Evil wins, superheroes go bad, sidekicks go solo, time gets reset and Buck Rogers makes his comeback. Oh, and there's a Wrath of Khan comic. Is there nothing that this week's comics won't do to try and make you happy?
Dipping our collective toes into the cross-media area of the pool for awhile, Doctor Who: Autopia is a new one-off story to keep you in the Who mood while you're waiting for The Waters of Mars. Also, Joss Whedon's Runaways run gets a cheap ($9.99 for six issues!) collection as Runaways: Dead End Kids Digest.
If you're looking for a new take on old science fiction tropes, the second series of Warren Ellis' Anna Mercury launches with a different look at the multiverse. And Marc Guggenheim's Resurrection also launches a second series, letting you return to an Earth post-alien invasion, where no-one is quite sure what kind of world they're living in any more.
For those needing their superhero fix, DC's Red Robin takes Tim Drake - the former Robin - off around the world as he tries to prove that Bruce Wayne isn't as dead as many people think he is. (Go, Tim! But you may need a time machine before you're finished!) And you can find out Bruce's true fate in the hardcover collection of Final Crisis (and pick up some other stories from the same era in the Final Crisis Companion coming out the same day).
Marvel, meanwhile, are indulging a Chris Claremont jones, with the X-Men: The End Trilogy collection of Claremont's 18-issue finale to the franchise. (Be warned: He spun another series out of it, so it's not a final finale.) There's also the first issue of X-Men Forever, a new series that lets Claremont pretend that he never stopped writing the characters in 1991, by ignoring every story that came afterwards. If you'd like something less wordy and more bloody, Christos Gage's Absolution offers up another take on the "When a superhero crosses the moral line and decides that doing so was kind of fun" story.
But let's face it; everything else this week may pale beside the release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan #1, a movie adaptation 27 years in the making (Yes, the movie was that long ago); IDW, realizing that STII was the one movie that had never been made into a comic, have finally fulfilled someone's dreams and offered a chance to see Spock die again.
But if you'd rather watch something come back to life, Dynamite's Buck Rogers #1 brings back the classic pulp hero for an all-new audience, offering space thrills and even some spills along the way. But sadly, no Twiki.
All of these books - and many more, as evidenced in this week's shipping list - can be found at your local comic store, which can be found using the Comic Shop Locator. Just do us a favor and spend a quiet moment when ringing up your week's purchases for the loss of Buck's annoying metallic friend. Bidi bidi bye, old buddy.