Good Day and Happy New Comic Book Day readers. December is flying by already, the gift-giving season is almost upon us, and I am still woefully unprepared to give gifts this year. And I still have to do my cover art for the charity art show due this Sunday also! And read new comics!? Whew, it’s a tough life working at the comic shop managing all this goodness 😊. Let’s check out what’s new this week.

Marvel Comics

Would you believe me if I told you this was the first series dedicated to teaming up the original Avengers, Captain America and Iron Man? Well, believe it. In this new five-issue miniseries Steve and Tony are both after a Hydra double agent that they both have connections to, but all is not as it seems (why would it ever be with Hydra?) as there is somebody, or something else pulling the strings. My two favorite Avengers get their own co-starring book this week, right on.

John S. has been raving about Daredevil and the rest of us at the shop are sadly far behind right now, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t excited for the newest event; Devil’s Reign. Wilson Fisk has been the mayor of New York, Matt Murdock has been in prison, and Elektra has been the new Woman Without Fear terrorizing Hell’s Kitchen’s seedy underground. But now Fisk is coming for all the vigilantes in New York, and he’s got his own version of the Thunderbolts to bring everyone down including the likes of Taskmaster, Crossbones, Kraven, and others. Written by the team behind the awesome main DD series, Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto, this is the Marvel event for this winter.

Daniel Warren Johnson is a shop favorite, crafting some awesome stories with ridiculously big and beautiful art, and his latest brings the Beta Ray Bill miniseries from earlier this year together in one trade paperback collection finally. Following their confrontation in the pages of Donny Cates’s Thor, Bill is without Stormbreaker and feeling lost in the universe, but he’ll team up with some galactic friends on a quest for immortality and meaning in the universe. The cosmic stuff has been great from Marvel recently, and this is right up there with the phenomenal Silver Surfer Black. A can’t-miss read for fans of Thor or the Korbinite himself, Beta Ray Bill.

DC Comics

Fear State is over, but Gotham and its Dark Knight will never be the same again. New writer Joshua Williamson takes Batman on a new adventure outside of city limits where he’ll cross paths with a mysterious new villain named Abyss. Tynion’s run was a little uneven for me at times, but I’m always excited by the prospect of a new writer taking over my favorite character, and recently there have been some allusions to Batman Incorporated making a return to the scene. Sign me up, especially for this #ToddyMac inspired variant cover that was so awesome we had to order up on. I’m very excited to see where things go from here.

The funniest book this week (just read the first few pages and you’ll know), Mark Russell and Steve Lieber team up for a new miniseries about a different kind of heroes for hire. “Who you gonna call? One-Star Squadron! Meet DC’s superhero team where heroism meets capitalism. This ragtag group of heroes led by Red Tornado is here to provide service with a smile. All you must do is send a request via their on-demand hero app and they’ll answer any call. Whether it’s a children’s birthday party or an alien invasion, no job is too small or too big!” This was a fun first issue with some heart and humor that was a nice change of pace from a lot of other titles out there, especially from the Big Two. Definitely worth a shot this week.

A retelling of the fall of the planet Krypton, but this time with Michael Avon Oeming artwork! Joined by writer Robert Venditti, this six-issue miniseries looks at Krypton’s heroes and their final struggle to save their planet before annihilation. You think you know the story, but not quite like this. You had me at Oeming.

Manga

It’s a little light this week from the small press publishers, but did you know that we’ve been stocking manga now too in the shop? This week sees a few new volumes released.

Akira Toriyama Manga Theater is a celebration of the creator of Dragon Ball himself, featuring short stories from early in his career before the mega-hit franchise debuted, as well as stories about his life. For fans of Dragon Ball, and the history of manga also.

Kaiju No. 8 is collected in English for the first time in volume 1 out this week! “With the highest kaiju-emergence rates in the world, Japan is no stranger to attack by deadly monsters. Enter the Japan Defense Force, a military organization tasked with the neutralization of kaiju. Kafka Hibino, a kaiju corpse cleanup man, has always dreamed of joining the force and wants another shot at achieving his childhood dream of eliminating the kaiju. But how can he expect to fight kaiju when he suddenly becomes one himself?!” It’s a giant monster manga, always cool.

And of course, I can’t highlight the newest manga out this week without mentioning the newest installment in Chainsaw Man. It’s one of my favorite series, period, across manga or comics and each volume is wilder than the last. This volume sees the mysterious Santa Claus unleash hell for the Special Division (a little different than the jolly St. Nick you might be thinking of). It’s hard to track down some of the earlier volumes, but it’s well worth it if you’re looking for something bombastic and insane. It’s also getting an anime adaption next year that I’m excited to check out.

That’s it for this week at Carol and Johns. Don’t forget about our Charity Art Show coming up, and that covers are due this Sunday the 12th as well. I’ll be right there with a lot of you and turning it in on Sunday. Stay safe and warm out there, everybody.