Usagi Yojimbo, Volume 3: The Wanderer's Road by Stan Sakai Review

Usagi meets Spot the tokage for the first time. An old woman does something terrible to her evil son. Zato-Ino, the blind swordspig, returns for a rematch. An insane samurai fights Usagi. Usagi and Gen return a valuable tea cup to its rightful owner. The Shogun’s Muramasa blade is stolen. And Usagi meets Leonardo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Little Girls Review (Nicholas Aflleje, Sarah Delaine)

Two outsider teen girls become mates in Ethiopia and get involved in an arbitrary conflict between lions and hyenas because Lion King! Also mythical talking monster hyena for reasons…?

Mr. and Mrs. X, Volume 1: Love and Marriage Review (Kelly Thompson, Oscar Bazaldua)

Superhero comics are by and large gussied-up soap operas and the X-Men are probably the most soap-tastic of the lot. Someone’s sleeping with someone else, their relationship is on the outs, those guys are having kids, and so on and so on. That’s basically what’s put me off its many titles - I just don’t care anymore about whether whatshername is back together with whatsisface or who’s dead but is predictably coming back to life and here’s the fucking Phoenix Force again.

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor Review

A family goes on a roadtrip hollyday, taking old Grandma Everygranny with them. There’s also a serial killer called The Misfit on the loose. But they couldn’t possibly run into him - after all this story’s called An Unhinged Evil Serial Killer is Hard to Find - riiiiight….. /??

Detective Comics #1000 Review (Peter K. Tomasi, Geoff Johns)

Batman looks good for 80, doesn’t he? Oh that’s right, he’s a drawing! And Detective Comics reaches its 1000th issue this month. Unlike Action Comics’ 1000th last year though, this bumper 96-page comic of Batman short stories isn’t half bad.

My Boyfriend Is a Bear Review (Pamela Ribon, Cat Farris)

Tail as old as time,
Furry as can be,
Bearly even friends…

Mrs Fox by Sarah Hall Review

A woman turns into a fox while her husband haplessly looks on. That’s all that happens - what am I missing?!

Scarlet, Volume 1 Review (Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev)

Somewhat confusingly, this is actually the third Scarlet book but it’s labelled “Volume 1” because… this is the first Scarlet book published at DC? Even though they also get the first two books, as part of Brian Bendis’ move from Marvel to DC? A trilogy of one book – arf, tres Douglas Adams!

The Gun by Fuminori Nakamura Review

A university student out walking one night stumbles across a gangster’s corpse and a loaded gun. He pockets the gun and proceeds to go coo-coo bananas over it, slowly deciding that he needs to fire it - at someone. Just ‘cos Chekhov’s rule I guess!

The Mighty Thor, Volume 5: The Death of the Mighty Thor Review (Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman)

After a strong opening couple books in Jason Aaron’s Jane Foster Thor run the series has stagnated under the “Mighty Thor” banner, never rising above “meh” and, for the last couple, “zzz…”. That said, Jane Foster’s time as Thor ends on a high note with her final adventure in The Death of The Mighty Thor. As much as I hate how Marvel don’t seem to have any ideas for new stories beyond the now boilerplate death/resurrection plotlines, this death storyline was surprisingly good, not least because Aaron throws in a clever bait’n’switch at the end.

A River in Egypt by David Means Review

An assistant art director waits for test results in a hospital to find out if his severely disabled son has cystic fibrosis. David Means takes us through the man’s thoughts on this profoundly stressful experience.

Detective Comics: 80 Years of Batman Review (Neil Gaiman, Neal Adams)

Like they did last year before Action Comics hit its historic 1000 issue milestone, DC have produced a massive celebratory edition for Detective Comics (the company is named after this very title) ahead of its 1000th issue next week and also its 80th anniversary this year. The book showcases comics from the 1930s through the decades right up to the New 52 days in the 2010s.

Criminal #3 Review (Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips)

Rather than start a new storyline like he’s done in the last two issues, Ed Brubaker concludes the second issue’s Bad Weekend story in Criminal #3 - which also unexpectedly ties into the first issue as well!

Inuyashiki, Volume 4 by Hiroya Oku Review

Inuyashiki goes from being mediocre back to boring again with this fourth volume. It’s the same with most superhero stories: every time the focus shifts to the good guy, things get really dull - it’s only entertaining once the hero and the villain are battling, or the focus is on the villain doing shady shit.