Dark Horse’s Buffy-verse is beginning to heat up as the march toward the season finale (issue #30) begins in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 10 #21; DC has Batman and Robin Eternal going for it, so there’s that; Image comics gives us a couple of hits with Huck #1 and I Hate Fairyland #2; and Marvel’s comic portfolio is filled with some volatile stocks (even more brand new #1s) and stable bonds (Star Wars books).

UNSPOILED

1. Huck #1 (Image Comics), Unspoiled Edition

If Mark Millar had intended for Huck to be an ensemble piece, the title character would have ruined it and stole the show. Brave and Innocent, Huck represents everything good about humanity and none of the bad. His mission is clear: make sure you help somebody out every day. But stories begin when routines end, and Huck is about to learn that the world beyond his simply small-town utopia is far different than anything he has ever experienced.

SPOILED

1. Huck #1 (Image Comics), Spoiled Edition

Huck is a Superman devoid of nationalism, idealism, and pretences. In many ways, he is the true Superman for all seasons (not to be confused with Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s A Superman for All Seasons), a big, strong man with the heart and mind of a child, maybe more of a Shazam, in truth. He is a local legend like Paul Bunyan or John Henry. People have witnessed his feats of strength, stamina, and speed, but they don’t make much of it. They just know that they don’t have to worry, because there’s always a kind young man looking out for them. Huck has devoted himself to doing a good turn daily — and they called Superman a boy scout! — and he doesn’t ask for anything in return, because someone loved him instead of leaving him to die.

Whereas Superman came to Metropolis, it seems that the drama behind Huck is what happens when Metropolis comes to him. While pondering what to do as his daily good deed on a Friday, Huck notices that 200 girls have gone missing in Nigeria as a result of a series of kidnappings by the militant group Boku Haram.

What does Huck do? He gets on a plane and he saves every single girl. Just as Captain America (another good parallel for Huck) punched Adolf Hitler in the face, Huck took on one of the more insidious evils of modernity, and he won! In other words, he metaphorically punched Boku Haram in the face.

The result: Huck finds himself face-to-face with another militant group that may just turn into his arch nemesis — the American media.

I expect that I am not doing Huck justice in my review. It is just an all-around charming comic book and you ought to check it out.

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We’ve seen a whole mess of new series and mini-series released by DC and Marvel comics both during and after Flashpoint and Secret Wars. What are your favorite new series? What are your thoughts on the current state of comic books? Are you more excited or less excited to pick up your comics every Wednesday? There’s no need to confine the discussion to the Big Two. What are you loving at Dark Horse, Image, IDW, and company? Let’s just put it out there: What are your favorite current comic series?

Thanksgiving is next Thursday and Black Friday is the next day, but the consumer holiday I am the most excited for is Comic Book Wednesday. After all, it only comes but once a week, so we ought to make the most of it.