[Since these reviews are coming out in advance of the comics' release date, they're spoiler -- but not opinion -- free. Just the way you like 'em.]

QUEEN SONJA #3: As a fan of Brian Reed’s textured, complex Red Sonja series, that took the character far beyond her cheesecake roots, it’s a little bit sad to see Sonja back in an even smaller metal bikini than usual. However, Joshua Ortega brings a solid story, showing how Sonja went from being Red to being Queen (you know, the usual royal progression… First you’re a color, then you get a rank… etc.). I can’t help but feel this is coming off as a bit of a greatest hits collection though, as Sonja unstoppably tears through the countryside on her way to the throne. I guess at least she’s fighting for the cause of enslaved women, and not just fighting phallic snake monsters, but I can’t help feeling like this could be even more epic than it is. Hopefully, with the set-up soon out of the way, we’ll get to see Sonja rule.

THE BOYS #38: Goddamn this title is great. The past few issues have finally given us the origins of characters we’ve known nearly nothing about for more than three years, and it’s a testament to Garth Ennis’ writing that the origins have barely mattered until now. We’ve been easily able to key into who Frenchie, The Female, and Mother’s Milk are, without knowing a single thing about their backgrounds. Except now that we do, the title, and the previous 37 issues are that much richer for it. This issue, we take on the origin of The Female, and while it’s almost exactly what you’d expect, it brims with all the humor, terror, and over the top action we’ve come to expect from Ennis and Darick Robertson’s creations. These past few issues feel like the calm before the storm, when we finally get to see how everything Ennis has set up finally comes to fruition – and I can’t wait. A reader recently wrote, asking whether it was worth picking up The Boys from the beginning. I say, unequivocally, yes.

ATHENA #4: One of my favorite things about The Incredible Hercules is how Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente have figured out how to bring the Olympian gods and myths into a modern story, perfectly mixing these “flashbacks,” with the modern stories of the Greek gods. Not only that, but having the Gods hiding out in the human world is dealt with, with gravity, humor, and imagination that would make the ancient Greeks proud. It’s one of the best series being published today, and I can’t imagine what would happen if someone other than Pak and Van Lente attempted a similar task!

BUCK ROGERS #7: This issue continues to underline the strengths and weaknesses of this series. The strengths? Scott Beatty writes a killer Buck Rogers. He’s fun, irreverent, and just as out of his depth in the future as you’d expect. The scenes in this issue of Buck dealing with the denizens of an underground city, while in search of the ship that took him to the future are as much of a retro delight as you’d want from a Buck Rogers title. The weaknesses are almost everything else. I don’t mind the other characters or plot threads that Beatty is seeding throughout the series, but there are far too many people wearing the same space suit and helmet to keep track of one or the other. In the last arc, it was the constant flashbacks to “our” time that were far too confusing and jarring (especially with no location identifier box). In this arc, we’re zipping all over the universe, visiting characters for one page that have barely made an impression in previous issues of the series. For the record, I like this far more in issue seven than issue one, Beatty is continually refining his style, and honing the story; I just wish it was a little more focused on the title character.