By Zack Quaintance — This is a light and kind of odd week, for obvious reasons, mainly that Tuesday (which is the day when comic shops stock the new product for Wednesdays) is Christmas Eve and Wednesday (which is when shops sell those comics, obviously) is Christmas. But there’s still stuff coming out! Enough of it anyway for our committee (of one!) to find five great books that we’re looking forward to.

So, without further adieu...let’s get to this week’s small but mighty set of Top Comics to Buy for December 25, 2019! Oh! And don’t forget to check back to the site starting this Thursday for our storm of Best of 2019 content...it’s going to be a whole lot of fun.

Top Comics to Buy for December 25, 2019

*PICK OF THE WEEK*
Incoming #1
Writer: Various
Artist: Various
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $9.99
ONE WILL UNITE THEM!
A mysterious murder brings together the heroes of the Marvel Universe in the search for a killer - but no one can imagine where the trail will lead, or how it will affect everything in 2020 and beyond! Who is the victim and who is the assailant?
The closing chapter to MARVEL's 80th year, which will connect the dots of everything that happened in 2019 and propel the narrative into the year that is to come! Featuring the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Daredevil, Spider-Man, the Champions, the Agents of Atlas, Valkyrie, the Immortal Hulk, Jessica Jones, Venom, Ghost Rider, the Masked Raider and more!
Why It’s Cool: This book is an anthology of sorts, with a common theme being stories to come for the 2020 year. It’s in the same vein as Marvel Comics #1000, in that it features a wide range of different creators telling different stories with different Marvel characters, the difference being that Marvel Comics #1000 was primarily a celebration of the publisher’s past while this book is mostly a tease of the publisher’s immediate future. And if 2019 has been any indication, it should be a bright immediate future, indeed. Marvel was as strong this past year as it has been in recent memory, with a varied yet coherent line that seems to be running smoother and putting more energy into rewarding readers than it has in some time. We fully expect that to continue into the new year, with this comic leading the way.

Criminal #11
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Phillips
Colorist: Jacob Phillips
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
The heist. The most explosive issue of the CRUEL SUMMER arc yet.
Why It’s Cool: Speaking of comics things that have just had a stellar 2019, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip’s Criminal is easily up near the top of that list. The current arc for one of the all-time best crime comics, Cruel Summer, has had a dark inevitability to it, in that long-time readers know this isn’t going to end well for any of the principal characters involved. Yet, the story is so well-told by the creators that the suspense and interest doesn’t suffer at all. We’re here to see how this unfolds more than what unfolds, and it’s wonderful, just a tour de force in how to make great stories while getting the most out of the comics medium. Fantastic stuff.

Mask, I Pledge Allegiance to the Mask #3
Writer: Christopher Cantwell
Artist: Patric Reynolds
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Nate Piekos
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $3.99
The bestselling comic series that inspired the blockbuster film returns with gruesome hilarity from the showrunner of AMC's Halt and Catch Fire and Hellboy's Patric Reynolds. In the presidential debate of the century, a woman with a noble cause takes on a deranged, green-headed murderer who promises to provide every tax payer with as much high-tech weaponry as they can carry.
Why It’s Cool: Mask, I Pledge Allegiance to the Mask has been one of the true under-the-radar gems of this past year. Our committee (of one!) is new to the Mask franchise, other than having seen the Jim Carrey movie at some point as a kid, but this book just seems like such a perfect melding of ideas — taking the brutal, slap stick Mask concept and laying it over our current absurdist, anything-goes national political climate. Writer Christopher Cantwell is scripting it with glee and artist Patric Reynolds (with Lee Loughridge colors) is matching the script every step of the way with such over-the-top dark imagery. This new Mask book is one stellar comic, and we can’t recommend it enough.

East of West #45
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Nick Dragotta
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $4.99
"WAR" The final arc of EAST OF WEST continues. Witness the ultimate showdown between the Horsemen.
Why It’s Cool: Despite what one of the most prominent lines all of Watchmen says (which, by the way, why is Watchmen everywhere in 2019? Seems like a think piece waiting to happen)...things in comics do sometimes end, especially when it comes to the early 2010s creator-owned resurgence that took place at Image. This year saw two of the books we closely associate with that come to a close, the first being Wicked + Divine, and now the second being East of West. But with every ending comes a new begining, so we’re both very excited to see how East of West closes this week, before then turning our attention to getting excited for Jonathan Hickman’s next creator-owned project, the Mike Huddleston collaboration Decorum, which debuts this March. 

Venom #21
Writer: Donny Cates
Artist: Mark Bagley
Inker: Andy Owens
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
VENOM ISLAND BEGINS HERE! 'Nuff said!
Why It’s Cool: It’ll be nice to get back to the main story in this Venom book, which continued through the event Absolute Carnage but seems likely to get a larger spotlight with a bit less hoopla (and fewer characters from the wider Marvel Universe). Usual series writer Donny Cates is also paired here with the most veteran of all veteran Spider-Man artists, Mark Bagley, whose stories with Spider-adjacent characters have an added weight of his vast experience with the franchise. Last but not least, VENOM ISLAND is a pretty intense name, and as such, we’re all very interested to see what the creative team does with this new storyline.

New #1s and One-Shots

• Doctor Strange: Surgeon Supreme #1

• Kill Lock #1

• Spider-Ham #1

See our past top comics to buy here, and check out our reviews archive here.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.