Cyborg’s name never strikes me as all that boring and prosaic until I hear it next to the name of another cyborg comic character, like Deathlok, who has one of the most metal names in the Marvel character catalog. Deathlok returns this week in Deathlok #1, the first part of a new, seven-issue Max series written by Charlie Huston and penciled by Lan Medina. Cyborg, on the other hand, seems to have the week off, which is probably for the best–he won’t be getting shown up by Marvel’s more bad-ass cyborg.

Who else will be waiting to see you at the comics shop tomorrow? Join me after the jump to find out!

Age of Reptiles: The Journey #1: Ricardo Delgado returns to his Age of Reptiles for another round of dinosaur comics, this one following a seasonal migration of herbivores through the Cretaceous period, and the dangers posed by the carnivores stalking them. If it’s anything like his previous dinosaur comics, it’s going to be great. Preview here. If that doesn’t fulfill your weekly requirement for dinosaurs, publisher Dark Horse also has Turok, Son of Stone Archives Vol. 4 available this week, featuring 215-pages of Native Amercain vs. dinosaur action for $50.

Assault on New Olympus #1: Hercules takes center stage in this Marvel mini-event pitting the Prince of Power vs. a group of evil gods led by his mother Hera, who has Ares, Norman Osborn and the Dark Avengers in her corner. Herc will need allies of his own, and starts recruiting with Spider-Man. This  over-sized $4 issue is written by the Inc Herc writing team of Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente and penciled by Rodney Buchemi, and it will also include an Agents of Atlas back-up.  If that’s not enough Hercules for you, Van Lente and Dalibor Taljic’s Deadpool Team-Up #899 features the Merc with the Mouth and the Demigod with the, um, Deltoids…?

Batman: Battle for the Cowl Companion: I love the cover for this trade collection. What is going on, exactly? Did Batman just finish reading the latest Batman Confidential script, and is deep in thought about whether or not he wants to appear in it? Or is he just holding it while he reads the Internet, his supporting cast looking over his shoulders to peer at his monitors? Are they reading what we’ve written about them on the Internet? Did we hurt their feelings?! Anyway, this 130-page, $15 trade collects the various Battle for the Cowl one-shots. It therefore includes work by Fanbian Niceieza, Chris Yost, David Hine, Tom Mandrake, Jim Calafiore and others.

Beast Master Vol. 1: Not a comic based on the 1982, Marc Singer-starring sword-and-sorcery flick (unfortunately), but a manga series from Viz about a high school boy who looks like “a crazy animal” and who falls into berserker rages at the sight of blood, and the animal-lover who tries to reach out to him. It’s $10 for 190-pages.

Black Widow: Deadly Origin #1: It looks like Marvel’s done enough movies that they’ve finally figured out they should start their prompted-by-the-movies miniseries well in advance of opening day, so they can have a trade paperback ready to sell when people start asking about comics that tie-in to the film. This is the first issue of Paul Cornell and Tom Raney’s four-part origin story of Marvel’s “sexiest and deadliest super-spy,” who will be played by Scarlet Johansson in May’s Iron Man 2.

Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love: The latest Fables spin-off is a six-issue miniseries about Cinderalla venturing beyond the borders of Fabletown to recover supernatural artifacts from the Homelands. It’s being written by Chris Roberson, and drawn by Shawn McManus.

The Great 10 #1: Because you demanded it! Three years ago. And with different creators. But it’s here now! By Tony Bedard, Scott McDaniel and Andy Owen! And you better like it, because there are nine more issues after this one. Preview here.

Like a Dog: This 135-page, $23 hardcover collects short stories from cartoonist Zak Sally’s Recidivist #1, #2 “and assorted garbage,” according to the cover. What’s it look like? You can download a preview here.

Lobo: Highway To Hell #1: Anthrax’s Scott Ian joins artist Sam Kieth for a two-part Lobo series sending DC’s ultra-violent clown to hell to face off against the devil. It’s a $7, 64-page issue, and concludes next issue with #2. Not sure why they didn’t just sell it as a $14 original graphic novel, but then, I’m not in publishing—I’m in complain-about-publishing.

Psylocke #1: Serious question—how is it that Marvel’s never hired Adam Warren to do a Psylocke series before? They still haven’t, despite Warren’s vast experience writing an action heroine whose super-power seems to be the cuteness of her butt in The Dirty Pair. For this new miniseries, they’ve turned to writer Christopher Yost and the art team of Harvey Toibao and Paul Neary. It’s $4, and is about Japan, ninjas, assassins, revenge, carnage and Psylocke’s butt.

Stumptown #1: The first issue of a new crime series by Greg Rucka, with artist Matthew Southworth. If you’re wondering whether or not the protagonist is a tough lady crime-solver, then it sounds like you’ve read some Greg Rucka comics before. You can see some preview pages here at publisher Oni’s website.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 4:08 pm and is filed under 'Twas The Night Before Wednesday, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.