But will the end of the world as we know it take a back seat to training his street-punk nephew to be the next James Bond? The young man's preparation now begins in earnest, saving him from a life of desperation.

    Already entrenched in the Batcave and his official training complete, young Dick Grayson has a world of experience to gain and a ton of new enemies to make--beginning with the truly insane Mad Hatter! The early days of the Boy Wonder begin here!

    But Kyle Baker's comic book version of King David renders that classic confrontation in 17 wordless pages, comprising one of the freshest, most suspenseful and thrilling descriptions of its subject that you are likely to find. King David is a biblically accurate, freewheeling, color-saturated biography of the boy who rose to become king of Israel. David begins the book as a scruffyDennis-the-Menace-like kid and ends the book as a vain, hunky womanizer; King Saul is a glam-rock tyrant; his son Jonathan is a skinny punk rebel. (When he asks to borrow Saul's chariot and the king asks, "Where are you going, Jonathan?" he shoots back, "Out.") Many parents will deem the book's bloody battle scenes inappropriate for young readers. King David's candor, however, is a virtue. This is real religious literature: it describes David's relationship with God in a style that's fully alive for readers today. --Paul Power