Don’t Ask! Just Buy It! – June 9: A Bunch of Bats, a Pistol-Packing P.I. Cat and a Psychedelic Spider-God

Savage Critic and "Reading Comics" author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week.

KEY

* Reasonable Doubt

^ The Dynasty: Roc La Familia

% The Blueprint

@ Kingdom Come

& American Gangster

^ BATMAN #700

I am a fool for basically anything Grant Morrison is writing at this point, I know, but I'm particularly psyched about this anniversary issue: a double-lengther with linked stories about Batman past (Bruce), present (Dick), future (Damian) and far future (...Terry? The guy from Batman One Million?), respectively drawn by Tony Daniel, Frank Quitely, Andy Kubert and David Finch. Apparently, it took Morrison two months to write it, which is a good sign too.

& BLACKSAD VOL. 1

Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido's hard-boiled anthropomorphic noir series (about a bad-tempered black cat who's a P.I. in the '50s) is terrifically well executed and, for a series that clings to tropes as much as it does, pretty unusual. This $30 hardcover collects the first three volumes of the French series--supposedly there's a fourth on the way soon, although it's been a few years. Preview.

@ DAYTRIPPER #7

There's not a lot to say at this point about this Fabio Moon/Gabriel Bá miniseries about all the times one man's life could have been brought to some kind of dramatic closure, but it's a really nice-looking piece of work. Preview.

^ GOLDEN COLLECTION OF KLASSIC KRAZY KOOL KIDS KOMICS

I'm not exactly sure what's in this big Craig Yoe-edited IDW hardcover, although it sure looks like a Babysitters' Row of talent: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, John Stanley, Carl Barks, etc.

* GOTHAM CENTRAL BOOK 3: ON THE FREAK BEAT

Collecting #23-31 of Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark's terrific police procedural set in a city full of crazy super-types; it includes the "Dead Robin" arc, which had a particularly clever premise.

@ HERALDS #2

Kathryn Immonen and what appears to be several artists' entertainingly off-kilter miniseries about various Marvel heroines continues its weekly run. Preview.

^ HEROIC AGE: PRINCE OF POWER #2

So Amadeus Cho is effectively Hercules right now, which means he gets to fight Thor, apparently. Greg Pak/Fred Van Lente/Reilly Brown. Preview.

% INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #27

Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca, catching up on their release schedule. The preview is a scene I've suspected was coming.

^ MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPER HEROES #3

Paul Tobin and Ronan Cliquet's all-ages Avengers series continues its project of digging up not-particularly-prominent Marvel characters, in this case Diamondhead and the Owl.

@ META 4 #1

Ted McKeever returns to making comics--it's been way too long--with what looks like a typically strange miniseries involving an astronaut and a Santa. Preview over at Techland.

* NEMESIS #2

Mark Millar is the Billy Corgan of comics. Which would make Steve McNiven the James Iha. Anyway, their widescreen and very loud inside-out Batman riff continues here.

& RAWHIDE KID #1

Ron Zimmerman returns to his interpretation of the Marvel Western hero, which proceeds from the premise that cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other; Howard Chaykin draws. Preview.

% S.H.I.E.L.D. #2

Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver continue their gorgeous-looking superspy/super-science adventure (whose premise is that S.H.I.E.L.D. has actually been protecting the world in some form or another for millennia). I guess this is officially bimonthly now; that's fine, as long as I get to look at Weaver's landscapes. Preview.

% SPIDER-MAN: FEVER #3

Brendan McCarthy concludes his three-part homage to '60s Steve Ditko and the psychedelic drugs Ditko almost certainly didn't take. Preview.

* TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE #6

Michael Kupperman's Cockney grave robbers, Fletcher Hanks-ish jungle princesses, and Twain/Einstein team-ups, now in color.