5. THOR: AGES OF THUNDER #1
Written by Matt Fraction; art by Patrick Zircher
Marvel
$3.99 | 32 pgs

Matt Fraction seems to be the new Brian Michael Bendis at Marvel. It's like he's writing every book they have lately (that Bendis isn't already writing), from Punisher: War Journal to Uncanny X-men to a new Iron Man book. This Thor one-shot seems like an unusual choice for a writer that is known for his modern dialogue and hip, indie-sensibilities but so far he hasn't seemed to trip up on anything he's tried his hand at so there's no reason why he can't pull off stories about Norse gods beating the crap out of giants.

Joined by artist Patrick Zircher, Fraction tells the ultimate Thor story by showing some of his various exploits throughout the ages. Thor has recently come back to the Marvel Universe after substantial hiatus and retooling. This special issue looks to drum up some excitement about his recent return and set up some story ideas for the future.

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4. FACTS IN THE CASE OF THE DEPARTURE OF MISS FINCH
Written by Neil Gaiman; art by Michael Zulli
Dark Horse Comics
$13.95 | 56 pgs

Sandman creator Neil Gaiman makes a brief stopover back into comics from his successful new career in novel writing to adapt one of his own prose short stories into a graphic novel. Collaborating with another name familiar to Sandman fans, Michael Zulli, Gaiman tells a story about a young woman named Miss Finch who is abducted and taken to a mysterious place under the streets of London where there's all kinds of strange and magical things.

Gaiman has rewritten the book slightly to properly adapt it. Zulli provides some dreamy watercolors that bring the "magical realism" of the story to life.

Here's a preview over at the Dark Horse website.

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3. DORORO VOL. 1
By Osamu Tezuka
Vertical
$13.95 | 312 pgs

Vertical continues its mission to release never-before-in-English manga from the late, great Osamu Tezuka. It seems like there's a new one every week. This one was originally published in Japan in 1967 and is about a young boy named Hyakkimaru whose father made a deal with some demons and sold them 48 of his son's body parts. Now a teenager and tricked out with prosthetics, Hyakkimaru travels the Japanese countryside with his young sidekick Dororo, retrieving each of his body parts from the 48 demons who now own them. It sounds like a weird Samurai video game. Unlike a lot of the releases we've seen from the Tezuka canon the past few years, this one is wall to wall action.

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2. DC UNIVERSE: ZERO
Written by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns; Art by George Pérez, Tony Daniel, J.G. Jones, Aaron Lopresti, Ivan Reis, Philip Tan and Carlos Pacheco; Cover by various
DC Comics
$0.50 | 32 pgs

If you're like me and you skipped the past year of DC weekly comic nonsense, Countdown, then this is your morning wake up call telling you it's time to get up and join the Universe again. Countdown has counted down from issue #52 to 0 which brings us here - a layover between Countdown and next month's Final Crisis #1. But technically, this issue is really a preview to a bunch of other DC events that will be starting up over the coming year like Batman: RIP, Legion of 3 Worlds, Wonder Woman: Rise of the Olympian as well as the highly anticipated Final Crisis.

A team of artists help out writers Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison on this collection of story tidbits. It's only 50 cents so it won't hurt you that much if this doesn't do the job in getting you excited about DC again. Besides, word has it that something really big is happening at the end of this issue. The Daily News spoils it for you here.

Here's a preview of the Batman part of the book.

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1. GLAMOURPUSS #1
By Dave Sim
Aardvark-Vanaheim
$3.00

This could very well be the official train wreck comic of the year but I've always loved train wrecks so that's why it's at the top of this week's list. Glamourpuss is the new comic from Dave Sim, creator of the beautiful, complex and controversial Cerebus which recently ended with it's 300th issue. Everyone has been wondering what Sim would do next and frankly, I don't think this is what most people expected. This new book seems to not be so much a story as it is an exercise in drawing beautiful women in a 1950s fashion illustration style. Yet it promises essays written alongside the drawings and yes, actual characters. Even a super heroine.

Ever since writing an essay in an issue of Cerebus about feminism that described women as "voids" in relation to the "light" of man, Sim has been labeled a misogynist so it's only natural to be hesitant about picking up a comic by him that seems to use women as eye candy for his off-the-wall ranting. But, from a technical standpoint, his drawings look spot-on for the era that he is capturing. Check out the Glamourpuss website and Flash trailer for a look at some of these illustrations.

There's no telling where he's going to take this.