Picks of the Week: 05/04/2016

In the tradition of BOOK OF DEATH, ARMOR HUNTERS, and HARBINGER WARS, Valiant's most ambitious crossover event yet starts here! At the dawn of the 41st century, the future of Earth will be decided in the stars. This May...the rebellion begins in 4001 A.D.!

One hundred years from today, Father - the benevolent artifi cial intelligence that governs the island nation of Japan - will gain sentience. To defend its borders, Father will take drastic action by launching Japan into space...where its people will thrive in isolation, away from the overpopulated and resource-deprived planet below. Over the centuries, as New Japan orbits our increasingly unstable world, it will become a model society - one built on peace, prosperity... and Father's control.

A thousand years from today, Father will create the first Rai, founding a lineage of technologically enhanced heroes engineered to defend New Japan and sworn to protect it from all enemies. For hundreds of years into the future, the Rai will single-handedly enforce New Japan's justice well...and serve Father without question. Now, at the dawn of 4001 A.D., the latest Rai is about to inherit the dark truth behind the origin of his kind...and discover the sinister
secret at the heart of Father's existence. For New Japan to live, Earth must die...and as Rai challenges his former master for the first time in more than a millennium, the lone guardian of New Japan will be cast out of his own Father's kingdom...

Exiled from the only realm he's ever known, Rai now walks the ravaged world of 4001 A.D. in search of forgotten heroes like himself... on a mission to collect the last surviving legends of a broken planet...and to forge a rebellion with the power to bring the most advanced civilization in history crashing back down to Earth.

What's to Love: From The Godfather to The Sopranos, organized crime stories have always fascinated us. Weavers is a macabre story with a twist on the familiar drama of dons, capos, and made men, mixing in supernatural elements that only writer Simon Spurrier (The Spire, Cry Havoc) can think up.  It's perfect for fans of Day Men or Scalped!

What It Is: Sid, a young man with nothing going for himself, becomes an unlikely new addition to The Weavers, a brutal, East Coast crime family whose members are bound to loyalty thanks to the supernatural spider inside each one of them, granting them powerful-and often grotesque-abilities. Once he realizes what he's capable of, Sid sets out to pursue his own secret agenda, counter to the group's objectives. But he doesn't have much time-the longer the spider is inside him, the more loyal he becomes to The Weavers...

Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill invite you, and some of the finest creators in comics, in to join them in a different kind of dark: Cinema Purgatorio!  This ongoing monthly series will feature Alan and Kevin in every issue and is their first major new project together since League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!  Anthology has become a dirty word, so far be it from us to clean it up.  Instead we'll shine our light onto the cutting edge of sequential art, with black and white artwork to allow illustrator's pure visions, and the greatest assembly of writing talent ever gathered on one series.  Every issue is perfect-bound, with no ads, and all of the works are very long-form, there are no collections planned before 2018.  Jump in now and embrace the new future of comics.  The one of which Alan Moore has always dreamed.  It's here, now. Hiding in the dark corner.  Welcome to Cinema Purgatorio.

Special double-sized first issue!
The One% own more than half the world's wealth. They've crashed economies, bought governments, and have amassed more power than any other group in history. And they still don't have enough. With this kind of power how can anyone make them pay? WHO will make them pay? Enter Renato Jones, a mysterious vigilante, out to even the score. And when he enters the fray THE SUPER-RICH ARE SUPER F***ED.

From acclaimed creator KAARE KYLE ANDREWS (Iron Fist: The Living Weapon, Spider-Man: Reign) comes a supercharged capitalist action thriller for a post-Great Recession world.

A simple change of venues for one of Matt Murdock's cases becomes more complicated when THE PUNISHER attempts to send the defendant away...permanently! If DAREDEVIL and BLINDSPOT want to get this mobster his day in court, it will take every ounce of wit and wile they have. All Frank needs to get what he wants is a bullet. The race is on!

FRANK CASTLE LOSES CONTROL!
A by-the-numbers drug bust is about to take Frank Castle by surprise...and he HATES surprises. The horrible fallout threatens to send The Punisher into the heart of darkness, but Castle won't make that journey alone: A DEA agent is on his trail and attempting to get into his head...but what horrors will she find there, and will she survive the experience? First-time Punisher writer Becky Cloonan and quintessential Punisher artist Steve Dillon are forcing Frank Castle out of his comfort zone and taking him to the edge of the world he thought he knew!
Parental Advisory

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS DOWN!
•  Marc Spector is in an asylum full of faces: haughty doctor, hostile orderlies, vacant-eyed patients. Or maybe those faces are actually just masks...
•  If some of those masks hide friends, others may hide enemies, or worse...GODS and MONSTERS.
•  The moon is out, the mask is on: it's time to escape-will Marc find a city full of sand, or something truly horrifying?

Yeah, that's who you think it is! Get ready for surprises and revelations as Bruce Wayne welcomes you to the storyline that will change Batman Beyond's status quo forever!

Magnus passes judgement on Klaus, and the enemy's past is revealed.

Queen Emporia is on the run from her husband, along with her kids and bodyguard. Now all they have to do is get across the galaxy while the world's most ruthless dictator has all his forces in hot pursuit. Easy, right? A plea for help on an alien stopover world plus a broken transporter could end their adventure before it's begun! The stakes get even higher in the latest from superstar creators Millar and Immonen!

RED ROOM BY MORNING, SPIES TAKE WARNING
•  The Weeping Lion has Black Widow under his thumb.
•  Until Natasha learns his true motivations, she's trapped playing his personal weapon and spy...
•  He's controlling the best in the world, and sending her to the place she never wanted to go: home.