Ahead of this week’s comic book pull list, I’d like to call attention to the numerous video game offerings in the comic world. This week, there are four video game comics for you to read.

Injustice: Gods Among Us is in what appears to be the final “year” of its run. The Injustice comic has been running since 2013 and this week is the 111th issue in its run. Assassin’s Creed is wrapping up a five issue arc about a new assassin character. Meanwhile, Street Fighter and Deus Ex both have miniseries that act as preludes for their upcoming installments later this year. It kind of makes me wonder when Telltale’s The Walking Dead gets a comic adaptation to bring it full circle.

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I’m really bad at introducing these weekly features on the blog and not keeping up with them. That includes the weekly comic book releases posts. If you think I’m bad here, I’d hate to see how my local comic book shop thinks of my irregular visits to pick up my file… And reading the actual comics too.

This week, I noticed something unusual in the releases. IDW has three Disney comics in their list (Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories). Naturally, I had to look into how IDW is publishing these instead of Marvel. It turns out that back in October 2014, IDW announced that they would be publishing Disney comics in North America starting in March 2015. I didn’t see any reporting into how this deal came about or why Disney went with IDW over their in-house comic book publisher. Still, little business stories like that interest me so maybe someone else out there found that fascinating.

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Another week, another edition of the comic book releases. This week, I want to look at the crossovers between DC Comics and IDW. This week, they have one crossover ending and a new one beginning. Concluding on the IDW side of the ledger is Star Trek / Green Lantern #6 as the heroes of Starfleet and the Lantern Corp team up for one final battle. Over at DC, Batman faces a new foe in the Foot Clan but four heroes in a half-shell are there to help him out in Batman / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1.

I’m sure that there will be a lot of purists of these franchises who might not be happy with these crossovers (except as a TMNT fan, I’m looking forward to reading that one) but it’s all in good fun. It’s not like any of these stories will be canon for anyone involved. It’s a little diversion that matches with all the crossover stuff that we all did with action figures growing up. The only difference is that this is in print and will cost us $4 an issue.

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It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, hasn’t it? Since I have a little more time on my hands for the next month, I may as well use it by bringing back the Comic Book Pull List.

This week, Marvel spams us with all sorts of new comics. Their list starts with the all-new All-New Inhumans and All-New X-Men. They also have the Totally Awesome Hulk, Spidey (that’s what it’s called), Daredevil, Red Wolf and Guardians of Infinity. Yes, that’s seven #1 issues from Marvel this week. I can tell that I’ve not done this for a while because I didn’t know that Dynamite had a James Bond comic and are on their 2nd issue. There are those and so much more in this week’s releases.

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Just in time for the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron in theatres, Marvel has a $1.00 intro to the comic version of Age of Ultron. It might not be quite the same as it’ll be on the silver screen but you can get a bit of a spoiler in True Believers: Age of Ultron #1. Meanwhile, DC has their own Convergence event ongoing with Convergence miniseries launching for Detective Comics, Action Comics, Crime Syndicate, Shazam, World’s Finest, Infinity Inc, Justice Society of America, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Plastic Man & the Freedom Fighters.

And I never talk about Judge Dredd despite it being in my file but I’m going to take this opportunity to do so. A lot of comics will do four or five issue story arcs. Sure, there are some long plot points played out over the course of a series but the different arcs don’t seem to flow together seamlessly. I know that Dredd seems to change its focus every four issues but one arc seems to flow right into the next. The ending of one story starts the next so that it all seems properly serialized storytelling.

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So I haven’t been to my local comic book store since late February so I’m a little behind on my file. And since I haven’t done the pull list for a month, I’m well behind on DC’s new universe spanning series Convergence. Near as I can piece together, Brainiac is bringing the DC multiverse together on one planet but it’s going beyond the New 52 reboot and opening up everything DC to come back.

In addition to Convergence #2, DC has the first issue of two-issue Convergence miniseries for Aquaman, Batman: Shadow of the Bat, Catwoman, Green Arrow, Green Lantern: Parallax, Justice League International, Suicide Squad, Superboy, Supergirl: Matrix and Superman: The Man of Steel.

The other big highlight of the week sees Dark Horse send Archie and friends on Spring Break in Costa Rica. Little do they know that they’re being hunted in ARCHIE VS PREDATOR #1! Sorry, got a little excited there.

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This week’s pull list might be a bit on the weird side. After all, when the big offering at Marvel is a revival of Howard the Duck helmed by someone who I guarantee isn’t me (I promise that Chip Zdarsky isn’t my pen name), you know that this week’s pull list is definitely interesting, if nothing else.

Anyway, yes, Marvel follows up on the end of the Guardians of the Galaxy credits with Howard the Duck #1. Over at DC, they’re doing another WB Interactive Entertainment tie-in comic. This time, it’s a comic prequel to WBIE’s top franchise with Batman: Arkham Knight #1. And if you want revivals, we have a couple of those this week too. Bill and Ted are back in the appropriately named Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Return #1. And Spawn gets a bit of a refresh in Spawn: Resurrection #1 which is supposed to carry on in the regular series with Spawn #251 next week.

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So I was at my local comic book store this weekend, it’s not a big shop but I was absolutely amazed how many copies of Marvel’s new Star Wars series were unsold. They had like half-a-dozen copies of each issue unsold. I was looking for some old Superman and Justice League copies but they were all sold. Either Star Wars comics aren’t as valuable as Disney/Marvel or my friends at the store expected. And with that being said, Marvel has Princess Leia #1 out this week.

Now, if you want a Marvel comic to be excited about Canadian superstar Jeff Lemire makes the jump from DC/Vertigo over to Marvel at start writing for Disney with All-New Hawkeye #1. And Dark Horse wins best cover art of the week. While most people take drugs to escape reality, one imaginary friend has to be on drugs to remain in reality in Neverboy #1.

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Do you remember former professional wrestling star and world champion CM Punk? His somewhat awaited debut as a comic writer is this week as he contributes one of three stories to Thor Annual #1. Ironically, the former Straight Edge Saviour’s contribution involves Thor in a drinking contest.

Elsewhere, DC Comics debuts a new comic in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles that has spawned a new blood sport where people battle for survival in Suiciders #1. And another TV property is being translated to print. Canadian sci-fi show Orphan Black gets a new miniseries in the comic realm in Orphan Black #1.

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Let’s start today’s pull list with a special milestone issue. Dynamite is celebrating its 100th issue of Red Sonja with a special double-sized issue of Red Sojna #100 featuring some of the great writers from the comic’s past with Dynamite putting together what the publisher calls a five-story anthology in the issue.

Elsewhere, a new hero joins the Spidey-verse as Cindy Moon takes up the mantle of New York’s newest superhero as Silk in Silk #1. And Earth-10 has been taken over by the Nazis after they won that universe’s version of World War II and held control thanks to Overman. But what happens when the people start fighting back in Multiversity: Masterman #1.7?

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