Green Arrow: Crawling Through the Wreckage

Writer: Judd Winick
Penciller: Scott McDaniel
Inker: Andy Owens
Colorist: Guy Major
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Publisher: DC

What's it about?
Oliver Queen is a multi millionaire with a secret identity - he is also the masked vigilante Green Arrow, crimefighter of Star City.  We start this story one year after a large proportion of the city was blown up.  In the last year a wall has been built, effectively ghettoising the poorer parts of the city (sound familiar?); corporate fat cats are trying to turn a profit at the expense of human lives and a former criminal is the only one bothering to keep the peace in the ghetto.  Oliver is not happy with these developments.  But that's OK, because at the end of issue one we discover that he's now Mayor of Star City (and still moonlighting as Green Arrow).

Madame Xanadu

Today's review comes courtesy of Alexander Lyons.  Alex is a UK-based feminist theorist with a speciality in identity politics and poststructuralism in comics. He's got a weak-spot for Greg Rucka, Wonder Woman, and the obscure ramblings of Helene Cixous. You can find his own ramblings on Twitter. He has very curly hair.

Writer: Matt Wagner

Pencils: Amy Reeder Hadley, Michael Wm Kaluta, Joelle Jones, Marley Zarcone, Lauren McCubbin, Chrissie Zullo, Celia Calle and Marian Churchland

Inkers: Amy Reeder Hadley, Richard Friend, David Hahn

Colorists: Guy Major, Dave Stewart, Lee Loughridge

Letterer: Jared K Fletcher

Publisher: Vertigo (DC)

What’s it about?

“There is a pattern in everything. Even the humblest speck of dust was once a mighty mountain. Seeing unlocks the patterns. And the tools of seeing are many…”

Madame Xanadu tells the story of Nimue; ancient and immortal daughter of the homo magi - a magical race of fairy living alongside mankind. She is the youngest of three sisters, and rival to her middle sister, Morgana, with whom she develops a conflict that spans centuries. Nimue is blessed with, among other things, the magical gift of divination, and uses her skills to predict and intervene in the fate of mankind. As the series proceeds, Nimue learns to use her powers to aid people in need, becoming a sort of supernatural heroine for people with extraordinary problems.

Teen Titans: Spotlight: Wonder Girl

Writer: J. Torres
Penciller: Sanford Greene
Inker: Nathan Massengill
Colorist: Guy Major
Letterers: Pat Brosseau, Phil Balsman, Steve Wands
Publisher: DC

What's it about?
Cassandra Sandsmark, Amazon protege and warrior, has not had a good year.  To begin with she was involved in an epic stop-the-Apocalypse type of battle.  Then her boyfriend died and in her grief she joined a cult dedicated to bringing him back from the dead.  Then her Gods and her mentor abandoned her.  Her efforts to stop a war between the Amazons and the rest of the world backfired spectacularly.

There's a lot of dangerous Hydras out there she needs to stop and on top of all this her (possibly evil) brother Hercules turns up, requesting her help to stop a God killer.

She would really rather not be dealing with all this...