Image Advance Arrivals: June 2026
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
The Sacrificers vol. 4
Pigeon had a close encounter with one of the gods that rule his world in vol. 3. One that had them becoming allies instead of adversaries. As they look to take the fight to those in charge, his sister Beatrice has reluctantly thrown in her lot with Soluna – just in time for the end of the world! Coincidentally, for the end of this series as well. This Rick Remender-written series about the struggles of the have-nots against the haves has been one of his better efforts as it has managed to balance solid world and character-building, social messaging, and high fantasy action pretty well over the course of its three volumes so far. It has also benefitted from some career-best artwork by Max Fiumara, who has become a much better artist than I would’ve expected after seeing his work on “B.P.R.D.” The way things have gone so far, there’s no reason to expect that the two of them won’t stick the landing here.
M.A.S.K. #1: The latest Energon Universe series rolls out as Matt Trakker leads the Mobile Armor Strike Command, a network of specialists trained to respond to any emergency with cutting-edge technology that turns them and their vehicles into high-tech weapons. Which is why they go against Miles Mayhem and V.E.N.O.M., who are searching for interplanetary weapons that have found their way to Earth. Are they talking about Transformers here? I sure hope so, because – apologies to writer Dan Watters and artist Pye Parr – I’m not sure I’d be able to get myself to care about this toyetic also-ran series from the 80’s any other way. I’ll likely be passing on this until developments in “Void Rivals,” “Transformers,” and “G.I. Joe” convince me that I need to start reading it.
M1: Monster Racing League #1: Jae Lee drawing a Japan-set series about an underground racing circuit that thrives on mutation and probably monsters? Sign me up! But it’s co-written by one of the guys who worked on the underwhelming Lee-illustrated “Seven Sons.” Hmmm… going to have to think on this for a bit, now.
The Trillion-Dollar Kid #1 (of 2): Actually part one of a four-part storyline called “Who Are the Unbelievables?” that’s running through other Ghost Machine titles. Including this month’s “Hornsby & Halo.” We don’t know who the Unbelievables are, but teen trillionaire Tommy Townsend III and his robot butler bodyguard Sterling are going to find out. I don’t know why co-writers Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi thought we needed a new take on “Richie Rich” in their universe, but I feel like I can safely ignore this for now. (Also, my patience for the antics of trillionaires was all used up hatewatching the “Trillion Game” anime with friends.) Still, it might be amusing to see this little schmuck cross paths with the likes of Geiger or Redcoat and get a few hard knocks in the process.
Universal Monsters: Blood of the Wolf Man #1 (of 4): Adam Jaeger thought that he’d be able to reinvent himself at college. The problem is that he might be reinventing himself into a bloodthirsty killer he has no control over. This is coming to us from writer Joshua Williamson and artist Leomacs, which is fine enough. I’m less averse to Williamson after his work on “Superman” and “G.I. Joe” and I remember Leomacs doing good work on “Basket Full of Heads.” The problem, as with all of these “Universal Monsters” miniseries is that it’s inevitably going to be collected in an oversized and overpriced hardcover. As we all found out with “The Mummy,” these need to come from a creator or creative team that I really don’t have any issues with giving my money to if they want me to pick this up.
Casanova Compendium Book One: Casanova Quinn is a multiversal secret agent who’s all about living life to its fullest. Unfortunately, that frequently conflicts with the obligations of his job, family, and maybe even existence itself. Best known around these parts for the phrase, “Comics harshed my fun boner,” this compendium collects the first three “Casanova” stories from writer Matt Fraction and artists Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon. Definitely style over substance, but these guys bring the style! Also, that “Book One” is a misnomer as the follow-up series, “Acedia,” stalled out after two volumes. So just enjoy what you’re getting here and it’ll be fine.
The Department of Truth vol. 7: *sigh* At the end of the previous volume, Department head Lee Harvey Oswald did the wrong thing and went to the president with a plan to Make America Great Again. That starts with the DoT and now Cole, the one person in the series who has always tried to do the right thing, is on the run with nowhere to go. Except maybe into the arms of Black Hat. Joy. I understand writer James Tynion IV is trying to reflect our current situation in this series, but it feels like this series is going to do that in the most miserable, depressing “Animal Pound” way possible. We’ll see if that’s the case, but I’m at least looking forward to seeing Ben Templesmith’s art on the second arc in this volume, along with whatever Scott Snyder and Joshua Hixon have to say about Elvis.
Geiger vol. 5: We met Ashley Arden, the Glowing Woman, in the previous volume and her confused and confusing motivations resulted in the least enjoyable volume of this series yet. We’ll see if writer Geoff Johns can get things back on track with this volume even as Ashley sticks around. That’s not all this volume has to offer, apparently, as Geiger winds up in a prison run by its inmates and has a close encounter with The Northerner. Promising, but we can at least be sure that this volume will continue to look good as regular artist Gary Frank is joined by Eduardo Pansica here.
The Lucky Devils HC: Collects the nine-issue miniseries from writer Charles Soule and artist Ryan Browne, and let me say that I’m glad it exists. Browne had a health scare in the middle of working on this and it’s great that he was not only able to recover from it, but finish this miniseries as well. You’ll recall that Soule and Browne had a hit with the high-concept “Eight Billion Genies,” and this title has a similar one in mind: What happens when two ordinary humans start working with the devils on their shoulders? Unfortunately the solicitation text lets us know that they become two of the most powerful people around, who plan to make the world a better place regardless of what you’ve heard about the path to Hell being paved with. I want to believe that these two are going to deliver something as crazy as the first half of “Genies” but now I’m worried we might get something as predictable, sentimental, and moralistic as that title’s back half was. Welp, I’ll never know what the case will be if I don’t read this first…