Weekly Treats! Batman, The Massive, Constantine

Hot on the heels of the recently released Batman volume that brought together the tie-in stories featuring the Court of Owls, here's the official second volume to the series; Batman vol. 2 The City Of Owls (DC) re-prints #8-12, which brought the story arc to a close, plus the annual. Also out is the the paperback edition of Batman vol. 1 The Court Of The Owls. If you haven't tried this storyline, or if you're a lapsed Batman fan, these two books have been an very good representation of the character and while writer Scott Snyder has been receiving the main plaudits, Greg Capullo's illustrations have been pretty faultless.

So what next for an environmental campaigner once the worst-case scenario has occurred and Earth's eco-structure collapses? Written by Brian Wood, The Massive vol. 1 Black Pacific (Dark Horse) focuses on an environment-action trawler whose crew now find themselves searching for food and fuel whilst keeping watch for the missing sister ship The Massive. Grounded and with a political bent, this is a post-apocalyptic drama that doesn't simply use new social chaos as a thriller device, but attempts to come to terms with the issues that caused the breakdown. Illustration duties are split between Kristian Donaldson and Gary Brown. 

If you've always been a fan of Hellblazer it's probably best not to approach Constantine #1 (DC) wondering how the character will translate to the DCU. Think of him as a new character (albeit one who's been kicking around Justice League Dark for a while) - a cynical Brit, black-magician plonked in the middle of superhero histrionics. Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes write and Renato Guedes illustrates. Our Nightcrawler-from-another-dimension wants to get home despite the damage it will cause to the dimensions in between in X-Termination #1 of 2 (Marvel). Wolverine plans to stop him in a story that brings together Astonishing X-Men, Age of Apocalypse and X-Treme X-Men.

2000AD editor Matt Smith (no, not him) writes about Joe's early days as an 18 year-old fresh out of the academy in Judge Dredd Year One #1 (IDW). Illustrated by Simon Coleby with a - get this - a variant cover by Dave Sim (see further below). There's an interview with Matt Smith on ComicBookResources here. And finally a treasure hunter (how do you get that job then?) finds himself linked to the ghosts of five fictional characters in Five Ghosts: The Haunting of Fabian Gray #1 of 6 (Image), empowering him with their unique talents.

A full list of releases can be found under the tab at the top of the page...