Andrea’s Ocean of Picks for 07.17.2024
Hey Comic Shop Friends! We’re still working through those new collections and adding new back issue boxes. You may have seen our Facebook post about adding another box of Spawn, and you may have noticed stacks of various books on the table. Every day I come in, there’s something new on the wall! We’re also gearing up for a couple of sale events this month!
This Thursday the 18th is Late Nite Comics! We’ll be open until midnight, and John has said that this is the Late Nite you do not want to miss! There are lots and lots of new Small Press and Independent dollar books coming out, most pre-90s! We’ll also have 50% off back issues! Yes, that includes the wall!
Who needs the crowds at Comic-Con when you can stop in your local comic shop for an awesome sale?!? Starting Thursday, July 25th and running through Sunday the 28th, we’ll have our Not at Comic Con Sale! The foyer will be full of dollar books! 50% off all back issues, including the wall! And 10% off everything else in the shop! Grab that statue you’ve wanted, pick out some great graphic novels from our Rec Wall, and stock up on supplies!
We’re still giving away two free Superman books to celebrate the filming of James Gunn’s new movie here in Cleveland! I’ve been enjoying hearing about what you’ve seen, and I heard one of our regulars was an extra!
MARVEL COMICS
Marvel has four Blood Hunt books this week: Amazing Spider-Man Blood Hunt #3, Blood Hunters #4, Dracula #3, and the last of the three X-Men one-shots:
Laura Kinney heads into a vampire-infested hospital on a rescue mission. Those suckheads will stop at nothing in their quest for supremacy, including capturing mutants and using their blood to boost their own powers. Wolverine is searching for Gabby, but there is someone else the vamps are experimenting on. Will they prove to be an ally to Scout and Wolverine?
Jason Aaron begins an oversized Atlantean event that will reshape the undersea world and reveal the dark history of Atlantis and its most infamous defender! Namor, with the strength of a thousand men! And the rage of many more! He now sits in prison for surface-world crimes, tortured and cut off from water, but he prays that he will never set foot in any of the seas again. His prayers will go unanswered, as former members of the Defenders of the Deep break in, and he learns of the war raging beneath the waves. With Namor no longer on the throne, seven kings have emerged, all intending to replace the King of Atlantis, and those on land want to put a stop to World War Sea before it disrupts their access to the oceans. This is a great start to a series that is described as a redefinition of Namor in the manner of Aaron’s Punisher series. With art by Paul Davidson.
Life. Death. Rebirth. Phoenix returns in the next new X-Men title from Stephanie Phillips and Alessandro Miracolo! Jean Grey returns to the stars, not knowing how long she’ll be there, or what the cosmos holds, but she knows she needs to be there. Saving a world from a dying sun sets off events that may end up destroying that same world. Hundreds of lives hang in the balance at the edge of a black hole, and Jean’s decisions will bring a darkness to the universe that she could not imagine. The Phoenix is not just another thing to be feared…but the living embodiment of fear itself. Will Jean Grey’s humanity be enough to dispel the fear and combat the darkness?
DC COMICS
Dark Knights of Steel returns with Allwinter, written by Jay Kristoff with art by Tirso. Twenty-one years of Allwinter have covered the world with cold and grey. The snow is thick, blood runs black, and color is nothing but a distant memory. The Deathstroke is a killer for coin in a Viking land of warring jarls. Hired to capture a monster from the pits of Hel, who has the means to unmake the kingdom Jarl Vandar has built, Deathstroke finds himself confronted by his past. Will he fight to end the icy curse, or will he destroy the only hope the world may have? Featuring the back up story, Heir to the Sea, by Tom Taylor and Riccardo Federici, following the Kents twenty-five years before the Battle of Three Armies, as they are sent to guard the port city of Leguin from the Tides of Blood.
Joshua Williamson and Jamal Campbell’s Superman #16 is an Absolute Power tie-in this week. Superman may be down, but he’s not out. With Waller continuing to hunt those with powers, the Fortress of Solitude has become the secret home base for survivors. Powerless and still injured, Superman teams up with Zatanna for a dangerous mission into the Magical Realm, while in Metropolis, Jimmy Olson, Lex Luthor, Lena, and Siobhan get some help from someone unexpected.
Wonder Woman! Absolute Power! This tie-in takes place during the events of Absolute Power #1 and before Absolute Power: Task Force VII #1, as Wonder Woman, Justice League Dark, Shazam, and Mary Marvel find their safety disrupted by a Dickens spouting Amazo. With another great Trinity backup story! Trinity is a Black Canary fan, and she and her brothers get front row seats to her concert! Damian hates it. Or does he?
SMALL PRESS COMICS
Kelly Thompson and Paulina Ganucheau bring back the Powerpuff Girls! Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup learn their true destinies from the Highly Intelligent Machine, but something isn’t right in their new lives of detective work, playing with animals, and luchador wrestling. Don’t worry, they’ll figure it out and the day will be saved! An adorable all-ages series that you’ll enjoy if you liked the show!
Loo is a nurse at Paranoid Gardens, a bizarre care center, full of aliens, ghosts, superheroes, and other creatures. The staff is odd, and the building itself may be sentient. Loo cannot remember her past, only the three months she’s been employed, but she’s begun seeing and hearing things, and a new eye-laser blasting patient says he knows her. To figure out who she is, and what is happening to her, she’ll have to deal with corrupt staff members, a theme park cult, and her own trauma. What secrets do the gardens hold? Writers Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, with artist Chris Weston present a surreal experience full of mystery.
Witchblade is back in writer Marguerite Bennett and artist Giuseppe Cafaro’s reimagining of the original Top Cow series. Sara Pezzini’s origin is retold, as the supernatural thriller begins. Pezzini became a New York City Police Detective to solve her father’s murder from the inside. Kenneth Irons has been searching for an ancient artifact for decades. Now that it’s found, he must follow it to its true avatar. Infiltrating a human trafficking ring, Pezzini finds herself in trouble, but the Witchblade finds her and transforms her into something beyond her darkest desires, something that makes “Every idea seem like a good idea. Every action seems within my grasp.” The familiar characters are back and with all-new storylines!
The Nacelleverse expands with the 90s cartoon favorites, the Biker Mice From Mars! Leading into a new animated series, this never-before-told chapter in the history of the Biker Mice, from writer Melissa Flores and artist Francis Portela, starts the Mars War! Throttle, Modo, and Vinnie were just three motorcycle riding mice who called Mars home, but after the Plutarkians crash a family party, the trio do whatever they can to take out the ruthless fish. Their antiauthoritarian vigilante methods can only last so long, as a war rages and the city of Brimstone looks to be the Plutarkians next target. Can they protect their families, their city, and their planet?