BOOKS ARRIVING IN OCTOBER-continued

There's so many new titles starting in October that this is going to take 3 posts, hopefully I can wrap up DC today and get around to Marvel and assorted tomorrow.

Metamorpho Year One #1 brings the elemental hero into the new millennium as the host of a reality show called Treasure Quest. Its a simple enough update that it shouldn't cause any problems for older fans of the original and give new fans a good start point for a character due for a little more exposure. Dan Jurgens is a proven writer/artist capable of a fun and nice looking story.

Gotham Underground #1 sounds almost like a story left over from the defunct Gotham Knights series. Basically the entire Bat cast has to team up to take on criminal newcomers to their city. The only real surprise here is that it isn't billed as a Countdown tie-in despite the fact that the story centers around the disappearance of key players from the Gotham crime scene as Penguin mentioned in Countdown #40 this week. Also, the teaser poster for Final Crisis has Penguin standing by Trickster implying a connection of sorts, possibly villains trading off against their classic foes. Bat fans will want this, anyone else can probably ignore it.

DC Infinite Halloween Special #1, promises to deliver 13 stories in 80 pages by some top-notch talent, wrapped in a gorgeous cover by Gene Ha. Superman, Batman, Aquaman and others face off against witches, ghosts and vampires. The sentence that cinches the deal for me however is "The return of Resurrection Man" a character I always felt was "killed" off too soon.

DC must have loved the sales they saw on the Green Lantern Sinestro Special last month because in October they give us 2 Sinestro Corps Specials. The first re-introduces us to the Anti-Monitor and gives us a glimpse of things to come. The second features the Cyborg Superman. Both are must reads for anyone following the current Green lantern storyline, but will also tie in at some point with the events of Final Crisis I'm sure.

October seems the right time to launch Simon Dark #1, a new dark horror character set to give Batman a run as protector of Gotham. Steve Niles and Scott Hampton are a perfect team for this endeavour and both have a solid fan base to help support it, I just think its a little ambitious to announce this as an on-going title.

Authority Prime #1 seems like a way for Wildstorm to hide the fact that the "regular" Authority title is months late and may never be seen again. Christos Gage and Darick Robertson are a great team however and this book should not be over looked.

Vertigo seems to be getting farther from its horror roots with each new title, but that's fine with me. Vinyl Underground #1 brings us a cool hip team of occult detectives, Cameron Stewart inks.

While not a first issue, Action Comics #858 is the start of Gary Frank's run on DC's flagship character. A perfect showcase too as the story features Superman and the Legion of Superheroes.

Justice Society of America #10 is another must-have as Alex Ross comes aboard as co-writer to Geoff Johns. The story is billed as a sequel to Kingdom Come, and introduces the KC version of Supes as the newest member of the JSA.