Major Spoilers Staff Picks for December 18, 2019 #NCBD

IT’S NEW COMIC BOOK DAY! #NCBD

The best day of the week just got a lot better with a new round of awesome comics arriving in stores this week. Staff members at Major Spoilers are here to help you with your comic book selection this week, with their roundup of comics they recommend.

BASKETFUL OF HEADS #3
Writer: Joe Hill
Artist: Leomacs
Publisher: DC Comics/Hill House Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: Basketful of Heads continues as a seven-issue miniseries! June Branch has been hunted, haunted, and desperate; she’s got an ancient Viking axe with mystical properties and a severed head in a basket that won’t shut up. If she can’t make her traveling companion be quiet, maybe she can get some answers out of him…answers that might spell the difference between life and death. But getting him to talk is one thing, and getting the truth out of him is another. He’s a decapitated devil who’d like nothing more than to lead June astray-and with three other killers out to finish her off, so she has no room for error. The comic with the sharpest edge in horror returns for another swing of the axe!

MATTHEW: The book so nice, it gained an issue! The first two issues of this were great, and I’m hoping that it holds the quality all the way to the end.

BLACK STARS ABOVE #2
Writer: Lonnie Nadler
Artist: Jenna Cha
Publisher: Vault Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: The storm continues to gestate. Lost in a wilderness known as The Green Ribbon, Eulalie is faced with an impossible decision: return home to a family that has forsaken her, or finish her journey to the northern town to deliver the mysterious package. She must decide wisely, for threats lurk behind every tree and the snow has an appetite of its own.

INGRID: If you like cosmic horror, Black Stars Above #2 is one to look for. Set in the past, in winter, in Canada, it is bleak and haunting, full of symbolism and strange happenings. Eulalie is a young woman who does not fit in with her family. She has agreed to deliver a package, and now that she’s deep in the woods, she’s starting to realize that the world is not what she expected.

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #12
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Gary Frank
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $5.99
SOLICITATION: This is it! The final showdown between Dr. Manhattan and Superman shakes up the DC Universe to its very core! But can even the Man of Steel walk out from the shadow of Manhattan?

MATTHEW: I’m looking forward to this the way you look forward to a root canal ending tooth pain, and I’m frankly just hoping that this issue finally gives us a hint as to when/where this takes place. I’ve given up on any answer for the why.

FOLKLORDS #2
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Matt Smith
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: Against the order of his village, Ansel strikes out to find the Folklords, the only beings that can explain his visions of another world. But the forest is even more dark and terrible than he was told, and Ansel meets two very different women who will change his life-one way or another-forever.

CHRISTOPHER: I haven’t been fully sold on this story and Ansel as a protagonist but there is so much potential here that I have to pick it up.

STEPHEN: Simply put – the first issue was fantastic. Looking forward to diving into the world Kindt and Smith have created, and I want to see the mask pulled off the big bad in the end.

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #2
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Ryan Sook
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: It’s been one thousand years since anyone has seen the oceans of the Earth, but with Aquaman’s original trident recently discovered, a chase to control Earth’s future tears across the galaxy. All this and the reunion you’d never thought you’d see! Another DC sci-fi epic into the far-flung future like you’ve never seen before!

MATTHEW: I enjoyed issue #1, which wasn’t nearly the trainwreck some thought it should have been, and I’m looking forward to more Legion (and the inevitable reboot to Silver Age continuity in seven or so years.)

STEPHEN: OMG! I loved the first issue, and I can’t wait to dive into issue #2 this week. The Legion are back, and I think Bendis and Sook really get what this series should be about.

ONCE & FUTURE #5
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Dan Mora
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: With Gran’s life hanging in the balance, Duncan comes face to face with another knight in search of the Grail, and only one will emerge victorious…

INGRID: Last issue, we discovered that Duncan’s Gran is every bit as manipulative as Elaine, the woman plotting to raise Arthur from the dead. In this modern retelling of the classic story, the search is on for the Grail. Stories have power, and they want to be enacted again. Duncan has just discovered he has a role to play and now we get to find out what he does. It’s a thrilling book, beautifully drawn, full of interestingly ruthless characters.

REVENGE OF THE COSMIC GHOST RIDER #1 (OF 5)
Writer: Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum and Donny Cates
Artist: Geoff Shaw and Scott Hepburn
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: Cosmic Ghost Rider is back, baby! But with a reputation like his, it’s only a matter of time before the law catches up to the future Frank Castle and tries to put him in chains – too bad for the law, chains are Castle’s weapons of choice these days. Now in an intergalactic prison, the Rider is going to turn his cage into an all-out cage match! Who’s going to be the last alien standing?! Find out in this all new miniseries from Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum (MARVEL’S SPIDERMAN: CITY AT WAR) and Scott Hepburn (DEADPOOL)!
Plus – Don’t miss out on a brand new short story from the guys who started it all, Donny Cates (ABSOLUTE CARNAGE) and Geoff Shaw (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY)!
Parental Advisory

CHRISTOPHER: When Cosmic Ghost Rider first came out, it felt like an idea that should work but kind of did. Now that a foundation has been set, I’m hoping to see a strong narrative story coming from this title.

SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #6
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Steve Lieber
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: Meanwhile, in Gotham City, the great Olsen/Batman prank war rages on. An old favorite returns to make heads or tails of just what the heck has been going on. Jimmy does some funny Fraction stuff. Batman is there, too, doing some Lieber stuff. Lex Luthor’s kicking around. It’s a whole thing.

JONATHAN: I maintain that this is the best book that DC is putting out right now. If for no other reason that it’s a breath of fresh air from the *at least* timeline screwing, continuity shattering, catastrophes that are playing out in a majority of the other books in DC’s lineup.

WONDER WOMAN: DEAD EARTH #1
Writer: Daniel Warren Johnson
Artist: Daniel Warren Johnson
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $6.99
SOLICITATION: DC BLACK LABEL – PRESTIGE PLUS FORMAT – APPROX. 8.5″ x 10.875″ The celebrated creator of Murder Falcon and Extremity and artist of The Ghost Fleet, Daniel Warren Johnson brings bold sci-fi chops to his DC debut with a harrowing vision of Wonder Woman unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Princess Diana of Themyscira left paradise to save Man’s World from itself. When Wonder Woman awakens from a centuries-long sleep to discover the Earth reduced to a nuclear wasteland, she knows she failed. Trapped alone in a grim future, Diana must protect the last human city from titanic monsters while uncovering its secret of this dead Earth-and how she may be responsible for it.

JONATHAN: I was skeptical of the Black Label imprint at first. I thought it was just another “this ain’t your dad’s comics” sort of publicity stunt, but I’ve really enjoyed the titles I’ve read so far. Also, I’m hoping it’s nice to see Wonder Woman in this sort of setting when it’s normally Batman.

ROBOT OVERLORD: WITH THE HOLIDAYS COMING UP, NOW IS THE BEST TIME TO GRAB EVERYTHING ON THIS LIST TO KEEP YOU COMFORTED DURING THE LONG DARK NIGHTS.

---

Dear Spoilerite,

At Major Spoilers, we strive to create original content that you find interesting and entertaining. Producing, writing, recording, editing, and researching requires significant resources. We pay writers, podcast hosts, and other staff members who work tirelessly to provide you with insights into the comic book, gaming, and pop culture industries. Help us keep MajorSpoilers.com strong. Become a Patron (and our superhero) today.