For a hero who spends his day defending others, can he ever find time for himself?

    But before those comics appeared, DC issued a "miniseries" that bordered on the craptacular, with six issues published separately from March to August of the same year, and now collected in this trade paperback. Beginning as a nearly verbatim rehash of the TV pilot, the series never seems to find its footing, something writer Hilary J. Bader remedies in the "real" series later. A couple of these stories approach almost acceptable status--the third, Blight-fightin' issue ("Never Mix, Never Worry") and the sixth story on the normally sexy Inque ("Permanent Inque Stains")--but unless you've gotta have it, leave this one to the kiddies. --Paul Hughes

    Untreated, they fester and grow into the diseases of fear, uncertainty and hopelessness. Unaided, the law is blinded by bureaucracy and bound to a justice bent toward the protection even of the criminal. The face of a kinder and gentler nation is destroyed, carved into a harlequin's mask; a grim skull. And the wielders of the scythe laugh, secure in the knowledge that their crimes will go without punishment.They are wrong. In the urban jungle, there is one who stands alone and apart; one who lives not for the law, but only to see justice done. The Punisher reaps a different harvest.Once, he was Frank Castle, loving husband and father. A tour in Vietnam had shown him what war was. Part of him died there, but a precious part stayed alive, determined to return to the family he loved, and the peace and freedom that was his America. Part of him held on to live, until his family died in a hail of mob gunfire, victims of the wrong place and wrong time.Daily, criminals greedily cut their portions from the souls of the weak and weary, the foolish and the frightened. One man senses how the guilty feed like parasites on the heart of the American Dream. One man hears when evil laughs at the law. One man sees clearly that the most powerful criminals have placed themselves above the law. One man has become their judge, their jury.One man has become their Punisher.

    And for the last of the line of Eld there may be no way out. Meanwhile, on Mid-World, Alain and Cuthbert desperately struggle to protect Roland's unconscious form, and themselves, against a pack of ravening wolves.

    The horror of nature is dwarfed by the terror of a man who would toy with it.

    Doctor Stephen Strange embarks on the most important paranormal investigation of his career, as he sets out to solve an attempted murder - his own! And with his most trusted friend also at death's door, Strange turns to an unexpected corner of the Marvel Universe to recruit a new ally.

    Peter Venkman is trapped in 1886, and his only chance to return to present-day Earth and free all of humanity from the Rule of Kozar'Rai has him teaming with a very unexpected (and very beautiful) ally

    Life goes on for Matt, until he receives a very special package. A young girl has brought a child to Murdock, claiming it to be the Messiah, and leaves the child in his care...

    The Devastator. The Merciless. The Murder Machine. The Drowned. The Dawnbreaker. And the Man Who Laughs. These seven Batmen—seven twisted mirror images of the Dark Knight himself—have been unleashed upon Earth-0 and the Justice League with only one thing on their minds: total devastation. How can the World’s Greatest Heroes stop a horde of deadly beings that appear to be powerful nightmare versions of familiar figures?Written and illustrated by some of the best creators in the industry, this tie-in graphic novel is a must-have for every fan of DARK NIGHTS: METAL and any BATMAN reader! Collects the following special one-shots: BATMAN: THE RED DEATH #1, BATMAN: THE DEVASTATOR #1, BATMAN: THE MERCILESS #1, BATMAN: THE MURDER MACHINE #1, BATMAN: THE DROWNED #1, BATMAN: THE DAWNBREAKER #1, THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS #1 andDARK KNIGHTS RISING: THE WILD HUNT #1.

    Exploring a period in Selina Kyle’s life where she tried to walk the straight and narrow—and uncovers secrets that changes everything you thought you knew about the character!

    When John Constantine is run over by a truck, it takes a little while for England’s nicotine-fueled magus to realize that he’s perched between life and death. After a few weeks of hospital rehab, Constantine finds the London streets very different from when he left them behind as a series of occult murders and mutilations demands his attention. The common denominator points back to the ER where Constantine was admitted.

    Harnessing the remainder of his will, Hal Jordan must become a one-man GL Corps to defeat his greatest foe and restore freedom to the cosmos.

    A young woman is possessed by the spirit of a murderous Amazon warrior. The last surviving member of the Justice League faces down a horror beyond imagining. All these and more are what happens when the most exciting new voices in contemporary horror fiction are paired with the talents of some of the greatest artists in the DC firmament! And if that isn't enough to scare you, there's Keith Giffen, too.