Welcome to Comicosity’s Hot Five. Hot Five is a short list of the top books we think you’ll want to be checking out. Be they new title launches, key issues or just continuing stories from some of the industry’s most acclaimed books, this list is your guaranteed hot and tasty treats for the week in the comic market!
AVENGERS #30
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Lenil Francis Yu
Published by Marvel Comics – $3.99
ORIGINAL SIN tie-in!
INFINITE AVENGERS Part 2: The Time Gem has reappeared, ushering the Avengers into a peril-filled journey into days-to-come!
Why It’s Hot: Don’t let the tie-in label fool you, Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers is full steam ahead after the big events of last issue. Hickman is known as a master of long form storytelling, and the way he meticulously crafts his stories has been on full display for the world to see. It’s all starting to come together, and readers are left with one of the best superhero comics on the stands.
C.O.W.L. cover art by Trevor McCarthy
C.O.W.L. #1
Written by Kyle Higgins & Alec Siegel
Art by Rod Reis
Published by Image Comics – $3.50
Welcome to the “Chicago Organized Workers League” — the world’s first Super-Hero Labor Union! While C.O.W.L. once stood as a beacon of hope against an epidemic of organized crime and an unbeatable “brotherhood” of Super-Villains, the union now faces its fiercest foe yet — a disillusioned public. In targeting the last of the great villains, C.O.W.L. attempts to prove its value to the world and to each other, while staving off villainy from both outside and inside its offices.
Why It’s Hot: Kyle Higgins enters the creator-owned arena with a book years in the making! Alongside co-writer Alec Siegel, Higgins presents C.O.W.L. Loosely based off their short film The League, C.O.W.L. tells the story of the Chicago Organized Workers League, Chicago’s superhero labor union! The Chicago political machine + superheroes + a story near and dear to the creators’ hearts = a red hot book!
DOCTOR SPEKTOR: MASTER OF THE OCCULT #1
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Neil Edwards
Published by Dynamite Comics – $3.99
“TV legend. Wall Street wolf. Internet mogul. Tabloid bad boy. Master metaphysicist. Spiritualist. Monster hunter. Doctor Adam Spektor is all of these things…and less.” For fifteen years, Spektor has traveled the globe to smoke out and defeat werewolves, vampires, ghosts and everything else that goes bump in the night. Yet his success has brought him no peace…some part of him is missing, something he needs but can’t name. But he’s about to find what’s missing…in an unlikely place… UNLOCK ANOTHER PIECE OF THE GOLD KEY UNIVERSE, courtesy of MARK WAID (Daredevil, Indestructible Hulk) and NEIL EDWARDS (X-Factor, Fantastic Four)!
Why It’s Hot: The Gold Key relaunch from Dynamite has been one of the biggest surprise stories of 2014. Great talent putting their twists on classic properties has been the line’s signature, and that continues with Doctor Spektor: Master of the Occult. This time around one of comic’s greatest minds, Mark Waid gets in on the action, and that is reason enough to check out this debut issue, but the track record of the Gold Key books promises it will be well worth sticking around for.
SOUTHERN BASTARDS #2
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Jason Latour
Published by Image Comics – $3.50
It’s Friday night in Craw County, Alabama. Which means Coach Euless Boss is walking the sidelines like a god. And somebody is fixin’ to die.
Why It’s Hot: The first issue of Southern Bastards took the comic book world by storm, and the second issue promises to be even better. Another example of creators at the top of their game on a deeply personal book. This is an example of some of the best that the medium has to offer, and is not to be missed!
TREES #1
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Jason Howard
Published by Image Comics – $2.99
Ten years after they landed. All over the world. And they did nothing, standing on the surface of the Earth like trees, exerting their silent pressure on the world, as if there were no-one here and nothing under foot. Ten years since we learned that there is intelligent life in the universe, but that they did not recognize us as intelligent or alive. Beginning a new science fiction graphic novel by WARREN ELLIS and JASON HOWARD.
Why It’s Hot: The great Warren Ellis returns to Image with a crazy concept. That right there makes Trees a must read, and anything else is just gravy.
