By Zack Quaintance — This week is one of those recovery weeks, wherein the vast majority of the comics world was at a massive con (in this case NYCC), and many of us are still dazed and catching up on sleep (not me, I stayed home in California and slept like a baby, but I digress…). The scheduled books from the Big 2 roll on, though, while the indie offerings are strong too. It is, as has become normal for 2018, another strong week for comics.

Yes even with the NYCC hangover, there’s still quite a bit going on this week, ranging from new title debuts—Devil Within, Infinite Dark, and Murder Falcon are all well worth your time and money—to the continuations of two of my favorite superhero books right now—Hawkman and Immortal Hulk. Oh, and about NYCC: I have a separate piece coming later today about the top new comic announcements. So keep an eye out for that! But for now let’s narrow down the comics you plan to buy for this coming Wednesday.

Let’s do it!

Top Comics to Buy for October 10, 2018

Crowded #3 (Read our review of Crowded #1)
Writer: Christopher Sebela
Peniciler: Ro Stein
Inker: Ted Brandt
Colorist: Triona Farrell
Letterer: Cardinal Rae
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Circe and Trotter, two of the heaviest hitters in the private murder industry, have just landed in Los Angeles, looking for Charlie and eager to collect the almost two million dollar Reapr campaign on her life. Charlie, oblivious to the growing danger, tries to carry on her freewheeling lifestyle while under Vita's lock and key. But even their safest safehouse can't keep the fame-and-fortune-driven killers off their trail for too long.
Why It’s Cool: Through three issues, Crowded continues to be a perfect amalgamation of suspenseful plotting, clear and clever visual storytelling, and a high-concept that extrapolates our present into a logical and terrifying future. This issue continues to entertain as it builds the near-future world out and introduces some intimidating new villains that are sure to complicate our heroes’ fight for survival amid the crowd-sourced bounty on one of their heads that continues to grow.

Hot Lunch Special #3 (Read our review of Hot Lunch Special #1)
Writer: Eliot Rahal
Artist: Jorge Fornes
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Publisher: AfterShock Comics
Price: $3.99
There are no secrets now. Only bodies. It's dinner time, and Dorothy and Jordan are competing to sit at the head of the table, both forcing their family members to make hard decisions. Do the Khorys go to the cops? Or do they go to war? The Khoury criminal legacy is fully revealed. Some choices have already been made-the Irish crime lord, Big Jim Moran, is getting anxious. He's left too many loose ends, and he's forced to cut strings. The order has been given. It's time for everyone to die.
Why It’s Cool: I’ve called this book Fargo-esque in the past, but I think after three issues that’s kind of a reductive description that does it a bit of a disservice. Sure, Hot Lunch Special has crime noir and an upper Midwestern setting in common with Fargo, but it also sets itself apart with its deep interest in family dynamics. This is a deliberate and nuanced book, grissly and compelling in equal parts, and I’m absolutely all in on following it to its finish.

Immortal Hulk #7
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Lee Garbett
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
They're the reason he died. They're the reason he came back. Now THE AVENGERS have to bring him in. But how far will even Earth's Mightiest Heroes go to cage...the IMMORTAL HULK?
Why It’s Cool: I’ve made no secret that I love Immortal Hulk, especially in my recent look at the Top 5 Marvel Comics Right Now. For me, this is squarely a MUST BUY comic until further notice. I love how writer Al Ewing has exercised restraint with incorporating pieces of the usual Hulk mythos, limiting appearances by Banner’s normally-robust supporting cast. That is slowly changing, though, and here we see Hulk poised to tangle with The Avengers, as Hulk has long been wont to do.

Murder Falcon #1
Writer/Artist: Daniel Warren Johnson
Colorist: Mike Spicer
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
From DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON, the creator of the Eisner-nominated series EXTREMITY, comes MURDER FALCON! The world is under attack by monsters, and Jake's life is falling apart: no band, no girl, no future... until he meets Murder Falcon. He was sent from The Heavy to destroy all evil, but he can't do it without Jake shredding up a storm. Now, with every chord Jake plays on his guitar, the power of metal fuels Murder Falcon into all-out kung fu fury on those that seek to conquer Earth. It’s time to shred.
Why It’s Cool: Murder Falcon #1 is brimming with the sort of self-aware over-the-top comic book cheese I love: monsters, mayhem, kung-fu fighting falcons, and metal chords so savage they can alter the physical nature of the world around them. THere is, however, a surprising amount of heart to this book as well. As entertaining as its name and cover implies with a surprising amount of thought behind it all, Murder Falcon is the best comic out this week...a MUST BUY.

Supergirl #23
Writers: Marc Andreyko & Kevin Maguire
Artist: Kevin Maguire
Inkers: Sean Parsons & Wade Von Grawbadger
Colorist: FCO Plascencia & Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99
Supergirl's cosmic quest continues as she searches the galaxy for the truth about Rogol Zaar's connection to Krypton's destruction-and if there are any other culprits to be brought to justice. The library police are hot on Kara's trail after she breaks into the Green Lantern database on Mogo, but she's short on credits to pay the fine.
Why It’s Cool: One of my favorite parts of Brian Michael Bendis’ Superman run to date is the idea that Krypton was not destroyed by a natural disaster but rather a concentrated act of bigoted hate. It’s a very 2018 idea, this notion that major power structures can be manipulated by playing on base fears of the other. Anyway, in Supergirl we have Kara adventuring through space with Krypto the dog, working to solve the mystery of whether the planet’s destruction was a hate crime, who perpetrated, and—most poignantly—what powerful group of people worked to cover it up. This is, simply put, one of DC’s best comics right now.

Others Receiving Votes

Amazing Spider-Man #7
Avengers #9
Captain America #4
Crowded #3
Flash #56
Hawkman #5
Oblivion Song #8
She Could Fly #4
Suicide Squad #47
Titans #27
Unnatural #4
Venom #7
Weatherman #5
Wildstorm: Michael Cray #12
Wonder Woman #56
Wrong Earth #2

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.

Long-running books like Saga and The Wicked + The Divine NOT cracking our top 5 comics of 2017 has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of those books. No, in fact, Saga is as good as always, while Wic + Div is reaching new and awesome heights, propelled by epic twists that have changed this story of music and gods as we know it.

Those books didn’t make the top 5 because, as you’ll see when part 3 drops (hopefully tomorrow!), 2017 was a killer year for comics, at least critically (sales is another story). In our top 5, we’ll have a truly phenomenal Marvel series with a perfect ending, and we’ll have one of the industry’s best writers doing great things on multiple books and characters over at DC. But hey, we’re getting ahead of ourselves! Let’s save it for the next post.

Besides, the crop we have here is pretty great. So, let’s quit fiddling around and check out 6 - 15!

15. Doomsday Clock by Geoff Johns / Gary Frank
We predict Doomsday Clock will end up higher on next year’s list once it's get further into the story, but at the moment we’ve only seen two of the twelve issues. Those issues, however, were quite promising, setting up a tale likely to have ramifications throughout the DC Universe. With Geoff Johns and Gary Franks leading the way, we’re in for some real good comic booking.

14. X-Men: Grand Design by Ed Piskor
As with Doomsday Clock, X-Men: Grand Design will likely be higher on next year’s list. We’ve only seen one of six issues, but this might just be a masterpiece. Reading this book is like watching a perfectly-executed historical documentary, one informed by massive amounts of research. Ed Piskor, the auteur behind Grand Design, did the same thing on his last book, Hip Hop Family Tree, which traced the history of that music genre as Grand Design traces the X-Men. Simply put, this is an unprecedented and artful attempt to streamline decades of convoluted stories, and Piskor is nailing it. If he’s willing, Marvel should have Piskor produce similar books about Spider-Man, The Avengers, Hulk, Iron Man and so on and so on, etc, forever.

13. Secret Weapons by Eric Heisserer / Raul Allen
There was a cinematic quality to Secret Weapons, a Harbinger offshoot that ended up being the best Valiant book this year. That cinematic feel is likely owed to writer Eric Heisserer, who also penned last year’s excellent film Arrival. Secret Weapons is about a team of underdogs who learn to use seemingly useless powers to combat a threat that is hunting them. The plot doesn’t break new ground, but the characters’ powers are fresh, the script is compelling, and the art is top-notch. I'm becoming exhausted with Valiant not letting series grow into themselves, but this mini was satisfyingly self-contained.

12. Deathstroke by Christopher Priest / Various
Deathstroke has been a highlight of DC Rebirth. It's written by PRIEST, an all-time great creator who returned to monthly comics to helm this, and man, are we lucky he did. The plotting and character work in Deathstroke is more complex and nuanced than almost any other superhero title today, and PRIEST is consistently planting seeds that payoff later. His work here has been so good that DC allegedly offered him the Batman editor gig (which he allegedly declined) before giving him its flagship team book, Justice League. Smart moves, all around.

11. The Wild Storm by Warren Ellis / Jon Davis-Hunt
We’ve gone two whole spots without saying this, but The Wild Storm is yet another book likely to be higher next year. There is an incredible amount of complex track being patiently laid here by writer Warren Ellis. In fact, before this book launched, Ellis said he’d plotted exactly what would happen and when (and which books would spin out of the title), and this intricate planning shows. Also, Jon Davis-Hunt is one of the most underrated artists in comics. His facial expressions are almost photographically realistic, and The Wild Storm #9 had a samurai sequence that ranks as the best graphic action storytelling of the year. We can’t wait to see where this goes.

10. Royal City by Jeff Lemire
Royal City is a personal and introspective book, easily the most personal and introspective book appearing monthly in almost every shop. What’s especially impressive for such an introspective book is that the story here is also relatable, rich as it is with family dynamics, economic struggles, addiction, etc., and it's told with a really cool ‘90s grunge vibe, super familiar to readers of a certain age. Also of note is that Royal City is written AND drawn by Jeff Lemire, whose Google Calendar must be INSANE because he’s writing a half dozen other books always.

9. Supergirl: Being Super by Mariko Tamaki / Joelle Jones
Supergirl: Being Super gives the titular character the reimagined out-of-continuity origin story treatment, a concept that has previously resulted in great stories about more prominent characters, mostly Superman and Batman, over and over and over. It's nice to see it now applied to Supergirl. All four of the glossy oversized issues that make up the run of this book were killer, and Joelle Jones’ art was so good it often felt like watching a great teen drama that was heavy on emotion.

8. Saga by Brian K. Vaughan / Fiona Staples
Saga has been a favorite throughout its run, and we’ve given it to friends and co-workers who don’t read comics (harshly judging any who did not respond with praise), and we never miss an issue. Recently, @SageTerrence described this book on Twitter as “Star Wars and Romeo and Juliet combined,” which is a good starting point for explaining Saga. Taking it further, this is also a book about a family fighting to survive a galactic conflict that is so polarized and entrenched many of those engaged in it have lost sight of the cost, becoming blinded to what's productive and only focusing on whether they're right. This, sadly, was a tragically-relevant theme for 2017, a drag-ass year if ever there was one. Here’s to a better 2018, in which Saga continues to be this good.

7. God Country by Donny Cates / Geoff Shaw
Donny Cates was a talented up-and-comer when 2017 started. Then God Country dropped. Now, as 2017 ends, Donny Cates is a bonafide comics star. If you’ve read God Country, this makes total sense. The book was so good, my LCS now orders all of Cates stuff, marking the first time this particular shop has stocked AfterShock Comics or Vault Comics titles (because of Babyteeth and Reactor, respectively). Like all of Cates’ best work, this book is powered by a mix of unique concept and clever scripting, with a healthy coat of pure Texas, Cates native state.

6. The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen / Jamie McKelvie
It’s been easy to forget The Wicked + The Divine in recent years, not because the book hasn’t been good or memorable, but because it’s been so reliable. It’s like the friend you take for granted because he or she is always there. This year, however, Gillen and McKelvie took the story to new places with a blockbuster arc that paid off events from the first issue that pretty much anywhere realized would come back to be relevant. This year's incredible arc was easily Wic + Div’s best, no minor feat for a story that’s 30-some issues old. The end game is coming for this book, and while we're sad to see it end, we have total faith that the finale will be spectacular.

SPECIAL NOTE: The exciting conclusion, complete with the Top 5 Comics of 2017, is coming tomorrow!

Pt. 1, #16 - #25

Top Comics to Buy for October 10, 2018

Top Comics to Buy for October 10, 2018

Top New #1 Comics for October 10, 2018

Others Receiving Votes

Top Comics of 2017, Pt. 2 #6 - #15