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)
- 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 check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.
Usagi Yojimbo: Kaito ’84 #1 (Dark Horse, $4.99): Zack Rosenberg and Jared Cullum put an ’80s spin on the Usagi Yojimbo universe, transplanting the bloodline of Miyamoto Usagi to 1984 Osaka in the form of Kaitō Usagi, a cunning rabbit thief whose rebellious spirit carries his ancestor’s legacy in an entirely different direction. A heist for a legendary spear sets him on a path that could determine the fate of the world. This is the rare Usagi project that doesn’t feature Stan Sakai behind the reins, so I’m interesting to see this new take.
X-Men United #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Eve L. Ewing and Tiago Palma take mutantkind back to school in this new series that looks like it’ll feature everybody X-related. This issue introduces us to an academy unlike any before, called Graymatter Lane, where mutants from anywhere in the world can gather to teach each other the skills they need to survive. Wolverine, Beast, Prodigy and Magneto are among the instructors, with a global student body and a threat already brewing on the horizon.
Action Comics #1096 (DC, $4.99): I don’t want to spoil anything, but if you didn’t read last week’s DC K.O. #5, you may want to before picking up either of this week’s Superman Family titles. As Reign of the Superboys kicks off, Mark Waid and Skylar Patridge check in on a young Clark Kent buckling under the weight of his secret in Smallville–more isolated than ever, and about to have his world turned upside down by a revelation that suggests he might not be as alone as he thought.
Supergirl #11 (DC, $3.99): Writer Sophie Campbell returns to art duties as well with this issue, as Kara Zor-El (and friends) find themselves in the middle of a full-scale revolt inside the bottled city of Kandor. The last survivors of Krypton are in open conflict after a shocking secret comes to light, with the Science Council on trial for its crimes against the next generation. Campbell handling both writing and art duties is always a treat.
Alias: Red Band #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Writer Sam Humphries and artist Geraldo Borges bring Jessica Jones back in a polybagged Red Band miniseries celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original Alias series by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos. A string of murders in Hell’s Kitchen pulls Jess into a sinister mystery, which is complicated by the fact that she’s now married to Mayor Luke Cage. Her unlikely alliance with Typhoid Mary probably wouldn’t set well with his constituents, I gather …
Tigress Island #1 (Image, $3.99): Writer Patrick Kindlon and artist EPHK helm this exploitation-film-inspired action-adventure title, as a group of down-on-their-luck actresses are kidnapped and sent to an island prison run by a sadistic warden.
Spider-Man: Meals to Astonish #1 (Marvel, $5.99): This food-themed anthology features comics by Steve Orlando, Roi Mercado, Ken Niimura and more, as real-world humanitarian and world-class chef José Andrés makes his Marvel Universe — just in time for Electro to crash his restaurant opening. Peter Parker is there to photograph the event, naturally, and he and the World Central Kitchen founder have to work together to save everybody’s dinner.
Godzilla vs. America: Portland (IDW, $7.99): The kaiju city-smashing tour continues, and this time it’s Portland’s turn. Creators Mark Russell, Caitlin Yarsky, Colleen Coover and more Portland-based creators send Godzilla through Stumptown in a oversized anthology issue that leans hard into the local flavor.
Emperor Aquaman #15 (DC, $3.99): Jeremy Adams and John Timms kick off a new era (and an updated title) for Arthur Curry in the wake of DC K.O., as Aquaman finds himself wielding Omega Energy and launching a new cosmic mission — starting with freeing his friends and family from the Crimson Queen.
51 #1 (Mad Cave, $6.99): Curt Pires and Jok ask the question nobody in the government wants answered — what happens when every secret inside Area 51 gets stolen at once? The answer involves Harvey, the president’s screw-up son, who was assigned to the real Hangar 51 as a punishment posting and managed to throw a party that somehow resulted in rogue aliens, experimental weapons and stolen superpower formulas finding their way into the world. Now he and his crew have to get it all back.
Imperial Guardians #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Dan Abnett and Marcelo Ferreira assemble a team of expendable, deniable cosmic operatives, including Gamora, Captain Marvel, Amadeus Cho, Darkhawk and Cosmic Ghost Rider, to protect the fragile new Galactic Union we saw formed in Imperial. This is no longer an ongoing series, as it joins Planet She-Hulk and Nova: Centurion on the list of “series quietly turned into miniseries” list.
The Other/Half #1 (Ignition Press, $4.99): Jim McCann and Joe Eisma deliver a holiday whodunnit, as former high-society darling Ethan finds himself the prime suspect when a priceless diamond goes missing on his watch, and it’s up to his P.I. husband Henry (and their cat Skippy) to clear his name.
Dick Tracy: St. Patrick’s Day Special (Mad Cave, $6.99): Alex Segura, Michael Moreci, Tim Seeley, Craig Cermak and Rebekah Isaacs follow up last year’s Dick Tracy Halloween Special with a St. Patrick’s Day one-shot that finds Tracy and Sam on the trail of a masked vigilante picking off wealthy, corrupt citizens. There’s also a backup story following the lovably unlucky Acres O’Reilly, as she continues her search for love.
Transformers #30 (Image, $3.99): Robert Kirkman and Dan Mora bring their current arc to a head with the showdown Transformers fans have been waiting for: Optimus Prime versus Elita-1, with the future of the Autobots hanging in the balance. Who run the world …?
Tim Seeley’s Super Thick Lucky’s Tales #1 (Keenspot, $7.99): Hack/Slash creator Tim Seeley brings his SuperBeast Lucky back in a jam-packed 48-page anthology, which features stories from her past and present, a bonus pull-out poster and contributions from Troy Dongarra, Danny Harrell, Javin Loop and more.
Metadoggoz (Drawn & Quarterly, $27): Writer/artist Berenice Motais de Narbonne delivers a cyberpunk fairy tale following Gael, a self-styled junkyard dog navigating a techno-megalopolis with his crew the Metadoggoz … until a late-night rave and a bad tab of “metadoggo” sends everything sideways.
Spider-Man: Cosmic Chaos (Abrams, $9.99): Writer/artist Mike Maihack delivers another installment in his all-ages Mighty Marvel Team-Up series, sending Spider-Man into space to return Silver Surfer’s surfboard and landing him smack in the middle of a cosmic talisman mystery alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Re: Trailer Trash Vol. 1 (Vault, $19.99): Writers Natalie Wong and Alyssa Villaire and artist Yishan Li send Tabitha Moore, a.k.a. “Trailer Trash Tabitha,” back to her 16-year-old body in 1998 after a freak MRI accident. She knows everything that’s coming. The question is whether any of it can actually be changed, or whether the past has a gravity all its own. This time-travel story originally appeared on Webtoon.
Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories (Fantagraphics, $49.99): If you’ve never read Jaime Hernandez’s Locas stories, this new deluxe hardcover collects 15 years of work from the legendary Love and Rockets Vol. 1, plus three previously uncollected stories. Maggie and Hopey’s lives in the early SoCal punk scene are rendered with a humanity and grace that’s simply unmatched.
Benjamin (Oni Press, $24.99): Novelist and TV writer Ben H. Winters and artist Leomacs send a deceased science-fiction cult icon named Benjamin J. Carp, who has been dead since 1982, stumbling back to life in a burned-out Los Angeles motel in 2025, with no idea what he is or why he exists. As Carp treks across the paranoid sprawl of 21st-century L.A., he’s forced to investigate the same questions he spent his career exploring through fiction: consciousness, identity, reality itself.
Flinch: The Complete Collection (DC/Vertigo, $34.99): The turn-of-the-century Vertigo horror anthology series gets its first complete collection, gathering all 16 issues in one volume. Writers John Arcudi, Brian Azzarello, Garth Ennis, Richard Corben, Frank Quitely and more explore the darkest corners of human imagination. If you missed Flinch during its original run, you can now experience one of Vertigo’s most unsettling titles. Just don’t read it before bed.