By Zack Quaintance — I was struck by something as I assembled this top comics to buy for May 11, 2022 list. This week’s group of books has more interesting bombastic comics concepts than most weeks. Three of them feel like they sprung from absurdist propositions: what if every person on Earth had a genie? What if being the grim reaper was a bureaucratic job? What if you could travel backwards in time to be your younger self? Hell, even the long superhero book on this week’s list asks, what if the Justice League was all dinosaurs? The answer to all of these is great comics.

Check out the full list below…enjoy!

Top Comics to Buy for May 11, 2022

PICK OF THE WEEK
The Jurassic League #1
Writers: Daniel Warren Johnson and Juan Gedeon
Artist: Juan Gedeon
Colorist: Mike Spicer
Letterer: Ferran Delgado
Publisher: DC Comics
You know the story: an infant escapes the destruction of its home planet and is deposited on Earth to be raised by human parents. A goddess from a lost city defends truth. A Tyrannosaurus rex dons the visage of a bat to strike fear into evildoers' hearts. This heroic trinity, alongside a league of other super-powered dinosaurs, join forces to save a prehistoric Earth from the sinister machinations of Darkseid. Wait...what? Okay, maybe you don't know the story. So join us and bear witness to a brand-new-yet older than time-adventure and experience the Justice League as you have never seen them before!
Why It’s Cool: Quite frankly, this book is as awesome as it has looked from the start. On top of that, there are some surprises here that the ol’ DC marketing and PR departments did a great job concealing while promoting this one. It’s also a really packed book that reads super quickly. All good things, and it gets my full recommendation.
Price: $3.99
Buy It Here: Digital

Eight Billion Genies #1
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Ryan Browne
Letterer: Chris Crank
Publisher: Image Comics
If you had one wish…what would you wish for? Now, what if everyone else had one wish too? That’s EIGHT BILLION GENIES, the new eight-issue series from CHARLES SOULE & RYAN BROWNE (CURSE WORDS). At exactly the same moment, everyone on earth gets a genie and one wish. All hell breaks loose, in a very entertaining way…and that’s just the beginning. Buckle in for the wildest ride of the year!
Why It’s Cool: As I mentioned in the introduction for this week’s list of books, this is one of those very good comics concepts that I absolutely love…asking, what if everyone on earth had their own genie who would grant them one wish? The result…chaos. And what elevates it even further is the absolutely fantastic artwork by Ryan Browne, as madcap in this book as the premise itself.
Price: $3.99
Buy It Here: Eight Billion Genies #1 - digital
Read our full advanced review of Eight Billion Genies #1!

G.I.L.T. #2
Writer: Alisa Kwitney
Artist: Mauricet
Letterer: Rob Steen
Publisher: AHOY! Comics
This stylish, witty time-travel tale kicks into high gear as the elder Hildy and her home aide Trista are whisked back to 1973, where they meet again for the first time. One is about to get sucked into a cult, the other a marriage. But do they have to? And which is worse?
Why It’s Cool: This is one of the smartest time travel stories that I’ve come across in some time, although as one of the characters here points out, it’s not about time travel, it’s about temporal transference, wherein your current consciousness goes back through time to inhabit the body of your younger self. And it’s all done so smartly in this story.
Price: $4.99
Buy It Here: Digital

Grim #1
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Flaviano
Colorist: Rico Renzi
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Jessica Harrow is dead. But her journey has only just begun!
Discover the world of the afterlife, where Jessica has been recruited as a Reaper, tasked with ferrying countless souls to their final destination.
But unlike the rest of the Reapers, she has no memory of what killed her and put her into this predicament.
In order to unravel the mystery of her own demise, she'll have to solve an even bigger one - where is the actual GRIM REAPER?
Why It’s Cool: On the heels of the excellent series, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, this new series delivers yet another imaginative concept around what happens after death, turning being the grim reaper into a sort of bureaucratic role that departed souls are forced to carry out. With strong art and clever writing, this first issue really shines.
Price: $3.99
Buy It Here: Digital

Sandman Universe - Nightmare Country #2
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Lisandro Estherren
Colors: Patricio Delpeche
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Publisher: DC Comics - Black Label
With the Corinthian loose in the waking world, it's no surprise that people are turning up dead...although this time, they're not the nightmare's doing. (Well, most of them.) The Corinthian is following a trail of bodies to the mysterious Mr. Agony and Mr. Ecstasy...but what's their game? And even more pressing-whose tracks are they trying to cover?
Why It’s Cool: I absolutely loved the first issue of Nightmare Country, which felt like an extension of themes the the book’s writer — James Tynion IV — has been exploring in two of my favorite comics of late, The Department of Truth and The Nice House on the Lake. On top of that, there are touches of the classic Sandman Universe, rendered to absolute imaginative perfection by the art team of Lisandro Estherren and Patricio Delpeche.
Price: $3.99
Buy It Here: Digital

Others Receiving Votes

Batman: Urban Legends #15
Human Remains #8
Justice League Vs. Legion of Super-Heroes #3
Kill Lock: Artisan Wraith #3
Naomi Season 2 #3
Nocterra #10
Shang-Chi #12
Time Before Time #12
West of Sundown #2
What If? Miles Morales #3

New #1s and One-Shots

Archie Meets Riverdale One-Shot
Avatar: Adapt or Die #1
Blood Syndicate: Season One #1
Bunny Mask: Hollow Inside #1
Captain America - Symbol of Truth #1
Devil’s Highway Vol. 2 #1
Hulk Vs Thor - Banner War Alpha #1
Jenny Zero II #1
Moon Knight: Black, White, and Blood #1
Tales From Harrow County: Lost Ones #1
Transformers - The Last Bot Standing #1
Vampirella Strikes #1

Trade Collections and Graphic Novels of Note

Dune: Tales From Arrakeen HC
Karmen HC
Mike Mignola - Hellboy In Hell and Other Stories - Artisan Edition
Star Wars by Jason Aaron Omnibus HC

Read more great graphic novel and comics reviews!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He has written about comics for The Beat and NPR Books, among others. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.