Don’t Ask! Just Buy It! – September 22: Which Is Heaviest: Mjolnir, Lemmy or “Cages”?

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

KEY

* Hawkwind references

^ Tundra alumni

% "Youth, Youth Youth Youth"

@ Nix Uotan's career path, reconsidered

% AVENGERS #5

Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr.'s high-volume reboot continues. Notable aspect of the preview: the "Rip Hunter's blackboard"-style teasers, which include "Night Falls?," "Iron Lad Returns," "All Hope Lies in Doom," "Where Is Wanda?," "What's in the Rings?!?!," "Schizm!," a big circled note of "Ultron War," and my favorite, "Fear Without Man."* ^ % BART SIMPSON'S TREEHOUSE OF HORROR #16

The annual anthology of off-model Simpsons comics is mostly by people who've done them before at one time or another--Peter Kuper and Evan Dorkin are the big names--but I think it's safe to say that Lemmy from Motörhead has never before written a published Simpsons comic book.

^ @ CAGES

Dave McKean's great big 1996 graphic novel, back in print, this time from Dark Horse. I wish that guy would draw some more comics one of these days.

% FANTASTIC FOUR #583

Steve Epting joins Jonathan Hickman for the first part of "Three," in which one of the FF will apparently take his or her turn at temporarily biting the dust. Preview.

% FIRE & WATER: BILL EVERETT, THE SUB-MARINER AND THE BIRTH OF MARVEL COMICS

A new one from comics historian Blake Bell; haven't read it yet, but it sure sounds interesting.

% GIRL COMICS

The all-women-created Marvel follow-up to "Strange Tales," now in hardcover, for a bit more money.

% MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #6

More Peter-Parker-in-high-school fun, from Paul Tobin and Roberto Di Salvo. Preview.

* MILLAR & MCNIVEN'S NEMESIS #3

Yes, I know the delays on "Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne" are frustrating, but consider this: the first of its six issues came out in mid-May, the first issue of Millar and McNiven's four-part homage to the Guy in the Cape came out Mar. 24 (after missing its original Mar. 3 release date), and at the moment it looks like "RoBW" is still going to beat "Nemesis" to the finish line by a couple of weeks.

% THE MUPPET SHOW #10

Roger Langridge continues the longest run-up to a Halloween issue of any comic in recent memory.

@ PEEPO CHOO VOL. 2

People keep talking about this Felipe ("MBQ") Smith series about the relationship between manga, Japanese culture, and American otaku; my antennae are up, in any case.

% SMURFS VOL. 1 THE PURPLE SMURF/VOL. 2 THE SMURFS AND THE MAGIC FLUTE

The original French-language Smurfs graphic albums by Peyo are now being published in English by Papercutz, with some nice-looking design by Fantagraphics' Adam Grano, who made a public appeal to get the gig. The first two volumes are "The Purple Smurf"--a set of three short stories originally published under the name "The Black Smurf"--and "The Smurfs and the Magic Flute," the little blue guys' first appearance, which was initially a volume in an entirely different series, "Johan et Pirlouit," with a title that translates as "The Flute with Six Holes" (subsequently reprinted with a title that translates as "The Flute with Six Smurfs"). Six bucks apiece, too: not a bad price at all.

@ SUPERMAN/BATMAN #76

Marco Rudy finally follows up his "Final Crisis" mop-up duty by... taking on a leftover "Final Crisis" plot thread (i.e. how did Superman deal with Batman's apparent death?), with writer Judd Winick.

* % THOR #615

Matt Fraction and Pasqual Ferry's long-anticipated, slightly delayed run begins. The preview doesn't reveal much, but I'm enjoying the return to John Workman's distinctive lettering style from the Walt Simonson run, and I like Fraction's description of his tone for the series as "epic space metal." Also out this week, a $4 reprint of the first two issues of Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee's retro-Thor series: "Thor the Mighty Avenger: Double Rainbow." Yes, that is really the title.