This week's comic expectations

So, there's plenty of comics this week you should know already I recommend. Booster Gold #4 is out, and that series is the best not enough people are reading, yet. Black Adam #4 is out too, and that's the best mini-series I've read in years. X-Factor #25 is the next part in Messiah CompleX, so pick that up too. All-Star Superman #9 is a must-read, and if you've bought the first four World War Hulk issues, WWH #5 is an obvious choice as well.

Then, there are some books that aren't as obvious.

If you've been waiting for the whole "Skrull Invasion" to begin heating up, wait no longer. As the cover indicates, New Avengers #36 promises to lay the groundwork for that big 2008 event. While you may be a little lost following the current storyline if you haven't read issue #35, you have to get caught up eventually if you're going to be following the Skrull story, right?

A couple of Marvel mini-series also debut this week, with Captain Marvel #1 and House of M Avengers #1. CM will tell the story of a Marvel hero from the past catapulted into the future... um, no, this isn't Captain America, it just sounds like it. CM is a character Marvel has been trying to revive for a while, so may this time is the charm. HofM Avengers is exactly that -- a return to the HofM world, where we find a rag-tag group of Avengers fighting as the human minority. Now, I am skeptical about this one, only because comic companies normally wait 5 or 10 years before returning to an alternate reality, so the rush to get back to the HofM world is a bit alarming.

From DC, Salvation Run #1 has really caught my interest. The good about this new mini is the idea of top-notch villains as the main characters, trapped in a prison for some grand-scheme reason. The bad? It's a Countdown tie-in, pure and simple. So far the only good Countdown tie-in has been "Death of the New Gods." Could this be the second?

Also, Wonder Woman #14 is the debut of new writer Gail Simone. Gail has done bang-up jobs on more gritty titles like "Birds of Prey," so here's hoping she can clean up the mess that is Wonder Woman. I mean, it's not like DC has tried that recently... what? They tried it 15 months ago? Well, good luck Gail!

Finally, and I am not exactly recommending this one, we have Batman and the Outsiders #1 this week, with one of the strangest comic-book situations you'll ever hear of. After Tony Bedard wrote five crappy making-the-team-roster issues leading up to Outsiders #50, which revamped the team, he then begs off of this new book a couple of weeks before it was originally supposed to be released. So, enter new writer Chuck Dixon. The good on this is that Dixon is a pro at handling Batman and stories with similar tones as Batman. The bad? Dixon is scrambling to make this book his own. He's changing around the roster in the third issue, removing J'onn J'onzz and Catwoman, and he's trying to change the tone of the book on the fly. This doesn't exactly sound like a winning combination in the short term. Maybe in the long term.