By Zack Quaintance — It’s another week of uncertainty, fueled by the rapid outbreak of the coronavirus, the full extent of which is just becoming clear in the United States as much-needed testing slowly trickles out to the populous. That last sentence sounds like the tagline for one of the comics we typically feature here, but it’s not. It’s reality, and it’s hard to deal with, but I continue to find that escaping into comics is as good a means of coping with this as any. So, onward. 

Let’s take a look at the Top Comics to Buy for March 25, 2020...

Top Comics to Buy for March 25, 2020

*PICK OF THE WEEK*
Lazarus Risen #4
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Michael Lark
Colorist: Santi Arcas
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $7.99
"GIFTS OF GOD": Casey Solomon and Michael Barrett. Bound together by a shared history and a deep love... and something else that may, one day, tear them apart. The Lazarus, Forever Carlyle.
Why It’s Cool: Lazarus Risen is a new over-sized, expanded format for Greg Rucka and Michael Lark’s original Lazarus comic, which is one of the best ongoing titles in all of comics. One oft-discussed facet of Lazarus is that the book was one of the first works of American fiction to predict such a drastic widening of wealth inequality, extrapolating it into a world where the masses swear allegiance to various oligarchical families the world over, supporting them as those families war for control. This issue is a step-back issue that moves backward in time to fill in details surrounding the family, by focusing on a pair of side characters that have been with us for some time now. It’s an impressive bit of narrative question answering, one that clearly will have vast implications moving forward, and it’s all executed with this book’s feel of near-reality. This is comic making at its best, and in these times, we should all be reading and thinking heavily of the questions raised by Lazarus.

Eve Stranger #5
Writer: David Barnett
Artist: Philip Bond
Colorist: Eva de la Cruz
Letterer: Jane Heir
Publisher: IDW Publishing - Black Crown
Price: $3.99
After her crisis of faith, Eve wants out of the job. But how can she do that, when she has nanobombs in her blood and her life -literally and physically!-depends on completing every mission to earn the deactivating serum? Her latest mission takes her back to Iceland, her home turf, and this time it's extra personal.  Eve might be down, but she's not out... can she see this through with a little help from some very strange friends? Find out in the explosive conclusion to EVE STRANGER: RETROGRADE.
Why It’s Cool: All good things must come to an end, and sadly this month that means the conclusion of Shelly Bond’s Black Crown imprint at IDW Publishing. We’ve known this was coming for a while, but now it’s official with the release of this book. Fortunately, Eve Stranger #5 is an excellent book end for what has been one of the most creatively vibrant micro imprints in all of comics after launching roughly three years ago. Black Crown in this iteration will be missed, but books like Eve Stranger have us curious all over again to see what Bond and the many talented creators she brought together here will do moving forward.

Immortal Hulk #33
Writer: Al Ewing
Artists: Joe Bennett & Nick Pitarra 
Inker: Ruy Jose
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $5.99
Celebrating 750 ISSUES of the INCREDIBLE H%LKTM! Something is wrong. Something has compromised the simulacrum. EXTRA-SIZE HULK-SMASHING ACTION! Banner is refusing to yield. Something is wrong. PL#S! ENTER - THE THOUGHTFUL MAN! Something is wrong. Something is wrong. Something is wrong.
Why It’s Cool: As we recently wrote in our Best Marvel Comics of 2020 (So Far) feature, there’s no better individual superhero title right now than Immortal Hulk, and while it’s hard to think of this book in terms of individual arcs (everything flows together so well!), this most recent set of issues has been among this title’s best, which is high praise indeed. The Hulk has been doing battle with Xenmu, who is seemingly a manifestation of toxic feelings of nostalgia, of the ever-present pull (stronger for some of us than for others) to bury our heads in idealized memories of the past, to think that things were always better. The last issue ended with a hell of a cliffhanger, and now we’ll get to see it played out here in the oversized Immortal Hulk #33, which is overall issue #750 of the continuing adventures of the Hulk. 

Tomorrow #2 (of 5)
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Jesus Hervas
Colorist: James Devlin
Letterer: Clem Robbins
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics - Berger Books
Price: $3.99
Oscar starts on the arduous path to his twin sister Cira, across an unrecognizable America. With the adult population swiftly dwindling, he needs an ally more than ever-and he's not the only one. While Malik and Destiny cling to their remaining family and the stranded soccer team turns deadly, Cira meets a dangerous new group of . . . friends.
Why It’s Cool: With its world built and its plot established in Tomorrow #1, this comic takes a massive narrative step forward here in Tomorrow #2. I really enjoyed the first issue, but I had a qualm that some of the concept felt a bit familiar. Well, here the creative team wastes no time extrapolating those familiar ideas into all new territories, creating something wholly unique. As a character acknowledges at one point, you’ll find a lot of Lord of the Flies here, but you’ll find it pushed into new places by touches that range from psychic links to geopolitical situations. It’s all really well-illustrated by the team of Jesus Hervas and James Devlin, too. What it all adds up to is a smart and terrifying comic that just reeled us in for the full length of its run.

X-Men #9
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Leinil Francis Yu
Colorist: Sunny Gho
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
The New Mutants are back from space, and they've brought intergalactic trouble with them! The Brood! The Shi'ar! The Starjammers! The Imperial Guard!
Why It’s Cool: This is a rare issue of the flagship Dawn of X title that actually builds directly on the chapter that came before it, with most of the entries in this series standing alone as goofy adventures or one-shots that push forward the over-arching ideas in this new Krakoa status quo. At the end of X-Men #8, however, the just-back-from-space New Mutants had inadvertantly pulled down a cosmic crisis on the new mutant nation, with a Brood horde speeding toward earth to come get back some kind of big fancy egg. That’s the kind of plot point you just have to clear up right away, and so that’s where we’re a with X-Men #9, which also finds its way to our Top Comics to Buy for March 22, 2020 list because we’ve loved everything with Jonathan Hickman’s name on it in this new Dawn of X era. Plus, there’s Starjammers and Imperial Guard involved. Yessss.

New #1s and One-Shots

*PICK OF THE WEEK*
No One’s Rose #1
Writers: Emily Horn & Zac Thompson
Artist: Alberto Jimenez-Alburquerque
Colorist: Raul Angulo
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Publisher: Vault Comics
Price: $3.99
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 It’s Cool: ‘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.’ Click here for our review!

• Fantastic Four: Marvels Snapshot #1

• Giant Size X-Men: Nightcrawler #1

• Hellions #1

• Judge Dredd: False Witness #1

• Killing Red Sonja #1

• Marvel Action - Avengers Vol. 2 #1

• Road to Empyre - Kree/Skrull War #1

• Transformers Vs. Terminator #1

• X-O Manowar #1

Others Receiving Votes

• Basketful of Heads #6

• Crowded #12

• Detective Comics #1021

• Flash #752

• Folklords #5

• Heathen #10

• Kill Lock #4

• Love & Rockets Vol. 4, #8

• Monstress #27

• Old Guard: Force Multiplied #4

• Once & Future #7

• Sex Criminals #28

• Usagi Yojimbo Color Classics #3

• Wolverine #2

• X-Men/Fantastic Four #3

Trade Paperbacks and Original Graphic Novels of Note

*PICK OF THE WEEK*
Dragon Hoops HC GN
Writer/Artist: Gene Luen Yang
Colorist: Lark Pien
Art Assists By: Rianne Meyes and Kolbe Yang
Publisher: First Second
Price: $24.99
In his latest graphic novel, Gene Luen Yang turns the spotlight on his life, his family, and the high school where he teaches. Gene doesn't get sports. But at Bishop O'Dowd High School, it's all anyone can talk about. The men's varsity basketball team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that's been decades in the making. Once Gene gets to know these young all-stars, he realizes that their story is just as thrilling as anything he's seen on a comic book page. What he doesn't know yet is that this season is not only going to change the Dragons' lives, but his own life as well.
Why It’s Cool: ‘I think that’s what at once makes this book exactly what we need right now — 435 pages that make us feel better about uncertainty while also providing an immersive and refreshing story of growth and acceptance.’ Click here for our review!

• Batman: Creature of the Night HC

• Black Hammer/Justice League: Hammer of Justice HC

• Canto Vol. 1 If I Only Had a Heart TP

• Captain America by Ta-Nehisi Coates HC Vol. 1

• Coffin Bound Vol. 1 Happy Ashes TP

• Doctor Doom Vol. 1 Pottersville TP

• Justice League of America: The Nail Complete Collection TP

• Midnight Vista TP

• Once & Future Vol. 1 TP

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder in Hell

• Ummas Table HC

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.