Angel: The Curse #1, Batman #641, and Outsiders #25. This past week kicked a huge amount ass when it came to quality comics, and other than Planetary #23 and Solo #5 (see previous post), these books deserve your praise.

Buffy and Angel fans should be rejoicing. When the Angel television series ended last year, it spelled the end, for what is lovingly called, The Whedonverse. All the characters from both Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and Angel just disappeared into obscurity. There have been no books, no T.V. movies, and no comics that have detailed the lives of these characters after their respective series, that is, until now.
Angel: The Curse #1 follows Angel as he sets out across a Romanian forest looking for the Rom, or gypsy, that cursed him with a soul. He wants the curse removed, but still wants his soul intact, and so far, it doesn’t look like it will be easy.

Writer Jeff Mariotte has said that in this mini-series we won’t find out what happened to everyone in the alley on that day. Obviously, Angel survived the fight, but we will have to wait to find out the fate of the rest until IDW’s next mini-series. Joss Whedon is tentatively slated to write the series, or at least co-write the series, but when it is set to come out has not be said yet. As far as first issues go, this one is a winner. If you’re like me and can’t get enough of the vampire with a soul, you’ll definitely dig it! Now, on to Batman #641.

Judd Winick is rejoined by artist Doug Mahnke this month for the conclusion of their debut arc, “Family Reunion”, and what a debut it was. The arc started out with The Red Hood coming back into the lives of the Bat-family. The Red Hood was an alias used by The Joker before he was the Joker, and when we found out that it was Jason Todd (Robin 2) under the mask, it made perfect sense…kind of.

I’ve really enjoyed this arc, but I can’t stop trying to figure out exactly how Jason came back. The answer just hasn’t presented itself in any way that I can recognize, which is probably the exact reason I’ve loved it so much. Mr. Winick has said that he won’t divulge exactly how Jason has been resurrected for quite some time, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The whole arc we’ve watched as Batman has scrambled to find out how it’s possible. He’s talked to Talia Head about the possibility of a Lazarus pit. He’s talked to Superman, and some other heroes, about their resurrections, and still he has nothing.

What’s brilliant about this approach, is that the only answer Batman will truly accept is one that is based in scientific fact. Jason Todd knows this, and in this last prints, and even a tissue sample. Batman takes it all to the cave, checks it all out, and of course, the man in the Red Hood, is (at least genetically) the second Robin. Now is this a clone of some kind, or was he brought back through magic’s; the answer still remains to be seen, but for now Jason Todd is back, and he’s killing bad guys left and right. It is going to be quite the wild ride trying to figure out everything that’s going on, and as I said before: I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Last, but not least, is another book by Judd Winick, Outsiders #25. I didn’t plan to say much about this story, but I will say that it was a great ending to the 4-part bi-weekly story that has been running through Teen Titans and Outsiders for the last two months called “The Insiders”.

This whole arc was supposedly planned out when both books were launched two years ago. The story deals with a traitor on the Outsiders, and a semi-traitor on the Teen Titans. I don’t want to ruin the story for you, but if you have been following the books since they started, everything that goes down in this arc was definitely pre-destined.