Already Tired of, uh, Monday....

I know I'm way early this week, but I'm procrastinating on a paper, and this seemed like a perfect way to do it. Also, there's a lot of really great stuff coming out this week, stuff I'm really excited for.

First, and foremost (perhaps even foremost of any comic being released this year) is the grand finale of one of the greatest comic stories of all time- Planetary. The long awaited issue #27 of the Warren Ellis penned and John Cassaday illustrated series comes out this week and I'm really, really excited. If you haven't already checked out the preview pages Jon posted about earlier in the week, well, you should. They're pretty fantastic, as is the rest of the series.

And that's just the start of the barrage of the comics on the imprint front this week. From Vertigo we get the second issue of Jeff Lemire's fantastic Sweet Tooth and the Bill Willingham penned Fables novel Peter and Max (although I'm hoping to win a copy through this contest over at Graphic Content). What's really exciting me this week, though, is an imprint release from Icon: Criminal: The Sinners #1. The dynamic duo of Ed Brubaker (who, lets be honest, turns whatever he touches into gold) and Sean Phillips (who, aside from David Aja, might be my favorite illustrator in all of comics) proved themselves once again with the conclusion to Incognito, and I'm ready to return to the tale of Tracy Lawless- and this one sounds like a killer. Brubaker's crime stories are the best in all of comics, which is why I was sad to see him leave Daredevil...

But the new writer, Andy Diggle, seems to be planning some cool stuff- after buying the Daredevil Dark Reign one-shot, I'm convinced that Matt's life is about to get really difficult- and that makes for great Daredevil comics, so I'm pumped for #501 to come out this week. I'm also pumped for the X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas mini to get started- although I was disappointed by the last issue of the AoA ongoing a couple of weeks ago, I think the manic energy that Jeff Parker brings to his work is perfect for a short series like this and I'm curious to see which X-Men he's going to use (hopefully Nightcrawler is going to be one of them; the blue elf has been criminally underused by Matt Fraction in Uncanny). Strange Tales #2 comes out this week too, as does the new issue of The Torch, but I'm not sure if I'll be picking up the latter- I think I might trade-wait it. As for the former, well, I think Jon and I are going to take another shot at reviewing it jointly and seeing what happens. And then, of course, add Batman and Robin #5 to the list and, well, I've got a huge week to make up for last week's tiny little one.

It's going to be a good Wednesday.