New Hotness: Top Picks for October 15, 2014

Welcome to another exciting edition of New Hotness! Once again, Russell picks his top books to grab this Wednesday at your local comic shop or online. What looks fun? Which titles have major happenings? Is there a new book you shouldn’t miss? Find the answers to those questions and more right here each week!

DC New 52

Justice League #35 cover

Justice League #35 – Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Doug Mahnke and Ivan Reis
Cover by Ivan Reis
$3.99

“THE AMAZO VIRUS” begins here! Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor join Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp – but why? And then, it’s HUMAN VS. SUPER-HUMAN when a dangerous and bizarre virus is unleashed upon the Justice League – but what exactly is the Amazo Virus? Who unleashed it and why? And what unforeseen effects will it have on the greatest heroes of the DC Universe? Plus, Batman and the League uncover Lex’s most guarded secret at Lexcorp Headquarters.

Picked because: A new story arc is always a good time to give a book a try for the first time or to come back to it if you’ve been skipping a bit lately. The game has certainly changed in the wake of Forever Evil and Lex Luthor is taking full advantage of his new position in the Justice League. Blackmailing Batman, positioning Lex as mankind’s savior and even merging Waynetech and Lexcorp were some shrewd moves on the part of Geoff Johns. But there’s always more to it than that. The new Power Ring seems to be adjusting to her new role on the team, but given the nature of the power it’s not likely to last. Then there was the big reveal in issue #34 that Lex has made a deal with Owlman of Earth 3, one of the only survivors of the Crime Syndicate. We still don’t know what exactly Lex is getting out of the deal, but it could only ever be something that furthers his own ends. And with Superwoman (evil Lois Lane of Earth 3) about to give birth, all hell is on the verge of breaking loose again and just as the League managed to get things settled down. But this arc is all about the new Amazo Virus and what it might do to the heroes of Earth. From the looks of things, several members of the League aren’t going to be much help in combating it. This title has been exceptional for a while now, so if you haven’t given it a try for a bit, this issue is the time to give it another look.

 

Marvel

Death of Wolverine #4 cover

The Death of Wolverine #4 –Written by Charles Soule

Art and cover by Steve McNiven
$4.99

CLASSIFIED

Picked because: The final chapter is here and it’s time for Wolverine to die. It’s true that death is a revolving door in comics and there’s even a Wolverine weekly coming up after this that ties to these events, but this original character has never died before. Not really, anyway. His healing factor has been stripped away and he’s aging normally. His wounds don’t heal and even using his claws has become a very dangerous thing for him. How does it all wrap up? Who strikes the killing blow? You’ll have to buy the issue for all those details, but remember that this is a historic moment. Regardless of how long he stays dead, be it a year or less or more, he’s still Marvel’s most popular X-Man and arguably the company’s most popular character. Him being gone for any length of time is a gamble, so it’s going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. And that risk begins here.

 

Sorry for the two-pick list this week, but I figured maybe some folks would appreciated a little less money being spent this week as opposed to last week. Those wallets need a little recovery time, don’t you think? And there weren’t any real standout new titles starting this week and even fewer books that would be easy to jump into without lots of prior knowledge being necessary. No worries though, next week will have plenty more, for sure. Happy reading!