Steve Kurth

Space opera gets bloodier than ever in Khaal, a new Titan Comics series from writer Stephane Louis and artist Valentin Sécher. It's set aboard a dying prison ship in the depths of outer space, which is far from a hopeful setting, and the title character is the leader of the humans onboard, a brutal cross between Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones and Kratos from God of War.

I've never liked the Transformers. The franchise didn't get its hooks into me as a kid, and while I've tried to give it a shot as an adult, it never really clicked. But now, with a recommendation from almost everyone I know and a well-timed Humble Bundle sale that left me with three years worth (and counting) of IDW's More Than Meets The Eye and Robots In Disguise comics, I'm going on a quest to see if these comics can turn me from someone who has never cared at all about Optimus Prime into someone who uses words like "Cybertron" and "alt-mode" with alarming regularity. And Primus help me, it's working. This week, it's the last stop before Dark Cybertron as Swerve continues to be better than everyone.

Q: G.I. Joe: Where do I even begin with their myriad continuities? -- @Eric_R_Wilson A: I've spent the past few weeks catching up on recent G.I. Joe comics with a stack of paperbacks that I picked up at HeroesCon, and while I've been really interested in seeing all the changes and new characters that set the IDW books apart from the original Marvel series, I'm still pretty surprised by this question. I mean, yes, there's a lot of G.I. Joe out there and a lot of different takes on that core idea, but when you get right down to it, it's no more complicated than your average superhero comic. Which is to say that it's actually very complicated. Especially when the ninjas start getting involved.

In an ever-changing, and ever-more dangerous, world, it only makes sense to keep the fighting forces charged with protecting America up-to-date. But adding a social media expert to GI Joe? Turns out, that's just one of the changes that new writer Fred Van Lente is bringing to the franchise as he heads up IDW's relaunch next year...