New Comics Collected Editions: Micronauts Omnibus 2, Batman by Grant Morrison, Asterix Generations, More

Our picks this week. Click the links to order from Amazon. 

Reprinted for the first time ever! Marvel's second Micronauts Omnibus begins with an explosive six-part origin of the Microverse! Commander Rann and his band of freedom fighters must find three keys to stave off a time of darkness while remaining one step ahead of the mad King Argon. To do that, they'll need help. Enter: Doctor Strange! The Micronauts will also discover a pair of new recruits: the friendly but ferocious Devil and his companion Fireflyte. In a return to Earth, our heroes end up in the X-Men's Danger Room, pursued by the killer metamorph Huntarr. The action reaches a crescendo as the Micronauts are drawn back to Homeworld once again to fight against Argon - and Baron Karza!

Collecting MICRONAUTS (1979) #30-54.

Acclaimed storyteller Grant Morrison takes on the Dark Knight in a story that redefined the Caped Crusader forever.

Eisner-Award winning writer and comics legend Grant Morrison, who redefined Animal Man and Doom Patrol, takes Batman to the edge of madness, the grave, and beyond. With the introduction of the fan-favorite Robin, Damian Wayne, Morrison delivered fans an epic tale that has inspired fans and creators alike!

Collects BATMAN (1940) #655-658, #663-675, and material from 52 #30 and #47.

Studio Peyo, Jim Lee, Ian Churchill, Milo Manara, Terry Moore, Frank Cho, and more fantastic creators come together to celebrate Asterix and the indomitable Gaulish village. With gorgeous illustrations and short comics in a variety of art styles, these creators pay tribute to the incredible influence of Asterix.

Collected and translated for the first time in honor of the 65th anniversary, this is a must-have for fans of the original Asterix comics.

When Jack Davis took up his pen for EC Comics, he imbued his stories with a playful sense of (gallows) humor that made his innocent victims more eye-poppingly terrified, his ax-murders more gleefully gruesome, and his revenge-seeking corpses more morbidly motivated than any other EC artist. 

These horror and suspense tales ― from the pages of Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, Crime SuspenStories, and Shock SuspenStories ― include frightful fare such as “Hyde and Go Shriek!”, “Tombs-Day!”, “Witch Witch’s Witch!”, “Head-Room!”, “Chop Talk!”, “Coffin Spell!”, and more, all leavened with the cackling, pun-laced wit of scripter Al Feldstein and illuminated as only the virtuoso brushwork of Jack Davis could present them.

But the standout story has to be “Foul Play,” the most infamous of all EC horror stories, in which a baseball team takes revenge on a murderous rival player by, um (spoiler alert), “repurposing” various parts of his anatomy for one final blood-spattered, organ-scattered inning. You’ll never see a baseball game the same way again. And as gruesome as that sounds (and is!), Davis deftly pulls it off with aplomb and a mordant sense of absurd humor that will have you cringing and laughing at the same time. Plus, not one, not two, but three Davis-driven adaptations of haunting short stories by Ray Bradbury: “The Coffin!”, “Let's Play Poison!”, and “The Black Ferris!”.

We round out this volume with all three of Davis’s EC science-fiction adventures, and all five of his aerial war stories from the legendary EC title, Aces High. 40 stories in all, most scripted by EC legend Al Feldstein, plus in-depth commentary by EC experts Thommy Burns and Grant Geissman.

The 1990s saw a new wave of creative vitality and fan interest in comics’ original superhero, with four tightly connected monthly series bringing the Man of Steel to new heights: Superman, Adventures of Superman, Action Comics, and Superman: The Man of Steel. 

These four series, while continuing to retain their own distinct voices, worked closely in tandem with each other, telling a detailed larger narrative of Superman’s never-ending battle. In turn, DC added numbered triangle icons to each cover, indicating to readers exactly where in the story a given Superman issue would fall—ushering in what readers fondly remember as “the triangle era.”

Following years of demand, these revered stories return with Superman: The Triangle Era Omnibus Vol. 1, a comprehensive collection of the first year of these comics from creators including Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern, Jon Bogdanove, Bob McLeod, and more. Stories include “Time and Time Again,” “Blackout,” and Clark Kent revealing his secret identity to Lois Lane!

This volume collects SUPERMAN (1987) #49-63, STARMAN (1988) #28, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #472-486, ACTION COMICS #659-673, and SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #1-8.

Comments