FOC PICKS FOR 6/1/2026
Hello Friends. Happy June! A bit of a quiet FOC week to start this month. But that just means it’s a little easier on the wallets.
Use code CHU2026 at checkout at Third Eye Comics to save 15% off all your orders!
COVERS
Image seems to have some deal working with Ito lately. Last week he provided a variant cover for Void Rivals. This week it’s Capes. I do enjoy his water color style.
Pretty cool to have Cover A be glow-in-the-Dark.
POTENTIAL FIRST APPEARANCES
“THE LONG BULLET” Starts Here! AN ALL-NEW ENEMY FINDS FRANK CASTLE! Powered by rage and a mechanical prosthesis keeping him alive, who or what is COLLATERAL DAMAGE?! And what do they want from the Punisher…other than HIS LAST BREATH?!
Variant covers features who I believe is Collateral Damage. Can’t recall the last Punisher “villain” that was a key. And this guy looks kinda lame. We’ll see.
FOR THE READ
SUPERBOY-PRIME VERSUS…DC COMICS? Superboy-Prime loves comics. He’s a Wednesday Warrior and has read a lot of continuity. But a classic Superman villain has banished Prime into different issues he hasn’t read! Get ready for a wild ride across the DC Universe as Prime is dragged kicking and screaming across past events, lost reboots, relaunches, and restarts! If he doesn’t find his way back to Metropolis, he will be lost forever!
Always up for something a little different. Seems like this could be a fun read.
NEW ONES
James Crowley met his mortal end in a hail of gunfire. Now, he finds himself in purgatory, serving the White Throne to avoid falling to Hell. Not quite undead, though not alive either, the best he can hope for is to work off his servitude and fade away. His not-so-sacred duty as a Hand of God? Use his new abilities to hunt down demonic beings that have infiltrated the mortal realm. This time, the White Throne has sent him to the middle of nowhere: a western town called Dead Acre. Cullen Bunn and Riley Brown adapt USA Today Bestseller Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle’s smash-hit #1 Audible Bestseller, the first book in the Black Badge series.
Based on a best seller book. Sounds like more are coming. That tells me this could be option material. Vault has had a few winners recently.
The startling first issue of the strangest series on the stands! An ancient being has its curiosity toward Earth reignited when the humans of the Apollo 10 mission make wishes over the Moon. What is this spectral creature, and what does it want with our world? Seeing is believing…
New ongoing series from Image. They’ve had a few hits as well recently. This one sounds weird…
ONE AND DONE…?
The next great comics universe starts here! From the extraordinary creative team of Jonathan Hickman, Mike del Mundo, Mike Huddleston, and Nick Spencer comes an epic sci-fi saga on an intergalactic scale. Across a distant solar system and countless millennia-long cycles, a war has been fought between the forces of magic and science, and order and chaos. When astronaut and explorer Tajo Vallar undertakes a doomed expedition to a dormant moon full of mysteries, the conflict begins anew, and more dangerous than ever before! Don’t miss this perfect starting point for everything to come, as a new universe is born.
Presented in a prestige, magazine-sized format showcasing stunning artwork from some of the leading creators in comics!
One thing this has going for it is that it’s one shot debuting a new concept from some established creators. Being a one shot, it’s also not much of an investment and has no variant covers I’ve seen. What it doesn’t have going for it is a magazine size format and published by Dark Horse, who hasn’t had a great track record as of late.
PICK OF THE WEEK
Johnny Storm has had some incredibly bad ideas in his time, but every once in a while he also has an incredibly good idea too. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell which is which until you’re neck-deep in their consequences, and by then it’s usually too late. We mention this only because in this issue, Johnny convinces his sister Sue to go along with a scheme to use her powers to turn the flesh of his skull invisible, so that when he flames on he can pass himself off as the Ghost Rider and settle some old scores. What could possibly go wrong? It’s a Johnny-and-Sue adventure you won’t soon forget!
More of a “read” pick of the week than a spec pick. But you never know. We’ve got a lot of mash-ups of characters since Weapon H and The Batman Who Laughs came on the scene…the vast majority were lame and went nowhere. But here we get something a little different…Mr. “Flame On” himself posing as Ghost Rider? Sounds like a fun one-and-done read, and you never know where this may go…No one thought much of Hellverine when he first debuted as well. If there’s one book I’m picking up this week, it’s this one.
Parting Thoughts.
Yup, quick on this week. No point in dragging this out any longer. Have a great week CHU!