Ever Wednesday there are new comics in comics shops and available for (legitimate) download. But there aren't new Alan Moore comics, every Wednesday, so this one is special!
Read on for some recommendations:
Comics You Should Consider Buying (from comics shops)
Criminal: Last of the Innocent #2 The second issue of Ed Brubaker's latest crime comic. I don't care much for his super-hero comics. His Captain America leaves me cold. But his crime comics... these are the best books he writes. He runs each as a standalone mini-series. This new one, whose title is a play on a book that helped fuel a national scare about the content of comics in the 1950s, is drawn by his partner in crime comics, Sean Phillips. The artist adds the visual motif of using older comic book art styles to luridly illustrate the past—thepast of a man who has decided he must murder his wife.
Detective Comics #880 Some folks are loving writer Scott Snyder's current run, which is about to wrap up as the writer switches to the first issue of the relaunching Batman comic in September. Snyder's good, sure, but I'm listing this here mainly so I can show you the amazing cover by artist Jock.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 3: Century: 1969 Uh, yes, buy this! It's Alan Moore. It's just about the only comic he's writing these days. And it's the 1969 version of his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Official summary, as if you needed it: "The long-awaited second chapter of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen III: Century takes place almost sixty years later in the psychedelic daze of Swinging London during 1969, a place where Tadukic Acid Diethylamide 26 is the drug of choice, and where different underworlds are starting to overlap dangerously to an accompaniment of sit-ins and sitars. Alerted to a threat concerning the same magic order that she and her colleagues were investigating during 1910, a thoroughly modern Mina Murray and her dwindling league of comrades attempt to navigate the perilous rapids of London's hippie and criminal subculture, as well as the twilight world of its occultists. Mina and her companions must prevent the making of a Moonchild that might well turn out to be the Anti-Christ."
Secret Avengers #15 I'm very high on the writing of Nick Spencer. If you haven't read him yet, his short run on Secret Avengers is a good place to start. Each issue has been self-contained including the new one. I don't even know what it's about! But Spencer has earned that kind of confidence in me. His Iron Man 2.0 has been shaky, but everything else, from Jimmy Olsen to T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents to his one issue of Supergirl has been smart, imaginative and just generally terrific.
X-Men Schism #2 Jason Aaron is another writer who seldom disappoints. The first issue of this mini-series began sowing the seeds for the rupture between Cyclops and Wolverine that will split the X-Men into two teams. It began, last issue, with a mutant intrusion into the U.N., while Cyclops was requesting a worldwide ban on Sentinels. Aaron's working with stock X-Men conventions but, with sharp dialogue and strong character moments, he's managing to tell a story that feels fresh.
Comics With Video Game Connections (new this week in comics shops)
DuckTales #3 Official summary: "The hit Disney Afternoon TV show continues to make a splash as an all-new, original ongoing comic book series! Written by the creator of the Epic Mickey video game, Warren Spector! Scrooge McDuck, Launchpad, and the gang continue their search for the McDuck Museum artifacts that have been mysteriously deported to their original locations! Who is behind the dastardly deportation? Does Donald Duck have the answer?"
Gears of War #18 Official summary: "Best-selling author Karen Traviss continues to explore the years prior to 'Emergence Day.' As Marcus Fenix fights what turns out to be the last battle of the Pendulum Wars, his father, Adam, perfects the devastating weapon known as The Hammer of Dawn. Peace is coming to Sera, but neither father nor son is optimistic about its longterm prospects."
Halo: Fall of Reach: Covenant #2 Official summary: "After being nearly destroyed in an attack by a Covenant craft, the UNSC frigate Commonwealth is in bad shape. Before the Covenant ship can return for a second attack, the Spartans set out to overtake it. And, with the new Mjolnir armor-the single most cutting-edge piece of technology developed since the Spartans themselves-they're a force to be reckoned with. But the Covenant is still an unknown quantity, and it may take more than the Spartans' new armor to stop them."
And Over On The iPad/iPhone/Droid/WebBrowser…
The ComiXology Comics app and website offer a fresh batch of new and old digital comics this week (though beware that Marvel doesn't offer comics on all of the services' platforms). Highlights this week include digital versions of several issues of a bunch of old and older Marvel and DC series that I never read. So you tell me if Bill Mantlo's Cloak & Dagger, Kevin Smith's Daredevil, and Daniel Way's Ghost Rider were any good. Any cheers for Mark Waid's Impulse? There are six issues of that as well as a few issues of mid-70's-era Batman, Green Lantern, Justice League of America and Wonder Woman. (One of the old Flash comics apparently involves seeing if the Flash is fast enough to save Abraham Lincoln from assassination!)
Best Comics I Read Last Week
Moon Knight #3 I never expected to like a Moon Knight comic or even care about one, but I've been enjoying Brian Michael Bendis' new series about the super-hero so far. The gist is that a man named Marc Spector is both the super-hero Moon Knight and crazy. He hallucinates that's he's hanging out with the Avengers. He dresses up as a super-villain in order to threaten his friends and thereby test their loyalty. He's a lunatic, which I guess is the play on the "moon" part of the name. The series is set in Los Angeles, with Spector as a producer responsible for a TV show being made about his adventures and with a west coast Kingpin on the rise. Or is that just another hallucination?
Tell me what you're reading this week and which great comics I'm missing.
You can contact Stephen Totilo, the author of this post, at stephentotilo@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.