It’s a 5th Wednesday, which are usually kind of lame for new comic book releases but this one surprisingly looks more exciting than most while also being a little more exciting than the previous weeks in May, particularly for the indies and small publisher books.
Let’s spec and drek!
DC/Vertigo Picks
Batman Last Knight on Earth #1 (of 3) from the DC Black Label is Snyder and Capullo’s last chapter they’re doing for Batman. At least that’s what the solicitations indicate.
But it’s certainly this weeks pick of the week. I expect a big print run. It’s Batman and retailers don’t sleep on these usually.
We can only hope as speculators something big and unsuspecting happens in this issue that creates some demand to make it worth the price tag.
There’s also a Jock Variant available: Batman Last Knight on Earth #1 (Jock Variant).
But if this does heat up, my bet is still on cover A as the overall winner. The Jock is cool but I’d say not his best work.
Marvel Picks
Immortal Hulk #18 is my Marvel pick this week. I think more good things are coming for this series.
Will it heat up like previous issues? Probably not as much as we hope.
The regular cover is a pretty sweet mugshot though. The Immortal Hulk #18 (Jongju Kim Marvel Battle Lines Variant) is a pretty cool Hulkbuster cover as well. That’s a book for the personal collection though as I don’t expect any heat on it.
My other pick goes to War of Realms Spider-Man & League of Realms #2 (of 3).
Issue #1
we saw sell out with a new character introduction and appearance of Fernande. Not a lot of heat yet on the secondary market but it’s definitely a book with characters to keep a watch on.
The regular cover is already selling out online at the time of writing.
Indie Picks
She Said Destroy #1 Cover A from Vault Comics sounds like a silly name for a title but it’s definitely a book I intend on checking out.
Could be a great read, could be a dud. Won’t know until we actually do read it. Vault Comics have been hit or miss as of lately.
They do have a Saga homage variant B cover however that might win over some checking this book out. Could be a book to watch as some die hard Saga fans could seek it out.
Small Publisher Picks
Amber Blake #3 Butch Guice Regular Cover hits stands this week and that means there’s a Nodet variant as well. Someone is already trying to list pre-sales at $125. Sold listings put this one around the $30 range currently.
These have done extremely well on the secondary market, usually you have to list early to maximize profits as these cool off after a bit of time has passed.
With their magazine size, still carrying a $3.99 cover price and quite thin like a normal book, they’re also hard to come by in minty fresh condition.
Most retailers aren’t stocking up heavy on this book either so most miss out on the 10 copy incentive to qualify for the Nodet variants, which are surprisingly quite good.
Other books worth mentioning are Walking Dead #191 (2nd Printing) which is the teaser possible death of Rick Grimes.
Ascender #2 also hits stands and it carries a really sweet cover being a regular cover.
Now on with the dreaded “avoid” pick, every writer and artist worst nightmare when it comes to selling their hard work.
Remember that book Rags that we talked non-stop about for months at the end of last year? Well, with a huge delay, issue #4 finally hits store shelves and instead of one ratio variant, it comes with two ratio variants. There’s a Rags #4 Main Cover, Rags #4 (Cosplay Variant) and the Rags #4 Crossover Virgin Cover.
Probably over ordered as retailers likely bumped up their orders for this one and also with the controversy of what the creators did, they ruined a good thing they had by flooding the market with self published books.
I can’t blame them though since they did ask patreons who got early issues to not sell or leak them until the Antarctic Press books hit stands. Just poorly executed and handled on their part if you ask me.
If you do pick it up to read, pick the cover you like best and stick with that. Avoid the secondary market though. You can save money currently by buying the Crossover Virgin variant at TFAW for $16 while people are listing them for $25 on eBay.
Im really liking the IH18 cover and the Jock Last Knight cover is sweet. Love the reds that Jock used on that. Those glowing red Joker eyes are top shelf.
Yeah, I really like that close up mug shot of Hulk.
I’m not a fan of mug shot covers. But I need to keep my Alex Ross complete set of IH covers going…
Ross art is like pizza. It’s really hard to find a bad one…
Unfortunately I pre-ordered Rags up until issue 5, I still have a #1 1st print that I’ll bundle up with the rest whenever #5 comes out just so I can get rid of it. I will not touch anything thing else from those creators ever again………NEVER!
I was so happy to sell any and all Rags I was able to nab at a decent profit. But I didn’t buy any beyond issue #2.
I think I missed something. What is the controversy with the rags creators?
They didn’t like that people were selling the self published issues before the Antarctic Press issues hit stands so they flooded the market by opening up buy to print of the self published to flood the market.
I’m with you, they screwed the collector market with their shenanigans.
Yeah. I mean, they have every right to release more self published books if people are willing to order them but to release more just to flood the market because a few people were selling their copies is just childish if you ask me.
Ask to not sell but don’t ruin it for all the rest of the people who bought your book thinking it was exclusive.
It really was a dick move on their part.
That is shockingly petty of a creator to do. Should have just ran with it, finished the series and taken the sellout name cred to promote their next title.
They asked those who purchased the self published books to not sell but yeah, it could have been handled better I think. Their actions made them come off as children and all they did was basically punish all those who purchased and kept the self published books with a slap in the face by opening up the self published books for ordering again.
Rags Rawks! Art story character…its all there. To the sellers who leaked and the creators….Ghandi: eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.