Every week, Comics! The Blog goes through the list of new releases and we tell you which comics to plug into your mind hole. Your mileage may vary.

ANGEL AND FAITH #7 (Dark Horse)

One of the best things to happen to the comics Buffyverse is, I think, the unification of its two television properties, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, under one publisher’s roof. One of the fictional universe’s strengths while it was on TV was just that: it was a universe. Things that happened in one series could affect the other. Characters would make visits. Sunnydale and Los Angeles, so geographically close, were treated like they actually were. When Dark Horse and IDW split the properties, however, that core strength was lost because the two series couldn’t really acknowledge each other in a meaningful way. One of the great things about the reunion is Angel and Faith, a series that has spun right out of the Buffy series but with the Angel television show’s darker tone. It’s a good series, and the excitement around it feels a lot like that of the original series’ launch.

Right at its fundamental level, Angel and Faith is about two characters from the two different comic series, coming together to tell a different story. It couldn’t have happened without Dark Horse getting the Angel property, and they haven’t slacked on delivering the promise. The characters of Angel and Faith had a complicated, warm relationship on the Angel TV series, one that it’s welcoming to go back to. It’s unique in the Buffyverse, and as Angel and Faith try to bring Giles back from the dead, it’s getting a lot of attention and depth. Check it out!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #680 (Marvel)

Let me just say, right off the bat, that this is a premise for a comic that is specifically designed to thrill me, so I won’t be able to stay impartial regarding it.

That said, this is a comic book where Spider-Man goes to space to defend an astronaut from one of Doctor Octopus’ plots and that is maybe the most incredible-sounding comic I have heard about in months. Spider. Man. In. Space. If that doesn’t excite you fundamentally, you probably want to move along. If it makes you tingle, you’re on the right track.

To me, this kind of issue - a done-in-one story with ties to previous and forthcoming arcs - is a perfect example of why Dan Slott is producing the best Amazing Spider-Man stories in years. He can do big, seemingly outlandish stories that could be a misstep but end up fitting perfectly into the crazy world of Peter Parker. No matter what oversized adventures Peter is having - and nobody writes them better than Slott - there’s always the constant drumbeat of Peter Parker and the events of his non-costumed life. It’s a tether that keeps Spidey spinning out into the aether, and it’s continually and expertly done by Slott even as his artists, in this case Giuseppe Camuncoli, up the ante in terms of the book’s visual spectacle. As things rev up going into Ends of the Earth, it’s weird to think that a story with Spider-Man going into space will be the calmest thing we see for a while, but that’s the magic of comics.

BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #1 (DC Comics)

This comic marks the second half of a really cool initiative that DC is going, where they debut comics digitally and then collect them in print later. While the recent announcement has been that this approach will be how the new Smallville comics debut, this physical release of Batman Beyond Unlimited is a great place to launch the initiative because it not only features a DC media property that started on TV (like Smallville), but also a property that was recently a pretty well-received comic in its own right. Appealing to fans of Bruce Timm is a smart place to start off the new “digital first” approach, and I’m interested not only in the story and in its writer/artists’ performance, but in seeing how this approach shakes out and develops in the coming months.

GREEN WAKE #10 (Image)

And with this, Kurtis J. Wiebe and Riley Rossimo‘s spooky horror comic comes to an end. I’m still catching up on the series, but from what I’ve read so far, it is amazing. Whether you’re finishing the run with this issue or catching up via the first trade paperback, what’s consistent is Wiebe‘s skill with making the comic’s world a believable one, and Rossimo‘s ability to craft an atmosphere of dread and discomfort. While the series is bowing out with this issue, you can still read it after the fact and jump in on its creators’ new series that are coming up!

RALPH WIGGUM COMICS #1 (Bongo)

I am not going to lie, I am dying to read this comic. One big reason, of course, is that it is a one-shot comic starring Ralph Wiggum, which is to say it is going to be filled with absurdity and idiocy to a hilarious degree. While Ralph’s increasingly exaggerated simple-mindedness has annoyed some Simpsons fans over the years, it’s a quality that makes the character suitable for a one-shot comic, shunted far enough away from the (wildly shaky) canon of the TV series to a place where it can let loose. As zany as they are, the core cast of The Simpsons is so established that anything out of the norm can be a shock. But Ralph Wiggum, the perfect idiot who hallucinates his own fantasy world filled with a Wiggle Puppy and an arsonist leprechaun? That’s a character designed for the world of Simpsons comics.

The comic is the first in Bongo‘s line of quarterly One-Shot Wonders, and I’m excited to see what they do with the initiative. If the main criticism of the show (which I’ve debunked before) is that it’s stuck around too long, then I think there’s a niche for people who love the characters and world of the show but want it in a relatively limited quantity. With a one-shot, it’s hard for Ralphie to overstay his welcome. Would an ongoing series make sense for him? Heck no. But a one-shot is a nice little morsel to whet the appetite. In three months, we’ll move onto another character and another corner of Springfield. Cool.

Plus: Sergio Aragonés!

These are five of the many great books being released this week! You can find the full list of comics being released here. If you have any other recommendations, let us know in the comments below.