Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide each week to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital.
This week brings another wave of DC’s Future State and another issue of Marvel’s King in Black events series, as well as new titles from Dark Horse, Marvel, BOOM! Studios, Oni Press and AfterShock, among others.
You know the drill — check out a few recommendations below, or visit ComicList for this week’s full list of new comics arriving in stores, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.
Crimson Flower is a new four-issue miniseries by Matt Kindt, Matt Lesniewski and Bill Crabtree, and it’s got a unique premise: It’s about a woman who uses folk tales to cope with the loss of her family during a home invasion, but as she plots her revenge, she discovers a government plot to use folk tales to turn children into super assassins. I’m guessing in Crimson Flower‘s version of Hansel and Gretel, you don’t want to be the witch …
BOOM! Studios launches a second Abbott miniseries this week, by the Hugo Award-nominated team of Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivelä. Abbott: 1973 once again focuses on the life of Elena Abbott, a reporter battling a supernatural conspiracy in 1970s Detroit.
DC debuts five more of their Future State titles this week, including the extra-sized Superman: Worlds of War and Immortal Wonder Woman with its awesome cover by Jen Bartel. That issue also features the debut of Nubia, Wonder Woman’s sister, in Future State. Finally, the second issue of The Next Batman arrives as well; the first issue was one of the highlights of the first week of this event.
I Breathed A Body is a new miniseries from Zac Thmpson and Andy MacDonald that combines social media and horror, as an “influencer” posts something very horrific and his social media manager uses it to create “a sensationalist campaign that rewrites the rules of ‘banned content.'”
Iron Fist returns in a new series written by G.I. Joe legend Larry Hama, with art by Dave Wachter. Iron Fist: Heart Of The Dragon features Iron Fist and the Deadly Weapons teaming up to save the dragons that power the Heavenly cities like K’un’Lun from an army of zombies.
The King in Black saga continues this week with issue #3, which the solicitation copy makes it sound pretty dark for our heroes: “Outgunned and outmanned, but never outdone, they unite and face KNULL, God of the Abyss, as he ensnares the planet in the darkness of his reign!” But hey, that’s Thor on the cover, right? So at least he finally showed up.
Maestro, the future, evil Hulk, is back for another miniseries, courtesy of Peter David and Javier Pina. Maestro: War And Pax pits the title character against “the most powerful beings in creation,” a.k.a. the immortals that walk the Earth.
Meanwhile, on the digital side of things, DC has promised to release old Milestone titles digitally, and this week brings a couple of them: Hardware #1 and Static #1. These two titles, along with Icon and Blood Syndicate, launched the line, so they are as good a place as any to start reading if you’re interested in seeing what the line was all about. Icon, which was always my favorite, will arrive next week.
Copra creator Michel Fiffe announced last year that his long-running indie series, which had found a home at Image Comics, would revert back to self-publishing. He’s selling print copies in his Etsy Store again, and issue #38 is already sold out. But not to worry — this week it returns to digital as well.
Finally, Lemonade Code is a new graphic novel from Oni Press about two kids engaged in war — a war between their two lemonade stands. Considering one kid is a super genius, you gotta wonder why he’s losing to his across-the street neighbor. Jarod Pratt and Jey Odin introduce us to Robbie Reynolds and Daphne Du-Ri, as they take each other on in the ultimate battle of commerce and lemons.