Weekly Treats! Hawkeye, Adventure Time, Wolverine

Casting the same spell as they did when making Iron Fist cool again in the Immortal Iron Fist title (it's funny to think just how much of a forgotten character he was when they launched the title in the noughties), Matt Fraction and David Aja have turned Hawkeye into a hot comic thanks to great design-work on the covers, nice minimalist interior art that's strong on storytelling and a story that dared to spend a big chunk of its page time in Clint Barton's personal life. It's a decision that's entirely appropriate for a character without super-powers - if these stories are about Clint's life while he's not Avenging then the drama is going to built on "smaller" incidents and Hawkeye vol. 1 My Life As A Weapon (Marvel) is richer for it.

So if you had to guess at the top ten biggest-selling graphic novels in the shop would you make room for Adventure Time? Surprising though it may seem for those that haven't seen the cartoon show, this series has been an incredible success for the simple fact that it has adults saying "it's brilliant, but it's not for kids" unaware that the kids love it twice as much. Adventure Time vol. 2 (kaboom) collects #5-9 of the archaic, fairy tale adventure series. And finally, quite comfortably plugging away in its own out-of-continuity corner is Earth 2 vol 1 The Gathering which rode in on DC's second wave of new launches. By James Robinson and Nicola Scott, it contains a great jolt in the first chapter...

Quite a party at the Weeklies house this week: Marvel have two clear biggies, the first being Brit-pairing Paul Cornell and the legendary Alan Davis' Wolverine #1. And secondly, if issue one left you punch-drunk (who was prepared to be plopped into the middle of the story like that?), then you need to get yourself together because Age of Ultron #2 is already here.

After wrong-footing everyone by killing a character in Batman Inc. rather than at the end of the Death of a Family storyline, the aftermath begins - the banner title is Requiem - and in head title Batman #18 (DC) Greg Capullo takes a well-earned break as Andy Kubert steps in on illustrating duties. And lastly, I may have you at the words "written by Mike Mignola" but how's this for a solicitation description: August 1944: a man in a suit of iron armor drops from an American warplane onto a French battlefield, where he attempts to fight his way through an army of Nazis and the massive war machine they keep protected in an armory. Simple, no? Illustrated by Jason Latour, that's Sledgehammer 44 #1 of 2 (Dark Horse).

Full list of titles can be found under the tab at the top of the page.