By Zack Quaintance — This is the most packed week I’ve seen all year, at least as far as my own tastes in creator-owned comics are concerned. Each week, we pick a top 5 list of new comics coming on Wednesday to spotlight. This week’s list of Top Comics to Buy for November 6, 2019 could have easily gone to 6, or 7, or maybe even 10. There were, quite simply, too many great books.

Comics like Immortal Hulk #26, Going to the Chapel #3, Coffin Bound #4, Lois Lane #5, Berserker Unbound #4, and Livewire #12 were all wonderful, and are well worth a purchase this week, as are the roughly dozen or so promising new #1 issues, which range from more Dawn of X titles to a really intriguing hardcover comic from Matt Fraction and Elsa Charretier. We don’t typically put new #1s in the top 5, but if we did, we’d enthusiastically have Undiscovered Country #1 there, which is going to be a HUGE hit for Image Comics. Publishers often work hard to get top product on the shelves for the holiday shopping season, and this year is no exception.

Anyway, the point is it’s a lot...so let’s get to it!

Top Comics to Buy for November 6, 2019

*PICK OF THE WEEK*
Wasted Space #11
Writer: Michael Moreci
Artist: Hayden Sherman
Colorist: Jason Wordie
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: Vault Comics
Price: $3.99
The crew's in deep sh*t with these new passengers, and Billy dashes off for a... galactic spa?! Meanwhile, Molly's not taking any more BS from anyone!
Why It’s Cool: I’m not going to mince words here...since Wasted Space #1 found its way to me way back in early 2018, this book has steadily risen to become my absolute favorite sci-fi epic in all of comics. It’s a high space adventure, to be sure, but more than that, this is a comic that packs in some of the sharpest ideas about our times in any medium. I’ve said it before, but it still holds true — Wasted Space reads like Star Wars by way of David Foster Wallace, and we’re all lucky it exists.

Die #9
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Stephanie Hans
Guest Color Artist p. 8 - 18: Elvire De Cock
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
"SPLIT THE PARTY," Part Four-Forget escaping DIE. You can't do that without escaping the prison, with your worst enemy and the first woman who ever gazed upon this plane with human eyes.
Why It’s Cool: I have to be very careful not to spoil anything here (although folks who read more carefully than I might have already seen this coming), but in Die #9 the full literary ambitions and scope of this comic really start to be clear...and it’s an absolute joy. When this book started, it seemed to be a bit of a love letter the nostalgia of playing table-top RPGs as kids with a group of friends, excellently-tinged with the darkness of comparing one’s middle-aged realities with the fantasies of youth. It is, however, more than that. It’s a love letter of sorts to getting lost in a world period. Be it through RPGs, reading, or simply childhood play...and, of course, the darkness remains. I can’t be any plainer about this—READ THIS COMIC.

Everything #3
Writer: Christopher Cantwell
Artist: I.N.J. Culbard
Letterer: Steve Wands
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics - Berger Books
Price: $3.99
After nearly dying, Eberhard returns to work . . . but is he getting better, or worse? Meanwhile, Shirley goes to extreme lengths in search of a new friend, and Lori's own health takes a turn-something that will send her even deeper into the enigmatic power of Everything.
Why It’s Cool: Everything is one of those rare comics that is so good, so immersive, and so compelling and mysterious...that I can’t even quite articulate its immense strengths. But I have a website not beholden to any sort of financial interest, so I’m going try...on the surface, Everything looked like one of a number of new comics with something biting to say about consumerism and resultant homogeny. And, indeed, it is that, but at the same time, this book is so artful and smart, so layered and thoughtful, that the end effect is a story that is much deeper and far more layered. Every page is a potential surprise, every issue a thrilling (and often violent) jerk in a new direction. I love this book, and strongly urge all fans of the comics medium to give it a shot.

No One Left to Fight #5
Writer: Aubrey Sitterson
Artist: Fico Ossio
Colorist: Fico Ossio with Raciel Avila
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $3.99
It's the final issue of The Comic You Always Wanted, and it turns out that there is someone left to fight. From Aubrey Sitterson (The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling, G.I. Joe) & Fico Ossio (Spider-Man, Revolution), the year's hottest new book reaches its explosive, action-packed conclusion, with its heroes squaring off against a massive threat from their past, a monster they thought long vanquished. It's "The Return of Bruton!" and it's the biggest, most berserk issue-length brawl you've ever seen committed to the comics page.
Why It’s Cool: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — from the first page of its first issue, No One Left to Fight has been a comic that really makes it clear its creators are having an absolute blast. That really doesn’t change here in this final issue (for now, hopefully), in which all the tensions that have been building — in the background as well as between our main characters — come to a head in one of the most beautifully illustrated massive DBZ-style battles I’ve seen in any book this year. Without saying more, let me just note I loved it and I am all but certain that you will too. It’s not too late to catch up on this one, but, at a minimum, make sure to eventually snag it in trade. This comic is going to be all over the best of the year lists (at least at this site anyway).

Pretty Deadly: Rat #3
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick
Artist: Emma Rios
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Enter the door that never closes to the realm of the Reaper of Thirst.
Why It’s Cool: There are smart comics and artful comics and comics that feel like a dream...and then there are comics like Pretty Deadly Rat, which feels like a story culled from heights of some ethereal other realm, so richly realized is every last element on every single page of this story. This comic is an absolute feast for the imagination. The narration and dialogue reads like literary fiction (with more fantastical ideas, obviously), and the Emma Rios artwork is staggering, complimented perfectly by the Jordie Bellaire colors. Basically, every time there is new Pretty Deadly in the world, I think, what did you we do to deserve this gift? And this new series is no exception.

New #1s and One-Shots

Absolute Carnage: Weapon Plus #1
Addams Family: The Bodies One-Shot
BB Free #1
Crone #1
Dragonfly and Dragonfly Man #1
Future Fight Firsts Crescent and Io #1
Green Lantern: Blackstars #1
Heist or How to Steal a Planet #1
Infected King Shazam #1
KISS Zombies #1
Legion of Super-Heroes #1
Locke and Key: Dog Days One-Shot
Magicians #1
New Mutants #1
November Vol. 1
Rick and Morty Presents Unity #1
Spider-Man, Venom Double Trouble #1
Undiscovered Country #1
X-Force #1
Yondu #1

Others Receiving Votes

Batman Universe #5
Berserker Unbound #4
Coffin Bound #4
Daredevil #13
Doctor Doom #2
Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #5
Going to the Chapel #3
Grendel: Devil’s Odyssey #2
Immortal Hulk #26
Inferior Five #3
Justice League #35
Livewire #12
Lois Lane #5
Ruby Falls #2
Young Justice #10

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.