Two solid Wednesdays. The 9th is the better of them and it is not particularly close: two DC number ones off the back of the Bad Seeds event, plus the best independent book of the month. The 16th is quieter on debuts but heavier on runs you are probably already reading. Here is what I would actually spend money on, DC and indie first.
Wednesday 9th September: the highlights
Batman: Bad Seeds, two number ones on one day (DC): my DC pick of the week
The Bad Seeds event throws out a pair of two-issue miniseries on the same Wednesday, and the pairing is the interesting part.
- Batman: Bad Seeds, Gotham Central #1, Christopher Cantwell with Jacob Phillips on art.
- Batman: Bad Seeds, Gotham General #1, Greg Rucka with Rosa Ekedal.
Reviving the Gotham Central name is a statement. The original ran forty issues between 2003 and 2006, written by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka with Michael Lark on art, and it picked up four Eisner nominations telling Batman stories from the point of view of the police who have to work around him. It is one of the most quietly respected runs DC has ever published.
So it is a proper bit of casting that Rucka is here on the companion book rather than the one carrying the name he helped make. Cantwell and Jacob Phillips get Gotham Central instead, which is a pairing I would have bought on the credits alone. If you take one, take Gotham Central. If the event lands, that is the one people will point back at.
Six of Us #1 (Dark Horse): my indie pick of the week, and of the fortnight
Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles. That is the Vision team, back together for the first time since, and The Vision is on any honest shortlist of the best superhero comics of the last twenty years.
This one is a Hollywood murder mystery: a beloved cast member of a hit show dies in unclear circumstances, and the surviving cast are forced back into each other's company with the old rivalries and buried truths that come with it. King and Walta doing quiet menace in a domestic setting is exactly what made The Vision work.
Worth flagging that this is Dark Horse, not Image. A few release lists have it in the wrong column, so if your shop has not pulled it for you, that is probably why.
Also landing the 9th
Absolute Batman #24 from Snyder and Dragotta, Action Comics #1102 and Supergirl #17 both continuing Kingdom of Zod, Batman & Robin: Year One, Dynamic Duos #2 from Waid and Samnee, Clayface: Celebrity Dirt #3, Jeff Lemire's Fury of Firestorm #6 and Barbara Gordon: Breakout #5. Bleeding Hearts #8 is worth a look if you have been following Deniz Camp's work. On the independent side it is a busy week for debuts: Spawn 77 #1, Fixation #1 and Forever Home #1 from Christian Ward and Sami Kivela, plus Karman Blade #1, Vampire Survivors #1 and Folk of Dooney Hollow #1 from Dark Horse.
Wednesday 16th September: the highlights
Wonder Woman #37 and Superman: Kingdom of Zod Special #1 (DC): my DC pick of the week
Two different kinds of event beat on the same day. Tom King and Daniel Sampere start Act 2 of the Wonder War in Wonder Woman #37, which is the point where a long King run usually shifts gear and stops being what you assumed it was. King has a second book out this fortnight in Six of Us, which tells you how much of the shelf he currently occupies.
Superman: Kingdom of Zod Special #1 closes out the crossover, with Joshua Williamson, Mark Waid, Dan Slott and Sophie Campbell all writing. Event conclusion specials are usually the issue that actually matters out of a crossover, and they are also the one most people forget to pick up because they bought the chapters and lost interest.
Creepshow #1 (Skybound and Image): my indie pick of the week
A new five issue Creepshow anthology, two original horror stories per issue, tied to the Shudder series. Issue one gives you Chris Burnham on a trick-or-treat story and Paul Dini, Steve Langford and John McCrea on the birthday clown Shingo.
Dini writing a horror short is the draw for me. Anthologies are a hard sell in single issues and they rarely become keys, so buy this one because you want to read horror in September, not because you think it will be worth something. At 3.99 dollars it is the cheapest thing I am recommending across both weeks.
Also landing the 16th
Absolute Flash #19 from Lemire and Nick Robles, and Absolute Green Arrow reaches #5 of 6, so that one is nearly done. Detective Comics #1113 from Tom Taylor and Jeff Spokes ties into Bad Seeds, Lobo #7 starts The Last Death of Lobo from Skottie Young and Jorge Corona, and there is Deathstroke: The Terminator #7, Batman/Superman: World's Finest #55, Dark Knights of Steel II #3 and New Titans #39. DC also mark Joe Kubert's hundredth birthday with a covers retrospective and a DC Special facsimile. Image have Deicidium #1 if you want a second debut alongside Creepshow.
My collector's take
If you can only do one of these two Wednesdays, do the 9th.
Six of Us is the book I would not want to miss a first print of, and I am saying that about the comic, not the market. A reunion of a creative team that made something as good as The Vision is rare, and those first issues tend to be printed to normal expectations rather than hype expectations, which is usually when a book quietly becomes hard to find later.
On the two Bad Seeds number ones, be a bit careful. Event tie-in miniseries get ordered heavily and there will be plenty about. Buy them because Cantwell, Phillips and Rucka on Gotham police stories sounds good, which it does, not because a #1 with Batman in the title is automatically anything.
And the boring reminder I end up making most weeks: two number ones on the same day from the same event means both are common. Scarcity is not the same as a good comic, and I have written at length about which one actually holds value.
Buying this week, or got something to sell?
I sell comics live most weeks and I buy collections across the UK, from single keys to full longboxes. If you are clearing shelf space for the new stuff, or you have inherited a collection and want a straight answer on what it is worth, send me some photos.