These are the books I will use to recover from the stress–and ultimate release of the same–of the week–stress months in the making–which will peak, appropriately enough, on Thank-God-It’s-Wednesday.

• Neverboy #3 (Dark Horse)
• No Mercy #2 (Image): I&N Demand With #1, Alex De Campi and Carla Speed McNeil have proven there’s no such thing as “too much Magic Bus.”  What a surprise!  I’ll not be caught off guard again.
  

• The Wicked & The Divine #10 (Image)
• Zero #16 (Image): I&N Demand #15 was pretty effing brilliant.  It’s the kind of queer, out-of-nowhere story that burrows into your brain like an ill-advised bullet.  So, so good.  Oh yeah, it gave me a raging–well, it gave me a raging cover to #16.
  

• Ant-Man #5 (Marvel): I&N Demand Ant-Man: it’s more than a cheap movie tie-in, that’s for sure.  It’s a book with a big funny bone and an even bigger heart.  Nick Spencer’s found the perfect outlet in a seemingly irrelevant title–one that’d be easily overlooked, if not for our magnifying its unanticipated brilliance.  Puns and self-aggrandizement completely intended.
  

• Secret Wars #1 (Marvel)
• Afterlife With Archie #8 (Archie Horror): I&N Demand A stunning Archievement!  It’s a book fueled by the comfy couch of nostalgia–a book that drives you to the edge of your seat by burning the cushions, the fire started by exuberantly rubbing Riverdale-related expectations together.  And zombies.

• Arcadia #1 (BOOM!) Just I&N Sounds Matrix-y.  I’m down.
  

• Dead Drop #1 (Valiant)
• Rachel Rising #33 (Abstract Studio)
• Über #24 (Avatar)
• We Can Never Go Home #2 (Black Mask) I&N Demand #1 was really, really great.  I know, right?  Who knew?  That’s why we try ’em, folks.  Reminds of the solid They’re Not Like Us (Image), which is, ironically, still looking for its voice; and brings to mind the villainously heroic Dry Spell, which we just so happened to celebrate as our #3 book of 2014.  Super-high praise for an out-of-nowhere title, no?  If you missed it, don’t fret: Black Mask delivered a second printing this week.  It may be that you can never go home, but luckily you can always go to your local comic shop.  Do yourself a favor: grab that and this.  
  

Avery’s Picks of the Week

• Scooby-Doo Team-Up #10 (DC): Of all the books I’ve bought Avery over the past couple of years, it’s the Scooby-Doo titles that reign as the most reread.  Ruh-ray!

• Feathers #5 (BOOM!)

What are you looking forward to this week?

Turning pages,

Scott