There's no way of getting around it: this is both an incredibly slow week for new comics releases, and also an incredibly busy week... just not until the weekend. This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day 2008 (when all manner of books are released for the price of zero dollars exactly in the hope of luring new readers into stores to be tempted by much more expensive items) but I'll wait until Friday before I tell you what you should be picking up for that. But everyone's preparing for Saturday, because what's appearing in stores tomorrow? It kind of sucks.
That's not entirely true, of course; there's the new Fables collection, Wolves - but that series, based around what happens after the "happily ever after" at the end of all fairy tales (Here's a clue: Brutal war, New York and marriage, but not necessarily in that order), lacks pretty much any kind of science fiction element that'd let me claim it as part of the io9 mission statement.
There's also DC Universe: Zero, easily the most interesting release of the week - A 50 cent introduction to the current status quo of all of DC's main characters (Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, as well as the Legion of Super-Heroes, Green Lantern and others) by writers Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns as well as "a host of comics' best artists" as they say. It all leads into this summer's big Final Crisis, Batman R.I.P., Legion of Three Worlds and Wonder Woman: Rise of Olympus storylines. Even if you're not interested in any of those characters or stories, it's still 32 pages of pretty for half a dollar, so what are you waiting for?
Otherwise, the most interesting two books both come from Platinum Studios, via life as webcomics. A lot has been said about the creating-comics-purely-as-IP-to-sell-as-movies business model of Platinum, but when it produces comics with titles like I Was Kidnapped By Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space and Adventures of Tymm: Alien Circus, at least you know that they're not too proud to go sensationalistic in their attempts to get your eyeballs.
As is always the case, you can look at this week's shipping list and see how disappointing it is for yourself here, and then go and find your local comic store here in preparation for the much more exciting free grab-bag that is this weekend. Just give them a call, ask them to keep a copy of DC Universe until you get there on Saturday, and save yourself the time tomorrow. You'll thank me in the end.