Featured New Releases 10.6.21

Happy New Comic Book Day! Raf here checking in, managing to pull myself away from listening to some Pantera and reading Jason Aaron’s Conan the Barbarian (By Crom, it’s awesome!) to talk about this week’s featured new releases. It’s a big week with some cool new titles and plenty of great variants to choose from. Let’s check things out.

Marvel Comics

Swinging in quick after last week’s oversized finale to the Nick Spencer run, this week’s issue #75 of Amazing Spider-Man promises to shake up the Spidey status quo. Ben Reilly’s back in town and Marvel’s been teasing some serious medical bills for Peter Parker, but what does it all mean for the future of Spider-Man? It all starts here as the next era of Spider-Man begins!

Following up after an awesome first issue last month, finally the next installment in Tom Taylor’s Dark Ages comes out this week. “ It has been years since the age of technology ended in a single moment, like a switch had been flicked to off for an entire planet. Now Earth’s heroes attempt to bring humanity together in the darkness. X-Men and Avengers, vigilantes and villains all work together to create something better. But something darker than the night is descending on the world. Our post-apocalyptic world is about to face Apocalypse.” Uhh yes please!!

And keeping with the darkness, after a short delay, Darkhold Alpha is also in stores this week. Told through a series of one-shots, Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom unravel the mysteries behind the Darkhold aka The Book of the Damned and unleash some nightmarish versions of Marvel’s heroes including Wasp, Blade, and Iron Man. This miniseries looks like a lot of fun and should be very exciting for any fans of WandaVision from this past year.

DC Comics

Who doesn’t love a well timed holiday special? Halloween’s my favorite time of year, and DC is getting in on the festivities with a one-shot this week called Are You Afraid of Darkseid. A fun and light-hearted anthology special featuring stories with Batman and Madhatter, Lois and Clark, and even a Harley Quinn and Darkseid team-up.  The cover alone has got me sold with Damian trying to scare the Teen Titans by the campfire. The little s***…

Some of DC’s greatest heroes have turned 80 recently and received big 100 page specials, and now it’s Diana’s turn in the spotlight. Featuring stories celebrating her past, present, and future and the tremendous legacy she carries, and written by some of comics biggest talents (Becky Cloonan, Tom King, G. Willow Wilson, and Mark Waid too!) and with plenty of awesome variants, this oversized special is a must for any fan of Wonder Woman.

Small Press

I’m calling it now, this ought to be Ben’s pick of the week, it’s Rick Remender’s newest crime series A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance. We got to read an early preview a few weeks ago of the first few  issues and we’ve been dying for all of you to get the chance to read it too. This cinematic comic isn’t your big, bombastic action romp, but rather a violent slowburn thriller. Some serious Oldboy vibes from this one that you don’t want to miss out on! Check it out and let us know what you think.

But if you are looking for that big, bombastic action romp too, check out Aftershock’s new series Chicken Devil. If the Punisher also owned and operated his own El Pollo Loco, this Breaking Bad inspired series looks like a lot of crazy fun and features the talent of Hayden Sherman, who I believe to be one of the most underrated artists today. His work on Vault’s Wasted Space has proven he can do some really trippy comic artwork that makes every page a blast to flip through. I’m very excited to read this one.

And a lot of you have responded and checked out one of my other recent recommendations in The Last Book You’ll Ever Read, and this week features issue 3 of the Vault series. Since our initial orders were placed a lot of you have given it a shot, so if you don’t see it on the table this week, ask us at the counter and we’ll work to get you a copy. It makes me happy to see you all try something I like, so thanks again for being awesome people and trying something new.

That’s it for this week! I’ll be on vacation, so Ben and our newest employee Kyle will have the Conn at the shop. Kyle’s been a great addition to our team, so make sure to give him a warm welcome and congratulations on becoming our newest full-time member. Raf here signing off with my writing partner, Lily. I hope you all have a great first full week of October. Stay Spooky.

Peace, Love, and Comics

Rafael Calzada