By Zack Quaintance — It’s a miracle, folks. Here it is, still March, and I have finished the list for Best New #1 Comics for March 2020 (with the Best Comics for March 2020 slated to go live on April 1!). How did I — a guy who regularly posts these lists halfway into the following month, manage such a feat? Well, as you may have noticed, there is no new Top Comics to Buy piece for this week (at least not in the familiar sense), owing to the fact that to my knowledge basically every publisher but DC and Marvel aren’t releasing new comics this week (digitally) due to the crisis.

That makes the pickings slim (only superheroes, obviously), and I also find that people tend to know what superheroes they are going to buy without any kind of guidance, especially readers that have embraced the no fuss reading experience of digital. Anyway! 

Let’s get on to this month’s list of the best new #1 comics...

Quick Hits

Artemis and the Assassin #1 was a great debut issue from writer Stephanie Phillips and artists Meghan Hetrick & Francesca Fantini. Full review here!

The new X-Men comics remain stellar, even (especially?) the solo books, which includes Cable #1. Full review here!

Writer/artist Mirka Andolfo delivered a new series from Image this month with Mirka Andolfo’s Mercy #1, and like all of her work, it’s well-worth checking out.

Crossed between a dystopian tourism video and commentary about regional differences, Join The Future #1 was intriguing as all get out. Full review here!

Another (entirely different) intriguing sci-fi debut was the ethereal Decorum #1, a new creator-owned book from lead X-Scribe Johnathan Hickman and artist Mike Huddleston. Full review here!

I’d almost forgotten about Valiant Entertainment’s lead character, X-O Manorwar, but the new book this month made it easy to catch back up. Great start with X-O Manowar #1.

Another fresh start of an entirely different nature came for Marvel Comics’ teen heroes, who basically got a new status quo with Outlawed #1. Full review here!

Another new X-Men comic launched this month with Hellions #1, which is essentially a Suicide Squad-esque team of problematic misfits for Krakoa. Good first issue, but I still think this book’s best days lie ahead. Full review here!

For those of you who missed the excellent slice-of-life comic Giant Days, first of all, I feel your pain. Second of all, the creative team is back with a new project that launched this month with Wicked Things #1, and fans of their last book will surely love it. Full review here!

I put this out on my Twitter account, but a system that rarely lets me down is Mike and Laura Allred make a comic, and I buy said comic. That was true again this month with the reality-twisting sci-fi romp, X-Ray Robot #1.

Finally, one of my favorite artists in all of superhero comic book makery — Juan Ferrerya — is back with another miniseries at Marvel, with Spider-Man Noir #1. And like Killmonger and Punisher Kill Krew before it, this book has an esoteric subject but does not disappoint even a little bit. Full review here!

Best New #1 Comics for March 2020

Billionaire Island #1
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Steve Pugh
Colorist: Chris Chuckry
Letterer: Rob Steen
Publisher: Ahoy Comics
A savage satire reuniting the critically acclaimed team behind DC's The Flintstones, Mark Russell (Second Coming) and Steve Pugh (Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass), in an all-new creator-owned series! Welcome to Billionaire Island, where anything goes...if you can afford it. But the island's ultra-rich inhabitants are about to learn that their ill-gotten gains come at a very high price. Every AHOY comic also features extra prose stories and illustrations.
Why We Liked It: Mark Russell and Steve Pugh’s last collaboration — The Flintstones — was fantastic, exploring and satirizing many aspects of modern life through the lens of a well-known intellectual property. Their new project is wholly original, and it sees the duo exploring one of the world’s most searing problems today — a small group of individuals controlling most of the world’s wealth and doing little to help overcome civilization’s (and our planet’s) problems. This book is also funny and well-done. 

King of Nowhere #1
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Tyler Jenkins
Colorist: Hilary Jenkins
Letterer: Andworld Design
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Eisner Award-nominated writer W. Maxwell Prince (Ice Cream Man) comes to BOOM! Studios with Eisner-nominated artist Tyler Jenkins (Grass Kings, Black Badge) for an unforgettable thriller that explores the miraculous, the mundane, and all the mysteries in between. Lovable drunken lowlife Denis awakens on the outskirts of a mysterious village called Nowhere, home to a friendly populace of deformed, mutated, just-left-of-normal citizens-and he has no memory of how he got there. But just when Denis starts to regain his memories, his past catches up to him... literally. What at first seems like merely a bad trip quickly heightens into a drama of mistaken identities, small-town conspiracy, and high-stakes fantasy fulfillment.
Why We Liked It: It’s a young year, but so far in 2020 no book has felt as purely imaginative as King of Nowhere #1, in which readers can feel both writer and artist elevating to a place where the story sheds any preconceived notions and dictates the wild thing it must be. Click here to read the full review!

No One’s Rose #1
Writer: Emily Horn & Zac Thompson
Artist: Alberto Jimenez-Alburquerque
Colorist: Raul Angulo
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Publisher: Vault Comics
"Centuries after the fall of the Anthropocene, the last vestiges of human civilization are housed in a massive domed city powered by renewable energy, known as The Green Zone. Inside lives teenager Tenn Gavrilo, a brilliant bio-engineer who could rebuild the planet. But there's one problem: her resentful brother Seren is eager to dismantle the precarious Utopia. From the minds of Zac Thompson (X-Men, Yondu) and debut writer Emily Horn with artist Alberto Jimenez Alburquerque (Letter 44, Avengers ) comes a gorgeous and green solar-punk world filled with strange biotechnology, harsh superstorms, and divisive ideologies-ideologies that will tear Tenn and Seren down to their roots as they fight for a better Earth."
Why We Liked It: A good-looking and smart comic with a strong point of view that is at once cautionary and optimistic, No One’s Rose #1 has all the pieces to blossom (sorry!) into the next big sci-fi book. It continues Vault Comics ongoing streak of fantastic debut issues. Click here to read the full review!

Stealth #1
Writer: Mike Costa
Artist: Nate Bellegarde
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Publisher: Image Comics / Skybound
SERIES PREMIERE! For decades, Stealth has waged war on crime in Detroit, but now he's taken his pursuit of justice too far. Only reporter Tony Barber knows that behind Stealth's reckless behavior is an older man battling Alzheimer's-his father. A father unwilling to accept that he's no longer the hero this city needs... with enemies all too eager to force his retirement. Created by ROBERT KIRKMAN and MARC SILVESTRI, STEALTH is an action-packed series, perfect for readers who enjoy Black Panther and Iron Man.
Why We Liked It: Stealth is based on a concept created by Robert Kirkman and Marc Silverstri, but never fully explored, at least not with the depth this five-issue miniseries seems poised to bring it. I didn’t know much about this property going in, but there was a fantastic twist part of the way through (that I won’t spoil) that made it something far more interesting than any recent new forays into the superhero genre. It’s got all the trappings and tropes of the superhero genre, but it seems to have found a new way to explore the underpinning humanity. And for that, I highly recommend this comic.

Strange Adventures #1
Writer: Tom King
Artists: Mitch Gerads & Evan “Doc” Shaner
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: DC Comics - Black Label
Adam Strange is the hero of Rann, a man famous throughout the galaxy for his bravery and honor. After leading his adopted home to victory in a great planetary war, Adam and his wife Alanna retire to Earth, where they are greeted by cheers, awards, and parades. But not all is as happy and nice as it seems, as the decisions Adam made during battles on Rann come back to haunt his family and threaten the entire DC Universe. And now a surprise DC hero will have to choose between saving Adam Strange and saving the world. A story like no other, Strange Adventures is an ambitious, thrilling, shocking, and beautiful 12-issue saga that will push Adam Strange to the breaking point-and beyond!
Why We Liked It: The artwork in this book is absolutely superb, as writer Tom King turns to a couple of past collaborators to help bring a new vision to life, complete with questions about the media, perception, and group reaction to the actions of public figures. For a full review, click here!

Read last week’s comic book reviews 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.