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When I was reading through candidates for this week’s list of the Top Comics to Buy for June 18, I started to pick-up on a trend — a lot of my favorite books this week play with the immaterial, the unexplainable, and the downright metaphysical and spooky. It started with Phantom Road (I’m LOVING the current arc of that one), continued into sci-fi author skewing Benjamin, and even made itself known in less obvious ways in Aliens Vs. Avengers and New Gods.
In fact, I found myself enjoying/picking up on it so much, I couldn’t help but wonder — is it me? Am I myself potentially the subject of one of those space between, Lynchian oddities? Or am I just a guy digging well-done comics that take big swings? Look for clues in the recommendations below, along with the usual set of release lists, and…enjoy!
Top Comics to Buy for June 18
Aliens Vs. Avengers #4
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Esad Ribic
Colorist: Ive Svorcina
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Earth’s mightiest heroes abandoned their home planet to save humanity from the Xenomorph threat. Now, they’ve arrived on Mars – current refuge of the X-Men. But the twisted machinations of Mister Sinister might spell doom for them all…
Why It’s Cool: This crossover has been an absolute banger from the start, and I’m happy to report it maintains its punch-in-the-face momentum right on through to its very last page. Just serves up the universe-shattering scope you want a crossover of this magnitude to be, and does it with S-tier comics storytelling.
Price: $7.99
Benjamin #1
Writer: Ben H. Winters
Artist: Leomacs
Colorist: Luca Bertele
Letterer: Becca Carey
Publisher: Oni Press
More than just a writer, more than just a science-fiction icon, Benjamin J. Carp was a cultural revolutionary. Across 44 novels and hundreds of short stories-including the counterculture classic The Man They Couldn’t Erase-Carp pushed the boundaries of literary respectability for the sci-fi genre and his readers’ perception of reality itself . . . until decades of amphetamine abuse and Southern California excess finally ended a mind-bending career that always just escaped mainstream success. He died in 1982. Until 2025 . . . when Benjamin J. Carp awakens, alive, in a burned-out motel on the fringes of Los Angeles. He remembers dying. He knows he shouldn’t exist. Is he a dream? A robot? A ghost? A clone? A simulation? In his own time, Carp pondered all of these scenarios intensely through his fiction-and, now, as he treks from Studio City to Venice Beach and onward into the paranoid sprawl of 21st-century Los Angeles, he will be called to investigate his greatest mystery yet: himself.
Why It’s Cool: It’s a richly-layered metafictional comic, one that uses mystery to propel forward a narrative that stars a sci-fi novelist who seems to have moved through reality. That’s a lot of ideas for one narrative, but this book brings it all together in excellent fashion. It’s fun and punchy and conceptually air tight. Make sure you pick this one up, it was an easy choice for this list of Top Comics to Buy for June 18.
Price: $5.99
Copra #50
Cartoonist: Michel Fiffe
Publisher: Image Comics
SERIES FINALE The DEATH OF COPRA standalone epilogue marks a comic book milestone for the one-man comics juggernaut MICHEL FIFFE. Flipping the revenge genre on its head, COPRA proves its creative dominance once again as it rides off into the sunset for its 50th and landmark final issue.
Why It’s Cool: If Death of Copra was, as the title implies, the death, this week’s Copra #50 is the funeral/epilogue. And it’s a fine endcap to an incredible independent (truly independent) comics achievement. It does finale things like checking in on the cast of characters, giving some closures, and raising questions around others. But it’s really just a perfect endcap, one that will remind you how much you enjoyed the journey that was Copra.
Price: $3.99
New Gods #7
Writer: Ram V
Artists: Evan Cagle, Travis Moore (pgs 1 – 3)
Colorist: Francesco Segala
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Publisher: DC Comics
New Genesis has fallen, and the New Gods have found themselves without a home. Their fates have sent them to Earth, a planet with its own inhabitants, protectors, and immortals. Will these Gods without a world be welcomed to Earth as refugees or rejected as invaders?
Why It’s Cool: I mean, just open this issue and flip through it — it might be the best-looking comic that Evan Cagle has ever drawn, which is really saying a lot. Cagle is just a massively talented artist, and he’s complimented so well here by colorist Francesco Segala. It’s stunning stuff, and it’s made all the better by a fantastic script — with some big Green Lantern moments — by Ram V. As a big DC Comics fan, I’m loving this series, and I consider it one of the line’s true must-reads of this era.
Price: $3.99
Phantom Road #13
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Gabriel H. Walta
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Steve Wands
Publisher: Image Comics
PHANTOM ROAD continues in “THE HORRORMEN,” a thrilling new arc by JEFF LEMIRE and GABRIEL HERNÁNDEZ WALTA!!! In the middle of a shoot-out, Agent Donald Weaver is transported to “The Other Place,” and a bit of the epic power in play is revealed. And back in Wisconsin, Hugo Hamm launches an insidious plan to regain control of the artifact…with no regard to the human lives it may destroy.
Why It’s Cool: With each new issue, The Horrormen story arc continues to cement itself as the best issues yet for Phantom Road. This issue is particularly spooky and otherworldly, starting to really drill down into the oddness of this book’s central concept. It’s also a pretty action heavy issue with some major plot twists, and I think the more that Phantom Road lives at the intersection of spooky and action, the better this title is.
Price: $3.99
Other Books I Enjoyed This Week
Batman and Robin: Year One #8- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #40
- Blood and Thunder #2
- Detective Comics #1098
- G.I. Joe #8
- I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer #3
- Nightwing #127
- Superman Unlimited #2
- Ultimates #13
- Usagi Yojimbo – Ten Thousand Plums #4
New #1s and One-Shots
Bloodletter #1- Bring on the Bad Guys #1 (one-shot)
- Bytchcraft #1
- Emma Frost – The White Queen #1
- Godzilla vs. Avengers #1 (one-shot)
- Jeff The Land Shark #1
- Krpyto – The Last Dog of Krypton #1
- Last Witch – Blood and Betrayal #1
- Monster High – Locketness Monster #1 (one-shot)
- Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos: Children of the Night #1
- Star Trek Omega #1 (one-shot)
- Star Wars – Doctor Aphra Chaos Agent #1
Graphic Novels and Trade Collections
Read past editions of the Top Comics to Buy!
And check out the Beat’s most recent comics reviews!
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