Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital. This week brings several new titles from DC, including Blue Beetle and Birds of Prey, along with the high-concept love story Tear Us Apart and the third volume of Brenna Thummler’s Sheets series, titled Lights.
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 + IDW + Dark Horse + more)
- Lunar Distribution (DC + Image + more)
- Diamond’s PreviewsWorld (BOOM! + 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.
Birds of Prey #1 (DC, $3.99): After a long run at Marvel, Kelly Thompson makes the jump to DC to write a new Birds of Prey title featuring a different iteration of the team. She’s joined by artist Leonardo Romero and colorist Jordie Bellaire, who she worked with on Hawkeye for Marvel, and letterer Clayton Cowles. The series will feature Black Canary, Cassandra Cain, Big Barda, Zealot and Harley Quinn.
Blue Beetle #1 (DC, $3.99): Following their Graduation Day miniseries, the creative team of writer Josh Trujillo and artists Adrian Gutiérrez, Wil Quintana and Lucas Gattoni returns to Blue Beetle. This ongoing series finds Jaime Reyes heading straight into a “Scarab War” alongside his new friends Dynastes and Nitida.
Masters of the Universe: Forge of Destiny #1 (Dark Horse, $3.99): Dark Horse returns to Eternia in this four-issue prequel to the Netflix Masters of the Universe: Revelations show. It’s by Tim Seeley, Eddie Nuñez, Brad Simpson and AndWorld Design.
Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Omega (Marvel, $4.99): Ben Percy and Geoff Shaw wrap up the crossover between Wolverine and Ghost Rider’s title with his Omega issue that finds the duo facing the demon named Stitcher.
Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #1 (DC, $3.99): Joanne Starer, Natacha Busto, Tamra Bonvillain and Ariana Maher show us what happened to Fire & Ice after their “extremely public and utterly disastrous mission in Baltimore” in May’s Power Girl Special. This miniseries has Superman putting them in time out in a place he knows well, Smallville.
Tear Us Apart #1 (Dark Horse, $4.99): The Flash writer Van Jensen teams with actor Jay Baruschel (How to Train Your Dragon) and The Ballad of Sang artist Alessandro Micelli for a new miniseries about death cults, assassins … and love. It’s about two teenage members of a death cult who fall for each other while learning how to kill people, which isn’t looked upon kindly by their instructors.
Silver Surfer Rebirth: Legacy #1 (Marvel, $3.99): Ron Marz and Ron Lim return to Silver Surfer with a story set during their run on the title from the early 1990s. In this miniseries, the former herald of Galactus teams up with Legacy, aka Genis-Vell, the son of the original Captain Marvel.
Kill Your Darlings #1 (Image, $3.99): Ethan S. Parker, Griffin Sheridan, Bob Quinn and John J. Hill tell the story of Rose, a girl whose imaginary world ends up not being quite so imaginary.
Firefly: The Fall Guys #1 (BOOM!, $4.99): The crew of the Serenity fly once again in this miniseries by Sam Humphries, Jordi Perez and Francesco Segala. The story finds Mal and the crew dealing with organized crime and local politics as they attempt to make some bank to keep the Serenity in the sky.
Project: Cryptid #1 (Ahoy Comics, $3.99): This anthology series will feature stories about cryptids around the world, starting with a Yeti story by Mark Russell and Jordi Perez and a Deathworm story by Paul Cornell and PJ Holden. It also includes a chapter of the round-robin story “Partially Naked Came The Corpse!” by Grant Morrison.
Crusader #1 (Mad Cave, $4.99): Writer/artist Matt Emmons is joined by letterer Andriy Lukin on this story of a Templar knight who has to battle his way through a high-fantasy world.
Wag #1 (Comixology Originals, $2.99): Scott Hoffman, aka Babydaddy of the multi-platinum selling band Scissor Sisters, teams with artist Juan Bobillo and letterer Steve Wands on this five-issue miniseries about a character named Wag who starts hearing voices in his head after the end of the world.
Lights (Oni Press, $16.99): Brenna Thummler continues her popular and critically acclaimed story of a girl who discovers a family of ghosts living in her family’s laundry mat.
Bite Sized Archie: Going Viral (Archie Comics, $12.99): Ron Cacace and Vincent Lovallo’s online series of satirical comics featuring the Archie gang returns with a second print collection.
Various DC manga titles (DC, $9.99): Three DC manga titles arrive in print this week, following their release on DC Universe Infinite:
- Superman vs. Meshi by Satoshi Miyagawa with art by Kai Kitago, which is about Clark Kent’s daily lunch selections in Japan;
- Batman: Justice Buster by Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi, which has Batman creating a supercomputer named ROBIN to help him fight crime; and
- Joker: One Operation Joker by Satoshi Miyagawa with art by Keisuke Gotou, which finds Batman de-aged into a baby, who the Joker decides to raise. No, seriously.