Every week, Comics! The Blog goes through the list of new releases and we tell you which comics to plug into your mind hole. Your mileage may vary.

ACTION COMICS #17 (DC Comics)

As we move towards Grant Morrison‘s finale on Action Comics, this week we get Issue #17, the penultimate installment of his run on Superman. As the series has progressed, it’s gotten mixed reviews, but it’s also consistently broadened its scope. In its first issues, it was about Superman’s early days in Metropolis as a young Bruce Springsteen, but after that arc, the series has tried on even more hats. There was the Halloween issue with Ghost Krypto (maybe the best in the run). There was the Mr. Mxyzptlk multidimensional fairy tale issue. And now, with the second-last issue of Morrison and Morales‘ run, we’re being promised “a battle that spans not only time and space but imagination itself,” which is both a high promise and one that the team’s track record shows they can probably match.

In its first issues, Morales‘ art sometimes came off a bit rougher than I was used to seeing from him, but as the series has gone on, he’s returned to form and his lines have become as confident and strong as readers are used to seeing from him. As the series has gotten more imaginative, Morales has had more room to show off what he can do, and that’s why his last two issues with Morrison are so interesting. This is them shooting for the moon, and that’s always an exciting thing.

BLACK BEETLE #2 (Dark Horse Comics)

Simply put, there isn’t enough Francesco Francavilla art on the shelves. Sure, there are covers. Sure, there’s the occasional arc or issue on a book, like his upcoming work on Hawkguy. But man, if an entire series by him isn’t just one of the best things in a given release week, and with Black Beetle, that’s exactly what we’re getting.

The Black Beetle isn’t a superhero. Out of anything on the stands today, he’s the most like The Rocketeer or Lobster Johnson, but far more grounded. Where Cliff might fight magic Nazis or dinosaurs and Lobster is pretty firmly rooted in the Mignolaverse’s supernatural genre, the Black Beetle is a non-powered vigilante fighting crime. Without having to indulge the trappings of superheroics, Francavilla is almost indulging in pre-superheroics, the pulps like the Shadow that characters like Batman grew out of. At the same time, it’s something new; not beholden to a publisher’s continuity, not aping the genres of the past. This is an exciting, grimy story about crime and one man’s effort to resist it.

Francavilla brings absolute joy to the work, and an acute sense of balance; the Black Beetle might have some fairly 60s Batman-esque visual theming, but the writer/artist has muted the palette, giving everything a black, orange and blue cast that keeps any silliness at bay but also continues the theme of tying everything together.

If you like pulp comics, or hardboiled detective fiction, or even just old Batman comics, this is something to pick up. Francavilla is one of the most talented artists around, and seeing him let loose without having to play by anybody else’s rules is pretty breathtaking. This could be your new favourite comic.

INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #4 (Marvel Comics)

Shocker: Mark Waid is really good at writing comics! Even bigger shocker: Mark Waid is really good at getting me to buy comics featuring characters whose comics I wouldn’t read otherwise! Brandon with sports at 11.

In its first three issues, Indestructible Hulk has done a fantastic job of setting the stage for a new Hulk status quo, one where Bruce Banner has stopped trying to cure himself and instead wants to do good for the world, including letting S.H.I.E.L.D. use his alter-ego as a weapon. So far, the “new” Banner’s confidence has given the series a lot of life, and it’s great to see him not moping about; an expert decision by Waid.

Issue #4 sends the Hulk underwater, which is representative of another great part of the series’ approach: with Hulk as a weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D., that lets Waid and Leinil Francis Yu cater the series to short stories based around missions. This gives the series a fantastic modular feel; one month he can have a grudge match with Tony Stark, another he can fight off AIM, and this month he can fight a oceanic supervillain. With no ideas overstaying their welcome, they all stand a greater chance of working, as well as being new-reader friendly.

Of course, here’s the best part about this series: Bruce Banner has lab assistants. Now, that could just be as simple as having a few extra bodies around, but if there’s one thing the third issue suggested, it’s that Waid is gunning for a more noble endeavour:

Hulk workplace comedy.

We’ll find out more this issue, but Issue #3 spent a good amount of time hinting at the different personalities of the lab assistants and their potentially humourous interactions, and I would bet good money that all those little jokes in the last issue will start turning into a super science lab comedy here, and that makes me very, very pleased.

MY LITTLE PONY MICRO SERIES: TWILIGHT SPARKLE #1 (IDW Publishing)

Listen, there are three reasons a well-intentioned adult is gonna buy a comic book about a television series and toy line designed primarily for small girls:

1. You have a small child in your life who likes My Little Pony or just… ponies;

2. You like the television series or the other comic based off it;

3. You like the work of Thom Zahler, most known for Love and Capes, who is the writer and artist of the first issue of this microseries.

Now, for the record, I’m all three. But if even one of those sounds familiar, pick it up. Zahler‘s work is impeccable, so no matter what, it’s a comic you should be able to enjoy unless you’re bereft of joy in your heart, you monster.

NOVA #1 (Marvel Comics)

I’m a general believer that Jeph Loeb‘s best work is the stuff he does outside of regular continuity - Batman: The Long Halloween, Superman for all Seasonsb, Spider-Man: Blue - and in recent years I’ve had a tough time connecting with his other in-continuity work. But putting all that aside, I’ll be picking up Nova #1 tomorrow, and not just because Brandon told me I should.

I’ve never read a Nova comic before, and while I’m familiar with the idea of an interstellar police corps from some dudes with rings or something, I don’t really know much about the series itself beyond that. However, there’s one thing that is guaranteed to get me interested in a comic: a bildungsroman about a small town kid who yearns for more. It’s one of the reasons Avengers #5 was so good, and it’s one of the reasons I’m excited for Nova. A story about a kid discovering himself - through space! - is basically in the top five cool concepts, and with a new series starring a new character, Loeb has room to play to his strengths without having to worry too much about previous incarnations of the character.

These are some of the many great books being released this week! You can find the full list of comics being released here. If you have any other recommendations, let us know in the comments below.