Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, 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! + Dynamite + more)
- ComicList (Pretty much all of the above)
- Amazon/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.
Man’s Best #1 (BOOM! Studios, $4.99): The powerhouse creative duo of Pornsak Pichetshote (The Good Asian) and Jesse Lonergan (Hedra) send three emotional support animals into hostile alien territory in this new series. The heroic pets live on the Starship Horizon, which is searching for a new home “to house a humanity compromised by bad decisions and corporate greed.” Things, of course, go even more horribly wrong for the humans, and it’s up to the animals to provide a different breed of support.
NacelleVerse #0 (Oni Press, $5.99): Roboforce, Biker Mice from Mars, Sectaurs and Power Lords all make appearances in this one-shot by Melissa Flores, Diogenes Neves, Francis Portela, Rahmat Handoka, Rhoald Marcellius and more, but the real star is The Great Garloo, a 1960s monster toy whose search for a new home serves as the glue that brings all these different characters together in one shared universe. This officially kicks off the new publishing partnership between Oni and Nacelle.
Ape-Ril Special (DC, $5.99): DC’s latest seasonal anthology celebrates April Fool’s Day with the punny Ape-Ril Special, an anthology featuring stories about Gorilla Grodd, Monsieur Mallah, Gleek and more, by John Layman, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Gene Yang, Karl Mostert, Phil Hester and other creators who were eager to monkey around with the DC Universe. Sorry, that was terrible …
Web of Spider-Man #1 (Marvel, $7.99): This giant-sized one-shot serves up previews of several upcoming Spider-Man related stories in 2024, including Amazing Spider-Man, Miles Morales: Spider-Man and something new called Spider-Society by Alex Segura and Salvador Larocca.
Dawnrunner #1 (Dark Horse, $4.99): Ram V and Evan Cagle tell the story of an Earth invaded by kaiju and the mech pilots who keep them at bay — in particular Anita Marr, the world’s greatest pilot whose a new prototype mech could change the tide in humanity’s favor.
Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe of Horrors: Fresh Meat (Archie Comics, $3.99): Archie’s Horror line returns to Pop’s Chocklit Shoppe of Horrors with another one-shot subtitled “Fresh Meat.” The anthology features new stories of food horror by Amy Chase, Federico Sabbatini, Jordan Morris, Liana Kangas, Ryan Cady, Chris Panda and more.
X-Men Forever #1 (Marvel, $4.99): With the hype already started for the next big era of the X-Men, this new miniseries that continues to wrap up the Krakoa era almost feels a little anti-climatic at this point. But if you were a fan of Immortal X-Men, you won’t want to miss this, as Kieron Gillen and Luca Maresca begin to provide some answers to all those questions you had coming out of that series.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #1 (IDW, $3.99): With this being the 40th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you can expect a lot of new series, miniseries and special projects featuring the Turtles and related characters. In this miniseries, Erik Burnham and Mateus Santolouco put the spotlight on Oroku Karai, granddaughter of Shredder, as she takes over the Foot Clan.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #25 (DC, $4.99): This oversized issue features stories by Mark Waid, Dan Mora, Steve Pugh and more, including the first-ever meeting between Lex Luthor and the Joker.
The Tormented #1 (Comixology Originals, $2.99): Chuck Austen and Pat Olliffe re-team once again for another digital first series, this one about the son of a world famous ghost hunter who is hired to host a ghost-hunting reality TV series.
Assassin’s Creed Visionaries Presents: Shinobi + Uncivil War (Massive, $4.99): This is the second issue on a new anthology series that features creator-driven, original tales set in the Assassin’s Creed universe. This issue features contributions from Bray Dornback, Chuck Austen, Pat Olliffe, Ryan Benjamin and more.
Dune: House Corrino #1 (BOOM! Studios, $5.99): BOOM! returns to the world of Dune with another prequel miniseries by writers Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, artist Simone Ragazzoni, colorist Dan Jackson and letterer Ed Dukeshire.
Jango Fett #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Ethan Sacks and Luke Ross send Jango Fett on a new assignment, as he searches for a new bounty, solves a mystery and has to deal with his old friend Aurra Sing.
Deprog #1 (Dead Sky, $4.99): Tina Horn, writer of SfSx, teams with Witchblood artist Lisa Sterle for this new series about a private detective hired to infiltrate a cult they previously escaped from.
Bloodshot Unleashed: Reloaded #1 (Alien Books, $4.99): Deniz Camp wrote the first Bloodshot Unleashed series that Valiant published in 2022, and now that Alien Books has taken over publishing Valiant’s characters, they’re releasing this sequel miniseries by Camp, Mauro Mantella and Alejandro Barrionuevo. I believe Camp only contributed to this first issue, with Mantella writing the next two.
Misfortune’s Eyes #1 (Sumerian, $4.99): Brooklynn Prince, an actress who appeared in The Florida Project and Apple TV’s Home Before Dark, co-writes this new series with artist Aliz Fernandez. It’s about a girl who discovers she can see people’s auras and has to deal with family secrets and a great darkness coming for her town.
Project: Cryptid #7 (Ahoy Comics, $3.99): Ahoy’s anthology series about different cryptids hits issue #7, which is at least one issue more than we expected, right? This miniseries is now an ongoing series — the first ongoing series for the publisher, actually, and this issue features stories by Joseph Illidge, A.A. Rubin, Jamal Igle, Juan Castro, Richard Pace and more.
Star Wars Visions: Takashi Okazaki (Marvel, $5.99): Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki returns to tell the origin story of The Ronin, the Sith slayer who appeared in the first season of the Disney+ series. This is the second in the Star Wars Visions series from Marvel, following last year’s issue by Peach Momoko.
Comics Rebubbled (Book Palace, $18.99): I had not heard of this project before sitting down to write this column, but I LOL’ed at the cover. The premise is that Kim Fuller and Paul Alexander have taken old public domain comics and rewritten them with a humorous, modern take. You can find more information and some preview pages here.
Dog Man: The Scarlet Shredder (Scholastic, $14.99): Dav Pilkey’s dog-faced hero returns in a new adventure that finds him turning red after bathing in tomato juice to eliminate some skunk stink. His new look does not go over well with the citizens he protects, so not only does he have an image problem to deal with, but there’s also a new bad guy attacking the city with AI robots.
Army of One (Oni Press, $17.99): Tony Lee and Yishan Li team up for this new graphic novel that spotlights one hero’s journey through the multiverse. I know, “multiverse” is one of those words people are probably tired of hearing, like “NFT” and “AI,” but this premise sounds fun:
“A thousand years ago, a mighty battle pitched two of the greatest sorcerers against each other, Brother Havoc and Sister Fortune. In the end Brother Havoc won, shattering his rival into a thousand shards. Now, a millennia later, teenager Carrie Taylor not only learns that she is one of these shards, but that each shard created an alternate universe, with multiple versions of her out there-and a great evil is bent on destroying them all.”
Next Stop (Random House Graphic, $13.99): Illustrator Debbie Fong‘s debut graphic novel about a middle school girl whose brother passes away, causing her parents to move the family to a new town. While on a bus trip with a friend to see roadside attractions, she hopes that an underground lake rumored to have mystical powers can help heal her broken family.
The Great Puptective (Simon & Schuster, $12.99): Alina Tysoe writes and draws this new graphic novel about a set-in-their-ways cat whose routine is interrupted by the arrival of a new puppy — one who likes to solve mysteries.
Taka (IDW, $16.99): Ryan Jampole writes and draws this OGN about a “notorious delinquent” who accidentally unleashes a horde of evil robots and has to take up the mantle of “mech fighter” to defeat them.
Swan Songs (Image, $16.99): Image collects this anthology series by W. Maxwell Prince and a host of artists that told stories about endings — the end of a marriage, the end of a jail sentence and the end of the world, among others. Prince has told similar one-issue stories in Ice Cream Man, and they are pretty brilliant, so I can’t think of a better way to end this edition of the column.