Age of Heroes #1 is the comic book I’m most excited to see in the shops this week, if only because I can’t wait to see if it will have the “Heroic Age” banner across the top, and thus look like it’s actually called The Heroic Age: Age of Heroes #1. It’s the first issue of an anthology miniseries spotlighting various characters and their places in the new, post-”Dark Reign” Marvel Universe. J. Jonah Jameson, Spider-Man, Dr. Voodoo and some agents of MI-13 star, while Kurt Busiek, Paul Cornell, Rick Remender, Dan Slott, Leonard Kirk, Marko Djurjevic, Chris Samnee and others do the creative duties.
But wait, we’re just getting started with Heroic Age offerings!
There’s also Avengers #1, the new Avengers flagship title by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr.; Enter the Heroic Age #1, a one-shot featuring five stories featuring characters who will be starring in five new ongoing series, by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Christos Gage, Jim McCann, Jeff Parker, Mike McKone, Kev Walker and others; Atlas #1, the debut of the latest incarnation of the Agents of Atlas by Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman (now with added 3-D Man!) and, finally, Avengers Assemble #1, an Official Handbook full of Avengers-related updates. All five of those are $4 books.
American Vampire #3: The first issue of this new series sold extraordinarily well, either because people like Stephen King, they like vampires or they like Vertigo comics. I’m not sure which was the deciding factor in its success. Anyway, Scott Snyder writes the main story, King writes the back0up, and Rafael Albuquerque draws everything.
Atomic Knights: John Broome and Murphy Anderson’s minor Strange Adventures classic about a post-apocalyptic future where little knights ride around on big Dalmatians gets a fancy-schmancy $40, 190-page hardcover collection.
Codename Knockout Vol. 1: The Devil You Say: Well this is sort of a surprise. This 160-page, $20 trade paperback collects the first seven issues of Robert Rodi, Amanda Conner, Yanick Paquette and company’s mature readers spy spoof, a short-lived series that ran from 2001 to 2003.
DC Universe Legacies #1: The title’s a little clumsy sounding,but this is definitely an interesting project. Writer Len Wein is tasked with retelling the whole history of the DC Universe, from WWII to the present, over the course of a ten-part series which ought to nail down some of the up-in-the-air, what’s in and what’s out sort of questions from the last three or four cosmic reboots of the universe’s history. I hope the story ends up being a great one, but this oversized, $4 first issue oughta be a winner no matter what, as it features art by Joe Kubert, Andy Kubert and J.G. Jones. Check it out:
Joe Kubert drawing DC superheroes! That’s all you really need from a comic, isn’t it? Preview here.
Galacta: Daughter of Galactus #1: This $4 comic reprints the Adam Warren short story from a previous Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular, along with three Marvel Digital Comic Exclusive stories (Er, if they’re appearing in a comic book later, they’re not really exclusive after all, are they?). Warren’s a creator who is always well worth paying attention to, and this premise—the planet-devouring cosmic god’s daughter struggles with food and daddy issues while trying to protect rather than eat the Earth—sounds right up Warren’s alley. Plus, Galacta sure does work that Galactus hat, doesn’t she?
That is not an easy look to pull off.
The Ghoul: Steve Niles writes this story about police detective Lloyd Klimpt and his new partner, the monstrous titular investigator. Personally I’m a little lukewarm on Niles’ body of work, but this 90-page, $15 collection sees the popular horror comics writer collaborating with legendary artist Bernie Wrightson.
James Patterson’s Witch & Wizard: The Battle For Shadowland #1: Apparently not content with a brand new, insanely popular prose book coming out every other month, James Patterson is getting in on the comic book game too, and IDW’s publishing this spin-off of his Witch & Wizard book about magical teenage siblings. Dara Naraghi writes, Victor Santos draws and it will cost you $4.
The Legion of Super-Heroes #1: I hate to negative, but I can’t imagine the current market, which hasn’t been able to support a Legion title for any great length of time since I’ve been reading comics, can support two ongoing Legion titles, but…well, at least DC’s confident! A new LOSH joins Adventure Comics on the stands, and this bold, new direction will feature scripts by Paul Levitz, a fan-favorite Legion writer who used to write the Legion a long, long time ago, back when it was kinda popular. Yildiray Cinar and Wayne Faucher provide the art, and this oversized first issue will run about 38-pages and cost you $4.
Rescue #1: In a neat bit of stunt-assigning, Kelley Sue DeConnick, the wife of Invincible Iron Man writer Matt Fraction, will be writing this special $4 one-shot featuring Iron Man’s love ineterest, Pepper Potts (Who goes by Rescue when she’s wearing her Iron Woman suit). Andrea Mutti handles the art.
Sarah Palin: Rogue Warrior #1: Huh. I didn’t think people even cared about the real Sarah Palin anymore, let alone comic book’s based on her. Anyway, this is a $4 collection of pin-ups and stories from Antarctic Press, and you can see a preview of some of said pin-ups here.
Tiny Titans #28: This is the cover for this month’s issue of Tiny Titans:
If you need to know anything else about the issue to know if it’s for you or not, then it probably isn’t.
Wally Gropius: Tim Hensley’s sly satire of silly ‘60s kids comics is an amazingly accomplished, spot-on imitation of the look and feel of those books, but with a sharper edged and heavier weight. One-part Archie Andrews, two-parts Richie Rich, Wally Gropius isn’t the German architect (although he’s often confused for him), but is rather a teen rock star bazillionaire. This new collection of the strip, which ran through anthology Mome, is a $19, 62-page, ten-inch-by-twelve-and-a-half-inch hardcover. You can download a six-page preview here.
Zatanna #1: The world’s biggest Zatanna fan, Paul Dini, who generally tries to work the character in to whatever he’s writing, finally gets his chance to do an all Zatanna, all the time comic book. Dini is teaming with former cover artist Stephane Roux for this all-new ongoing.
May 18th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
I would love to get Age of Heroes and DC Legacies, but I’ve since decided that I’m getting really tired of all the $3.99 books so I’m going to be more picky about what I pay $3.99 for. I hate doing it at all, but if I’m going to do it it’ll be for an Avengers book. I’m not doing it anymore for any of Marvel or DC’s mini-series. I’ll take the chance of being able to find them in a discount box at a convention months or years down the line. It’s a shame too because I love the JSA and Kurt Busiek, but not enough for $3.99.
May 18th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
I don’t mean to be snooty, but is 33,762 for American Vampire really selling “extraordinarily well?” I know all things with Stephen King’s name on them are down, but that doesn’t seen all that great.
May 19th, 2010 at 5:35 am
While I’m not really a supporter of Sarah Palin, alot of people (outside of liberal bloggers)still care about her. I think that the people that thumb their nose at her tend to make her supporters more voracious.
May 19th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
“scripts by Paul Levitz, a fan-favorite Legion writer who used to write the Legion a long, long time ago, back when it was kinda popular.”
I think at the time Paul was on LOSH, the only thing outselling that from DC was New Teen Titans by Wolfman/Perez. Unless I totally screwed up my eras. Which is likely.
Zatanna I can’t imagine not being anything shy of excellent. I’ll be placing her trades beside my Madame Xanadu in my Mystic Women of DC Section……that section isn’t very big right now.