Annihilator #1
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Frazer Irving
Letters by Jared K. Fletcher
Legendary Comics
Release Date: September 10, 2014
Cover Price: $3.99

Annihilator #1 from Legendary Comics is one of those rare books in the last few years written by Grant Morrison that is not set in the DC Universe. There have been a few series from him, but by and large, if you’ve wanted to read something by Morrison, it has involved DC characters.

Annihilator gives Morrison a chance to step out and work on something of his own. It also gives Morrison the chance to work with a frequent collaborator, Frazer Irving, which has led to some great comic books in the past.

Southern Bastards #2
Written by Jason Aaron
Art and Colors by Jason Latour
Letters by Jared K. Fletcher
Cover by Jason Latour
Image Comics
Release Date: May 28, 2014
Cover Price: $3.50

If you’ve ever lived in the Deep South, you know it’s like a world unto itself. Normal rules don’t seem to apply and after a while, even the most absurd conditions can become just a regular part of everyday existence. Hardly ever has it been captured authentically. Well, Southern Bastards #2 does just that…and it does it in spades. Small town America is displayed on paper for the whole world to see. If you haven’t lived in the South then you may be in for quite a shock.

Attendees at this year’s New York Comic-Con have already gotten a chance to obtain a special 12-page print preview for Legendary Comics’ new graphic novel Shadow Walk, but you don’t have to miss out if you’re not able to hit the Big Apple this weekend. We’ve got the same 12-pages for you to check out right now!

Shadow Walk is written by Mark Waid (Daredevil), Max Brooks (World War Z), and Thomas Tull (Haphaestus) with art by Shane Davis (Superman: Earth One), and explores the possibility that the Valley of the Shadow of Death is a real place. The United States sends a group of special forces soldiers into Iraq to investigate a series of paranormal events. From there, well, you’ll see in the pages below.

Shadow Walk is out in late November 2013, so make sure you keep a look out for it and take a look at the pages here below.

The Massive #2
Written by Brian Wood
Art by Kristian Donaldson
Colors by Dave Stewart
Letters by Jared K. Fletcher
Covers by J. P. Leon, Rafael Grampa
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 11, 2012
Cover Price: $3.50

I’m a total sucker for post-apocalypse stories. I can’t get enough bleak survival tales about zombies, ebola, comets, asteroids, super volcanoes, global warming, or any other feasible catastrophe. So, I was immediately drawn to The Massive when I learned about its premise. The story takes place in the near future. All those nasty things that climate scientists have been warning us about hit the world with one giant haymaker: insane weather patterns, floods, droughts, off the scale earthquakes, tsunamis, ocean stagnation, geomagnetic storms — the works. Just based on my expertise acquired from a fervent Science Channel addiction, such a disaster super-combo could conceivably surpass the largest extinction event of all time, The Great Dying of 250 million years ago, which wiped 90% of all life from the face of the planet. Or not.

Animal Man Vol. 1: The Hunt
Paperback
Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Travel Foreman, John Paul Leon, Jeff Huet
Color Art by Lovern Kindzierski
Letters by Jared K. Fletcher
DC Comics
Release Date: May 2, 2012
Cover Price: $14.99

Animal Man by Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman is easily one of the best titles of the DC Relaunch. The comic does everything it should. What Lemire does in The Hunt is craft a perfect, classic, horror story. The comic starts normally enough in the vein of the radical Animal Man who fights on behalf of animal rights, but it quickly takes a dark and twisted turn that takes Buddy Baker’s life and places it on its head by involving his family closely with his power set. We are also introduced to a group of hunters that are looking for Buddy Baker, but more importantly, they’re looking for his family members.

Dark Horse Presents #8
Stories by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, Evan Dorkin, Tony Puryear, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Alan Gordon, Brian Wood, Martin Conaghan, Rich Johnston, M. J. Butler

Back Cover and Spot Illustrations by Geof Darrow
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: February 1, 2012
Cover Price: $7.99

Dark Horse brings out their best and brightest talent for the 8th installment of their legendary anthology Dark Horse Presents. For anyone new to Dark Horse’s line of titles this anthology is a perfect jumping-on point. Dark Horse Presents #8 collects both new and old titles that accurately showcase the publisher’s diverse line of comics. Not every comic featured in the anthology is a hit, though. However, with stories from Mike Mignola and Brain Wood, Dark Horse Presents #8 is a collection worth picking up.

Detective Comics #875
Written by Scott Snyder
Art and Colors by Francesco Francavilla
Lettering by Jared K. Fletcher
DC Comics
Release Date: March 30, 2011

Scott Snyder has been teamed up with two of the most consistently amazing artists on his recent run on Detective Comics. Initially, before DC drew the line at $2.99, the outline for Detective Comics was set for Jock to do the art for the main, featured story, and for Francesco Francavilla to have backup feature duties while Snyder wrote both. The main story was to focus on Gotham City’s new Batman, Dick Grayson, while the backup was to focus on Gotham’s favorite Police Commissioner, James Gordon. The stories were set to intertwine and change places in positioning ever once in a while, but it was always going to try to keep them together.

Since January, however, the limited page count has forced the stories apart, and I, for one, could not be happier. In the instance of Detective Comics, it has given us the ability to see a completely focused story from Snyder and, in the case of Detective Comics #875, Francesco Francavilla, and oh what magic they work.

Demo #5 (of 6)
Written by: Brian Wood
Art & Cover by: Becky Cloonan
Letters by: Jared K. Fletcher
Vertigo
Price: $2.99
Release Date: June 3, 2010

Brian Wood is a master at characterization. I don’t know what it is about him, but he seems to be able to capture the essence of a character in one issue where it takes many others entire trades to accomplish the same. This is best seen in his series Demo and is definitely captured in the latest issue titled “Stranded.” Not only is the characterization spot-on in this issue, but it also gives the main character a power that I love: time travel.

The story covers Elisabeth, who is very different and alone for more than one reason. As I mentioned before, she has the power to time travel, but the other reason is a little more real to life. Elisabeth’s problem caused her to have problems with her father and leads her to make decisions she regrets later in life, but that’s okay because she has decided to change all of that using her power.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciler: Chris Sprouse
Inker: Karl Story
Colorist: Guy Major
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Price: $3.99
DC Comics
Release date: May 12, 2010

I suppose I should talk about this issue, since it is about to show how Bruce Wayne returns to our time following the events at the end of Final Crisis, but honestly, it’s hard for me to get that excited about it. This is a fine issue, but I think I was expecting the story to get off to a stronger start, and this wasn’t what I was expecting.

As the cover shows, most of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1 is Batman as a caveman fighting other cavemen at the dawn of man. Bruce Wayne joins up with a bunch of cavemen and then fights a bunch of evil cavemen lead by the immortal caveman himself, Vandal Savage, gaining a caveman Robin (who somehow finds a domino mask in the bush apparently) before getting sent further into the future.