There are new comics out today, in stores and online. Some of them are worth getting. Others aren't. Here are my suggestions:
Comics You Should Consider Buying (from comics shops)
Chew #22 Sorry, but I still haven't read past the first issue of Chew, but I know that readers of this column love it. There's a new issue today. Official summary: "Major League Chew, Part Two. Two Two captives. Two kidnappers." Hmm. That wasn't that helpful. (It's also available digitally.)
Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks This collects some old pre-just-about-everything Alan Moore work from the magazine 2000, AD. Official summary: "For the Future Shocks series of short stories with a twist ending, Alan Moore created some of his most exciting, memorable, and explicitly entertaining work. Also featured in this outstanding collection are his short Time Twister tales - including the famous and poignant story 'The Reversible Man' where one man's life is told in reverse - Moore's one-off stories, and his short Abelard Snazz series."
Defenders #1 It's Marvel's newest big series! It's written by Matt Fraction, who is usually good, but he is coming in ice-cold off of his run writing Marvel's miserable summer cross-over Fear Itself. This is a team book starring… I see Namor, the red She-Hulk, Dr. Strange, Iron Fist, he Silver Surfer…. and a tagline: "Protecting humanity from the impossible!" (It's also available digitally.)
Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 1 Jack Kirby is the most celebrated comic book artist of all time thanks to his kinetic drawing style. His pages popped. He was also a hell of a writer and a weird one, too. This collection includes seven issues of his run on Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen and the first few issues of New Gods, Mister Miracle and Forever People. These were the comics Kirby made when he switched from Marvel to DC in the '70s. None of the series lasted with Kirby at the helm, probably because they were so strange. I consider them to be excellent, a batch of idea-packed yarns involving new gods, super-powered hippies and tons of weird aliens. This is Kirby with almost no filter. It's superb.
Watchmen: The Absolute Edition If you somehow don't already own Watchmen, want a bigger version or simply need to study up before these rumored Watchmen 2 sequels start rolling out, then consider this new printing of the over-sized "absolute" version.
Comics With Video Game Connections (new this week in comics shops)
Mega Man #8 Official summary: "Time Keeps Slipping': Part Four-The finale to Mega Man's newest adventure! Dr. Wily has captured Roll and turned the eight Robot Masters against Mega Man! Can the blue bomber and Federal agent Jill Alomar turn the tides, save Roll, and bring down Dr. Wily for good? Don't miss this thrilling conclusion!"
And Over On The iPad/iPhone/Droid/WebBrowser…
Lots of day-and-date comics from Marvel, DC and Image are on the ComiXology app, plus they're always adding interesting back catalogue comics including the full run of the zany and moving Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine team-up mini-series, nine issues of Keith Giffen's under-appreciated, bizarre, dense and amazing Doom Patrol (the closest the misfit team book ever came to reaching the quality it had under Grant Morrison), a bunch of issues of Dragon Age comics, a pile of John Ostrander and Tim Truman's old, beloved Grim Jack comics that I don't know anything about but I sure do love Ostrander's writing, all of Morrison's superb Joe the Barbarian mini-series about a diabetic teenager going into a hallucinogenic shock that drops him into a Tolkien-esque world of living toys… and, trust me, the one-issue 2011 Starman/Congorilla special. I'm serious. Try it.
And the best comic I read in the past week….
Batwoman #3. Here, let me try to explain:
Did that help? No?
Now about this?
Dude can draw. Well.
That's it for this week. Next week, I'll be back with new comics recommendations for all of you.
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.