5. NYX: NO WAY HOME #1
Written by Marjorie Liu; art by Kalman Andrasofsky
Marvel
$3.99

The original NYX series was an interesting disaster that started life as a Brian Wood project about teenage mutants living in New York City and later became a Joe Quesada written book that featured breakout visuals by then newcomer Josh Middleton. It made a big splash at first but a few issues in things fell apart, issues stopped coming out in a timely fashion and the series was quickly canceled. Now, years later, a new mini-series launches featuring the same lead character, Kiden Nixon, and is once again set in Manhattan but this time set in the current Marvel landscape that only contains less than 200 lonely and paranoid mutants.

The new book is written by New York Times best selling author Marjorie Liu (the Dirk & Steele series) and has some really nice art by Kalman Andrasofsky who's work can be seen at his blog here.

Preview the first few pages of the book here.

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4. FINAL CRISIS #3
Written by Grant Morrison; art by JG Jones
DC Comics
$3.99

DC's weirdly somber summer event comic continues with it's third issue. A lot of people were turned off by the quiet start this book had but things are ratcheting up quickly as we build towards the day that Evil wins (whatever that really means). If you're a Grant Morrison fan you'll be pleased to know that the writer is building his own subset of continuity within the larger DC Universe framework as this book has more to do with his excellent Seven Soldiers series than with anything else that is really going on in other DC books right now. This issue even boasts an appearance by Frankenstein and the agents of S.H.A.D.E. Oh yeah, and did I mention Barry Allen is coming back from the dead (or the future or something) this issue?

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3. CROSSED #0 (of 9)
Written by Garth Ennis; art by Jacen Burrows
Avatar Press
$1.00

Frequent collaborators Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows introduce their new horror series with a ten page 0 issue (issue #1 comes out in October) this week. The story is about an apocalyptic plague that takes over the world and, rather than turn people into zombies, turns them into...well, into into Garth Ennis character - violent, immoral, raping and murdering maniacs. The last thing comics needs is another zombie apocalypse so this could be a welcome change.

In the zero issue we're introduced to a small band of survivors on the run from the transformed, who are recognizable by a bloody cross that appears on their face. Since this is the writer of Preacher and the creative team behind Chronicles of Wormwood - a very weird take on Jesus and Satan - expect some Catholic themes to poke through here. Oh and also expect a lot of disturbing and most likely, offensive, carnage to ensue.

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2. SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE SEASON TWO #1
Written by Terry Moore; art by Craig Rousseau
Marvel
$2.99

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane is a series that the cynical critic in me would think wouldn't work because of the transparency of Marvel trying to tap into manga's ever growing teenage girl audience by giving them something teenage girls still don't really want - superheroes. But a strong creative team can work wonders and that's why the last run on this title garnered such a avid fan base. Writer Sean McKeever, with artist Takeshi Miyazawa for most of the run, proved to be very adept at delivering an enjoyable teen drama/comedy focused around a teenage version of longtime Marvel character Mary Jane Watson. Now, with a new mini-series, Marvel continues to seem to be doing this right by bringing in Strangers in Paradise creator Terry Moore as the writer. As Mary Jane starts another year at school she has a lot to be angsty about - trouble with
her superhero boyfriend, her ex-boyfriend, her mom and everything else I guess. High school can be rough, you know.
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1. ARMY@LOVE: THE ART OF WAR #1 (of 6)
Written by Rick Veitch; art by Gary Erskine
DC Vertigo
$2.99

Rick Veitch's Army@Love is probably my favorite new Vertigo series but like a lot of books I like it doesn't sell all that well. I guess that might explain it's recent move to a seasonal approach of mini-series rather than an ongoing book. Season 2, a 6-issue series, begins this week and it's a great place to start if you're curious about the series. Veitch's Joseph Heller-like satire on the war against terrorism in the Middle East is raunchy, smart and LOL funny. Not to mention it's probably a lot more spot on than you'd even think. Especially with recent news that NATO was hiring form Coca-Cola marketing people to help improve their image. That's like something right out of this book.

By the way, the most recent trade paperback collection of this series hit the stands last week so there's that too.