Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital.
This week brings Mad Cave’s Gatchaman series to comic shops, as well as a prelude chapter for DC’s Absolute Power and the penultimate chapter of Marvel’s Blood Hunt. You’ve also got the return of Thanos, more Resident Alien, a new Zatanna comic and Ethan Aldridge’s latest graphic novel, among others.
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.
Gatchaman #1 (Mad Cave, $4.99): Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, or “G-Force” to those who grew up on the Americanized cartoon, returns to comics with this new series by Cullen Bunn and Chris Batista. Watch as the five bird-themed heroes take on the machinations of the international terrorist organization known as Galactor, as the first of several new Gatchaman comics arrives from Mad Cave Studios.
Gatchaman Ken: Deathmatch (Mad Cave, $4.99): And here’s the second of several new Gatchaman comics from Mad Cave. This one’s by Tommy Lee Edwards and Mindy Lee, and features the leader of the team going undercover to infiltrate an underground gambling ring where martial artists from around the globe fight to the death.
Absolute Power: Ground Zero #1 (DC, $4.99): DC’s big crossover event kicks off this week with this “zero” issue — ground zero, that is. Featuring a creative team that includes Mark Waid, Joshua Williamson, Nicole Maines, Chip Zdarsky, Gleb Melnikov, Skylar Patridge, V Ken Marion and more, this issue will bring together elements from Batman, Superman: House of Brainiac and Suicide Squad: Dream Team as Amanda Waller begins her plan to take down the world’s superheroes.
Thanos Annual (Marvel, $4.99): Infinity Watch, an event running through Marvel’s annuals, begins here. It involves Thanos searching once again for the infinity gems — or stones, or whatever they are now, because they’ve each become part of a super-powered being. Derek Landy and Sara Pichelli kick off an event that will run through the annuals for Amazing Spider-Man, Immortal Thor and more.
Resident Alien: The Book of Life #1 (Dark Horse, $3.99): Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse’s latest Resident Alien story picks up after the events of Resident Alien: The Book of Love, as our favorite alien must come to terms with the fact that he’s going to become a daddy.
Zatanna: Bring Down the House #1 (DC, $5.99): Mariko Tamaki and Javier Rodríguez each work their respective kinds of magic on this new Black Label miniseries. Set in Las Vegas, where the backwards-speaking magician performs at crappy casinos off the strip, Zatanna will have to face both her tragic past and a murderous demon when an interdimensional vortex opens up during one of her performances.
Giant-Size Little Marvels (Marvel, $6.99): Skottie Young and Dax Gordine’s Infinity Comic featuring the cutest superheroes ever comes to print.
Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys #1 (Dark Horse, $3.99): Dark Horse continues their line of adaptations of Neil Gaiman’s prose stories with this eight-issue miniseries based on the 2005 fantasy novel.
Blood Hunt #4 (Marvel, $4.99 or $5.99 for the Red Band edition): We’ve made it the penultimate issue of Marvel’s big summer crossover series by Jed MacKay and Pepe Larraz, as Doctor Strange, Clea, Tigra and Hunter’s Moon all seem to have the same not-so-great idea to court a “dread ally” in their battle against the vampire horde. That doesn’t always work out in comics, does it? Meanwhile, the Avengers do some avengin’.
X-Men Blood Hunt: Magik (Marvel, $3.99): Ashley Allen and Jesus Hervas show us what Illyana Rasputin is up to after Fall of the House of X, as the former queen of Limbo heads back home to Russia for some soul-searching, only for the sun to go out and an army of vampires invades her homeland. Looks like that soul-searching is turning into a Soulsword-stabbing adventure.
Blood Squad Seven #2 (Image Comics, $3.99): Joe Casey and Paul Fry’s 1990s-influenced superhero story continues with a rare guest appearance by Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon, as the story flashes back to 1992.
Project: Cryptid #10 (Ahoy Comics, $3.99): Ahoy’s anthology of “unbelievably hilarious and hilariously unbelievable tales about cryptids from around the world” returns with a new issue that we just previewed last week, featuring stories by Carol Lay and Atagun Ilhan.
Green Arrow #13 (DC, $3.99): Joshua Williamson and Amancay Nahuelpan share another issue that sets up DC’s big Absolute Power event, as Arsenal and the rest of Team Arrow confront Oliver Queen on why he’s working with Amanda Waller to take down DC’s super-powered beings.
The Pale Queen (Quill Tree Books, $15.99): Ethan Aldridge writes and illustrates this new graphic novel about a girl who discovers that a secret magical world is hidden in the mist-shrouded land next to her village — and that her new friend, the Lady of the Hills, may be more than she appears.
Failure to Launch (Iron Circus, $30): This new anthology has an interesting premise, as it features stories not about history’s winners, but its losers. Failure to Launch: A Tour of Ill-Fated Futures is “a light-hearted, educational tour of (so far!) unrealized technological and societal advances promised in years past, but which never came to be.” Contributors include Blue Delliquanti, Ryan North, Evan Dahm, Ryan Estrada, Aarón Cruz, Colton Fox and many more.
Usagi Yojimbo: 40th Anniversary Reader (Dark Horse, $14.99): In celebration of Usagi Yojimbo’s 40th anniversary, Dark Horse and Stan Sakai have selected eight fan-favorite short stories for this collection, presented in full color by Emi Fujii, the late Tom Luth and Ronda Pattison.