1) Superman: Secret Origin #6

Though this culminating issue from Geoff Johns and Gary Frank was delayed, I’m happy to let you know that it should arrive today.  While re-imaginings are frequently able to find an audience in our marketplace, this book is an example of one that ventured  beyond the core Superman readership and found its way into the hands of a wide array of readers.  Part of this is largely due to Johns’ understanding of the character, but one can’t ignore the draw of Frank’s eerily accurate Christopher Reeve-inspired artwork.  Issue 6 comes in at 48 pages, so even though some of you have been anxiously waiting on this one take solace in the fact that you’ll get an extra page count for your trouble.

2) Star Wars: Blood Ties – A Tale of Jango and Boba Fett #1

Though the chronology of the numerous Star Wars comics can be intimidating, the Boba Fett comics have been especially accessible over the years.  This new mini series from veteran Star Wars comic creators Tom Taylor and Chris Scalf aims to cash in on the character’s accessibility with a tale that occurs before the Clone Wars and gives a further glimpse into the background of everyone’s favorite bounty hunter.  It should be noted that Scalf’s art on the previously published Star Wars: Purge got a lot of notice, and as in that series the artwork here is fully painted.  Early previews look impressive, so pick up a copy and see what you think.

3) Guarding the Globe #1

Robert Kirkman brings us another side project from the Invincible universe, this time with help from co-writer Benito Cereno and artist Ransom Getty.  This six issue miniseries focuses on the heroes who remain on Earth while Invincible is off-world.  If you know anything about Kirkman or his Image books, you know they sell quickly.  Don’t be surprised if this mini series gradually becomes as hard to find as some of his previous ones.  For fans of Invincible, you might recognize Cereno for his work on previous spinoff miniseries like Atom Eve and Atom Eve and Rex Splode.  Artist Ransom Getty, owner of one of comics coolest names, has an art style that fits in nicely with regular series artist Ryan Ottley.  Kirkman has done a nice job of maintaining a similar look and feel among the books in this corner of his universe, and this new title looks to be a nice addition to his work.  Also new for Invincible fans this week is Science Dog Special #1 which collects the characters backup features that have appeared in Invincible over the years but haven’t been collected in any of the trades.

4)  Superman/Batman #75

From the cover art by Frank Quitely, to the long list of great creators including Paul Levitz, David Finch, Adam Hughes, Joe Kelly, and Duncan Rouleau, this issue offers many reasons to pick it up.  Aside from the main story from Levitz which brings the Legion of Superheroes into present time to team up with Superman and Batman, this issue brings us the first work illustrated and written by David Finch, along with a Supergirl and Batgirl story illustrated and written by Adam Hughes!  The contributions from Finch and Hughes alone should make this issue sell quickly, so make sure you are one of the lucky few who get a copy early.

5) Namor: The First Mutant #1

Spinning out of recent events in the new ongoing X-men series, Namor gets another shot at another ongoing series of his own this week.  This time around writer Stuart Moore and artist Ariel Olivetti bring the new vampire threat to Atlantis in the first storyline.  We can inevitably expect future stories to focus less on the Namor’s recent involvement with the X-men and more on the moral ambiguities we’ve come to expect from character over the years.  The idea that you never know exactly where Namor might stand has always made him unique.  If you couple that with the fact that he’s one of Marvel’s oldest properties, here you have a new series that might be a good prospect for old and new fans of the aquatic character.

Bonus Non-Comic Pick of the Week:

James Jean’s Rift

It’s always a good day when we see another new James Jean product in our store.  The fabled Fables cover artist’s new effort is Rift, a book of postcard-type art that unfolds like an accordion.  While that alone is an interesting packaging idea, what’s even cooler about this particular set of art is that you can overlap certain pieces of the accordion to combine into an even larger picture.  We’ll only have a few of these in store this week, so if you’re interested in this you might be wise to act early.  Also still available is the recently released Fables Comic Cover portfolio which has been in the store for a while but is worth another mention.  This portfolio contains 12 color prints featuring some of Jean’s Fables covers.  Most of these prints are available in the often out-of-print Fables covers hardcover, but the advantage of the portfolio is that you don’t have to destroy your book in order to display the art on your walls.