Can’t Wait for Comics | A new ‘Iron Fist’ emerges in this week’s comics

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Tim Seeley, Ilias Kyriazis, Greg Pak, Takeshi Miyaza, Garth Ennis, PJ Holden, Darryl Cunningham and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital this week.

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:

Please note that I have changed the link above to the new Amazon page for comiXology. You can still get to the comiXology new releases page for now, but I’m not sure how long it’ll be around.

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.

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DC’s 2022 Free Comic Book Day line-up

Super Pets, ‘Dark Crisis’ and a new hero arrive on May 7.

DC Comics has announced the rest of their Free Comic Book Day titles for 2022, following last week’s announcement of Dark Crisis and its debut on May 7.

Joining Dark Crisis #0 FCBD Special Edition will be Galaxy: The Prettiest Star Free Comic Book Day Special Edition and DC League of Super-Pets: The Great Mxy-Up Free Comic Book Day Special Edition. Both offer previews of upcoming graphic novels from DC that will arrive in stores 10 days later on May 17.

Here’s more info on all three:

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‘Thunderbolts’ returns in May from Zub + Izaakse

Jim Zub and Sean Izaakse bring together Hawkeye, Spectrum, America Chavez and more for a new take on the classic team.

A new iteration of Marvel’s Thunderbolts will strike in May, courtesy of writer Jim Zub and artist Sean Izaakse.

The new team springs from the events occurring in Devil’s Reign, the event series featuring New York’s heroes running up against former-crime-boss-turned-mayor Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin. In that series, the Kingpin has enlisted his own team of villains to serve as his law-enforcing Thunderbolts, but this new team is another animal completely. While previous Thunderbolts titles have featured, for the most part, villains seeking redemption, this new team is heavy on the heroes.

“My elevator pitch for this series was essentially ‘Ted Lasso by way of the Avengers,'” Zub said in an email. “I wanted to craft a story that was full of heart and interpersonal struggles and I’m incredibly proud of how it’s all coming together. I’ve built a reputation for writing team dynamics well and this book has already been one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had doing just that.”

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Milestone’s ‘Blood Syndicate’ returns in May

Geoffrey Thorne, ChrisCross and Juan Castro bring Wise Son, Holocaust, Tech-9 and more back to Dakota later this year.

The Blood Syndicate miniseries announced at last year’s FanDome event now has a creative team and a release date. Geoffrey Thorne, ChrisCross and Juan Castro will bring Tech-9, Wise Son and Fade back to Paris Island and the Dakotaverse this May for a six-issue series.

“Making Blood Syndicate the fourth pillar of this new Dakotaverse was just a matter of time,” said Milestone’s Reggie Hudlin. “Holocaust’s recruitment of ‘Bang Babies’ in Static Season One was a big hint that we’d eventually address the impact of the ‘Big Bang’ on Paris Island. Landing Geoffrey Thorne and CHRISCROSS as writer and artists for the series was pretty much the icing on the cake; they’re the perfect team for telling this story.”

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DC announces ‘Dark Crisis’ event series

Joshua Williamson and Daniel Sampere team up for a crossover that spins out of ‘Justice League’ #75 and pays tribute to DC’s past.

DC has announced their next big “Crisis” crossover series, following on a long tradition of using the term, whether said crisis is Infinite, on Multiple Earths, Final or, um, “Identity.” (Maybe it’s best to skip that last one).

This particular crisis ties back to Crisis on Infinite Earths, the landmark 1980s series by Marv Wolfman and George Perez that reduced the multiverse to a single Earth and introduced us to Pariah, who watched multiple universes die after his own did. It also has roots (appropriately) in one of my favorite stories from Swamp Thing, issue #50 by Alan Moore and Stan Woch, which saw Swamp Thing and his allies attempting to save Heaven from “The Great Darkness.” Finally, it’ll spin out of Justice League #75, due out in April, where the team will die at the hands of “a new  Dark  Army  made  up  of  the  DCU’s  greatest  villains.”

Dark Crisis will run for seven issues and is written by Joshua Williamson, featuring art by Daniel Sampere, colors by Alejandro Sánchez and lettering by Tom Napolitano.

“Dark Crisis is an epic DCU event about legacy,” said writer Joshua Williamson. “It will have all the giant, fun cosmic battles and Multiversal set pieces, but it’s not about reboots, retcons, or rewriting time and space. At its core it’s about the characters and the relationships that we’ve seen built over DC’s great history. Dark Crisis spins out of Justice League 75 ‘Death of the Justice League’ and connects all the story threads across the DCU since Infinite Frontier #0 in a major way. Unifying the new legacy of the DCU as we honor the classic. You can’t miss it!”

Here’s a teaser trailer:

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Smash Pages Q&A | Sarah Winifred Searle on ‘The Greatest Thing’

The creator of ‘Sincerely, Harriet’ discusses her latest graphic novel, mental health management, making zines and more.

Sarah Winifred Searle’s new book The Greatest Thing is a thoughtful and raw book about teenagers that, like all her work, is brutally honest but not unkind, looking at mental health and the possibilities of art. It is a quiet story about high school outsiders who are creative and rebellious in their own ways, struggling with their own issues as much as they push against their small town and expectations.

Searle is the cartoonist behind Sincerely, Harriet, which I talked with her about when it was published, and many other books and short comics. I was thrilled to talk about her new book, which is her best work to date.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Love is in the air for this week’s comics

Check out new comics this week from Tini Howard, Francesco Mobili, Brian Michael Bendis, Sanford Greene, Simon Spurrier, Aaron Campbell, P. Craig Russell and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital this week. With Valentine’s Day coming up next week, there are several love-filled comics and graphic novels to choose from.

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:

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.

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Mail Call | Say hello to the New (Old) Fantastic Four

Check out news and announcements from Marvel, IDW, AfterShock, Drawn and Quarterly, and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of cool things we’ve received in our mailboxes from comics creators, publishers and more. Hit the links for more information.

Back in the early 1990s Wolverine, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider and Hulk had a brief team-up in the pages of Fantastic Four while the actual Fantastic Four were out of town. It was a fun story by Walt Simonson and Art Adams that only last a few issues. But now Marvel will revisit that team — and time period — in The New Fantastic Four, a limited series by Peter David and Alan Robinson.

“Although their original stint was extremely short-lived, the alternate version of the FF has had its fans for years, including myself,” David said. “I am fortunate Marvel has given me the opportunity to revisit with them and take their battles to new heights in a new location with new allies and new enemies.” 

Like Maestro and X-Men Legends, this story takes place in the past, shortly after the quartet’s first appearance.

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Belgium celebrates their comic heritage in their new passport designs

Tintin, the Smurfs and more populate the new design.

Comic fans in Belgium are getting a fun new treat — their government commissioned French design and engineering consultancy Thales Group and Belgian tech company Zetes to redesign their passports, incorporating in comic strip artwork featuring Tintin, the Smurfs and more.

Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin and Peyo’s The Smurfs both originated in Belgium, and Tintin, his dog Snowy and companion Captain Haddock can be found in the new design. The Smurfs, meanwhile, can be found studying a globe and strolling across the Earth.

Check out this video to see more:

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Gedeon + Johnson turn the Justice League into dinosaurs in ‘Jurassic League’

DC’s flagship team gets prehistoric in this new miniseries from Daniel Warren Johnson and Juan Gedeon.

If you thought 1999’s JLApe was the height of majesty for DC Comics, think again — Daniel Warren Johnson and Juan Gedeon are teaming up for Jurassic League, which will feature the familiar team as dinosaurs.

“Jurassic League is all I want to draw: dinos and epic fights,” Gedeon said. “My own version of a ’90s cartoon or video game. Expect a story about survival, unity and hope where the strong protect the weak in a world where danger lurks in every corner.”

Johnson and Gedeon are co-writing the six-issue miniseries, with Gedeon providing interior art and Johnson doing the covers. In it, Wonder Woman is a triceratops, the Joker is a dilophosaurus, Batman is an allosaurus and Superman is a brachiosaurus.

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‘Only the Savage will survive’ in Pepose + Magno’s ‘Savage Avengers’

A new team led by Conan the Barbarian takes on an evil Deathlok in the series, which debuts in May.

The Savage Avengers will return in May with an eclectic line-up and a new creative team, as David Pepose and Carlos Magno pit Conan and a new team of “loners, berserkers and killers” against an evil Deathlok cyborg.

Joining Conan on this time trek are Anti-Venom, Black Knight, Cloak & Dagger, Weapon H and Daredevil — aka the assassin formerly known as Elektra.

Pepose, whose credits include Scout’s Honor, Going to the Chapel and The O.Z., makes his Marvel debut on the title.

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Smash Pages Q&A: The ‘Mañana’ anthology interview

Alberto Rayo, Maddi Gonzalez and Tristan J. Tarwater discuss the stories they helped create for ‘Mañana: Latinx Comics From The 25th Century.’

Power & Magic Press run by Joamette Gil has put out a series of exceptional anthologies in recent years, including Heartwood, Immortal Souls and The Queer Witch. Their most recent book – and arguably their best anthology to date – is Mañana: Latinx Comics From The 25th Century, which came out at the end of 2021 in both Spanish and English language editions. The book, edited by Gil, features 27 stories that are set in Latin America in the 2490s, or in the diaspora among other planets. It features an incredible lineup of talent, including Julio Anta, Terry Blas, Kat Fajardo, Jamila Rowser, H. Pueyo and Dante Luiz.

The anthology offers a wide variety of stories, styles and approaches that are realistic and poetic, set on Earth and much further afield, small stories and large. They are stories of survival, of continuance, of possibility, of transformation, of community. They are stories of hope. As Gil wrote in the book’s introduction, “Mañana presents dozens of possible futures, with one thing in common: we’re still here. El futuro es nuestro.”

I had the chance to speak with three of the creators involved in the book. Alberto Rayo wrote “A Dream of a Thousand Stars,” which was drawn by Sebastian Carrillo. Maddi Gonzalez drew “A Little Esperanza,” which was written by Jamila Rowser, and Tristan J. Tarwater wrote “Bats and Fish,” which was drawn by Molly Mendoza. The three were kind enough to speak about their work and the possibilities of the future.

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