Hello, Comic Shop Friends! It’s the fifth week of August, so that means Annuals and one-shots! Lots of entertaining reads this week, so let’s get into it!

MARVEL HEADER

The comic that brought you Spider-Man hits #1000! Marvel brings together an all-star roster of creators to celebrate the 60th birthday of Peter Parker and Spider-Man, including Mike Pasciullo, Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Hickman, Kurt Busiek, Terry Dodson, Michael Cho, and Jim Cheung. There are nine great stories in this anthology; fun, touching, and something for any Spidey fan.

Jumping forward in time Ant-Man #2 continues the journey through Ant-Man’s history with some Eric O’Grady grave robbing. Hank Pym is a secret Skrull and Scott Lang is dead, and the Irredeemable Ant-Man needs to steal Lang’s helmet. “Cliffhanger sequence initiated.”

From Jim Zub and Sean Izaakse, Thunderbolts #1 follows the aftermath of Devil’s Reign, and now that Luke Cage is mayor, he’s looking to redeem the Thunderbolts name with a new team. Hawkeye, Spectrum, America Chavez, Power Man, Persuasion, and Gutsen Glory team up to turn things around in New York City.

To go along with the new Thunderbolts series, we also have a Marvel Tales anthology collecting Thunderbolts 1997 #1 and #2, Incredible Hulk #449, and Tales of the Marvel Universe #1.

DC HEADER

The epic conclusion of the Superman on Warworld saga, the Superman: Warworld Apocalypse one-shot, gives us the final battle between Superman and Mongul-Who-Is! And a battle between the Authority and Mongul’s Unmade Champions! Raf really liked this gladiator Superman story and said this issue wraps it up very well. And after a year or so, Supes is finally back to full strength! Continuing in Action Comics #1047!

DC’s Saved by the Belle Reve is an 80-page Back to School special with eight tales from around the DC Universe written by Art Baltazar, Franco, Andrew Aydin, Dan Watters, Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher, Tim Seeley, Brandon Thomas, Peter J. Tomasi and Dave Wielgosz and art by Art Baltazar, Nelson Daniel, Juan Ferreyra, Karl Kerschl, Mike Norton, Scott Kolins and Craig Cermak. The Suicide Squad is sent to an international prep school to protect a dignitary’s son! Jean-Paul Valley returns to the school that made him into Azrael! The return of Tiny Titans by Art Baltazar and Franco! A new school year starts at Gotham Academy! Also, stories with the Super Sons, Green Arrow and Speedy, Black Lightning, and Batgirl and Nightwing.

The Harley Quinn 2022 Annual is the final installment of Harley Quinn’s Task Force XX Space Extravaganza, and you can’t argue with an alien that states the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers is better than all the remakes. Written by Stephanie Phillips, art by Simone Buonfantino, Georges Duarte, and David Baldeon. Plus, Harley just wants to shop and eat cheese in Las Vegas! Continuing in Harley Quinn #22!

SMALL PRESS HEADER

Boom! has the Firefly 20th Anniversary Special this week, and how has it been twenty years since Firefly first aired? (Making me feel old.) This issue has a story set during the show, with the crew pre-Serenity film, and one set in the recent comic run, tied together by Shepard Book’s mysterious past. The first story is written by Jorge Corona with art by Jordi Perez, and the second is by the team behind Brand New Verse, Josh Gordon and Fabina Mascolo.

We’re still adding new back issues from some new small collections, and John is working on adding more books from the Celebrezze collection. There are four boxes out now, and lots of awesome books on the wall from his Sunday rerack. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for all his rerack videos and posts.

I went through our Small Press back issue section last week to clean them up, so there are more recent additions in there now, and there will be four long boxes of new small press dollar stock going out for an upcoming Late Nite Comics night!

Stop in and dig through some back issues. You never know what you’ll find since we’re adding new stuff every day.