It's great to read a book from someone who's got a bit of fire in their belly over something and in Punk Rock Jesus (Vertigo) Sean Murphy is certainly feeling passionate about a few things. Religion, pollitics and reality TV are in the firing line here in a story about a TV programme that claims to have cloned Jesus Christ and invites viewers to watch his development in a controlled environment.
Murphy doesn't lose sight of building an entertaining story around his themes and he contrasts his serious points with doses of high drama and violence. There are outraged fractions of the public which make it neccessary to hire a bodyguard and the one in this story is plagued by a violent past growing up in the IRA and then the so-called Messiah himself grows into an teenager with a burning desire for revenge at his closeted life. The typically kinetic art art from Sean Murphy is in black and white which gives the work a suitably energetic immeadiacy. And if you've already read the series as a monthly comic, here's the killer: it contains ten new story pages...


Finally there's Tony S. Daniel's Batman: Detective Comics vol. 2: Scare Tactics (DC) packed with appearances from Mad Hatter, Court of Owls and Scarecrow and Swamp Thing vol. 2 Family Tree (DC) written by Mr Batman Scott Snyder& illustrated by Yanick Paquette.
For the Weekly Treats its a hot Batman week at DC with Batman #19, Batman and Red Robin #19 and on a slightly different track, DC's answer to the Marvel babies: Li'l Gotham #1. Marvel have Ultron #1 and Age of Ultron #5 (keep up now) and the final issue of Secret Service #6.
A full list of releases can be found under the tab at the top of the page...