Hi, Carol and John’s Shoppers! It’s Andrea taking over the weekly email from Raf! We’ve got a big DC week this week, some cool new Marvel titles, and a few new small press series, but before we get into it, thanks to everyone who came out last Friday for the Butch Patrick signing. It was a cool little event, and Butch was great. Thanks to the Cleveland Haunt Club, Butch Patrick, and Lenora from The Big Bad B-Movie Show for being here!

Let’s get into these books!

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The end of the Spider-Verse is coming! Edge of Spider-Verse gives us a look into the lives of Spider-Laird, Arana, Spider-Rex, and Spider-Noir as a new threat looms over the Spider-Verse that only a team of Spider-heroes old and new can face. Featuring four short stories written by Dan Slott, Alex Segura, Karla Pacheco, and Dustin Weaver & D.J. Bryant.

From Peach Momoko is Demon Wars: The Iron Samurai #1. Peach takes her version of the Marvel Universe to the next level by transporting us to another dimension, filled with sentient samurai armor, a winged individual in a falcon mask, a mysterious panther person, and a red monster with a deadly appetite. Mariko Yashida finds herself in the middle of a war between these creatures and may be forced to choose a side.

Marvel has another Facsimile edition out, this time featuring the first appearance of Hawkeye in Tales of Suspense #57, re-presented in its original form with ads and all. When Clint Barton takes the blame for a crime he didn’t commit, the mysterious Black Widow takes him under her wing – and unleashes him against the Invincible Iron Man! Plus a powerful tale of Uatu the Watcher! This issue is a John Dudas favorite.

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Chip Zdarsky’s Batman is back this week. Batman #125 was a favorite of everyone in the shop, with a great Catwoman backup story too, and we’ve been looking forward to the next issue. In #126, is Batman prepared for what’s coming with Failsafe, a foe that can outfight and outthink the Dark Knight? Could a dark connection to his past be the answer? And Catwoman is having difficulty tracking down the offspring of one of Gotham’s most notorious criminals.

The Warrior Angel of St. Dumas returns in the first issue of Sword of Azrael, a six-issue limited series from Dan Watters (Arkham City: The Order of the World) and Nikola Cižmešija (Batman: Urban Legends). Jean-Paul Valley has hidden in a monastery in Europe, but when a woman claiming to hear the voice of god arrives, he won’t have a choice but to don the mantle of Azrael again to protect her from assassins.

Also, this week DC has Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #3, Flashpoint Beyond #4, and one of my favorite series right now, Poison Ivy, has another excellent issue with #3. We have issues one and two in the store if you want to jump in.

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Survival Street, a new #1 from Dark Horse by local writer James Asmus (Rick and Morty: Corporate Assets, Transformers/My Little Pony crossover), is a dystopian action satire with an A-Team-like group of ex-public broadcasting puppets and a former children’s show host helping kids after the country is taken over by corporations and billionaires. If you like puppet violence and social commentary, then this one is for you.

“No, I will not have a nice day.” – Dorothy, The Golden Girls.

From Image, Golden Rage is a five-issue miniseries by a trio of women, writer Chrissy Williams, artist Lauren Knight, and colorist Sofie Dodgson. Older women deemed useless to society are abandoned on an island with no escape, where they form bloodthirsty grandma gangs to survive. The story starts with a new arrival’s first encounter and drops readers right into the action. It’s Golden Girls crossed with Terminal Island and my pick for the week.

Another Image number one this week is The Dead Lucky from debut writer Melissa Flores and the art team of Radiant Black, French Carlomagno, and Mattia Iacono. Tech consortium Morrow is building the “city of the future” with “peacekeeper” robots looming on every corner of San Francisco. Bibiana Lopez-Yang returned from Afghanistan with PTSD and the ability to control electrical currents. If she can hold it together, she might be the hero San Francisco needs. But against an enemy this big, it isn’t enough to be good. She’ll have to be lucky.

No big news at the shop this week, but we’re still loaded up on horror books from the event so that you can get a jump on your Halloween reading.

Thanks for reading; see you in the shop, and have a great week!

Andrea