By Zack Quaintance — This was a big weekend for pop culture, with Avengers: Endgame and Game of Thrones: The Battle of Winterfell marking a massive concentrated culmination of the zeitgeist's ongoing concerns for the past decade. This is all a fancy way to note that this Monday morning I am very tired. Yet, here we are as always just two days away from new comics. Commerce must go on, even more so than Thanos or the White Walkers. So then, welcome to our Top Comics to Buy for May 1.

Fortunately, they are a lot of great comics coming out this week, which makes writing about them a whole lot of fun. In some ways, this is really my favorite sort of week, one in which the best comics are the products of runs or storylines that have been solid for a good while and are just now hitting big creative flourishes. It’s all very satisfying to read. Even when one is good and worn out from the intensity of a weekend of gigantic set pieces.

Let’s get to the books!

Top Comics to Buy for May 1, 2019

*PICK OF THE WEEK*
The Green Lantern #7
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Liam Sharp
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99
After sacrificing himself to save the entire universe from a cosmic WMD, Hal Jordan finds himself trapped inside his own power ring! And he discovers an entire universe lies inside it, populated with souls whose lives are threatened when his ring runs out of power! Can Hal save yet another universe one issue after saving the last? Only Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp know the answer within this classic run in the making!
Why It’s Cool: This issue is the best yet in a run that has been a tour de force of craft and imagination. Artist Liam Sharp is making a got-damned statement with this comic, and in this issue, he branches off into even more nuanced visuals, tackling a story that involves Hal Jordan tumbling through his ring. He’s been previewing artwork from this issue on his social media accounts for some time, and now it’s actually here. Sit back and enjoy the beauty of a really special superhero run, the sort that reminds you stunning artistry is indeed possible with long-tenured licensed superhero characters.

Paper Girls #28
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Cliff Chiang
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
PART THREE OF THE FINAL ARC!
Experience four timelines simultaneously in this tour de force issue.
Why It’s Cool: Throughout its run, Paper Girls has been a rare comic—at least for my tastes—in which a near total lack of clarity has not lessened my interest in its plot. Part of this is the way the book has been so thoroughly rooted in its characters, in the relationships between the four girls at the story’s center. Another part of this is that Cliff Chiang is arguably the best comicbook artist working today in terms of creating engaging designs for everything from clothes to monsters to new technologies. Anyway, here we are at the final arc, and Paper Girls is still doling out revelations and answers—at a rate that has propelled the book to new levels of entertaining. Last issue ended on quite the cliffhanger (one I totally understood, too!), and I can’t wait to see what they do as this adventure in ‘80s nostalgia and time travel continues to build up/wind down.   

Self Made #6
Writer: Mathew Groom
Artist: Eduardo Ferigato
Colorist: Marcelo Costa
Color Flats: Mariana Calil
Letterer: A Larger World Studios’ Troy Peteri
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
MINISERIES FINALE!
"A REAL PAIN-IN-THE-ASS ACCIDENT": Amala lost her family in her search for answers. Bryce lost his soul in his quest for revenge. Now, outside the walls of the universe, far beyond all that we understand, they come face-to-face for the last time.
Why It’s Cool: Throughout its run, Self Made has appeared regularly on our Top Comics to Buy lists, and so too does this mini-series finale. An end note in the comic has writer Mathew Groom hoping to continue this story, but even if he never gets the chance, this has been a satisfying read start to finish. The early issues were predicated on suspense, mystery, and a number of excellent plot twists. The later issues (including this finale) are powered more by deep questions of consciousness, existence, and philosophy. It feels almost as if these creators picked the meaning of life as the theme for their book, and then went at it with the storytelling intensity such a lofty question deserves. If you’ve been with us from the start, you’ll enjoy this finale. If you haven’t read this comic at all yet but your interest is piqued, make a note on your calendar to snag it in trade.

Spencer and Locke 2 #1
Writer: David Pepose (read our interview with the creators!)
Artist: Jorge Santiago, Jr.
Colorist: Jasen Smith
Letterer: Colin Bell
Publisher: Action Lab - Danger Zone
Price: $3.99
Read our review here!
Suspended by Internal Affairs, Detective Locke grapples with the demons of his past alongside his trusty partner, his childhood imaginary panther Spencer. But when Spencer and Locke face a scarred soldier named Roach Riley, will this unlikely pair finally meet their match?
Why It’s Cool: We’ve been heaping praise on this fantastic comic all year, having caught up with the first volume in January and then gone on to read this first issue soon after. I personally grew up on Calvin and Hobbes before coming of age during the early 2000s, with its wave of gritty deconstructionist crime comics. What Spencer and Locke does, essentially, is combine the two and give the whole thing a heartbreaking coat of deeply psychological storytelling pathology, looking at the type of dysfunction that might give rise to continually losing oneself in fantasy far into adulthood. This second volume starts with the same intense characterization and classic comic strip homages that made the first one such a pleasure to read. If you’ve never heard of this book, do yourself a favor this Wednesday and pick up this new #1 with the first issue trade. You’ll be in for a world of great reading.

War of the Realms #3
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Russell Dauterman
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $4.99
RECLAIM THE REALMS!
North America freezes into New Jotunheim. Europe becomes New Svartalfheim. Asia goes up in flames as the new domain of Queen Sindr and her fire goblins. Ulik the Troll lays claim to Australia while Amora the Enchantress raises an army of the dead in South America. Africa falls to the Angels of Heven while Roxxon Oil drops its stakes in Antarctica. Midgard now belongs to Malekith and his allies! The Avengers' last hope lies in a series of suicide missions across the realms, starting with the rescue of Thor-last seen surrounded by an army of Frost Giants in Jotunheim...
Why It’s Cool: With no direct movie correlation and years of storylines behind it, War of the Realms has already been a cut above most recent Marvel Comics linewide mega events. Through two issues, the story has been just fine. What’s really making this one something special, however, is the so-good-it-seems-impossible artwork from the team of Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson. Every panel in this event has just crackled with so much power and energy. With David Marquez now departing for rival DC, Dauterman stands along as easily the best artistic talent at Marvel, and he’s doing some of the best work of his entire career on War of the Realms. I, for one, feel fortunate to be consuming this as it comes out, having a metaphorical front row seat.

Top New #1 Comics and One-Shots

• Beasts of Burden: Presence of Others #1

• DC’s Year of the Villian #1

• DCeased #1

• Descendent #1

• Fallen World #1 (read our review here!)

• Five Years #1

• Gogor #1

• Goosebumps: Horrors of the Witch House #1

• Hashtag Danger #1

• Nobody’s in Control #1

• Savage Avengers #1

• Star Wars - Age of Rebellion: Han Solo #1

• War of the Realms: Strikeforce Dark Elf #1

Others Receiving Votes

• Age of X-Man: Prisoner X #3

• Barbarella/Dejah Thoris #3

• Batman #70

• Black Hammer ‘45 #3

• Deathstroke #43

• Devil Within #4

• Eclipse #15

• Giant Days #50

• Girl in the Bay #4

• Justice League #23

• Punisher #11

• Red Sonja #3

• Uncanny X-Men #17

• The Walking Dead #191

• Young Justice #5

Check back to the site later this week for reviews of DCeased #1 and Descendent #1...plus a list of our favorite comics from April 2019!

See our past top comics to buy here, and check our 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 BatmansBookcase.