In Battlestar Galactica #16, Captain Apollo faces off against an independent, high-functioning, different kind of Cylon, pretty much alone on a dangerous alien world. The story and art had a World War I, Red Barron kind of feel to it, and it stands out as one of the best of the 23-issue run.

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 magic has returned, the Scoobies are back together, and vampires are more dangerous than ever before. With the reintroduction of magic, vampires have gained the ability to transform into animals and walk around in daylight. Curiously, this power does not extend to all vampires as Spike is still bound to the night.

hen the comics collected in this omnibus were running as individual issues, I wrote “Writer Daryl Gregory and artist Carlos Magno could put us on their payroll and we still couldn’t like this comic any more than we already do. Tightly plotted, relentlessly paced, brilliantly illustrated, accessible to new readers, and a balm for longtime POTA fans to the extent that while reading it one forgets there was ever a Tim Burton movie.

Writer Mark Evanier and Steve Rude bookended 1987 by teaming up twice. The first, cover-dated January of that year, was a Mister Miracle one-shot for DC Comics. Evanier, a longtime Jack Kirby associate, and Rude, channeled the King and produced a fantastic, Kirbyesque thrill ride. In December, they once again teamed up, this time for a Space Ghost one-shot at Comico.

The first volume contains Star Wars #1-23, plus stories from Pizzazz #1-16, and Star Wars Weekly #60. It opens with the six-issue movie adaptation then kicks off the series’ original stories consisting of one-offs and short arcs by Roy Thomas and Archie Goodwin, with art by Howard Chaykin and Carmine Infantino. The first original adventure, a Han Solo-Chewbacca story arrived in #7 (January 1978), introducing Jaxxon, the rabbit-like smuggler and pilot, and Don-Wan Kihotay, a delusional old librarian who fancied himself a Jedi.

No, the contrast came between the highly detailed figure of Aric in the X-O armor and the completely monochromatic background. Aric’s muscles and the armor’s metal were in parts indistinguishable, but there were also parts in which we saw distinct elements of man and machine. We saw defiance in his facial expression and power in his arms. This was a character not to be messed with.

no other writer has understood Magnus Robot Fighter the way that Valiant founder Jim Shooter did. In the pages of the “Steel Nation” arc that originally ran in Magnus Robot Fighter #1-4, Shooter and artist Art Nichols introduced Magnus to a whole new audience and reintroduced him to older fans.

Ninjak #7 starts at JFK International Airport where there are concerns about the safety of a United Nations ambassador. Ninjak has the inside scoop, particularly that an assassin named Ishak, aka Djinn, is targeting the ambassador. A pursuit through the airport gets even more complicated when Ninjak and his target board a plane. A plane full of innocent people.

Issue 8 finds Hwen looking for something to keep himself busy while Carmen sleeps (since he no longer needs sleep), and grows frustrated by all the TV ads for food (because he also no longer eats). Unfortunately, his attempt at starting a new hobby causes another problem. Then help arrives in the form of someone connected to a previous case who has a plan to make Hwen’s life a little bit easier.

Easily some of the best science fiction to ever appear in a superhero comic book, Solar, Man of the Atom: Alpha and Omega collects the origin story for Solar. Originally serialized as inserts in Solar, Man of the Atom #1-10, it is an epic, morally complex tale born of casual neglect, a catastrophic accident, and a man coming into incalculable powers.

During a visit to her old Alias Investigations office, Jessica Jones the dead bodies of her neighbors, who had been marked with a weird symbol. She told her husband, the mayor of New York, that she wouldn’t investigate. Then Typhoid Mary showed up with proof that multiple killers are active in the Big Apple using the same brutal method of execution.

Batwoman has set aside therapy for the moment to draw Master Slay and his followers out into the open. Her act of aggression has struck the right chord, leading to a bloody chase through streets and on the rooftops of Petalon. Her singular focus is worrying her father, Jacob Kane, who knows that she is Batwoman, and is concerned about how her comprised state of mind could affect her in the field.