Can’t Wait for Comics | Tom King + Peter Gross start a revolution in ‘Animal Pound’

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 + 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.

Animal Pound #1 (BOOM!, $4.99): Tom King, mostly known for his DC writing these days, is branching out into the creator-owned arena with a couple new series, starting with Animal Pound. Artists Peter Gross and Tamra Bonvillain join him on the new series about an animal uprising at a local pound.

The Original X-Men #1 (Marvel, $5.99): Writer Christos Gage and artist Greg Land bring the original X-Men — the black-and-yellow clad younger versions of Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Beast, Angel and Iceman — to the future for “a sacred mission across the Multiverse,” powered by the Phoenix Force.

Borealis #1 (Dark Horse, $3.99): Crime and the supernatural collide in this three-issue miniseries by screenwriter Mark Verheiden, Battlestar Galactica actor Aaron Douglas and artist Cliff Richards. The story features an Alaskan state trooper who is pulled into an investigation involving  a series of brutal murders and a frightening legend.

Shift (Image, $5.99): Written by Kyle Higgins and featuring art by Daniele Di Nicuolo, Francesco Manna, Danilo Beyruth, Geraldo Borges and Chris Evanhuis, this one-shot collects the “Shift” story that originally appeared in the Image! 10th anniversary anthology, along with a new five-page story that sets up the upcoming Massive-verse crossover The Catalyst War.

Star Wars: Revelations (Marvel, $6.99): This one-shot offers a look at what’s to come for Marvel’s Star Wars titles and features stories by Marc Guggenheim, Charles Soule, Greg Pak, Alyssa Wong, Ethan Sacks, Cavan Scott, Salvador Larroca, Will Sliney, Marika Cresta, Ibraim Roberson and more.

The Maze Agency #1 (Scout, $4.99): The 1980s comic created and written by Mike W. Barr returns decades later for new stories about the detective agency run by Jennifer Mays, the no-nonsense former CIA agent, and her associate Gabriel Webb, a mystery writer. This new series features artwork by Silvano Beltramo.

The Agent #1 (Ablaze, $3.99): In a world where magic is real, Mathieu Gabella and Fernando Dagnino present the story of a French police officer gets pulled into a mystical battle where “it is better to wear an amulet than a bulletproof vest and where a simple curse by email can destroy you more surely than a bomb.” 

Titans Beast World Tour: Central City (DC, $5.99): When a member of the Flash family is infected by the Beast Boy spores that are turning everyone into animals, it’s up to the rest of the clan to go to work stopping them. This anthology features stories by Si Spurrier, A.L. Kaplan, Alex Paknadel, Jarrett Williams, A.L. Kaplan, George Kambadais, Serg Acuna and more.

Marvel Tales: ROM/X-Men (Marvel, $7.99): Earlier this year Marvel announced plans to bring their Rom Spaceknight series back into print via a series of omnibus volumes and special issues, including this collection of Rom #17-18 and #31-32. All of those issues featured various X-characters as well as Hybrid, the Dire Wraith/human hybrid that was both powerful and evil.

Monster Born (Dark Horse, $19.99): Shannon Eric Denton, Steve Niles and Tom Mandrake team up for this first project from the partnership between Dark Horse and Monster Forge. Monster Born introduces Amanda Lam, who was kidnapped as a child and grows up to become a monster hunter.

Holiday Spirits (Band of Bards, $19.99): This holiday-themed anthology features 10 stories introduced by one of the three ghosts that visited Scrooge, as told by Jonathan Hedrick, Travis Gibb, Colleen Douglas, Nathan Chio, Michael Yakutis and more.

Shelter for Lost Dreams (Dark Horse, $14.99): Spanish creator Alfonso Font wrote and drew this graphic novel about a boy who discovers a world of magical wonder inside his uncle’s unique house.