and Spot Illustrations by Geof Darrow
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: February 1, 2012
Cover Price: $7.99

Dark Horse brings out their best and brightest talent for the 8th installment of their legendary anthology Dark Horse Presents. For anyone new to Dark Horse’s line of titles this anthology is a perfect jumping-on point. Dark Horse Presents #8 collects both new and old titles that accurately showcase the publisher’s diverse line of comics. Not every comic featured in the anthology is a hit, though. However, with stories from Mike Mignola and Brain Wood, Dark Horse Presents #8 is a collection worth picking up.

Detective Comics #875
Written by Scott Snyder
Art and Colors by Francesco Francavilla
Lettering by Jared K. Fletcher
DC Comics
Release Date: March 30, 2011

Scott Snyder has been teamed up with two of the most consistently amazing artists on his recent run on Detective Comics. Initially, before DC drew the line at $2.99, the outline for Detective Comics was set for Jock to do the art for the main, featured story, and for Francesco Francavilla to have backup feature duties while Snyder wrote both. The main story was to focus on Gotham City’s new Batman, Dick Grayson, while the backup was to focus on Gotham’s favorite Police Commissioner, James Gordon. The stories were set to intertwine and change places in positioning ever once in a while, but it was always going to try to keep them together.

Since January, however, the limited page count has forced the stories apart, and I, for one, could not be happier. In the instance of Detective Comics, it has given us the ability to see a completely focused story from Snyder and, in the case of Detective Comics #875, Francesco Francavilla, and oh what magic they work.

Demo #5 (of 6)
Written by: Brian Wood
Art & Cover by: Becky Cloonan
Letters by: Jared K. Fletcher
Vertigo
Price: $2.99
Release Date: June 3, 2010

Brian Wood is a master at characterization. I don’t know what it is about him, but he seems to be able to capture the essence of a character in one issue where it takes many others entire trades to accomplish the same. This is best seen in his series Demo and is definitely captured in the latest issue titled “Stranded.” Not only is the characterization spot-on in this issue, but it also gives the main character a power that I love: time travel.

The story covers Elisabeth, who is very different and alone for more than one reason. As I mentioned before, she has the power to time travel, but the other reason is a little more real to life. Elisabeth’s problem caused her to have problems with her father and leads her to make decisions she regrets later in life, but that’s okay because she has decided to change all of that using her power.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciler: Chris Sprouse
Inker: Karl Story
Colorist: Guy Major
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Price: $3.99
DC Comics
Release date: May 12, 2010

I suppose I should talk about this issue, since it is about to show how Bruce Wayne returns to our time following the events at the end of Final Crisis, but honestly, it’s hard for me to get that excited about it. This is a fine issue, but I think I was expecting the story to get off to a stronger start, and this wasn’t what I was expecting.

As the cover shows, most of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1 is Batman as a caveman fighting other cavemen at the dawn of man. Bruce Wayne joins up with a bunch of cavemen and then fights a bunch of evil cavemen lead by the immortal caveman himself, Vandal Savage, gaining a caveman Robin (who somehow finds a domino mask in the bush apparently) before getting sent further into the future.