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.
Marvel/DC: Spider-Man/Superman #1 (Marvel/DC, $7.99): The first half of the latest crossover between Marvel and DC landed in March with DC’s Superman/Spider-Man, and now it’s Marvel’s turn to bring the two flagship characters back together. In Marvel’s one-shot, Brad Meltzer and Pepe Larraz lead with a Lex Luthor/Norman Osborn team-up, while Geoff Johns and Gary Frank bring the Super- and Spider-families together against Mysterio. Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman unleash symbiote hordes on Metropolis, Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli reunite for Miles Morales and Superman, Louise Simonson and Todd Nauck pit Steel against the Hobgoblin, and much more!
Head Lopper #1 (Image, $7.99): Andrew MacLean celebrates 10 years of his excellent sword-and-sorcery series with an extra-length new #1. Norgal is back to beheading mythic beasts with his severed-witch-head companion Agatha providing relentless commentary from under his arm. If you’ve never read Head Lopper, this anniversary issue is the perfect entry point … and you’re in for a treat.
ThunderCats X SilverHawks: ThunderHawks #1 (Dynamite, $4.99): Ed Brisson and Vincenzo Federici deliver the third chapter of this epic 15-part crossover event, this time focusing on the ThunderCats Lost team. Stranded in the far future, their group fracturing under pressure, Neko strikes out alone while her teammates plan a desperate final raid for the Thundrillium they need to travel back through time.
Frankenstein: New World — The Speed of Darkness #1 (Dark Horse, $4.99): Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Thomas Sniegoski and Peter Bergting return to the post-B.P.R.D. future for this third Frankenstein: New World miniseries. Frankenstein and Lilja follow visions from Liz Sherman across a world being slowly corrupted by a powerful parasitic evil.
Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Versity #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Jordan Morris and Pere Perez bring together Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Silk, Araña, Spider-Boy and Spider-Girl for a training program run by the last person any of them would choose: Norman Osborn, who has declared that none of them are ready for what’s coming.
In Your Skin #1 (Image, $4.99): Aditya Bidikar and SOM launch a Bollywood body horror series about Priyanka, a super-fan obsessed with film star Ayesha Sen, and when Ayesha announces her retirement, Priyanka decides that if her idol won’t live the life she’s supposed to, she’ll be happy to take over.
The Phantom vs. The Sky Band (Mad Cave, $6.99): Ray Fawkes and Federico Sabbatini send the Ghost Who Walks after a mercenary air fleet that made the fatal mistake of ferrying the Singh Brotherhood into Bangalla. They thought their helicopters put them beyond reach of the Phantom, but they were wrong.
Diablo: Dawn of Hatred #1 (Titan, $4.99): Cullen Bunn and Daniele Serra bring the dark fantasy world of Diablo back to comics with a story built around one of the game’s most mythic figures: Akarat, the ancient prophet whose teachings spawned the Zakarum faith, now apparently risen from death to spread peace and light. Barbarian warrior Derris ain’t buying it.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge — Echoes of the Empire #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Ethan Sacks, Jethro Morales and Roi Mercado send Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Chewbacca to Batuu on a mission for critical intel, where they stumble onto a dangerous relic that puts them squarely in the Empire’s crosshairs. This story sets the stage for characters from the original films to land in Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge theme park world.
Corpse Knight #1 (Image, $3.99): Michael Chaves, the director of The Conjuring film franchise, teams with artist Matthew Roberts to launch a horror series set in war-ravaged France. Young Foy is surviving alone after tragedy strikes her family, until a miracle returns her father from the dead to protect her. But as they travel through a countryside consumed by murderers, wild animals and black magic, Foy begins to wonder whether the man walking beside her has always been a monster.
Vampirella #1 (Dynamite, $4.99): Christopher Priest and Davis Goetten relaunch this series with a story centered on Draculina, who has been stripped of her Vampiri powers and the baby she stole from her sister, now human and desperately trying to break free from centuries of monstrous appetites before they consume her again.
Planet Atmos: Exordium #1 (Mad Cave, $4.99): DR Bushnell, Rob McEveety and Andrea Cucchi launch the first comics entry in a new multimedia universe. A heist gone catastrophically wrong traps a ragtag group of thieves inside an intergalactic pharmaceutical conglomerate’s underground stronghold, sending legendary racing pilot Pesh Chosen and fugitive Addy Aker on a collision course that will change their planet’s future forever.
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero — Sssilent Missions: Copperhead #1 (Image, $3.99): Howard Porter writes and draws the latest sssilent mission one-shot, putting Cobra’s swamp-racing specialist Copperhead in the middle of a death race so fast and so fatal that he might not walk away from it.
Strength & Ash #1 (Keenspot, $5.99): Evan K. Pozios, Stefano Cardoselli and Francesca Perillo tell the story of young Ash, whose superhero father has been murdered. Ash finds himself sinking into depression with only comic books, action figures and memories left behind, but maybe a father’s love can reach from beyond the grave …
Justice League Unlimited #18 (DC, $3.99): Mark Waid and Clayton Henry dig into the post-DC K.O. fallout, as the League extends amnesty and membership to supervillains, and the resulting mutiny is threatening to tear the team apart from within. Meanwhile Guy Gardner’s latest mission has consequences that ripple across the entire galaxy — and will bring about the comic introduction of the Justice Gang.
Blood Squad Seven Yearbook #1 (Image, $4.99): Joe Casey and Paul Fry bring their gleefully irreverent superhero saga to an oversized conclusion, with secrets revealed, worlds colliding, legends dying and a status quo permanently altered.
Amazing Spider-Man #27 (Marvel, $4.99): Joe Kelly, Ed McGuinness, Carlos Gomez and Francesco Manna bring the Death Spiral crossover to its conclusion — and the final chapter has left Peter Parker as the host of the Carnage symbiote, meaning Spider-Man must do the unthinkable to stop Torment from getting away with murder. Kelly has been masterfully escalating this story, and this finale promises to be one of the most intense Spider-Man issues in years.
Brownfield Action Family #1 (Revival House Press, $9.99): Ted May launches an eight-issue series about Johnny Mansfield, a man scraping the bottom, with no work and no direction, who inherits his family’s abandoned martial arts studio in a mysterious, decaying neighborhood called the Brownfield. The catch is that accepting the inheritance means dealing with the dysfunctional family he’s spent his whole life trying to escape.
Infantoms (Oni Press, $29.99): Jim Bishop delivers a darkly satirical horror graphic novel about two underachieving teenagers who discover that their school’s new policy for failing students allows their parents to literally kill them, and that their parents are slowly mutating into monsters as the pressure builds.
Young Shadow and the Watchdogs (Fantagraphics, $14.99): Ben Sears delivers a joyful middle-grade adventure, as Young Shadow and his eight Watchdog teammates investigate chemical sludge in Bolt City’s water supply, only to stumble into a haunted baseball glove that summons a team from beyond the grave and challenges them to a game to the death.
Secret S.T.E.A.M. Society: Music (Papercutz, $19.99): Trevor Mueller and Christian Colbert bring back their science-education adventure series for a second installment, this time exploring the science of music, including sound waves, vocal cords, instrument construction and how music affects the brain. Through the story of a band scrambling to find a replacement singer one week before a big show, they pack this with both curriculum and genuine enthusiasm.
All the Cameras in My Room (Drawn & Quarterly, $30): Michael DeForge continues to be one of the most creative cartoonists working today, and this new short story collection is exactly the kind of destabilizing, inventive comics fiction that has made him essential reading. A figure skater whose impossible rotations trigger national paralysis. A holiday special that bears an uncanny resemblance to something you’ve definitely seen before. DeForge’s characters stretch and flatten and spiral around each other in ways that burrow deep and stay there.