I firmly believe that no comic book should cost $5.

And yet... I've gone to Wal-Mart and bought three issues of Batman Giant, the first issue of Justice League Giant and the Swamp Thing Halloween Horror.

I'm trying to figure out how to track down Batman Giant 2 without it costing an arm and a leg.

The reason I'm not a big fan of these over-priced exclusives is that for $4.99 there is only a twelve-page story that's new. The rest is all reprints.

My question is, Who decided that Batman Giant should reprint Hush? and Justice League Giant reprint Justice League: Origin? Both feature Jim Lee art. Would older stories from the '80's or '70's not appeal to new, younger readers? Maybe those older stories were not serialized like Hush and Origin. Hush was nine months. Origin was six months. Most nearly all current stories are serialized for trade paperback collection. I guess this is where it comes back around to the stories being re-released with other reprint stories in another collection.

Bendis has a Batman-Riddler story that just started in Batman Giant 3. The book is also reprinting a Nightwing storyline and a Harley Quinn storyline.

The Swamp Thing Halloween Horror Special is interesting because it has an original Swamp Thing story, along with a Swamp Thing reprint. The other reprints look fairly recent. There's a Classic Batman and Robin reprint! It's that one story by O'Neil and Adams that features that parade you might have read about. The Annual Rutland Parade. I think that's a real thing (in other words, I don't feel like doing the legwork to research if it is or not - Ha!)

The other thing that's interesting is that the stories feature more Superman, Batman - even Aquaman! Aquaman and The Demon - there's a unique pairing. I'm surprised that there's not a Hellblazer, Sandman Phantom Stranger, Spectre, Dr. Fate, Solomon Grundy or Shade story in there. Those are more the characters that I would think would be in a Halloween Horror, Spooktacular Special. Not even a Sinestro, or a Sinestro Corps story. I jest.

It was really cool to read the Batman and Robin story. It's more Gothic and suspenseful than horror. A murder mystery at the Rutland event.

Are you interested in the 100-page giant Wal-Mart exclusives? Which one seems the most eye-catching? I'm a Batman fan, so that's the one I went with. I have nothing against Bendis, so I like his Batman story so far. He's introduced a great- great- great- (not sure how many greats to go) grand-daughter of Jonah Hex. There's something about Batman and Jonah Hex that's cool.

Like I said, I'm wondering how I can track down issue two without it costing an arm or a leg. I think Batman Giant is going to fit well with my bucket list of gathering all twenty issues of The Batman Family.