Until Throg can convince Thor to throw his weight behind a Throg and the Frog Warriors Three miniseries, I guess we’ll just have to settle for Avengers Vs. Pet Avengers, a four-part miniseries by Chris Eliopoulos and Ig Guara in which Earth’s Mightiest Heroes must join forces with Earth’s Mightest Heroes Who Are Also Animals to save the world from an invasion of dragons.

Abattoir #1: This six-issue Radical miniseries stars a put-upon real estate agent and a super-creepy, horror host-like old man who is interested in buying up homes where brutal murders have occurred. I read the first issue, and while it’s an interesting enough set-up that could go in a couple of different directions (some of them more interesting than others), I couldn’t get around Bingo Cansino and Andrei Pervukhin’s artwork, which is in the somewhat waxy photo-realistic Radical house style that often sacrifices storytelling, emotion and atmosphere in the name of representation. Rob Levin and Troy Peteri write, while Darren Lynn Bousman gets a “created by” credit and Michael Peterson gets a “concept by” credit. It’s a $4, 32-page, ad-free book.

Action Comics #894: Writer Paul Cornell and artist Pete Woods’ run on a Superman-less, Lex Luthor-starring Action has gotten a lot of attention, and this is the issue that’s bound to be the most talked about. This is the one guest-starring Death of the Endless, from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, after all, one of the Vertigo characters that have been walled-off from interaction with the DCU characters for a few years now. While the $4, 40-page format is on its way out, this issue will still have the Nick Spencer-written, RB Silva and Denis Frietas-drawn Jimmy Olsen back-up. Preview here.

Beasts of Burden/Hellboy: Ever wondered what Hellboy clutching a pug in his big, stone punching fist would look like? Wonder no more!

Hellboy writer Mike Mignola and Beasts writer Evan Dorkin and Beasts artist Jill Thompson collaborate on this special one-shot teaming up two of Dark Horse’s most popular supernatural crime-fighter franchises. You can see a preview here.

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Oracle #1: Coupled with Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Ra’s al Ghul #1, this makes two more appearances of the returned Bruce Wayne, before he actually gets done returning in Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne…and two more installments of the eight-part Bruce Wayne: The Road Home series. Apparently, Bruce Wayne is taking the scenic route home. Marc Andreyko and Agustin Padilla are responsible for the Oracle comic, while Fabian Nicieza and “TBD” handles the Ra’s comic.

DC Comics Presents: Superman #1: This week DC has two more of their big, thick, 96-page, $8 reprints. The Superman volume includes stories by Geoff Johns, Jeph Loeb, Ian Churchill, Ariell Olivetti, Todd Nauck and Brent Eric Anderson. The other one, DC Comics Presents:  Young Justice #1, collects the two-issue prestige miniseries JLA: World Without Grown-Ups by writer Todd Dezago and artists Mike McKone and Humberto Ramos.

Duncan The Wonder Dog: Publisher AdHouse has been extremely confident about this book, and rather vocal in expressing that confidence. You can see if it’s warranted or not tomorrow, when Adam Hines 400-page, $25 hardcover about a world where animals can talk finally hits shelves. You can download a preview here.

Dungeon: Monstres Vol. 3: The latest installment of Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim’s fantastic fantasy series features extremely distinctive art from Carlos Nine and Patrice Killoffer. How distinctive? Check out a preview here.

Image Firsts: Dead@17 #1: Between that and Image Firsts: Hack/Slash #1, it’s Girls in Short Skirts Who Hit Monsters week at Image.  The publisher’s $1 reprint program offers the first issue of Josh Howard’s and Tim Seely’s signature series. You can’t beat that price.

Incognito: Bad Influences #1: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ creator-owned super-crime series returns.

JLA/The 99 #1: DC’s premiere super-team teams up with Teshkeel Comics’ talked about Muslim heroes, The 99. Stuart Moore and Fabian Nicieza will be writing the six-part series, and Tom Derenick and Drew Geraci provide the art. It should prove interesting not only for the obvious reason, but also because it offers a currently rare opportunity to see the “real” Justice League, few of whom have been appearing in the Justice League of America comic, as well as “New Look” Wonder Woman interacting with other superheroes for the first time. This first issue is at the on-the-way-out $4-for-22-pages price point, as are the next two issues. The fourth issue will drop down to $3 though. Weird.

Lone Pine: According to publisher AdHouse, Jed McGowan creates a “page-turning mystery told with exciting formal invention” about a man retreating into the woods to try and figure out why his last relationship ended. He finds a lot of strange stuff waiting for him in those woods. It’s a $15, 170-page graphic novel, and you can download a preview here.

Mome Vol. 20: Your $15 will get you 120 pages of work from Steven Weissman, Sergio Ponchione, Jeremy Teinder, Aidan Koch, Dash Shaw, Sara Edward-Corbett, Josh Simmons, T. Edward Bak, Derek Van Gieson, Ted Stearn and more. But what does it look like? You can download a 15-page excerpt here, and see publisher Fantagraphics’ usual video and photo slideshow preview here.

Superman: Earth One: Regular Superman writer J. Michael Straczynski and artists Shane Davis and Sandra Hope “Ultimize” Superman for what was originally announced as the first of a series of original graphic novels, soon to be followed by a Batman series by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. The announcement seems to have gotten a lot more attention and hype than the imminent release of this particular book has, but perhaps that will change once the books get into the hands of critics and fans. It’s a $20, 135-page hardcover.

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