Wow, 2024 is off to a hot start with new books. This week might be a slow one…so maybe good for a break before the next Ultimate book or craze hits! Now let’s check out some books releasing in early to mid March!
Judge These Books By Their Cover
Birds of Prey #7 (Women’s History Month Variant)
I like to kick things off with the Dirty D cover of the week. This FOC the honor goes to a nice Sozomaika cover.
Poison Ivy #20 (Womens History Month Variant)
Another sweet Sozomaika cover for Women’s history month!
Batman #145 (Yasmine Putri Variant)
I like a good Yasmine Putri cover. This one just got beat out by Sozomaika this week. I need to have my LcS swap this out for my regular A cover pull.
Star Wars Darth Vader #44 (Rebels 10th Anniversary Variant)
I wasn’t thrilled with this cover at first…but how many covers featuring just Sabine are there? Not too
Many. It’s grown on me and makes a nice compliment to last week’s Star Wars #44.
Ultimate Black Panther #2 (Bosslogic Variant)
I expect UBP to cool down a bit as the other ultimate titles start to flood the market. But if you’re into Boss Logic covers this is pretty sweet.
Amazing Spider-Man #45 (Disney What if Variant)
What a goofy cover, huh? I’m not a fan of this one, but if you’re collecting these they appear to be starting back up again. This is an homage to Avengers 16.
Foil Me Once…
Suicide Squad Dream Team #1 (of 4) (Foil Variant)
New Suicide Squad team #1 issue. I don’t see much spec, but it’s got a foil so I’ll just drop that here.
Detective Comics #411 (Facsimile Edition (Neal Adams Foil Variant))
Facsimile of Talia’s first appearance. Hard to resist a Neal Adams classic in foil.
If At First You Don’t Suceed…Reprint!
Ultimate Black Panther #1 (2nd Print)
For those of you who missed out on the first print this past week, a chance to secure the second print. It was a bit crazy.
Of course TFAW incorrectly had it on FOC last week. 
Avengers Twilight #2 (2nd Print)
Same story with Twilight. Not as hard to get as UBP1, but a second print is coming out. FOC was last week for TFAW, this week for the rest of the world.
The Foil cover for issue #142 is heating up. And the A cover is disappearing from shelves. So if you missed out you can grab the 2nd print of the hot foil cover (not foil-ized). Again…no link to TFAW.
Independent Spotlight
Adapted from Gifford’s acclaimed novel by breakout writer Chris Condon and a rotating cast of stunning artistic talents, follow an uneasy company of wanted criminals, cartel killers, and lost souls through four interlocking tales as they travel a path of intoxication, lust, and spontaneous violence from New Orleans to Egypt City, Florida, and back again.
In our first tale of desperation, fanaticism, and murder: Two ex-convicts-a pair of inseparable lovers named Big Betty Stalcup and Miss Cutie Early-are out on parole using their newfound freedom to purify the world of men’s evil influence . . . and leaving a trail of mutilated bodies in their wake. As the psychotic dimensions of their star-crossed romance-and the twisting paths that first led them to their fateful meeting at the Fort Sumatra Detention Center for Wayward Women-come into full view, their experiment in righteousness culminates in the kidnapping of Rollo Lamar, a kindly attorney whom Betty and Cutie abduct just to see if they can reeducate at least one man on the planet before the demise of civilization.
I hear retailers are getting warnings this book will be extremely graphic. If you can stomach it, sounds like a crazy read.
Series Premiere. A lone mermaid roams an endless wasteland on a quest beyond reason. To press ever onward, she must survive the interminable stretches between tiny pockets of water, the roaming bands of cybernetic cannibals, and the fearsome mutant beasts. What propels her forward to take such a risk?
Sounds wild. Something different. Art looks pretty good. The thing that’s also different is that it is an odd size for a comic. So I can see that alone turning some off. I’m willing to grab issue #1 and check it out…tossing it in for my monthly pull for $3.
After a short hiatus. Voids rivals continues, starting the next story arc.
Venomized Reads
Didn’t realize the What If Venom story was going to be a four issue mini. Looks like they may feature a different character possessed each issue.
Symbiote Spider-Man 2099 #1 (of 5)
2023 we got so much symbiote, it’s hard to get excited over a new one. But Peter David returns to bring us a “new” symbiote in this book. Looks line Spider-man 2099 is the next host!
Dirty D’s Pick-Of-The-Week
Star Wars High Republic Adventures #4
Zeen, Jedi Knight Qort, and droid 5A-G3 have been following every clue to find answers about their friends who are missing-and presumed dead-since the Starlight Beacon disaster. Together with an assemblage of battle-ready Jedi, smugglers, and pirates, they’ve got a new lead to pursue and it is taking them straight to a Nihil prison ship… Dare they hope to discover surviving allies there?
Not much for spec this week, but this cover seems to be announcing a new character, Niv Drendow. Doing some research it seems he’s only “appeared” in the novels. So this likely is his comic first.
A low print run for this title means this book could be scarce in most shops…so pre-order if you’re still collecting High Republic firsts.
Mildly Inappropriate Covers
Yeah…this “head shot” book did not transfer over to a sketch/black and white cover very well.
Will this be the next X-force 48? It is a retailer incentive, so likely not. But it’s hard not to do a double take when you see this.
Parting Thoughts?
Not much left to add here. Running late this week so just going to push this out! Later!