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Heroes Volume One by Sundry

In conjunction with the Heroes TV show, the creators released assorted minicomics to the web, the first 34 of which were collected into a hardcover a few months back, and recently released in trade. The Alex Ross cover is pretty darn nice, with all the characters except Claire being actually recognizable. (He got Claire's face wrong.) The stories within vary a bit in quality, but the story of Wireless, told across many chapters, stands out as pretty good. Most of the rest just fills in a few background details. If you're into Heroes, recommended, but if you're not, the TV show is better.

Hellboy: Darkness Calls by Mignola, Fegredo

Hey, look, continuity! In this volume, Hellboy's world tour takes him to England, where he promptly falls afoul of some old enemies. Like, five of them. The Hellboy series has been relatively free of returning villains, as they usually end up dead in their first appearance. However, in this one Baba Yaga decides it's time to get revenge on HB for her lost eye, and unleashes the zombies of war. The art in this volume is by Duncan Fegredo, not Mignola, but it's a very similar style, and I might even like it better than Mignola's. (Plus, the giant's spectacles are a delight.) This shouldn't be your first Hellboy book, but if you're familiar with Red and his enemies, highly recommended.

Superman: 3-2-1 Action! by Busiek, Walker, Rude

This is a collection of assorted Jimmy Olsen stories, mostly recent, including his new, post-Infinite Crisis origin story, and a coda to Kirby's run on Olsen's title back in the 70s. Reasonably recommended.

Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus by Mignola, Armstrong

Another story from the Hellboy-verse, this is a tale in classic pulp style about Lobster Johnson, gun-toting hero of the 1930s. It concentrates mostly on the adventure itself, about a scientist who has developed a vril-powered battlesuit, and the villains who want it. (Who the Lobster is, and how he assembled his support staff, remain unanswered questions.) One group of villains are by-the-book Nazis, though their giant submarine is cool. The other group is led by a stereotyped Yellow Peril bad guy (who is also showing up in BPRD these days). As cliched ethnic menaces go, the Fu Manchu type is a pretty easy trap to fall into (I've created one myself), but I have trouble telling if he's really offensive or just mildly unoriginal. That aside, this is a self-contained tale, which also has ties into the Hellboy-verse, and if you like pulp, I recommend it as a gateway drug for the wider world of Hellboy and the BPRD.