You know how the best part of Little Lulu collections are the stories that prominently feature Tubby Thompkins? (Do you all know that, or is it merely a matter of opinion?) Well, if you feel as strongly about Tubby as I do, then you’re probably just as excited about Dark Horse’s latest Little Lulu digest, which should be all killer and no filler.

Little Lulu’s Pal Tubby Vol. 1: The Castaway and Other Stories will feature the first six issues of 1952 Little Lulu spin-off Tubby in a $16, 225-page trade.

It looks like a smaller week all around, but any week with over 200 pages of John Stanley Tubby comics seems like a good one to me. Anyway, what else has Comics got for us this week? Let’s take a look.

1 for $1: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction: More ridiculously cheap reprints from Dark Horse! This week you can get the very first twenty-some pages Mike Mignola’s massive Hellboy epic, with this reprint of the first chapter of the first miniseries, covered, drawn and co-written by Mignola, with John Byrne helping out on words and Mark Chiarello on colors. Also available this week is 1 For $1: Usagi Yojimbo, featuring the dawn of Stan Sakai’s modern, ongoing comics classic feudal-animal story.

Avengers & The Infinity Gauntlet #1: The unlikely creative team of Brian Dean Clevinger (Atomic Robo) and Brian Churilla (The Anchor) unite to tell a new version of a Marvel classic in this four-part miniseries.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Riley: BTVS TV and comic writer Jane Espenson scripts this ove-rsized one-shot featuring the title character’s one-time boyfriend and offering more details of his role in the three-and-a-half-years-long (so far!) “Season Eight.” Espenson’s working with the Willow and Fray art team of Karl Moline and Andy Owens, and you can see a brief preview of their work on the book here.

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Is the Twilight franchise about to lose some of its sparkle? Well, this week’s Archie & Friends #146 launches the two-part “Twilite” saga, in which two cute boys transfer to Archie and the gangs school. There’s Ivan, who looks a bit like the Edwin the Vampire character that all the gals are swooning over, and someone with pretty thick eyebrow named Jared.

In the past Archie comics developed a reputation for seeking to capitalize on a trend just after it’s started to lose its popularity, so this could be a bad sign for Twilight‘s staying power. Or not.

1 For $1: Aliens Vs. Predator: Dark Horse has a new round of bargain-priced reprints introduced to entice new readers to their line. This time the idea is classic #1 issues from throughout Dark Horse history. This week sees two such books—the first issue of the very first AVP series, and Sin City: The Hard Goodbye. The former is by Randy Stradley, Phil Norwood and Karl Story and the latter is, of course, by Frank Miller.

Bone: Tall Tales: This is probably the biggest release of the week. It’s a kinda-sorta continuation of Jeff Smith’s Bone saga, or at least some new stories set in his Bone-iverse. The work of Smith and Tom Sniegoski, this 130-page collection features new and previously-published material, including the story of Boneville’s founder, Big Johnson Bone. It’s available in both a $23 hardcover and an $11 trade paperback.

Dungeons & Dragons #0: Here’s another too-good-a-price-not-to-buy book, a special $1 issue featuring two stories by John Rogers, Alex Irvine, Adrea DiVito and Peter Bergting that will lead into publisher IDW’s November-launching D&D series.

Felix the Cat’s Greatest Comic Book Tails: Here’s a welcome bit of comics history, and a good example of why we’re living in the Golden Age of Reprints. This $35, 225-page hardcover collects a heaping helping of Otto Messmer’s Felix stories for Dell and Harvey, along with introductions from Don Oriolo (son of Joe) and Craig Yoe.
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As Albert Ching noted the other day, the Elseworlds logo is returning to the cover of a DC comic in the first time in a long time tomorrow, after being put in retirement over the couese of the last few years. What’s the big occasion marking it’s return? Longtime Super-scribe Cary Bates has a new miniseries, a three-parter entitled Superman: The Last Family of Krypton.

In this version of the Superman story, baby Kal-El isn’t the only member of the -El family who rides that rocketship to earth. Renato Arlem provides the interior art, Felipe Massafera provides the exterior art, and the 55-page book will run you $5. They’ve got a preview of the first issue on the main site, which you can see by clicking here.

Amazing Spider-Man #639: I’m not really interested in Joe Quesada and Paolo Rivera’s “One Moment in Time”  arc, explaining what happened in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 after the “One More Day” retcon instead of what happened in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 the first time you might have read it, but I just wanted to take a moment to point out this cool cover by Rivera. I just love little plastic cake-topping Spidey’s formal wear.

Animal Academy: Hkobune Hakusho Vol. 5: This is a pretty charming all-ages manga series about a teenager who accidentally enrolls at a private school for magical transforming animals who are trying to learn to be human in order to pass in the real world. (I just read the first four volumes the other day, and wrote about them at some length on my home blog, if anyone’s interested). The fifth volume is $11 and about 190 pages long.

Avengers/Invaders: This is a big, fat, $35, 350-page trade paperback collecting the 2008 12-part limited series in which the WW II-era Invaders get tossed through time to appear in the modern Marvel Universe, and some of the modern Marvels go back in time to World War II. It’s by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, Steve Sadowski and Patrick Bekenkotter, and I thought it was a hell of a superhero book, providing a refreshing contrast to the talkier Brian Michael Bendis Avengers and their more paranoid plots about superhero politics. Also, this series features a panel or two of Baby Namor.

Baltimore: The Plague Ships #1: This is the first issue of a miniseries based on the Lord Henry Baltimore character from Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden’s prose novels, featuring a story by Golden and Mignola (who provides the cover) and artwork by Ben Steinbeck. More Mignola can be found in Hellboy: The Storm #2, by Mignola and Duncan Fegredo.

Brain Camp: I wasn’t very enamored with Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan’s script for this young adult ogn about two misfits who are surprised to find themselves enrolled in a prestigious summer camp for gifted student, only to find sinister forces at work there, as the there are too many too-familiar plot points borrowed from too many too-familiar movies, but a younger reader likely hasn’t seen as many movies and might not find as much cliché about it. The book does boast beautiful Faith Erin Hicks art, and First Second’s typically top-notch book design, making for a gorgeous graphic novel. It’s $17, 160-page trade paperback.

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Oh no! A terrible but tiny gremlin is in my laptop! Or in the Internet! Or in the massive crays of Newsarama.Com HQ’s central computer banks! Or somewhere! And this terrible gremlin won’t allow me to upload imagery, thus denying/sparing you a colored pencil-on-index card “gag” cartoon at the top of this column this week.

Well, the gremlin may be able to stop my pictures, but he can’t stop my words! So join me for a brief discussion of some of the books that look good, bad or somehow notable that will be in your local comic shop this week.

And then I have to go get the blender…if I remember anything from 1984′s Gremlins, it’s that the best way to kill a gremlin is with a blender. And that Phoebe Cates is pretty.

Android Karenina: Okay, I can see Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen books in general being popular enough to support weird genre mash-up parodies, but Tolstoy? Are there really enough Anna Karenina fans out there who snicker at that title (and, okay, I admit that I did) to make writing and publishing a steam-punk version of it worthwhile?  I guess so. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters author Ben H. Winters penned this $13 prose book, which will be showing up in comics shops this week.

Archie: Pureheart the Powerful Vol. 1: This $20, 145-page trade from IDW collects the initial Archie superhero parodies from the 1960s, featuring work from Frank Doyle and Bill Vigoda.

Artifacts #1: This is a big-deal, game-changing crossover/event type of story set in the Top Cow Universe, with writer Ron Marz and artist Michael Broussard helming. It’s a thirteen issue miniseries—one for each of the mystical artifacts the title alludes to—and is a $4 book.

Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #4: Cowboy Batman vs. Jonah Hex? By Grant Morrison and Georges Jeanty? Sure, I’ll pay $4 for 30 pages of that. Any time Batman gets on a horse it usually turns out to be a pretty good comic book, right? You can see a preview here.

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I’m sorely tempted to simply remind everyone  that the sixth and final volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s epic arcade logic romantic/action/slice-of-life comedy Scott Pilgrim ships this week and call it a column because, despite all the work from a lot of talented folks that comes out this week, Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour is primed to suck the excitement out of everything else on the shelves this week.

But let’s soldier on anyway. Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour will be a $12, 250-page digest in which Scott faces off against the final end boss of his current romance. Based on the fact that O’Malley’s art work has gotten markedly better with each successive volume, this should be the best-looking one of them all.

So what else is out this week…? Let’s see here…

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This week’s chapter of Marvel’s Daredevil-centric “street-level” crossover event “Shadowland” comes in the form of Daredevil #508,  by Andy Diggle, Antony Johnson, Roberto de la Torre and company. Has Ol’ Horn Head lost his head? Has Marvel’s most famous lawyer become an executioner? I don’t know! But you might! Once you read “Shadowland.”

And if you’re not interested in finding out how diabolical the person who calls himself Daredevil is being these days, well there are plenty of other comics out this week  as well. For example…

Age of Reptiles: Journey #4: Ricardo Delgado wraps up his four-issue series following a pack of herbivores and they migrate through dangerous dinosaur times. Which means we shouldn’t be too far away from a trade collection now. Take a look here.

Astro City: Silver Agent #1: Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson kick off a two-part miniseries starring The Silver Agent and featuring a journey through time. It’s a $4 comic.

Batman #701: Grant Morrison briefly re-takes Batman and re-teams with Tony Daniel for the first half of a two-part story revealing what happened between the moment Batman seemingly died in an exploding helicopter at the end of “Batman: RIP” and the time he “died” in Final Crisis by getting the Omega-eye from DC’s god of evil.

Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps Vol. 1-Vol. 2: You guys, DC is going to make so much money off this thing! Last week they shipped three hardcover collections of various Blackest Night books and now, the very next week, here’s two more! These collect trios of the three-part Blackest Night miniseries focusing on different characters. The $25, 260-page Vol. 1 features Batman, Superman and The Titans while the $25, 240 page Vol. 2 features The Flash, Wonder Woman and the Justice Society of America.

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Yeah Americans, listen to your Uncle Sam. Because the Fourth of July was observed on the fifth of July this year, comics won’t be waiting for you on the shelves of your local comic shop as per usual this Wednesday, but will instead be there on Thursday.

Feel free to visit your shop and buy some graphic novels or back-issues on Wednesday anyway though; your local comic shop owner might be lonely and enjoy the company/patronage. In the mean time, we have a whole extra day to think about the books below!

Avengers: Children’s Crusade #1: Marvel’s ever-swelling Avengers franchise borrows the title of a 1993 Vertigo crossover event series (Which, despite the prominent involvement of Neil “Sells Books Easier Than Any Other Name” Gaiman, isn’t currently available in trade format?!) for Young Avengers creators Allan Heinberg and Jimmy Cheung’s long-awaited return to the characters. The story? Wiccan’s reality-altering powers are getting Scarlet Witch-ish, so he goes in search of the fallen Avenger believed to be his mom. Some of his teammates and the Old Avengers think that might not be such a great idea. The nine-issue series is shipping  bimonthly, and will cost $4 for 22-pages of story.
Preview here.

Batman: Odyssey #1: I may be mistaken, but I’m fairly positive this new limited series is about Batman’s epic sea voyage home to Gotham City after fighting in the Trojan war, while Alfred and Robin must fend off unruly superheroes who want to take the Dark Knight’s place. I am completely positive that it’s both written and drawn by the legendary Neal Adams, one of the most influential artists to ever put pencil to paper in order to produce an image of Batman. It’s a $4, oversized issue.

Blackest Night: Did you decide you would wait until Blackest Night was collected before reading it? Well then, your wait is over. Blackest Night ($30, 300 pages), Blackest Night: Green Lantern ($25, 270 pages) and Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps ($25, 265 pages)  all see release this week. I was honestly a little surprised that Blackest Night and the Green Lantern tie-ins are being collected in two individual collections, as the stories are fairly integrally entwined. You can certainly read Blackest Night straight through without reading any GL—although you’ll certainly feel like you’re missing something—but I don’t think the GL issues will stand up that well on their own. Plus, while the Blackest Night art team did a pretty swell job, the GL art team of Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy and company was by far the artistic highlight of the event for me. Anyway, here’s the three central parts of the sprawling Blackest Night event/story if you were waiting for collections…if you were waiting for trade paperbacks specifically, you’ll have to keep waiting a bit.

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Doesn’t listen to Hal Jordan, Green Hornet. The Green Hornet franchise seem to be doing okay so far with only the one color. This week, for example, sees the launch of another new Green Hornet comic, Green Hornet: Parallel Lives #1. That one is the official prequel to the upcoming film, which is currently scheduled to open in January. Jai Nitz writes, Nigel Raynor draws, and it will cost you $4. Meanwhile, Hal can be seen palling around with otherly colored Lanterns in this week’s Green Lantern #55, in which Lobo fights Red Lantern Atrocitus (and hopefully Lobo’s dog fights Atrocitus’ cat). It’s by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy.

Action Comics #890: Now that the long-running New Krypton vs. Lois Lane’s dad storyline is wrapped up and Superman is no longer exiled from Earth, that means he’ll be returning to star in his own comics after a too-long absence, right? Well, he’ll be in Superman, anyway. With this issue, Lex Luthor becomes the star of Action Comics, and while that might sound a little too much like more of the same for fans weary of the Superman-free Action, it’s worth noting that Action does have a new writer, the newly exclusive Paul Cornell, and with Pete Woods handling the art, at least readers can rest assured that this is going to be a pretty good Action Comics arc, whether Superman is in it or not. This is a $4, oversized issue.

Batman Beyond #1: Batman #700 seems to have made it official…or official-ish, and the future in which an elderly Bruce Wayne guides young Terry McGinnis on his journey to become the Batman of the future is apparently canon…or canon-esque. This six-issue miniseries by writer Adam Beechen and artist Ryan Benjamin will be the first full-length return to the setting and characters from the 1999-2001 animated series since the Batman Beyond ongoing was canceled with its 24th issue in 2001.

Batwoman: Elegy: This 190-page, $25 hardcover collects Detective Comics #854-#860, the Greg Rucka written, J.H. Williams III-illustrated Barwoman arc. Everyone seemed to love this at the time, and while the story never seemed more than so-so to me, the art certainly elevated the entire endeavor—these were some seriously beautiful superhero comics.

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Oh come on now Kato from Kato Origins: Way of the Ninja, I know there are a lot of Green Hornets and Katos running around Dynamite Entertainments’ new Green Hornet line, but it’s not that confusing! Your Green Hornet is the one from Green Hornet: Year One. See you tomorrow in Kato Origins: Way of the Ninja #2, a $4 comic by Jai Nitz and Colton Worley.

Amazing Spider-Man #635: So what were all those “Gauntlet”-branded story arcs revitalizing various classic Spidey foes building towards? This story arc, “Grim Hunt,” in which kicked off in #634 and continues here. This over-sized, $4 issue features work by Joe Kelly, Michael Lark, J.M. DeMatteis, Stan Lee, Max Fiumara and Marcos Martin. You can check out a preview on the main page by clicking here.

Astro City #1: Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, Will Blyberg and Alex Ross’s influential celebration of superhero comic book history began with this issue, and if you missed it the first time around (and/or the other times it came around in trade form), you can sample it here for the low, low price of just $1.

Batman: Arkham Asylum—Madness: That’s at least one punctuation mark too many for the title of a book, but it looks like they at least kept the word “batman” off the cover, so the design isn’t too cluttered. This is another new Batman project written and illustrated by Sam Kieth, who just wrapped up a Batman: Confidential story arc. Curiously, while that story was chopped up and parceled out in monthly doeses, Arkham Asylum: Madness is an original graphic novel. Like almost everything Kieth does, it should at the absolute worst be really interesting, and at its best be pretty great. It’s a $20, 110-page hardcover set over the course of 24 hours within the titular institution.

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Well, Lockjaw and The Pet Avengers may not want to add him to their legion of animal heroes yet, but this week you can spend some time with the porcine parody of Spider-Man, thanks to the release of Peter Porker: The Spectacular Spider-Ham Vol. 1, a $20, 145-page collection of Spider-Ham stories by the likes of Steve Skeates, Tom Defalco, Mike Carlin, Fred Hembeck, Mark Armstrong and others.

What else is on the menu this week?

Artichoke Tales: Megan Kelso (The Squirrel Mother) returns with her most ambitious work to date, a $23, 230-page hardcover about three generations of a family amidst a civil war in a world a lot like our own—save for the fact that the people there seem to have artichoke leaves on their heads instead of hair. You can download a preview here.

Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #1 2nd Printing: So I take it there’s still a market for second-printings of popular comic books? I guess there must be, since I always see second printings on the Diamond shipping lists, but it strikes me as rather odd given how quickly every thing gets collected these days. Return of Bruce Wayne is just a miniseries, after all, and will be one-third of the way over by the time this issue is reprinted (And it will be half over next week, when #3 ships). Are there that many folks who didn’t think they’d want it the first week it was released, and decided they couldn’t want a couple extra months for the trade? Well, I guess there must be. Anyway,  speaking of trade collections and Grant Morrison-written Batman comics, Batman: R.I.P. is availagle as a $15, 225-page trade paper back this week.

Billy Hazelnuts and The Crazy Bird: Prolific Maakies cartoonist and Sock Monkey creator Tony Millionaire’s long-awaited second Billy Hazelnuts graphic novel finally arrives. In this adventure, Billy attempts to reunite a just-hatched owl chick with its mother. It’s a $20, 105-page, digest-sized hardcover. You can download a preview here.

The Book of Mr. Natural: Fantagraphics is having a pretty damn huge week (and there’s a couple more swell-looking books below). This is a $20, 130-page hardcover collection of classic R. Crumb comics. Preview here.

Brightest Day #4: According to co-writer Geoff Johns, the story of the new Aqualad begins with this issue (I’ve got some thoughts on Aqualad II here, if you’re terribly interested).  It’s by Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, Ivan Reis, Pat Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark and Joe Prado, and you can see a preview of it here.

Conan: The Spear and Other Stories: This $15, 130-page trade paperback collects five King Conan-era comics written by Timothy Truman and drawn by Paul Lee. Preview here.

Joker’s Asylum: Harley Quinn #1: It sounded so simple. There are five week’s in June this year, and there are five issues of Joker’s Asylum, a kinda sorta miniseries (although each issue is given its own #1 because DC thinks you’re stupid, apparently) with a different creative team focusing on a different Batman villain each issue. It was going to ship weekly, which would  mean one issue on each Wednesday in June, right? Well, something went wrong somewhere, and no issues of Joker’s Asylum shipped last week, but two issues of it will ship this week. Isn’t it weird DC managed to ship 52, Countdown, Trinity and Wednesday Comics without that ever happening, but it happened with a little five-issue miniseries? The Harley Quinn issue is written by James Patrick and drawn by Joe Quinones, and Joker’s Asylum: The Mad Hatter #1 is by Landry Walker and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Little Adventures in Oz Book 2: This is a new, $10, 136-page collection of Eric Shanower’s Oz stories, including “The Forgotten Forest of Oz” and “The Blue Witch of Oz.”

Meatcake: This $23, 240 softcover collection includes the best of comics creator, character and all-around renaissance woman Dame Darcy’s first decade of Meatcake comics. You can download a 20-page preview here.

New Avengers #1: In the wake of Siege, Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen’s New Avengers ongoing has been canceled to make room for…New Avengers, by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen? Oh comics, how  you confound me! This issue unveils a new line-up, which, judging by one of its many covers, includes a member of the Fantastic Four and, according to the solicitation, a member of the Dark Avengers. It was originally solicited as a $4, 32-page book, but there’s also a back-up so…count the pages before you buy it, I guess?

PunisherMax: Kingpin: I haven’t read a bad Jason Aaron story yet, so I’m assuming the writer’s work on Marvel’s swearing version of The Punisher with Steve Dillon is pretty top-notch. Has anyone read the stories collected herein, the first five issues of PunisherMax introducing Wilson Fisk to the Punisher’s Max-iverse, who can either confirm or deny its quality? This is the premiere hardcover collection of the material, so it’s $25 for 120 pages of  Punishing and, um, Kingpinning.

Temperance: This is the new graphic novel by Cathy Malkasian (Percy Gloom). I read it a few weeks ago, and it’s easily one of the best comics works I’ve experienced so far this year. It’s an extremely ambitious story set in a fantasy world that explores the various ways in which war and fear can tear people apart while knitting communities together. It’s occasionally touching, occasionally scary, always thrilling and remarkably complex. I hope to review it in this space sometime soon, but I’d like to give it another read or two before I attempt doing so. In the mean time, allow me to at least wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s a $23, 240-page hardcover, and you can download a preview here.

After their falling out with DC, Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster tried to create a brand-new superhero of their own in an attempt to rival their own lost creation: Funnyman.

If you’ve never heard of Funnyman, and there’s a pretty good chance that even plenty of you comic book fans reading this website devoted to comic books haven’t, well, that oughta give you some indication of how that worked out for Siegel and Shuster.

Editors Mel Gordon and Thomas Andrae have put together a book about Siegel and Shuster’s ambitious but ultimately failed second go at a superhero (a genre the pair had ironically more or less created) in Siegel and Shuster’s Funnyman, a $25, 240-page tradepaperback published by Feral House.

I have no idea what the book is like, but I hope it sells enough and/or gets enough attention from the media to engender some conversation about Siegel, Shuster and their legacy—if nothing else, Superman and Funnyman provide perhaps the best argument that creators need to be very careful when selling their ideas, as there’s no guarantee that the first one you sell won’t also end up being your best one.

And on that depressing note, let’s take a look at some of the other comics coming out this week, after the jump.

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Did you all catch with badly-drawn Thor said in his badly-lettered balloons? Due to Monday being Memorial Day, comics are going to be a day later than usual, so even though tomorrow is Wednesday, there won’t be new books at your local comic shop. They’ll be there on Thursday. But I’m going to go ahead and write about some of the books on this week’s shipping list tonight anyway, since the feature is called “‘Twas the Night Before Wednesday…” and it would be silly to have a feature entitled that get posted on any night other than Tuesday night, right? So, what are some comics that are coming out this week?

Avengers: Prime #1: Because there just aren’t enough Avengers comics being written by Brian Michael Bendis, the prolific writer’s launching a five-issue Avengers miniseries to be published alongside his Avengers and New Avengers ongoings. This one focuses on the Big Three Avengers of Thor, Iron Man and The Hero Formerly Known As Captain America, who are presumably the “prime” Avengers. Alan Davis and Mark Farmer illustrate, and while it’s a $4 comic, it should also be an over-sized one. Preview here.

Bulletproof Coffin #1: David Hine and Shaky Kane present a six-issue, $4-per-issue series about…um…I don’t know. You know who does know though? Hine and Kane. They spoke with our own Chris Arrant about the project back in April, and you can give the interview and preview art another looksee here if you like.

Dust Wars #1: Zip up your top, lady! You’re going to get dust in your décolletage! We’ve got an extended preview of this sci fi comic at the home page, which you can check out by clicking here.

The Flash: Rebirth #1: Given that the Flash: Rebirth miniseries kicked off just about a year ago, it seems to be of awfully recent vintage for DC’s “What’s Next?” one-dollar reprint program, complete with its “Great Graphic Novels You Should Be Reading” banner across the top, but I’m just a guy who complains about comics online for a “living,” not a comics marketing expert, so what do I know? The price is definitely right. Marvel’s got a recent-ish $1 reprint  available this week as well, Amazing Spider-Man #546, the first issue of the controversial “Brand New Day” new direction. Both were huge comics that most fans probably got the first time around, but if you missed ‘em and are curious, you can’t beat the value.

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In this week’s Thunderbolts #144, artist Kev Walker joins writer Jeff Parker to launch of a another new direction for the title, which has had  a lot of new directions over the years. The premise this time? A  team of super-criminals  have their jail time converted into a particular form of public service—following Luke Cage’s orders as he attempts to turn them into superheroes. In addition to bad guys Juggernaut, Crossbones, Ghost and Moonstone, the new line-up also includes…Man-Thing? All right! He’s my favorite muck-encrusted mockery of a man!

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #37: Writer Kurt Busiek is back with another untold tale of Spider-Man, specifically his first meeting with Captain America (And by “his” I mean Spidey’s, not Busiek’s). Karl Kesel co-writes, while Patrick Olliffe, Paolo Siquera, Sandra Chang and Amilton Santos provide art. If that’s not enough ASM for you this week, Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo have the latest chapter of The Lizard-focused story arc in Amazing Spider-Man #632.

Archie #609: Will Archie and Valerie’s blossoming romance end happily, in this second part of a two-part Archies/Josie and the Pussycats crossover arc?

Well, um, if Val’s crying tears of happiness, and that broken heart on the cover symbolizes a heart bursting because it is so full of love it can’t contain it, then yes, yes I bet they live happily ever after. Otherwise, it’s not looking so good.

Action Comics #858: Here’s the first of this week’s $1 reprints, alphabetically. Geoff Johns, Gary Frank and Jonathan Sibal’s first chapter of a story arc that would eventually be collected as Superman and The Legion of Super-Heroes, and lead in to Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds and all of the various Legion appearances since. Two other reprint books cost but one single dollar this week: Authority #1, the beginning of the astoundingly influential Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary super-team series, and Marvel Zombies #1, the first issue of the first Marvel Zombies miniseries, by Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips.

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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.

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This is a huge Wednesday for the Marvel Universe, as the years-in-the-building-towards Siege storyline concludes, signaling the end of the year-long “Dark Reign” status quo/branding effort and the beginning of the new “Heroic Age” status quo/branding effort. First up is Siege #4, Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Quesada and Mark Morales oversized conclusion to Marvel’s latest big event miniseries…and the end of this one is only one month late! Likewise, Siege: Embedded #4 concludes Brian Reed and Chris Samnee’s street-level look at the war in Asgard.

Also of interest to Siege devotees this week are Christos Gage, Jorge Molina and Mirco Piefederici’s Avengers: The Initiative #35, Bendis and Mike Deodato’s Dark Avengers #16, and Bendis, Bryan Hitch and Jackson Guice’s New Avengers: Finale #1, which brings the current volume of New Avengers to a close…before a new volume launches next month. The books are $4, $4, $3, $4 and $5, respectively.

I think there’s also a book so classified that marvel.com won’t even share it’s title, so I don’t know what to say about that. Maybe keep your eyes peeled for a book you didn’t expect to see on the shelves, and buy it, if you want…?

After the jump, a bunch of comics that don’t tie-in to Siege!

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Let’s see, this week Marvel’s got Iron Man 2: Public Identity #2,  Iron Man Vol. 3: World’s Most Wanted Book 2, Iron Man: Armor Wars II and Iron Man: The Art of Iron Man 2 all scheduled for release, providing a nice last-minute dollop to the pile of Iron Man, Black Widow and even Whiplash product they’ve pumped out over the past year or so to get ready for this weekend’s big movie. I think it’s safe to say any movie fans who come into comic shops asking for Iron Man comics will be pretty well covered.

Alias #1: You know Jessica Jones, the former superhero-turned-swear-word-using private detective turned mom that Brian Michael Bendis simply can not stop writing, even though her solo series ended some four years ago? Well, you can check out her first appearance for just a buck thanks to Marvel’s “Marvel’s Greatest Comics” reprint program. Michael Gaydos draws, and David Mack provides the cover.

The Amazon: Dark Horse re-offers Steven T. Seagle and Tim Sale’s action story about a reporter visiting the Amazon jungle and the adventure he finds there in a 90-page, $15 hardcover. You can check out a preview here.

Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine #1: Jason Aaron teams up with Adam Kubert to create a new team-up ongoing featuring Marvel’s two most bankable stars. It’s a $4 comic.

The Avengers: I Am an Avenger: This 215–page, $24 trade paperback collects a whole mess of classic Avengers comics featuring recruitment drives and new line-up debuts…as well as an all-star list of contributors. Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart, Jim Shooter, Walt Simonson, Larry Hama and, of course, Stan Lee are among the guys behind Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in this collection.

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So I got a new scanner, after having gone a few scanner-less months. Which means the return of poorly-drawn colored pencil-on-index cartoons at the top of this column each week. Hooray…?

This week looks like a big one at the comic shops, with a lot of pretty interesting and widely varied books. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Batman: The Brave and The Bold #16: This is one of those cases where the cover of the comic speaks much more eloquently about its contents than I could hope to. Let’s take a look:

That appears to be Vincent Price playing Egghead, from the live-action Batman TV show, laughing maniacally while holding crystal eggs in which Batman and Wonder Woman are imprisoned. And Wondy is wearing a hella conservative skirt. Writer Landry Walker and Eric Jones are the creative team for this issue, and, as if all of that wasn’t eggs-citing enough, Egghead isn’t the only egg-themed villain in the issue, as the solicitation also promises Egg-Fu. This from all appearances, this is going to be an egg-cellent eggs-ample of an egg-stordinarily egg-cellent comic book.

Civil War #1: Considering how well this sold, and the fact that the trades and Civil War Chronicles collections have been around so long, it’s kind of hard to believe there’s anyone around who’s interested in this comic who hasn’t already had the opportunity to read it yet. But if you are interested and have been holding out, you can’t pass up this $1 reprint of the first one-seventh of Mark Millar, Steve McNiven and Dexter Vines’ game-changing Marvel miniseries. There are some…problems with it, but if I recall correctly, this is the strongest issue, as the series gets more and more nonsensical as it goes on.  Also, Captain America surfs on a jet plane in it.

Detective Comics #864: Batman reclaims his original title from Batwoman, with the first part of a two-issue story arc dealing with Dr. Jeremiah Arkham and Black Mask II , by writer David Hine and artist Jeremy Haun (The Question back-up, by Greg Rucka and Cully Hamner, remains in the back of the $4 book). Just look for the gorgeous Cliff Chiang cover. The home page also has a preview here.

Gigantic Vol. 1: It’s Rick Remender, Eric Nguyen, a giant monster from space and smashing, all in an $18, 145-page trade paperback package. Take a look.

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Absolute Green Lantern: Rebirth:

Clean thoughts, chums!

Archie #608: This is the first part of a two-part Archies/Josie and the Pussycats crossover, in which possible future player Archie Andrews, who has been marrying girls left and right lately, hooks up with Valerie from the Pussycats.

The Art of P. Craig Russell: Not quite comics, but definitely of interest of a lot of comics fans, The Art of P. Craig Russell is a 260-page art book devoted to the comics creator, illustrator and fine artist’s career, including never-before-published material. IDW has it at two price points—$80 for a signed copy, $50 for an unsigned one.

Blackest Night Director’s Cut: I can’t think of anything more annoying than adding the film term “Director’s Cut” to the title of a comic book. Like all of the Marvel “Director’s Cut” books of the past, this isn’t anything like a director’s cut of a movie, and not simply because there are no directors in comics or that comics aren’t cut (edited) the way films are. Additionally, it’s only 80-pages long, so it certainly isn’t a different version of Blackest Night, as the title implies, unless they “cut” the hell out of the hundreds of pages that comprised the actual event.

A more fitting name, given the contents, would be Blackest Night Bonus Features, if they really wanted to go with the film metaphors. Because apparently that’s what this $6 book will include. From the solicitation:

With the creative minds behind BLACKEST NIGHT as your tour guides, you’ll marvel at hidden Easter eggs and meanings throughout the series in our director’s commentary section. Discover shocking scenes that were left on the cutting room floor including actual script pages that were never drawn. Be astonished at incredible never-before-seen designs from the best-selling event!

See? Bonus features.

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Bodyworld: Dash Shaw’s follow-up to The Bottomless Bellybutton, this book is set in a futuristic, dystopian planned community, and follows a high-schooler with some drug issues. It’s $28 for a 385-hardcover, and it was originally serialized online, so you should be able to check it out here, but I think you should buy the paper copy and read that instead. Because I hate trees.

Black Widow #1: Marjorie Liu and Daniel Acuna launch the next Marvel ongoing series to be quickly canceled, a $4 ongoing featuring the always-a-bridesmaid, never-a-star supporting character. Will it outlast Doctor Voodoo or SWORD, maybe living as long as Captain Britain and MI13 or Agents of Atlas? We should know by the time the Iron Man 2 DVD comes out.

Brightest Day #0: The two Green Lantern comics writers, Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi, kick off their bi-weekly series with this 56-page, $4 issue that will pick up on all those back-from-the-dead-for-unrevealed-reasons characters  from the second half of Blackest Night #8. Fernando Pasarin provides the art, while David Finch draws the cover, and boy, it’s not a very good cover, is it?

Cold Space #1: Actor Samuel L. Jackson gets in on the autobio comics craze with this graphic memoir, about the time his space ship crash-landed on a planet experiencing a civil war. No wait, I think it’s actually fiction. Jackson lends his likeness to, and helps co-write, this “hard-boiled sci-fi action-adventure” with his Afro Samurai collaborator Eric Calderon and artist Jeremy Rock. It’s a $4 book.

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Area 10: The latest Vertigo Crime offering comes not from a prose crime writer trying out a new media, but  from a couple of folks long familiar to comics readers—writer Christos N. Gage and artist Chris Samnee. The $20, 185-page hardcover is about a brain-injured NYPD detective on the trail of a serial killer known as “Henry the Eighth” on account of his bearded obesity and love of divorce. No that’s not right—they actually call him Henry the Eighth because he decapitates his victims.

Avengers: The Origin #1: According to Marvel.com, this is “The true story of the Avengers.” That’s right, it’s non-fiction! This is the real story of the real people who exist in the real world! The Hulk! Thor! The Wasp! Ant-Man! And Fat Iron Man! Joe Casey and Phil Noto are doing the creative duties on this five-issue, $4-per-issue series. For a more modern (But still $4!) Avengers story, this week also sees the release of New Avengers: Luke Cage #1, the first in a three-issue miniseries by John Arcudi and Eric Canete about Cage visiting Philadelphia…at the same time that Hammerhead is. Hmm, I wonder if they’ll fight…?

Batman and Robin #1 (New Printing): Is Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin the best-written monthly superhero comic currently being produced? You know, I’m pretty sure it is. If haven’t been reading it but want to give it a try, DC is making it very easy to do so this week, offering the first issue—illustrated by Frank Quitely—in a new, you’d-have-to-be-foolish-not-to-buy-it-at-this-price-price of just one dollar. If you’re pretty confident Morrison writing a new Batman and a new Robin is going to be up your alley, DC’s also offering Batman and Robin Deluxe Edition Vol. 1, a 160-page, $25 hardcover featuring the first two, three-issue story arcs—the initial one drawn by Quitely, and the barely-legible second one drawn by Philip Tan (Maybe “Deluxe” means they made Tan re-draw some of the more unreadable panels for the collection?) If you’ve been on the Batman and Robin Bat-wagon, er bandwagon all along, there’s also a new issue of the series available this week, the second of Andy Clarke and Scott Hanna’s “Batman vs. Robin” arc.

Booth: Historian C.C. Colbert and artist Tantioc offer a John Wilkes Booth in this $20, 175-page paperback from First Second Books. Spoiler alert: He kills President Abraham Lincoln.

Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers #1: Hey, remember when Marvel relaunched Black Panther back in 2005, and Reginald Hudlin and John Romita Jr. had a scene of a Black Panther not getting his ass kicked by Captain America during World War II and some fans cried foul because this was the first they heard of such a meeting, and anyway it’s not like Captain America to not be able to kick someone’s ass, right? Well, this is a miniseries apparently devoted to that meeting between the original Captain America Steve Rogers and a Black Panther (T’Challa’s dad, I think) and their teaming-up to fight Nazis. It’s written by Chris Ungar, drawn by Chris Kipinkia and David Brewer, and it will cost you $4.

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