Hellboy: Darkness Calls #1 (of 6)
written (and covers) by Mike Mignola, art by Duncan Fegredo

No, I didn’t forget that World War Hulk kicks off this week. The prologue book hitting shelves tomorrow is written by Peter David and will be drawn by John Romita Jr. Those two are always awesome, and just in case you need proof, just check the image on the right. Now, I’m confident the decision of whether or not you’ll be buying this thing has already been made, so let’s get back to Hellboy.
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Catwoman #66
written by Will Pfeifer, drawn by David Lopez

It’s a bit of a slow week, so this time around, instead of whoring this space out for the Next Big Event (it’s Amazons Attack, if you must know), I’m going to push this book because the previous issue, according to the Invincible Super-Blog, contained “killer robots, explosions, time travel, and a heroine who smack-talks the cornerstone of the DC Universe just because she isn’t in any mood to deal with him at the moment.”

The book’s been reviewing extremely well, and what art I’ve seen looks gorgeous (I’m not just talking about Selina Kyle), and a cursory glance at the solicitations tells me that this book should be accessible to a newcomer. So instead of digging deeper into the event-driven mess that the comics landscape has become, live a little, and try out a good book that seems to be accessible to newcomers – something of a rarity in the world of comics.

WORLD WAR III
written and drawn by DC’s army of creators

The long awaited “World War III” event lands this Wednesday at DC, and I’m here to help provide you a roadmap in how to navigate the five books that tell its story this week. After all, there are 5 different books coming out this week which tell the story, and it might be nice for you to know what’s what. Read on, after the jump, IF YOU DARE!
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New Avengers #29
written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by Leinil Yu

New Avengers vs. Mighty Avengers

It’s been a big year for the Avengers, and between Mighty and New Avengers, Bendis has gotten plenty opportunity to write teams named Avengers. This Wednesday, Marvel’s two powerhouse teams come head to head, and lucky us, we get to see Leinil Yu show off his awesome pencils as the two teams duke it out.

Honestly, I don’t know what more to say about this. It’s New Avengers vs. Mighty Avengers. Either you’re excited already, or you’re never going to be. (Also, Leinil Yu is awesome!) Chell the preview below. Alright, I’m out.

Madman Atomic Comics #1
written and drawn by Mike Allred

Mike Allred has an impressive comics resume, ranging from Spider-Man to the recent (and acclaimed) X-Statix, to the Bluntman and Chronic comic pages in Chasing Amy, and even to “The Golden Plates” – an adaptation of the Book of Mormon. Wait, really? Huh, really. Well, anyway, one of his most prominent works remains his creator-owned work on Madman. Having previously been published under smaller publishers, I’ve never gotten my hands on a Madman comic, despite being able to instantly recognize the character on sight. You have to admit – he makes for an intriguing visual.

As for who he is, Madman “was a hitman who was killed in a car accident, then stitched back together and brought to life by a pair of mad scientists.” I don’t know much else about the character, other than the fact that Bruce Timm admittedly used Madman as a direct inspiration for Freakazoid – “with comics open and referred to when developing the show.” And Freakazoid was pretty awesome, right? So, with a movie currently in the works, a hard-earned reputation for excellence, and a new issue #1, what better time to get acquainted with the character? The answer is NONE. So be cool like me – Gamble with a couple bucks and pick up the issue this Wednesday.

Textless preview pages after the jump…
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The Spirit #1 (2nd Printing)
written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke

Darwyn Cooke is most recently known for his brilliant work on DC’s New Frontier book (Vol 1 & Vol 2), a story told around the Golden Age of DC. However, you might recognize his art style as being similar to the awesome Batman and Superman (and Batman Beyond) animated series of the ’90s, which is fitting, since he spent a lot of time doing storyboarding work for them. These days, however, he’s doing some fantastic storytelling every month in Will Eisner’s The Spirit.
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After The Cape #1
written by Howard Wong, art by Marco Rudy

Hero By Night #1
written and drawn by D.J. Coffman

This week, two books caught my eye, and both of them are new. Just looking at the covers, you can already see that there are some stark contrasts between the two in art style, but if you take a look at the concepts, you can see that both use the ever-awesome superhero genre as a springboard. Keep reading after the jump for why you should buy them, and for preview pages of both to back my story up!
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Stormwatch PHD #5
written by Christos Gage, art by Doug Mahnke

About two weeks ago, I was in the shop picking up my books, and one of the guys from the small mob that lives there pointed out that the book I was picking up was by Christos Gage. He and I briefly chatted on Gage’s excellent track record, starting off with his fantastic Deadshot mini, his recent Batman work, and before that, how he was writing episodes for Law & Order: SVU (the best of the Law & Orders, really). We dug issues 1-3 out of the back-issue bins, but I’m still missing 4, which now leaves a gaping hole in my soul.

The premise is that the Stormwatch: Post-Human Division (AKA superhero division) features a team of (mostly) humans tasked with taking down super-powered bad guys. The team does have one guy that’s half evil alien, and there’s also the chick who used to have heat powers, but lost them. The rest of the team is just badass humans, mostly with a law enforcement background. Christos Gage does some of his best work here, bringing out his strength of writing cops from Law & Order and melding those skills into a comic story, creating a fantastic book that reads more like a cop drama than you’d expect.

And Doug Mahnke’s no slouch on the art either. He’s constantly called to go back and forth between scenes of a super-villain mayhem slaughter, training scenes in a gym, and then scenes of a lab where a woman’s body has been splattered everywhere. His art matches his most work on the Frankenstein mini, but if you have a sharp memory, you’ll recognize the name as the original artist of The Mask. All in all, you’ve got a quality creative team putting together a really great book. Get onboard while it’s still on the ground floor.