2008, Dark Horse Books

Writer: Drew Goddard, Joss Whedon

Pencils: Georges Jeanty

Inks: Andy Owen

Colours: Michelle Madsen

Covers: Jon Foster

Like the television show before it, Buffy’s season 8 was always going to take time to "get into"; but I can gladly say that Wolves at the Gate is the first volume so far where I didn't feel the need to compare every minor event of this series to its originator. With the characters, setting and tone all firmly established, Wolves at the Gate not only builds substantially upon the established seasonal arc but is a great read by its own.

Without a doubt the series' most impressive aspect so far has been its constituency. Both Goddard and Brian K. Vaughan have carried on from Whedon superlatively, and a visual stability has been provided by Georges Jeanty's colourful art, used for all but one issue. A giant-sized Dawn’s Godzilla inspired assault on Tokyo really emphasises how the creative team have taken ideas that may not have initially worked – or at least been too alien to primarily appreciate – and brashly run with them until they did. The return of camp Dracula, and his relationship with his former Renfield, Xander, is also handled in a humorously, occasionally touching way and escapes the nostalgic clinginess that the previous villain reappearances have suffered from.

2008, Dark Horse Books

Script: Brian K. Vaughan, Joss Whedon

Pencils: Georges Jeanty, Cliff Richard

Inks: Andy Owens

Covers: Jo Chen

Though it was far superior to IDW's Angel series After the Fall, the opening volume of Buffy Season 8, The Long Way Home, definitely lacked the fluid wit of its television successor. Joss Whedon's postmodern dialogue was intact, as were many of the little nuances of character interactions that the show did so well. Unfortunately, the flimsy plot, comprising of several cameos and a tedious large-scale battle, did little to justify the franchises resurrection in funny book format.

Many fans will have already bewailed Whedon's departure from scripting duties just 5 issues into the series (though he returns for issue 10), but his replacement, Y: The Last Man and Lost scribe Brian K. Vaughan is as suitable a host as we could possibly hope for. Vaughan's dialogue isn't as witty as Whedon's; he often pushes the pop culture references a little too far. Nor does he write women nearly as well. He can however, pace a far better, and as a result No Future For You is a far more directed, absorbing read than Whedon's initial fight fest.

Slayer gone bad-then-good-again Faith takes precedence this time around. Still wanted for the murder of Deputy Mayor Allan Finch waaay back in season three of the show, she's now split from Robin Wood and resumed her usual self loathing. When Rupert Giles offers her safe passage from America in exchange for an assassination job, she accepts. The mark in question is the ridiculously named Lady Genevieve Savidge, a spoilt English aristocratic Slayer who has fallen under the influence of Irish warlock Roden. Genevieve is like Paris Hilton mixed with Princess Di, and more unhinged than both put together. I doubt Vaughan has ever been to England; his idea of us Brits follows the hackneyed foxhunting, tea-sipping well-to-do stereotype that much of the world enjoys portraying. Not totally unlike Giles or Wesley, then, I guess. But then I'm a peasant who rarely leaves my home – where I'm from, a trenchcoat sporting, chain smoking scumbag like John Constantine is closer to the mark.

2008, Dark Horse

Script: Haden Blackman

Art: Brian Chang, Bong Dazo, Wayne Nichols

Colors: Michael Atiyeh

Why do Star Wars comics so rarely work? The space opera movies, with their colourful characters, lovingly hammy dialogue, epic vistas and galactic dogfights should translate perfectly to the comic medium. And yet Dark Horse's offerings, while seldom terrible, never manage to grasp what makes Star Wars work in the same way that countless videogame spin-offs have been doing for the past decade.

Set several years before Episode IV: A New Hope, The Force Unleashed follows the trials of Starkiller, a Sith apprentice secretly raised by Darth Vader to hopefully aid his coup against Emperor Palpatine. Tortured and conditioned from childhood, Starkiller is an emotionless puppet bound to his master's bidding. As Starkiller begins his rite of passage, cleaning the galaxy of the few remaining Jedi, the separation from his master sparks something in the young Sith that will lead to the establishment of the Rebel Alliance.

At its heart as much tech demo as interactive tale of redemption, The Force Unleashed videogame boasted a predominantly interesting cast. Starkiller's love interest, Juno Eclipse – a name that would sound ridiculous anywhere else, but by Star Wars standards is pretty standard – is the recognisable feisty Leia imitation that this franchise so frequently spawns, but is far from the damsel in distress she initially appears. General Rahm Kota, a Jedi Knight whose refusal to use cloned soldiers saved him from Order 66, is particularly intriguing, demonstrating a wily approach to combat not far removed from the Alec Guinness Obi Wan Kenobi of A New Hope.

 2008, DC

Writer: Brian Azzarello

Art: Lee Bermejo

Inks: Mike Gray

Colors: Patricia Mulvihill

The funny books are a confusing puddle to sporadically dip one's big hairy toe into. While Bryan Singer's first X-men movie spanked the Box Office, comic readers were confused as to why the sycophantic, bulbous cretin Toad had evolved overnight into a nimble martial arts master resembling Ray Park. Similarly, upon the film Daredevil's release, Bullseye briefly put aside his (admittedly stupidly conspicuous) costume, donned a leather trench coat and drew a set of crosshairs on his forehead. Evidently, Colin Farrell has considerable sway on the fickle fashion trends of the Marvel universe.

Taking this approach, Brian Azzarello's Joker doesn't so much disregard continuity as step in and out of it. The titular Clown Prince of Crime now has the Heath Ledger Chelsea-smile, while Killer Croc is a mildly disfigured gangster, aesthetically similar to the iteration of Croc used in the Gotham Knight DVD, as opposed to a primitive reptilian mutant.

Joker follows the tailspin into hell of thug Jonny Frost, tentative chauffeur to the Joker, who once again has been released from Arkham Asylum. What ensues is a concoction of Henry: Portrait of a Serial killer, Man Bites Dog and Training Day, as Jonny Frost – his name presumably a play on the killer of Bruce Wayne's parents, Joe Chill – is lured in by the seductions of the Joker's post-Arkham killing spree. Jonny relishes in the depraved acts he witnesses far too much to be even remotely sympathetic, and yet one can't help but flinch as Azzarello gleefully buries him in shit. Only Jonny is a dumb enough thug not to see where his friendship with the Joker is going – and by the time he does, it is of course too late.