Also coming out this week: a new Fantastic Four miniseries, Megan Huang’s ‘Rangers of the Divide,’ the first-ever ‘Far Cry’ comic 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. This week brings new comics and graphic novels from Marvel, DC, Top Cow, Dark Horse and more.
Tom Bondurant dives into a classic issue of DC’s ‘Dollar Comics’ line that helped inspire the architect of Marvel’s ‘Heroes Reborn’ event.
As part of our round-robin Heroes Reborn [2021] coverage, I learned that writer Jason Aaron’s first superhero comic book was August-September 1979’s World’s Finest Comics #258. Back then it was part of DC’s “Dollar Comics” line, boasting 68 pages’ and five features’ worth of colorful characters. In his newsletter, Aaron says
I fell in love with these books, in part because they didn’t just give me one story, but instead gave me a taste of an entire world of characters and adventures and history that was out there waiting for me. The sort of gargantuan super-world that would come to consume a large portion of the rest of my life. […] In other words, I think I’ve been primed from the beginning to want to build my own world of superheroes. And HEROES REBORN is maybe as close as I’ll ever come to doing exactly that.
It will surprise none of you to learn that I also read World’s Finest Comics regularly as a kid, especially during the Dollar Comics phase. (It lasted over five years and almost 40 issues, from April-May 1977’s #244 through August 1982’s #282; and a Green Arrow/Black Canary backup continued for a couple of issues past that.) Although the Dollar Comics line was largely an experiment in marketing and economics of scale, World’s Finest was pretty impressive among the company’s late-1970s output.
New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Jason Aaron, Dale Keown, Lee Lai, Aminder Dhaliwal, Matt Lesniewski, Mike Mignola, Declan Shalvey 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. This week brings new comics and graphic novels from Marvel, DC, Fantagraphics, Image, AfterShock, Drawn and Quarterly, and more.
Check out a few highlights below, or visit ComicList for this week’s full list of new comics arriving in stores, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.
Carla, Tom, Shane and JK assemble to discuss Marvel’s latest comics event.
Marvel kicked off a new Heroes Reborn miniseries/event last Wednesday, the first of eight issues (and several tie-ins) that tell the story of a Marvel Universe where the Avengers never assembled. Instead, the Squadron Supreme, which takes its direction from a Phil Coulson who is much more menacing than Clark Gregg ever was, is now the MU’s primary super team.
With the first issue by Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales and Matthew Wilson now out in the wild, Shane Bailey, Tom Bondurant, Carla Hoffman and I thought we’d discuss the event each week, roundtable style, like we did with Future State earlier this year.
So grab your copy of the first issue and let’s get to it …
New comics arrive this week from Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Zander Cannon, Ed Piskor, Charles Soule, Steve McNiven, Stephanie Hans, Kieron Gillen, Richard Sala, Garth Ennis 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. This week brings new comics and graphic novels by Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Zander Cannon, Ed Piskor, Charles Soule, Steve McNiven, Stephanie Hans, Kieron Gillen, Richard Sala and more.
Check out a few highlights below, or visit ComicList for this week’s full list of new comics arriving in stores, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.
Check out recent news and announcements from DC, Marvel, IDW, Dark Horse and more.
Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.
DC will celebrate milestone years for two characters in 2021, just like they’ve done for Batman, Superman and others over the last few years.
The anthology will feature stories by Mike Grell, Jeff Lemire, Phil Hester, Otto Schmidt, Ben Percy, Tom Taylor, Devin Grayson, Stephanie Phillips, Mariko Tamaki, Ram V, Vita Ayala, Nicola Scott, Chris Mitten, Laura Braga, Max Fiumara and Brandon Thomas, among others. Expect appearances not only by Green Arrow, but also by Black Canary, Speedy, Red Arrow, Connor Hawke, Arsenal and more.
Then in October, Wonder Woman will take the spotlight on, naturally, Wonder Woman Day. DC has announced their plans for Wonder Woman’s 80th anniversary, which will include a 100-Page Super Spectacular of her own. They have not yet revealed details on the contents, but they did share the cover (above) by Yanick Paquette with colors by Nathan Fairbairn. Wonder Woman Day is Oct. 21.
The Avengers reassemble to battle the Squadron Supreme in the finale of the event.
Marvel has announced that their upcoming Heroes Reborn event will come to an end in June with Heroes Return #1, where the reassembled Avengers will battle the Squadron Supreme in “a glorious Super Hero slugfest that will shake the Marvel Universe to its core.”
The name of the one-shot is appropriate, as readers of the 1990s Heroes Reborn event may remember. In 1996, Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee took over four Marvel titles — Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man and Fantastic Four — and moved these characters to an alternate Earth/timeline. Eventually the heroes were “rescued” from this other Earth in a miniseries titled Heroes Reborn: The Return. And when each of the four titles were relaunched as part of the regular Marvel continuity, it was under the banner “Heroes Return.”
Marvel’s event miniseries continues in June with more issues and one-shots about a world where the Avengers never assembled.
Marvel has revealed more details about their Heroes Reborn plans for June, including what to expect in the miniseries as well as from several one-shots.
You might remember that Heroes Reborn is an event miniseries coming from Marvel that spins out of Jason Aaron’s work on Avengers. It’ll run for seven issues, with several tie-in one-shots to support it. Jason Aaron is writing the main series, with different artist doing each issue. The first four issues will be drawn by Ed McGuinness, Dale Keown, Federico Vicentini and James Stokoe.
And the story, essentially, falls into the “continuity has been screwed up and now someone needs to fix it” genre, kind of like House of M and Age of Apocalypse. In this new reality, the Avengers never assembled, and the void they left was filled by the Squadron Supreme. Blade is the only Avenger who seems to remember how things should be.
June will bring issues #5-7 of the miniseries, which, like the first four, will have connecting covers:
Plus more news from Marvel, DC, Image, AfterShock, Dark Horse and more.
Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.
Last summer the “Infinite Destinies” storyline was supposed to run through several Marvel annuals, including Iron Man, Captain America, Black Cat and Thor, among others. The story revolves around the returning “infinity stones,” those pesky don’t-call-them-infinity-gems MacGuffins that regularly take center stage at Marvel.
Anyway, like with many other things, the COVID pandemic and comics industry shutdown threw a wrench in Marvel’s plans, and those annuals were never released. But now it looks like they are back on the schedule for 2021, with an added prelude comic to kick things off — Black Cat #8 by Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa.
“Felicia Hardy- the Black Cat- gets tangled up with the Infinity Stones, some of the most dangerous prizes in the universe. Felicia may be the most accomplished jewel thief on the planet, but when those jewels hold the power of the cosmos, it’s a whole new ball game. Felicia is in a race against the others who would seek to control the stones for their own ends- like Nick Fury (and a secret someone you won’t see coming!),” MacKay said. “Who can cross the world’s most dangerous men, wrangle a pack of villains hopped up on fragments of infinite power, (hopefully) get the job done and look great all the while? The Black Cat, that’s who!”
A round-up of news from DC, Marvel, Oni Press and more.
Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.
DC Comics released their May solicitations on Friday, and with them came several announcements and reveals throughout the week. In addition to the new Wonder Girl, Mister Miracle and Future State: Gotham projects, DC announced they will release two interesting one-shots — the first being Star Girl one-shot, featuring not only the star of the hit CW show, but also the Seven Soldiers of Victory. It’s by the character’s co-creator, Geoff Johns, and artist Todd Nauck.
Peter Parker, Magneto, Baron Zemo, the Imperial Guard and more join in on the alternate reality event.
Marvel has announced that the upcoming Heroes Reborn event miniseries will be accompanied by five one-shots that take place in this new world created by the Phoenix — one where the Avengers never formed.
They’ll feature characters and themes that should be familiar to readers of both Marvel and DC; with the Squadron Supreme being the Marvel universe equivalent of the Justice League, it’s not surprising that some of these one-shots get a little “meta” in their homages.
Dale Keown, Federico Vicentini and James Stokoe join Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness for the event series.
Marvel has revealed more details on their upcoming Heroes Reborn event series, which will spin out of Jason Aaron’s current run on Avengers. The alternate-reality story imagines a world where the Avengers never assembled.
Ironically, the Squadron Supreme — Marvel’s, um, homage to the Justice League — will become Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in this vacuum. They’ll also take center stage on the series’ covers:
