5. Y: THE LAST MAN VOL.9: MOTHERLAND (DC Vertigo)
Written by Brian K. Vaughan; Art by Pia Guerra, José Marzan Jr. and others
144pgs | $14.99

I don't normally recommend something like a volume 9 in these lists because I like to point people towards a good jumping on point or a one-shot but frankly this is a slow week and this is a good book. If you don't know about Y: The Last Man you should certainly seek out Volume 1 which should be readily available in most book stores or online. It's the story of Yorick Brown, the sole male survivor of a world-wide plague that wiped out every male animal on earth except for him and his monkey, Ampersand. Throughout the series Yorick has been travelling across the world hoping to find his girlfriend Beth so he can get to working on repopulating the earth with her.

In Volume 9 we find out, finally, what caused the plague after all. The series is drawing to a close very soon so things are beginning to come to a head.
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4. COUNTDOWN #51 (DC Comics)
Written by Paul Dini; Art by Jesus Saiz;
32 pgs | $2.99

Don't be fooled by the issue number, this is a first issue (it's counting down to 1, get it?) Starting a week after issue #52 of DC's http://post.yesbutnobutyes.com/mt.cgi?__mode=start_upload_entry&blog_id=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yesbutnobutyes.com%2Farchives%2Fwed050907_header.gif&site_path=0&fname=wed050907_header.gif&include=1&width=500&height=208&image_type=GIF#last weekly comic, 52, comes a new year-long series that will once again span the length and width of the DC universe. No one expected the success of 52 and I think even less people expect lightning to strike twice here but you can't blame DC for trying. 52 issues a year at $2.99 a pop is good money for them. Let's see if the excitement level brought on by the all-start creative team of can carry over to a series with just one legitimate all-star, Batman The Animated Series writer, Paul Dini.

Oh, did I mention a character dies this issue?

If you want to see a longer preview of this issue become a friend on DC's MySpace page.

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3. FIRST IN SPACE (Oni Press)
By James Vining
96 pgs | $9.95

We always need good all-ages books and this one looks not only fun but educational as well. I can't say that I know a whole lot about Ham, the first chimpanzee sent into space by the US but this is his story. NASA and monkey enthusiasts alike should look into this one. James Vining's exhaustive research on this subject paid off with a 2006 Xeric grant that allowed him to publish this book and now it is coming out in wide release thanks to Oni Press.

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2. ETERNALS BY NEIL GAIMAN (Marvel)
Written by Neil Gaiman; Art by John Romita Jr.
256 pgs | $29.99

In case you missed it right there in the title, this is written by Sandman writer Neil Gaiman and is being collected in book format for the first time. Based on Jack Kirby's Marvel series from the 1970s, Gaiman reinterprets the characters for a new audience and John Romita Jr. brings an even higher level of quality to the art than you'd already expect of him. The story concerns a group of 1000-year old beings who have forgotten their history and live in the modern day NY of the Marvel Universe.

As a monthly limited series this past year, Eternals got some lackluster reviews for being slow and uneventful but my gut feeling is that this is the format it was meant to be read in.

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1. CRIMINAL VOL. 1: COWARD (Marvel Icon)
Written by Ed Brubaker; art by Sean Philips
128 pgs | $14.99

If you're a fan of crime novels by Donald Westlake or Raymond Chandler or of movies like Get Carter or Point Blank then you'll love this new series. You've got heists, double crosses, people on the run and big shootouts and all illustrated in a wonderfully moody, noir-style by Sean Philips. This collection contains the first story of this new series which introduces us to Leo an expert heist-man who reluctantly gets involved in a big score that all goes to hell.