Most comic book fans have a solid idea about what they’re going to buy every week as they descend upon their local comic shop. With that said, there’s still a lot of fun to be had just glancing at the week’s new releases and taking a chance on a book that looks promising, funny, scary, etc. That’s where covers come in. A fantastic image can make the difference between trying something new or saying, “Nah, not this week.”
In that spirit, here are the covers that captured our attention this week, with entries from comics editor Chris Coplan. This is Judging by the Cover.
Knight Terrors: Robin #2
Cover by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki, and Brad Anderson
You don’t think much about crowbars unless you see one. They’re a tool — for opening crates and busting up wood. But in the land of DC, the crowbar is both a weapon and a magical item with near-mythical qualities, especially if you’re a Robin. It’s not only the tool the Joker used to dispatch Jason Todd, but it’s affected the other Robins, too. Without that tool, there’d be no Tim Drake as Robin, and all the good and bad that’s followed that character. Todd’s death by the innocuous tool also reminded Dick Grayson that he wasn’t just a sidekick who went out on his own, but he narrowly missed a much worse fate in the twisted legacy of Robin. Heck, if Todd himself has grappled with that weapon, repurposing it as his trademark crimefighting tool as he relies less and less on guns. And so all of this is to say that the heavily featured crowbar in Knight Terrors: Robin #2 has heaps and heaps of power and history attached to it. The mere presence of this bar isn’t just done with a deeply terrifying effect but serves to stand as a message about how we’re all entwined and we cannot escape some destinies. And that’s been a decidedly effective part of this event so far — to bring us all together in some shared misery and remind us that as much good as these heroes do, they cannot ever escape the pain and tragedies that have forged them. It’s a terrifying sight on so many different levels, and it should pry the top of your head off with ruthless efficiency.
Guardians of the Galaxy #5
Cover by Marco Checchetto
We’ve arrived at a massive moment for the still-young Guardians of the Galaxy series. Here, after four tense and foreboding issues of teasing it out, we arrive at the “mystery” behind Grootfall. It’s connection to everyone’s favorite sentient tree seems pretty obvious — especially when you realize that the story’s actually shown the Groot-ian meteors and the wake of devastation they leave on planetoids. But the question this issue will hopefully address is just how Groot effectively became a planet-devastating celestial fiend and why the once peaceful warrior is effectively conquering the galaxy through fear and wanton destruction. It’s a question likely with a deeply, deeply complicated answer given our first hint via this Marco Checchetto cover. Because as much pain and heartache as Groot’s left in his wake, there’s a certain peace to this cover — the way his stems and branches hum with life, or the almost gingerly way he holds these planets. Sure, that face screams pure space god menace, but you can almost feel the near-child-like interest and emotionality here, and that complicates this whole story with so many nuanced layers of emotion. And that’s been a solid trademark of this young book: there’s so much story in these characters, and the pain and triumphs are equally important. It may not always be so direct, but it makes for utterly compelling explorations of family, destiny, and other massively important ideas.
Swan Songs #2
Variant Cover by Frazer Irving
As someone who has been through the end of a marriage themself, it’s a weird story to tell. There’s just as much relief and hope as there is unknowable pain and uncertainty. Still, I’m more than confident that issue #2 of Swan Songs can give this bittersweet life event the time and attention it deserves. But before W. Maxwell Prince and Caspar Wijngaard depict the slice of “eternal mortal combat” that occurs amid the divorce of two seemingly super-powered and/or cosmic ex-lovers, we get a divine preview in this Frazer Irving variant cover. It’s not just that they’re fighting among the stars (which, if you’ve been in the middle of a marriage-breaking argument is a decidedly apt metaphor), it’s that there’s so much more here. The look of pained shock on the otherwise beautiful faces of our “lovebirds.” The slight hesitation and slightly jerky movements that seem to speak to a complete lack of commitment to this fight. Even the positioning here still evokes a deep sense of intimacy, even as it crumbles apart. Add all of that together — not to mention a distinctly Jack Kirby-ian vibes of sheer weirdness and magic and a dash of vintage pulp-y playfulness — and what you get is a powerful piece of storytelling told specifically through the unique lens of comics. It’s less a snapshot and more of narrative captured in amber about deep heartache that should resonate among even the most stoic of readers.
The Enfield Gang Massacre #1
Cover by Jacob Phillips
If you read That Texas Blood, you know Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips struck Texas tea with their gritty, multi-layered series. Now, the duo are back at it again, jumping back nearly 200 years (seemingly across the same “universe”) for a story about a gang of outlaws that find themselves in the “crosshairs of an aging Texas Ranger and a newborn county that’s hungry for law.” At this point, I’d read a book if Phillips just drew stick figures riding cows across a barren plain, but I’m more than glad he’s clearly doing some of the best work of his still-young career. Case in point: the cover to issue #1, which may be the single best case for this book without actually reading it yet. You get all the trademarks of the genre: gnarly cowfolk, big bold gun battles, ample blood and dust, and a general haze of sun-bleached grit and hard stakes. Yet I think Phillips does so much more here to make this cover (and hopefully the book) feel even more special. There’s a proper balance of modern and vintage aesthetics, and that grounds and contextualizes that book in a truly novel space. He seemingly uses different techniques across this page, and it helps create something that feels more robust while not over-complicating such a singular image. And the fact that he touches on vibes of your favorite spaghetti westerns without referencing any specific film is both impressive and another way this book plays around with the confines of its chosen genre. All of it’s so powerful and real that I can practically taste the dirt in the air and hear the ringing of gunfire.
Dwellings #1
Variant cover by Brian Level
You won’t be able to read the interview till Tuesday morning, but we got to sit down and talk with Jay Stephens about Dwellings. The two-issue run (prestige format with 72 pages each) collects Stephens’ dark and playful stories about Elwich, an “oasis of American perfection” that also happens to be home to frequent occurrences of “murder, demonology, possession, and obsession.” But before that insightful Q&A, we wanted to highlight something else from this book in the form of an issue #1 variant cover from artist Brian Level. Because, sure, Stephens’ own style is totally powerful, a mix of the cute and creepy in equal measure that fosters a lot of the power and subtext of these stories. But Level’s own approach is similarly effective — what looks like an old-school-inspired dirtbag tattoo is filled with just as much dark energy as it is oddball levity. If anything, this feels like a more concentrated version of the dynamic at the heart of this book, and it does a bang-up job at hinting at the same kinds of messages and moods while leaving Stephens’ singular efforts ripe for discovery. Covers should always reflect some sentiment or sense of energy from the story, but this one does it in a way that both “things” stand on their own and enhance and augment the other in intriguing ways. Welcome to Elwich — you’ll never be the same again.
Omega Gang #2
Cover by Ludovica Ceregatti
I’m a tad surprised that I didn’t pick up on Omega Gang #1 went it debuted in mid-June. For a series about friends whose “gang” name reflects “the hopelessness of their lives and their generation,” not to mention references to “mysterious eggs,” it checks that oh-so rare dual box of nihilism and Pokemon–Digimon references. But what really hooked me about this book is the cover to issue #2 from Ludovica Ceregatti. Because, first and foremost, the whole collectible monster-friends vibe is front and center — but in a way that doesn’t directly ape from either franchise and instead pay homage to the whole nostalgia-tinged concept. There’s also other touches — the dark, perhaps magical-in-nature giant hand, for instance — that hints at new genres and influences (a la fantasy, perhaps?) that only further pushes this book in compelling new directions. Or, the slightly DIY, adorably ramshackle art style is a nice departure from the pristine, almost sterile work of Pokemon and Digimon, and that makes me think of some distinctly ’90s vibe, which is very much another plus for this title. Lastly, the fact that it plays up those same energies and ideas and still feels perfect for a younger, somehow less jaded generation of readers only further drives home my sense that this book is something really important and thought-provoking. If it can toss in some non-painful homages to Gen Z culture — like TikTok and whatever 100 gecs is — then consider this a slam dunk (or the Gen Z equivalent, if you’re so inclined).
Children of the Vault #1
Cover by Yanick Paquette
Children of the Vault #1 is another title you may have seen getting ample praise on Twitter/X these days. (That is, of course, if you’re enough of a masochist to still visit that place.) It’s easy to see why even before we get to read the actual debut. There’s some rising stars attached (in Deniz Camp and Luca Maresca); most X-Men-centric tales lately have been pretty good (even the “bad” ones are still compelling enough); and the Children of the Vault are, as humans who some folk think are mutants, a nice little addition to the already jam-packed realm of X. But really the best piece of evidence for why this miniseries could very much rule is to be found in its debut cover from Yanick Paquette. Because you may just see another (’90s-inspired) standard bit of comics badassery, but I also see something more. A kind of organic familiarity that’s fostered by this image — a sense that these still niche-ish characters — the team debuted in late 2006 — are an absolutely elemental part of the X-Men-o-sphere. (That’s bound to happen when you have a character like Serafina stepping on the throat of the beloved Cable.) This familiarity, though mostly manufactured at this point in the team’s history, goes a long way to informing just how big of an event this series will be and the kind of impact it will have in the ever-shifting world of the X-Men. Books like this have a lot of competition, but as this cover demonstrates, you can bypass that with a depth, intensity, and sheer commitment to the subject matter.
Knight Terrors: The Flash #2
Cover by Werther Dell’Edera
The thing about nightmares is that they shouldn’t be so terrible if you can reach the speed of light in your New Balance 574s. Yet here we are, with the second issue of the Flash-starring Knight Terrors tie-in, with the Scarlet Speedster once again dealing with a barrage of darkened memories in the days/weeks prior to his white-hot return. What was truly brilliant about the first issue was the writer Alex Paknadel recognized that Flash is a special breed, and that by focusing on the things he can’t change or even run away from, you’re locking him into his own kind of singular nightmare. As an effective reflection of that, cover artist Werther Dell’Edera has picked up on that idea/motif in issue #2’s cover. There’s monstrous feelings you can never escape, as based on our rather large, extra terrifying friend here. Even if Flash does manage to run far away, this super great trick with the trees shows that (once again) not only do some things go on forever but he’s only really scratching the surface of this twisted forest of deep, dark pain and regret. Altogether, this cover is an effective reflection and magnification of what’s made this tie-in a real standout, and it’s given Flash a level of “care” that plays with the most essential parts of the character. You can run, Flash, but you’ll never escape what’s all around you.
Weird Work #2
Variant cover by Brendan McCarthy
Not to discredit the work of his various other collaborators, but a lot of us picked up Weird Work because of the bonkers efforts of Shaky Kane. Issue #1 certainly delivered — the book’s whole aesthetic was this cornucopia of extraterrestrial madness that delighted and assaulted every cone in the human eye. Excited though I may be for issue #2 — “Ovra and Donut find themselves in increasingly dangerous and strange situations” — I can’t help but notice that Kane’s own cover for the issue feels a little lacking. Luckily, there are some truly solid variants that will both entertain and confound in their own right. Like this one from Warwick Johnson Cadwell, which feels close to Kane’s own work but makes the very wise decision to opt for a kind of “lo-fi” feel that provides something unique in its encapsulation of this book. Or, this other variant from Alexis Ziritt, which makes the book seem super sleek and sexy, and that’s a wondrous and confusing move if I’ve ever seen one. In the end, though, I’ve got to go with the variant from Brendan McCarthy. For one, it also feels delightfully lo-fi as Johnson Cadwell, but with more emphasis on grit and the action-heavy vibes. It also achieves the same kind of “transformational sheen” as Ziritt’s cover, but instead of pure ’90s sex appeal, there’s a hint of dirt and scum that really plays up the heart of this book. If nothing else, this variant reminds us of how unrelentingly weird this book is, and that so far is the legacy of Kane across all his books. That, and this variant also features far more giant pig-people.
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