Every week, Comics! The Blog goes through the list of new releases and we tell you which comics to plug into your mindhole. Your mileage may vary. But you’re all buying S.H.O.O.T. First #2, written by today’s podcast guest Justin Aclin, right? Right.

ASTRO CITY #6 (Vertigo)

Still one of the best superhero series around, Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson have brought this series back with a vengeance. As a newcomer to the series, it’s been remarkable to discover that the years of enthusiastic recommendations are actually, 100% accurate. The series is really that good, and it is shockingly easy to jump into.

Astro City has a revolving, frequently changing cast, all in celebration of the titular city and its denizens. Some stories focus on heroes. My favourite two issues so far in the series latest’ run were about a call centre worker. This issue is about the intersecting lives of heroes and low-level criminals, and looks to embody one of the series’ greatest strengths: its examination of humanity through genre and optimism. Few comics are as ambitious in scope and genre as Astro City. Even fewer succeed at their ambitions.

COFFIN HILL #2 (Vertigo)

The first issue of this series was really interesting. Dreamlike, audacious and very uncompromising. The story of a former degenerate socialite slash Satanic teen returning home as an embittered ex-cop to free her town of the evil she accidentally unleashed on it, Coffin Hill is dark and vaguely disturbing, aided by Inaki Miranda‘s wicked faces and vivid colours. He and Caitlin Kittredge did a really great job in the first issue of blending a spooky, otherworldly New England town with really fun, true-to-life depictions of bored and jaded teens. With the back-and-forth structure of the first issue, it will be fun to see what they come up to next, and how they weave these different time periods together.

MARVEL KNIGHTS: X-MEN #1 (Marvel)

The relaunched Marvel Knights line has been one of the most original, fun things Marvel has done in a while. Letting auteur creators go wild, without fear of continuity, has so far been producing bizarre fever dreams (Spider-Man) and Diabolik-esque sexy spy adventures (Fantomex), and this week they bring in backwoods crime noir with Brahm Revel‘s X-Men. I could not be more down for this if it had World Champion Colourist Cris Peter working on it and oh dang it does? I might have to buy two.

The Knights line is best when creators take it as a challenge to show how versatile the company’s characters are, and how they don’t need to follow a certain aesthetic or broad genre iteration. The X-Men specifically are based around this weird confluence of interpersonal insanity and regular continuity insanity, so when you take three characters (Wolverine, Kitty Pryde and Rogue) and toss them into something like a rural murder mystery, you have a great opportunity to break the characters down in fascinating ways and do something different. It also helps that Revel and Peter make stunning work and setting them free is basically the best thing a publisher can possibly do.

Oh man, I’m so jazzed.

THREE #2 (Image)

Three is an interesting comic. It’s a response to a seminal work (300) by an iconic creator (Frank Miller) that criticizes some of the ideas behind the original work without negating them. As much fire as Three spits about the Spartans, it does it in a way that feels not reverent but still respectful. Of course, it’s also a story that is largely about how the Spartans were outrageous assholes, and in that regard, Kieron Gillen, Ryan Kelly and Jordie Bellaire really hit the mark.

Three #1 took no prisoners. It told you, through gorgeously-coloured interstitial flashbacks, exactly what kind of situation the Spartans’ slaves were in. The rest of the issue laid it out even more bluntly, but with a surprising amount of black, visual humour. The book’s team works fantastically together, and with Issue #2, out today, we’ll see what happens next to our ragtag trio of runaway slaves.

I predict nothing but smiles and yuks! That’s what Kieron is known for, right?

UMBRAL #1 (Image)

It’s hard for me to say something that Brandon hasn’t already, so I’ll just say this: I had a chance to read the first issue of Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten‘s new dark fantasy series and I was really impressed. A challenge with building a fantasy world, especially in a serialized format where a world has to be established in little more than 20 pages, is that it’s easy to lose track of what makes the specific world unique and worth investing in. It’s why so many fantasy stories end up being able to be glibly, admittedly unfairly summarized as “Tolkien did it” or “Yeah but Tolkien didn’t do SATIRE, too.”

This isn’t a problem that Umbral #1 has. Right off the start, with Mitten‘s expansive, exciting environments and John Rauch‘s ethereal, mood-darkening colours, it feels like something really unique that you just want to dive into. There are flavours of other fantasy stories - Johnston has mentioned how The Dark Crystal was an influence - but not a carbon copy, just an acknowledgment. The real story is rooted in Rascal and Arthir, and it feels like something truly new. This isn’t a story I’ve read before, and I’d wager it’s not one that you have, either.

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.