Batman has been in some tough situations throughout his existence, but, as everyone knows, he always manages to get out of them.  Now it’s your turn to try and create an inescapable trap for the caped crusader in Arkham City: Escape.  An epic two-player game that pits The Dark Knight against his greatest foes (all in the Arkham City game design) inside the titular prison city.  What makes the game interesting is that each assortment of villains is chosen randomly, making every game a new experience.  One player tries to kill the Batman while the other tries to punch baddies in the teeth.

In the deep, dark reaches of the jungle exists hidden resources of the best coffee beans in the world.  It’s your job to venture forth and find them.  VIVA JAVA!  In this Coffee Game, players compete against each other as they travel across the globe searching for the finest beans the world has to offer.  If the going gets tough, however, you can choose whether or not you will team up with the other players so that you both come out caffeinated.  For all the coffee lovers out there, here’s a fresh cup o’ Viva Java!

In the fourth-quel to the ever more popular Quarriors! dice game series, Quartifacts, a new set of dice known as Quest Dice.  In this expansion, all the mystical relics of the previous Quarriors! games have disappeared, leaving you, the questor, to venture after them.  Quest cards will allow you to unleash your creatures in order to find them.  In addition, five new creatures, two new spells, The Squire basic, and six Quest cards and dice are also included.  Quet quor Quarriors! quon!

A resource management game with a new spin, Saint Malo blends dice games, resource management, and…drawing?  Players roll dice to decide what villagers, buildings, and so forth that they are allotted, then draw them onto the erasable grid board in front of  them.  But be quick about how you arrange your resources because they’re going to need to protect you from the pirates that are invading the city.

The Conquest of Planet Earth continues.  But now it’s the Apocalypse.

The first expansion to the original Flying Frog Productions game that pits Earth against a horde of invading martians kicks the total number of players up to six.  This increase of playablity comes in addition to an entirely new alien faction, including new miniatures like The Cube!  As much of this expansion’s action takes place over the ocean, a Coastal Resistance Deck is included to boost Earth’s defenses.  The invasion has begun, fight to stop the conquest!

Achieving a huge amount of positive response from their initial reprintings of the Dungeons and Dragons Advanced hardcovers, Wizards decided to reprint the 3.5 edition core books.  Now, it’s 2nd edition’s turn, as the three core books, the Player’s Guide, DM’s Guide, and Monster Manual are all reprinted in beautiful embossed hardcover editions, complete with their original artwork and errata-ed material.  Pick them up to collect the classic versions of D&D in total!

 

Shmowzow!  Is that a completely original Adventure Time graphic novel formatted like the mathematically popular Scott Pilgrim series?

Uh, duh.

Adventure Time:  Playing with Fire is a complete story in a manga-esque digest volume from Boom! Studios, relating a special adventure between Jake, Finn, and Flame Princess.  For the first time ever, Flame Princess has decided to leave the Fire Kingdom, venturing beyond its boundaries in order to find some new thrills.  Spinning out of the highly successful ongoing Adventure Time series, Playing with Fire is drawn by series regular Zack Sterling who’s perfect at aping the look of the television show.  So stop being a lumpy lump butt and pick up a copy.

Following in the footsteps and paw prints of Finn and Jake, Mordecai and Rigby are parking their golf cart in the vicinity of Pulp Fiction.  After Boom! received such a wild reaction to their ongoing and miniseries for Adventure Time (something in the range of Whooooooooooooooooaaaaahh!) they decided to mine Cartoon Network for some other material and came up with Regular Show.  Don’t be a hambone and miss out on the first issue as I’m sure Fist Pump is going to make an appearance.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!

If you haven’t heard, it’s the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who.  And as the longest running sci-fi show on television turns fifty years old IDW has been turning out some impressive comic adventures for The Doctor.  Namely, Prisoners of Time, which is a twelve issue miniseries starring every incarnation of The Doctor in their own solo adventure.  Now that Doctors one through four have had their issues released, IDW has turned out the volume one trade paperback, collecting the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Doctors’ adventures.  Though each issue is standalone, a dark force is plotting against the Doctor, stealing his companions throughout time, taunting the Doctor to follow him.  Now, though this hasn’t been confirmed, the assumption is that issue twelve of the series will feature all eleven Doctors together, fighting to reclaim their companions.  So, hop onto the TARDIS while you can with Prisoners of Time v.1, because you never know when the next regeneration is coming.

When The Hulk isn’t offering sound psychiatric help (hope you stuck around after the credits), he’s punching a time card for S.H.I.E.L.D.  The Indestructible Hulk v.1 HC smashes into the store this Wednesday, and you’d better take a look at it if you don’t want to make Banner angry.  Written by comic legend Mark Waid (who’s been murdering the hell out of the Daredevil comic for the last two years), Indestructible Hulk revolves around a simple principle:  Bruce Banner doesn’t want to be remembered as a monster anymore, so he’s agreed to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. in return for the opportunity to invent world-changing thingies.  And what happens when he Hulks out?  They point him in the right direction.  High stress environment + scientist who explodes when angered = entertainment.

 

Take two ticks to tinker with the thought of trying the Terrifyingly Tragic Treasury Edition of Joe Hill’s terrific terse tales.

That’s a fair share of Ts, folks.  You’ll notice that one of the above T words is not “terrible”.  I would shudder at the idea of associating that word anywhere near Joe Hill’s work, as he is one of the most gifted writers in comics today.  Having made a name for himself on his masterpiece, Locke & Key, as well as The Cape miniseries, Hill has quickly become a respected name in the industry.  The fact that he’s Stephen King’s son also helps.  If you’ve devoured the five hardcover volumes of Locke & Key and are looking to fill the void in your life until volume six comes out, the TTTE special is a perfect option.  Containing his Kodiak one-shot, The Cape stand alone issue, and his Locke & Key short story “Open the Moon”, all of which are nominated or won industry awards.   

Fantasy adventure comics have been on the rise lately, what with Pathfinder, the Dungeons and Dragons series, Demon Knights, Conan, and, now, Amala’s Blade.  Striking a tone somewhere between humor and action, Amala’s Blade #1 is the first part of a four part miniseries following the titular assassin hero.  Amala is the head assassin in the kingdom of Naamaron, but has fallen out of favor due to her brash, boastful ways.  So, the emperor does the only logic thing:  send her on a mission that will likely result in her death.  Now, Amala’s skills are put to the test, with a failing grade equaling an end most fowl.  Illustrated in a style that bridges sketchy Indy artists like Becky Cloonan and cartoony pop like Avatar the Last Airbender, Amala’s Blade is feisty fantasy.

If you’re daughter’s ever tried to run past the rebel blockade in a giant spaceship shaped like a fist, Vader’s Little Princess might warm your heart.  You might also enjoy it if you and your daughter are huge Star Wars fans.  Jeffery Brown releases his second Star Wars children’s book detailing the awkward difficulties of raising a daughter who is your worst enemy.  Drawn in the same simplistically charming style of Brown’s Incredible Changebots, Cats Are Weird, and Vader and Son, Vader’s Little Princess is made up of vignettes detailing Vader’s struggle with common fatherly duties.  Tea parties, teaching Leia how to fly TIE fighters, and keeping her from leaving the house in only her slave girl bikini are the tasks of the day for Papa Skywalker.  Grab a copy and bond with your daughter over your shared geekiness.

A legacy can be an awful burden.

The legendary duo of Mark Millar and Frank Quietly (The Authority, WE3, New X-Men) reteam for the first time in years to bring you Jupiter’s Legacy.  This soon-to-be-hit series from Image Comics begins in the far future when all of Earth’s heroes have given up and left the world’s protection to their kids.  But being a better superhero  than your parents can be a demanding task.  Trust us when we say that this series will bring the violence, sexuality, and cinematic action unlike anything else out there (except maybe Saga, that book’s pretty raunchy).  Grab the hit comic of this year before it vanishes from the shelves.

 

The mind can be a prison.

That’s the premise of Marvel NOW‘s X-Men Legacy series.  Written by the psychedelic pen of Si Spurrier (Gutsville, X-Club), X-Men Legacy follows in the footsteps of other C-List character-centric books like Immortal Iron Fist, Hawkeye, and Fearless Defenders by focusing on Charles Xavier’s son, Legion.  Formerly a schizophrenic super-villain, Legion has now found his inner peace by entrapping his numerous vile personalities in a brain prison.  Yes, brain prison.  This out-of-the-ordinary series is one of the most unusual, pleasing reads at Marvel right now, primarily because Spurrier is unafraid to venture into the weird realms of the X-Men universe.  The volume one trade paperback features the first six issues as well as a mound of mental distress.

Science = bad.

That’s the prime equation for Jonathan Hickman’s Manhattan Projects.  If you picked up the first collection of this psychotic series, you’re well aware of Hickman’s brilliance and the utter depravity of the scientists involved therein.  If you didn’t, the basic premise is that the Manhattan Project was a mere cover for what was actually occurring, i.e. time travel, alien encounters, robots, cybernetics, and vast A.I. computer systems.  From there Hickman throws in a slew of mentally unstable geniuses like Einstein, Oppenheimer, and Fenyman, each of which are hiding a dark secret, and you’ve got the madhouse pot boiler that is this series.  Now, volume two is being unleashed upon the unsuspecting public, this time with more alien disemboweling, evil FDR, and Russian cosmonaut dogs with machine guns.  Science = bad, Manhattan Projects = good.

Think bigger.

That’s Jonathan Hickman’s mandate for his recent relaunch of The Avengers.  Not has crazy as Manhattan Projects, Hickman’s Avengers has been all about expansion.  Spinning out of the Marvel NOW relaunch, this first volume of Avengers collects issues one through six, wherein Captain America puts out the call for new members in order to fight back a godly force on Mars.  All of this is building up to figuring out the original recipe for the universe.  This version of the Avengers moves far, far away from the Bendis era, with grand, epic adventures and huge comic book imagery!  Given that Jerome Opena (Uncanny X-Force) lends his fluid pencils to the affair, this is THE Avengers book to read if you loved the movie!

While the Avengers are fighting baddies on Mars, they are not, in fact, fighting the aliens from Mars Attacks!  However, nearly everyone else is!

IDW continues its annual tradition of crossover miniseries where some evil force ventures into the various property universes the company owns.  Previously, its been zombies and Cthulhu fighting the likes of GI Joe, Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Transformers (Infestion v.1-2; check’em out!), but this time around it’s the Mars Attacks! martians versus the IDW universe!  Mars Attacks IDW includes each of the one-shot volumes released, featuring KISS, Transformers, Ghostbusters, Zombies vs. Robots, and, the best of the bunch, Popeye!  Each issue is drawn and written in a style appropriate to the character so, for instance, the Popeye issue looks like a 40s era golden age book being invaded by twisted, murderous aliens.  And the only thing standing in their way is a can of spinach and one pissed off sailor!  If you never thought you’d see such insane crossovers, your mind will melt when you lay eyes on this trade paperback volume!

 

Regular-sized Batman is cool and all, but Li’l Batman is where it’s really at!

Dustin Nguyen, artist extraordinaire known for his covers and interiors on Batgirl and Batman: Streets of Gotham, brings his painterly pencils and ability to cute the reader out of existence to the Batman universe.  Batman:  Li’l Gotham #1 is the beginning of a new ongoing series featuring short stories packed to the brim with tiny versions of every famous Gotham resident.  Think Charlie Brown noir.  The first issue is a cavalcade of holiday tales featuring Batman, Robin, The Penguin, and more.  If you’re kids having been begging for some Batman, but you’ve kept them away from Scott Snyder’s recent run for obvious reasons, Li’l Gotham is the answer.

Zombies.  Robots.  Aliens.

Generally, a combination of the above three creatures would be a bad thing.  In the case of IDW‘s The Colonized miniseries, it is actually a very good thing.  Written by Chris Ryall, the creator of Zombies vs. Robots, and graced with covers by the reclusive Dave Sim (Cerebus), The Colonized blends horror and sci-fi by dropping aliens into the middle of a zombie apocalypse.  A surviving member of a zombie resistance camp has his hands full when a spacecraft lands in the middle of town and a government agent begins pulling tricks in order to nab the compounds gun stash.  What follows is when there’s no leader for the martians to be take too.

Your mind is not your own.

Matt Kindt, the ingenious comic creator behind Revolver, 3 Story, and the Justice League of America back-up stories, has been writing one of the most unusual, inventive comics being published for the last year and few have noticed.  Now, that may be because one of the agents from the books has been blocking your interest to hide its secrets or it may be because it’s far outside the norm of mainstream comics.  Basically, Kindt has constructed an intricate world of espionage based around the Mind MGMT agency, a secret organization that uses mental powers to control the ebb and flow of history.  They can wipe your mind, insert memories, make you hate your lover, stop you (or themselves) from feeling pain, or plant subconscious suggestions in the media, and there’s nothing you can do about it.  Kindt uses every last inch of the comic page to tell his story, even writing secret code in the margins and on the back cover of each issue.  This first hardcover collection includes the first six issues of the series…or maybe that’s just what it wants you to think?

The Fantastic Four have always been my least favorite Marvel team.

That is, until Matt Fraction took over the series with Marvel NOW!  For the last six issues, Fantastic Four has proven to be one of the best Marvel series on the stands right now.  And if you’ve missed these first issues, don’t fret because Fantastic Four v.1:  New Departure, New Arrivals comes out Wednesday.  Not only does this volume contain the first three issues of the  main Fantastic Four series, but also the first two issues of FF, the companion series.  This first arc involves the departure of Marvel‘s first family, as  Reed and Sue take their kids on a cosmic field trip, and their replacement by four stand-in Fantastics.  Fraction balances classic Marvel storytelling in Fantastic Four and post-modern wackiness in FF beautifully, offering two entirely different reads in one great package.

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