If you're here in the Panel Discussion programming block, you might be a lapsed comics reader, trying to find a way back to the JLA Satellite. Or you might someone killing time until you pick up your weekly Wednesday pull list. Or maybe you've said goodbye to dozens of longboxes to embrace the promise of digital comics. Whichever it is, you're still interested in the good stuff.
Welcome, then, to the Panel Discussion Dozen Quintet, where I pick out just-released or out-soon comics that I think are worth paying attention to. Ready? Then, let's meet the sequential art that'll be draining your wallet this week. Be sure to chime in with the books you'll be picking up or that you think everybody should be ready in the comments.
The Guild: Fawkes
This one-shot brings a team-up of two beloved nerd celebrities as Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day co-author the single-issue tie-in to Felicia Day's popular webseries. Fawkes focuses on the evil rivals of the Guild's merry band of dysfunctional rivals.
Mind MGMT #1
I always love comics where the very concept of what's real and what isn't gets played wih. This new series from Matt Kindt—where a journalist tries to figure out why every passenger on her flight lost their memories—looks like it'll be a twisty, conspiracy head trip.
Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison #1
The guy who wrote The Force Unleashed games returns to the Star Wars universe in this new series. Yes, the second TFU title was terrible, but the story in the first was a great piece of Star Wars fiction in an era where that's not been the norm. Haden Blackman's one-half of the stellar writing team on DC's Batwoman, so I have high hopes for this book.
Batman Inc. #1
The Batman book that trots all over the globe reappears this week with Grant Morrison's trippy brand of Bat-adventures rendered in appealingly detailed fashion by Chris Burnham. A new villain tries to collect on a billion-dollar bounty on the Boy Wonder's head and what happens marks a thrilling return for this great piece of the Dark knight mythos.
Fantastic Four #606
Folks, the Black Panther is my favorite superhero of all time. And, in my opinion, he's been at the mercy of some terrible plotting these last few years. I hope that this issue of the Fantastic Four—written by Jonathan Hickman, one of comics' best talents nowadays—brings a bit of the Panther's past glories back into focus, if only for a little bit.