1) Fear Itself #7

Marvel’s latest big event wraps up this weekend, as Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen resolve the heroes’ conflicts with the Serpent, Sin, and the Worthy.  The fallout from this series gets examined in Fear Itself: The Fearless, which also debuts this week.  Marvel is building up to their Shattered Heroes storylines with upcoming Fear Itself issues 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3, each focusing on Captain America, Thor, or Iron Man as they pick up the pieces from Fear Itself, and all of which see print next month.

2) Justice League #2

The book that kicked off DC’s 52 relaunch campaign sees its second issue released this week.  While issue one featured Batman’s first interactions with Green Lantern, this issue features an old fashioned hero battle between Superman and Batman.  Seeing as Jim Lee’s work on both Batman and Superman continues to be popular back issue items, I’m sure lots of people will enjoy his take on both characters in this issue.

3) Batman #2

As big a seller as Justice League #1 was, the first issue of the relaunched Batman actually sold more copies across the country.  A big part of this lies in DC’s wisdom to hire a top notch creative team in writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo.  Issue one seemed to suggest that the creators have lots of plans for their time on the book, and while some of the 52 relaunches have already undergone some changes in their creative teams, I think Snyder and Capullo could be around for a while, adding their own mark on the history of the Dark Knight.

4) Avengers #18

The significance of this issues is two-fold. This issue features the debut of new regular series artist Daniel Acuna, who has done some solid work for Marvel in recent years.  Writer Brian Bendis has alluded to the idea that these two have long been wanting to collaborate on a big book for a while, so it looks to be happening here.  The other reason to consider this book is that it features an all new Avengers lineup, which includes some familiar faces like Cap, Iron Man, Spider Woman, Hawkeye, and Wolverine, but also features the return of Black Panther and Vision to the fold, along with some other characters.  We all expect Marvel to have lots of Avengers books on the shelves for the buildup to next year’s movie, but this one looks to be a promising one.

5) Wonder Woman #2

Wonder Woman was widely regarded as one of the best of DC’s relaunched titles.  In writer Brian Azzarello DC found a competent scribe whose considerable range and lack of ties to previous Wonder Woman stories make him ideal to elevate the character to new heights.  Artist Cliff Chiang is one of those artists who always manages to deliver clean, stylistic work and strong visual storytelling on whatever project he happens to illustrate.  As one who has only occasionally read Wonder Woman in the past, I’m intrigued by the new book’s inclusion of some of the more horrific elements of these mythological characters. Let’s hope Azzarello and Chiang produce a long run on this book and make Wonder Woman a book guaranteed to be well written, drawn, and most of all, entertaining.

> Bonus Picks of the Week: Sergio Aragones Funnies #4, the final issue (before the relaunch) of Uncanny X-men #544, Batman Odyssey vol. 2 #1, Superior #6, Nightwing #2,  and John Carter: A Princess of Mars #2.