This Week's Picks: Absolute Superman Ends the Brainiac War, Plus Batman Faces Six Assassins and a New Avengers Team Assembles

Big endings and big beginnings share the shelf this week. Absolute Superman finishes its war with Brainiac in an oversize issue. Batman opens a new storyline with a masked ball and six killers. Absolute Catwoman runs one last heist, and Marvel launches a fresh Avengers team while DNX keeps pressing on the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Each book asks what its heroes do when the plan falls apart.

Absolute Superman #25

Jason Aaron has spent this series stripping Superman of everything familiar. Krypton is gone, Earth treats him as a threat, and Brainiac has hunted him from the start. Issue #25 is the oversize conclusion of "Get Brainiac," a final confrontation Aaron has been building for two years. Art comes from Juan Ferreyra, Rafa Sandoval, and Carmine Di Giandomenico, with Sandoval and Ulises Arreola on colors. Splitting an anniversary issue across three artists suits a story about a man pulled in several directions at once. DC promises a shocking ending that sends Superman into a new era. The Absolute line works when it treats its heroes as survivors first, and this issue tests how much a survivor can lose and still stand up.

Batman #15

Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez pick up in the aftermath of Bad Seeds with a premise that fits a good thriller. Six assassins descend on Gotham, all aimed at Bruce Wayne. The setting is a masquerade gala, and by the end of the night, Bruce Wayne is supposed to die before the eyes of the world. Fraction has a record of turning a high-concept hook into character comedy and heartbreak, as Hawkeye and Sex Criminals showed. Jiménez, whose work on Justice League and Batman made him one of DC's most influential stylists, draws crowds, costumes, and violence with a flair that a ballroom ambush demands. The question is simple and sharp. Can Bruce survive a party built to kill him without breaking his cover?

Avengers #1

Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto reunite after their run on Daredevil, and they arrive straight from the fallout of Avengers: Armageddon. The new roster assembles to avenge the Marvel Universe. It includes Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Luke Cage, and David Colton, the character at the center of Armageddon. That lineup mixes street-level fighters with cosmic muscle and a newcomer carrying the weight of the last event. Zdarsky writes teams as people with grudges and doubts, and Checchetto brings the grounded, cinematic realism that made their Daredevil pages feel dangerous. A first issue like this has to explain who these people are to each other and to a public that lost faith in the Avengers. The pairing suggests it will.

Absolute Catwoman #4

Che Grayson and Scott Snyder write, Bengal draws, Giovanna Niro colors, and Lucas Gattoni letters. Selina Kyle and the Calicos join forces for one last heist to find the Yarn before Cassandra Cain and the League of Shadows reach it. The Yarn is described as the world's most powerful supercomputer, so the prize is information instead of jewels. That shifts the genre from smash-and-grab to a race for control of data. Bengal's style gives the crew a loose, kinetic energy, and the League of Shadows supplies a rival with real menace. DC has extended the series to twelve issues, which tells you the audience wants more of Selina's corner of the Absolute world. Issue #4 shows why.

DNX #4

Jed MacKay and Federico Vicentini continue an event that keeps raising its stakes. The X-Men and the Fantastic Four must regroup after an unexpected catastrophe, while the effects of the Chairman's scheme at 3K have only begun to be felt. The solicitation hints that even the Chairman's plans have flaws. That matters. A villain who never slips is dull, and one who improvises under pressure is dangerous. MacKay is one of Marvel's most reliable plotters, and he is juggling two big casts without losing track of motive. Vicentini keeps a crowded cast readable, and the pairing of Marvel's first family with its mutant heroes gives the event a wider canvas. Readers who skipped the first three issues can still see where the pressure points are.

The Demon #2

James Harren writes and draws this limited series, with Dave Stewart on colors and Clayton Cowles on letters. Harren made his name on Rumble, where his thick, expressive linework turned monsters into characters. A Demon book plays to that strength. Jason Blood's long fight against hell has hit a wall in the form of a prince of Hell who has a score to settle with Etrigan. The issue asks whether Jason is ready to let the Demon loose, and that choice drives the series. Stewart is among the best colorists in comics at painting supernatural light, and his palette should give hell a distinct texture. At $3.99, this is the week's easiest recommendation for readers who like their DC dark.

This Week's Full Release List

Everything else shipping to shelves this Wednesday, condensed:

Marvel

• Miles Morales: Spider-Man #4
• Challenges of Doom: Doctor Strange #1 (Al Ewing and Fabrizio De Tommaso)
• Friendly Neighborhood Mary Jane #1 (Ashley Allen and Phil Noto)
• Ghost Rider: Kushala #1 (Taboo and B. Earl, with Guillermo Sanna and Vanesa R. Del Rey)
• Infernal Hulk vs. Spider-Man #1 (Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Nic Klein)
• Iron Man #11
• Marvel Meow / Strange Scales #1
• Punisher Showdowns: Wolverine #1 (Stephanie Phillips, Tom Waltz, and Bruno Bull)
• Spider-Woman #1 (Dan Watters and Andrea Broccardo)
• Uncanny X-Men #38
• Wolverine #29

DC

• Absolute Green Lantern #20
• Batgirl #25
• Batman #497 Facsimile Edition
• DC Connect #78
• Gangs of Gotham #1
• Jonah Hex and the Shadow of Death #2
• Superman: The Stranger #3

Image, Dark Horse and More

• The Walking Dead Deluxe #148
• Deadly Tales of the Gunslinger Spawn #20
• Exquisite Corpses: Fox Mask Killer #2
• Exquisite Corpses: Lone Gunman #1
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero / Tomb Raider #2
• Hammerfist #3
• Ghost of a Ghost #2 (Dark Horse)
• Department of Truth #39
• Red Sonja / Barbarella #1 (Dynamite)
• Blade Runner: Tokyo Nexus – Die With Honor #1 (Titan)
• Rip Kirby #1 (Mad Cave)
• Mad Science Division #1 (Ignition Press)
• Halloween: The Game Comic #1 (Massive)
• Circuits: Seduction Revenge #1 (Devil's Due)

Graphic Novels and Trade Collections

• Absolute Superman Vol. 3: The Neverending Begins (HC and TP)
• Captain America Epic Collection: The Lazarus Conspiracy
• Captain America: The Death of Captain America (Marvel Premier Collection)
• Generation X Epic Collection: Counter X
• Magik & Colossus
• Crisis on Infinite Earths (DC Compact Comics Edition)
• Disney Villains: Maleficent Vol. 2 (Dynamite)
• Pathfinder: Dark Waters Rising Compact Edition (Dynamite)
• Star Wars Icons: Darth Vader HC (Massive)

Pick up Absolute Superman if you want the week's biggest payoff, Batman if you want a fast, stylish set piece, and Avengers if you want to see what Marvel builds next. Each book moves its story forward, and each rewards readers who show up this week.

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