Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital.
I’ve pulled out some of the highlights below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:
- Penguin Random House (Marvel + graphic novels + manga)
- Lunar Distribution (DC + Scout + more)
- Diamond’s PreviewsWorld (IDW + Image + Dark Horse + many more)
- ComicList (Pretty much all of the above)
- comiXology/Kindle new releases (digital comics)
As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.
The New Champion of Shazam! #1 (DC, $3.99): Mary Marvel takes the spotlight in this new take on Shazam!, as Josie Campbell and Evan “Doc” Shaner give the longtime hero her first solo series.
Sword of Azrael #1 (DC, $3.99): Azrael — he’s the guy who replaced Batman briefly, back when Bane broke Batman’s back — returns in this new six-issue miniseries, following his recent appearance in Urban Legends. It’s by Dan Watters and Nikola Čižmešija, whose Urban Legends story also gets collected this week.
Dark Crisis #3 (DC, $4.99): DC’s big crossover event continues, as Hal Jordan and the Green Lanterns enter the picture and Deathstroke’s army of villains face off with DC’s young heroes and Black Adam. And while the cover still says Dark Crisis, we learned in San Diego that it’s really got a longer title.
The Dead Lucky #1 (Image, $3.99): The Massive-verse — that’s the collection of titles headed up by Kyle Higgins that includes Radiant Black, Inferno Girl Red and Rogue Sun, among others — expands this week with a new title by Melissa Flores, French Carlomagno, Mattia Iacono and Becca Carey.
Golden Rage #1 (Image, $3.99): This new title by Chrissy Williams, Lauren Knight, Sofie Dodgson, Becca Carey and Joamette Gil features a little-seen demographic in comics — older women. It’s set in a world where old women are shuttled off to an island in their golden years, where they spend their time “making friends, baking dessert and fighting to the death for survival.”
Frankenstein: New World #1 (Dark Horse, $3.99): Hellboy creator Mike Mignola is joined by writers Christopher Golden and Thomas Sniegoski, along with artist Peter Bergting, colorist Michelle Madsen and letterer Clem Robins for this new miniseries featuring the classic monster in the Hellboy universe.
Survival Street #1 (Dark Horse, $3.99): I never thought I’d type the words “Sesame Street/A-Team mash-up” before, but here we are with this new miniseries by James Asmus, Jim Festante, Abylay Kussainov, Ellie Wright and Taylor Esposito. It’s set in an America where the corporations have completely taken over, and the former denizens of a certain Public Broadcasting street must unite to help save kids (and teach them to count). Sponsored by the letters “F” and “U.”
20XX Transport #1 (Image, $3.99): This experimental comic started out on Jonathan Luna’s social media feeds, where he asked his followers to vote on what happened in the story. It’s about a teenager with illegal telekinetic abilities who tries to save his classmates on a school bus from a group of hijackers.
Demon Wars: The Iron Samurai #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Peach Momoko’s Demon Wars, the sequel to her five-part Demon Days saga, debuts this week, continuing the story of continue Mariko Yashida as she finds herself in the middle of a war reminiscent of Marvel’s 2006 event series Civil War.
Edge of Spider-Verse #1 (Marvel, $4.99): This anthology features new stories by Dan Slott, Mark Bagley, Karla Pacheco, Alex Segura, Pere Perez and more, and is being billed as the beginning of the end of the Spider-Verse. It also sets up the new Slott/Bagley Spider-Man title AND features the debut of Spider-Rex, the web-slinging dinosaur.
G.I. Joe #296 (IDW, $3.99): Larry Hama and SL Gallant present the first chapter of the final G.I. Joe arc we’ll see from IDW. It features Cobra building some sort of super army made up of dead heroes and villains, and of course the Joes attempting to stop them.
Sacrament #1 (AWA, $3.99): Horror and science fiction collide in this story by Peter Milligan and Marcelo Frusin, where a priest is called back into service for an exorcism at a remote space colony.
The Vineyard #1 (AfterShock, $4.99): Brian Hawkins and Sami Kivela present the story of a winery that worships Dionysus and offers him four sacrifices each year in turn for his blessing. When the patriarch of the family suffers an accident and ends up in a wheelchair, it’s up to his wife to take up the sacrificial knife in his name.
The Bend of Luck (Top Shelf, $19.99): The second full-length graphic novel from brother-and-sister illustrators Peter and Maria Hoey is about a world where luck can be mined like gold. Here’s a preview.
Birds of Maine (Drawn and Quarterly, $34.95): Michael DeForge’s Birds of Maine migrates from Instagram to print in this new collection, where the birds that survived the death of humanity live their best lives — until the last remaining humans on the moon return to Earth.