Can’t Wait for Wednesday | DC plants a ‘Bad Seed’ in this week’s comics – SMASH PAGES
See what’s arriving at your local comic shop this week by G. Willow Wilson, Matt Fraction, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Cliff Rathburn, Leandro Fernandez, Rick Remender, Steve Epting, Ashley Allen, Ram V, Mike Perkins, RL Stine, Bob Burden, Jennifer Dugan, Robin Ha and more.
Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what’s coming to your local comic shop this week.
I’ve pulled out some of the highlights for this week below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:
As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.
Batman: Bad Seeds Sunset #1 (DC, $5.99): The new Batman event kicks off with this one-shot by the powerhouse team of writers Matt Fraction and G. Willow Wilson and artists Giuseppe Camuncoli and Cliff Rathburn. Mayor Pamela Isley — you might know her better as Poison Ivy — is making a last-ditch power play that could turn Gotham into a prehistoric jungle by dawn, and Police Commissioner Vandal Savage sees an opportunity to destroy both Ivy and the Bat-Family in one night.
Poison Ivy #47 (DC, $3.99): But before that big event kicks off, we have this prelude issue by G. Willow Wilson and Leandro Fernandez. Our poisonous mayor has been abandoned by her political and arcane allies, but she’s not done with Gotham City even as it’s done with her. Almost 50 issue ago Poison Ivy kicked off as a miniseries, but Wilson has rocked this title and it’s become a fan favorite.
Hammerfist #1 (Image, $5.99): Rick Remender and Steve Epting reunite for this horror-infused crime story. It’s about a hitman, junkie and absentee father — basically a dude with no redeeming qualities — facing an ancient darkness called Black Noon that threatens his daughter. The only weapon capable of stopping it runs on love, which our antihero has never successfully generated for anyone. Epting’s working with colorist Matt Hollingsworth, which should make this one really pretty.
Tomb of Apocalypse #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Ashley Allen and Domenico Carbone bring Apocalypse back from his exile in space with a new deadly undertaking, and the mutants he needs to pull it off are Jubilee and Wolverine.
Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy #1 (DC, $3.99): The Vertigo revival continues as Ram V and Mike Perkins, who worked together on The Swamp Thing, launch a contemporary spy thriller with a Vertigo-flavored occult twist. A 23-year-old rookie is embedded within Division Nine, Britain’s paranormal intelligence unit that’s also known as Black Tower. He joins just in time, because someone is plotting to steal a giant-king’s head and breaks a centuries-old ward protecting Britain from invasion.
Denver #1 (Mad Cave, $4.99): The veteran writing team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray team with artist Pier Brito on this near-future thriller about a world where rising oceans have left Denver as one of the last controlled safe zones. The story centers on border officer Max Flynn, whose wife has been kidnapped. He’s forced to betray the city from within or lose her.
Stuff of Nightmares: The Cat in the Coffin #1 (BOOM! Studios, $8.99): Horro master R.L. Stine teams with artist Matthew Dunn to deliver another one-and-done horror morality tale. Harvey Goodwin steals his late mother’s prized stuffed black cat from her coffin and dumps her three real cats at the pound, breaking both promises he made her at her deathbed. But you know what crossing a black cat’s path brings …
What If…? X-Men #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Ashley Allen and Sumit Kumar ask what would happen if Cassandra Nova killed Charles Xavier before he was even born in this What If? special. In a world where telepaths are hunted and experimented on, Jean Grey and Emma Frost escape Nova’s clutches and run. Cassandra Nova assembling her own X-Men is exactly the kind of twist the What If? format was made for.
Archie Comics 85th Anniversary Presents: Betty & Veronica Fashion Pages (Archie Comics, $4.99): A collection of fashion pages, one-pagers and style-centric stories celebrating 85 years of Betty and Veronica as Riverdale’s fashion icons, just in time to prep you for next month’s Paris Fashion Week. It features classic Dan DeCarlo art throughout, plus contributions from across the franchise’s history.
Next Level: One Shot #1 (DC, $4.99): Gerry Duggan and Fernando Blanco send Deadshot out on a job that goes sideways, leading to him uncovering a conspiracy that threads through the entire DC Next Level cast and points toward a coming war.
Santos Sisters Fun Special #1 (Floating World, $5.00): Guest writer Bob Burden joins Greg & Fake on this Santos Sisters treasure hunt romp that leads to them meeting Flaming Carrot.
Witchblade/Vampirella #1 (Top Cow + Dynamite, $5.99): Marguerite Bennett, who is currently writing the Witchblade ongoing series, reunites with artist Laura Braga for this oversized one-shot featuring two supernatural women. When a mutated vampire tears through Sara Pezzini’s city, Sara gets infected from its bite, and the only person who might know enough about this particular threat to stop it is Vampirella.
This Land Is Old and Dark #1 (Invader Comics, $5.99): In this historical horror story, Jacques Du Lac, the most beloved man in Fort Courage, is cast beyond the fort’s walls by a corrupt leadership council afraid of his popularity. Outside the walls, monsters wear the faces of the dead and the wilderness itself has a memory in this story by Ryan Crowe and Abel Garcia.
Walk: Total Destruction #1 (Keenspot, $6.99): Stefano Cardoselli and Stephen Nelson team for this dystopian reality television nightmare, where a masked man enters a competitive show called Tower of Justice with revenge on his mind.
Void Rivals #33 (Skybound, $3.99): Robert Kirkman and Conor Hughes continue the Energon Universe’s foundational series with an issue that features a not-so-secret appearance by ROM, Spaceknight. And speaking of ROM …
ROM Special #1 (Skybound, $3.99): ROM’s Skybound debut, which was first shared in the M.A.S.K. #1 blind bag program, gets a wider release this week with new covers. Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici bring the Dire Wraith fighting cyborg into the Energon Universe.
M.A.S.K. Origins #1 (Skybound, $4.99): Another surprise “blind bag” issue gets a wider release as well, with this special collecting early appearances of M.A.S.K. by Joshua Williamson, Robert Kirkman, Andrea Milana, Dan Mora and more from the pages of Transformers, G.I. Joe and the Energon Universe Special 2025.
Raise the Bar (Dial Books, $24.99): Fernanda Frick H. writes and draws this middle-grade graphic novel about Sam Sanchez, a young Chilean girl determined to become her country’s first weightlifting gold medalist.
The Boxcar Children Graphic Novel (Random House Books for Young Readers, $21.99): Meika Hashimoto and Giovanni Abeille adapt Gertrude Chandler Warner’s beloved 1924 classic novel. The story features Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny, orphaned siblings who find an abandoned boxcar in the woods and make it home in order to stay together.
Bite Me (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $24.99): Author Jennifer Dugan teams with artist Kit Seaton, whose Wonder Woman: Warbringer adaptation was widely praised, to deliver this YA supernatural thriller. When Poe gets attacked by vampires and turned, her longtime crush Jolie turns out to be a slayer who drives a stake into her chest, and when Poe inexplicably survives, the question becomes whether rage or passion is stronger.
Conquest of the Cosmos (Pow Pow Press, $26.95): Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau and Francis Desharnais deliver a deadpan comedic history of the Space Race in this irreverent, un-factual and utterly savage graphic novel about the political and ideological absurdities of both superpowers.
Earth to Chris Cleevy (HarperCollins, $15.99): Christof Bogacs and Hannah Krieger team up for this middle-grade graphic novel about Chris, a kid obsessed with science fiction whose elaborate routines keep him grounded … that is, until his mom’s new boyfriend arrives and Chris becomes convinced he’s a mind-controlling alien.
Instant Noodles and Beyond (HarperCollins, $25.00): Almost American Girl creator Robin Ha delivers this cookbook-meets-graphic novel love letter to instant noodles. The book includes comic strip essays, illustrations and recipes that transform a packet of ramen into kimchi jjigae, carbonara, pozole, shrimp alfredo, mapo tofu, Chex Mix and more. I could have used this in college …
Rune: The Tale of the Winged Sorceress (Flying Eye Books, $15.99): In this third Rune graphic novel, Carlos Sánchez continues the adventures of Chiri, who rallies her fellow adventurers to find her missing friend Dai while the darkness builds an army of creatures and a dark herald hunts her down.
Lost Marvels No. 4: Gil Kane Rarities Vol. 1 (Fantagraphics, $39.99): The Lost Marvels series continues with the first volume dedicated to Gil Kane. The collection includes Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book stories inked by P. Craig Russell, the Ka-Zar origin from Astonishing Tales and Gullivar Jones, Warrior of Mars with Roy Thomas. Plus 100 covers from across the 1970s Marvel Universe by the artist.
Doctor Strange by Paul Smith Artist’s Edition (Act IV/Skybound, $150): Scott Dunbier’s latest Artist’s Edition features a cult-classic run on Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme. Pages from Paul Smith’s Doctor Strange issues are presented at their original size with all the ink gradients and blue pencil marks visible. It includes complete stories from issues #65, #69, #71 and #72, plus 40 additional pages from across the Marvel Universe, including Smith’s very first published Marvel story from Marvel Fanfare #1.
Gigantic: The Complete Series (Image, $16.99): Rick Remender and Eric Nguyen’s kaiju-scale superhero epic gets collected in full. When a brainwashed alien superhero drops to Earth as the unwitting star of an intergalactic reality show, the planet witnesses spectacular destruction filtered through a story about spectacle, violence and what it means to entertain the masses.
Battler Britton: Bloody Good Show (Rebellion, $32.99): Garth Ennis and Colin Wilson’s revival of one of British comics’ beloved characters, RAF Wing Commander Robert “Battler” Britton, gets collected by Rebellion afetr being published decades ago by Wildstorm.
Battlepug: Cosmic Doggyssey (Image, $16.99): Mike Norton’s Eisner and Harvey Award-winning fantasy comedy continues, following a successful Kickstarter last year. Picking up directly from War on Christmas, the last Kindmundian and his oversized pug companion find themselves in dreamlike worlds of demented danger across the cosmos.
