Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what’s coming to your local comic shop this week.
I’ve pulled out some of the highlights for this week 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 + Mad Cave + more)
- 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 check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.
Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #1 (Image/Skybound, $4.99): Skybound’s Universal Monsters line continues to move to some interesting places with interesting choices in creators, and given the popularity of Phantom thanks to Broadway (hat tip to Andrew Lloyd Webber), I expect this one could get attention outside of traditional comic fans. Tyler Boss and Martin Simmonds tackle the story, and given what both of them are capable of, expect something far stranger and more unsettling than you’re anticipating. Christine Daaè’s world is unraveling, a string of violent crimes has the Paris Opera House on edge, and the mysterious voice in the walls is hiding something nobody will see coming.
Punisher #1 (Marvel, $5.99): Frank Castle is back in an all-new ongoing series, courtesy of Benjamin Percy and José Luis Soares. This time, Frank’s working with a damaged memory, as he hunts criminals and answers in equal measure. Then Jigsaw resurfaces with a score to settle.
The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery #1 (DC/Vertigo, $3.99): Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips, the team behind That Texas Blood and The Enfield Gang Massacre, are back with a new noir icon. In New York circa 1941, private eye Ezra Cain is chasing a stolen artifact that allegedly holds the power of Hephaestus, and stumbles into a shadowy cult with technology that shouldn’t exist.
Is Ted OK? #1 (Mad Cave, $5.99): Dave Chisholm, who both writes and draws this, pitches it as Severance meets Akira, and honestly? That tracks. Ted is an isolated, paranoid drone of a man working for the world’s only trillionaire. Sarah is assigned to watch him remotely. When she tries to help, things go very, very wrong.
New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident #1 (DC, $5.99): A Black History Month special spinning out of DC’s New History series, this one-shot brings together a stellar lineup of creators, including Joseph P. Illidge, Stephanie Williams, Morgan Hampton, Nikolas Draper-Ivey, Carlo Pagulayan and more, to dig into an untold chapter of the Milestone Universe.
Amazing Spider-Man/Venom: Death Spiral #1 (Marvel, $5.99): The next big Spidey/Venom crossover kicks off here, with writers Charles Soule, Joe Kelly and Al Ewing, and Jesús Saiz on art. A new super-powered serial killer is working their way through everyone connected to Spider-Man and Venom, and Carnage is sitting on a secret that ties into all of it.
Murder Drones #1 (Oni Press, $4.99): I’m not at all familiar with the animated series this is based on, but I hear that it racked up 330 million views, so maybe you are. Wyatt Kennedy and Jo Mi-Gyeong drop us onto the desolate exoplanet Copper 9, where worker drones have scraped together a society. That is, until the Murder Drones show up to disassemble anyone who’s gone off-script.
Green Lantern #32 (DC, $4.99): Jeremy Adams has been building to something big, and in this issue, where he’s joined by artist Montos, the visions from the Book of Oa reach a fever pitch, and Hal Jordan is about to make a decision that reshapes the Green Lantern Corps forever. Oh, and if the cover of Hal presenting a ring to Carol Ferris means what we think it means… next issue’s #600 should be interesting.
The Rocketeer: The Island #1 (IDW, $4.99): John Layman adapts a never-published story outline by Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens, with art from Jacob Edgar. It’s 1938, and Cliff Secord is recruited to find Amelia Earhart. And the search leads to the same island his girlfriend Betty ran off to with a slimy photographer.
Predator: Bloodshed #1 (Marvel, $4.99): An underground martial arts tournament featuring Earth’s deadliest fighters has one unexpected entrant: a Predator. Jordan Morris and Roland Boschi are leaning fully into the pulpy, bloody fun of the premise, turning a classic tournament-fighter setup into a survival horror situation.
House of Lowther #1 (Amp Comics, $5.99): Originally appearing on Webtoon, K Lynn Smith’s gothic supernatural series makes the jump to print in a big way, with three double-sized issues, starting here. New hire Sawyer Ellis thought she was just taking a janitorial gig at a creepy old mansion — but she was wrong.
Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong 2 #7 (DC, $4.99): The second miniseries featuring DC’s heroes battling kaiju comes to an end. It’s the Justice League, Godzilla and Kong versus King Ghidorah, Rodan and a whole roster of Titans in what promises to be an absolutely unhinged finale by Brian Buccellato and Christian Duce.
Disney Villains: Ursula #1 (Dynamite, $4.99): Sherri L. Smith and Gabriele Bagnoli bring The Little Mermaid‘s big bad to comics. Set before the events of the movie, the story has Ursula and the Seven Sea Witches ruling over the oceans, until one of them suddenly loses her powers — and Ursula wants revenge.
Faster (Bulgilhan Press, $20): Jesse Lonergan brings his distinctive visual storytelling to the world of motorsport in this gorgeous graphic novel following a cast of racers whose inner lives are as wild as the track itself. At the center is Molly Vox, perpetual runner-up with something to prove, gunning for five-time world champion Kona Demille.
Ninja Kaiju (Papercutz, $17.99): What happens when a ninja botches a heist at a secret science lab and accidentally douses himself in an experimental formula? You get a giant city-smashing monster with a very complicated job to finish. Franco and Scott “Scoot” McMahon deliver a gleefully over-the-top action comedy.
Lisa Cheese and Ghost Guitar Vol. 2: The Rock God Complex (Top Shelf, $12.99): Kevin Alvir’s is back with another chapter of his tale about the sweet unicorn girl trying to kickstart her career as a folk singer. This volume involves missing guitar strings, stolen magic flour, a lost vampire fang, a Battle of the Bands and Lisa Cheese dreading her high school reunion. As we all do.