The Weekly Pull: Aliens vs. Avengers, Universal Monsters: Frankenstein, All New Collectors' Edition, and More

New comics this week also include the debut of Image's Convert, Archie: The Decision, and more.

By Jamie Lovett - August 27, 2024 05:20 pm EDT

It's almost another new comic book day, which means new releases hitting stores and digital platforms. Each week in The Weekly Pull, the ComicBook.com team highlights the new releases that excite us most about another week of comics. Whether those releases are from the most prominent publisher or a small press, brand new issues of ongoing series, original graphic novels, or collected editions of older material, whether it involves capes and cowls or comes from any other genre, if it has us excited about comic books this week, then we're going to tell you about it in The Weekly Pull.

This week, Earth's Mightiest Heroes go up against Xenomorphs in Aliens vs. Avengers, the classic Frankenstein movie gets reinterpreted for comics, and DC reprints Superman's match with Muhammad Ali. Plus, a new Dark Spaces collection, an Image Comics series debut, and more.

What comics are you most excited about this week? Let us know which new releases you're looking forward to reading in the comments, and feel free to leave some of your suggestions as well. Check back tomorrow for our weekly reviews and again next week for a new installment of The Weekly Pull.

Aliens vs. Avengers #1

Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Esad Ribic
Colors by Ive Svorcina
Letters by Cory Petit
Published by Marvel Comics

I admit, I'm a Johnny-come-lately to the Alien franchise. I'd seen Alien at some point and Aliens not long ago but only dug deeper into the franchise earlier this year by watching Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant for the first time. My interest in the series has only grown in the lead-up to Alien: Romulus, the first Alien movie I saw in theaters. Now I've got Alien: Isolation downloaded to my PlayStation and Marvel's recent Aliens Epic Collection releases to read. The timing couldn't be better as this week I'll see my latest pop culture fixation blended with my longtime love of Marvel Comics in Aliens vs. Avengers, which sees the Xenomorphs trying to make Earth's Mightiest Heroes their latest prey. Marvel could easily have made this a low-effort cash grab of a comic. Instead, the publisher reunited writer Jonathan Hickman with artist Esad Ribic, the team behind 2015's Secret Wars event, which remains one of the most buzzed-about Marvel Comics of the past decade. Even if Aliens and Avengers aren't your thing, this creative time has too stellar of a track record to ignore, making Aliens vs. Avengers #1 more than deserving of your attention. -- Jamie Lovett

All-New Collectors' Edition # C-56: Superman vs. Muhammad Ali

Written by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams
Art by Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, and Terry Austin
Colors by Cory Adams
Lettering by Gaspar Saladino
Published by DC

DC's history has been chock-full of collaborations and crossovers that are almost too impossible to imagine, if they weren't already ingrained into our popular culture. 1978's Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a legendary meeting between the Man of Steel and the iconic real-world boxer, is no exception. I'm just as fascinated with the lengthy process of executing the one-shot (which has been chronicled in various DC retrospectives over the years) as I am with the one-shot itself. With this week's new facsimile reprint, I'm looking forward to finally adding the issue to my collection. — Jenna Anderson

Archie: The Decision #1

Written by Tom King
Art by Dan Parent
Published by Archie Comics

Archie Comics has undergone quite a lot of changes over the years, but its slice-of-life humor and heart have always remained. This week, that timelessness is taken to new heights with Archie: The Decision, a one-shot promising to have Archie finally choose between his longtime loves, Betty and Veronica. The combination of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Mister Miracle writer Tom King and Archie legend Dan Parent is too good in its own right, but with that concept, it is truly a can't-miss issue. — Jenna Anderson

Convert #1

Written by John Arcudi
Art by Savannah Finley
Colors by Miguel Co
Letters by Michael Heisler
Published by Image Comics

One of the best pieces of pop culture to arrive last year was Scavengers Reign, a beautifully engrossing work of sci-fi animation about a group of spacefaring scientists who crash-land a planet that is as lush and wondrous as it is dangerous and extremely alien. Scavengers Reign is so good Warner Bros. quickly canceled it and kicked it off of Max. Netflix has since picked it up and while fans are holding out hope that significant viewership from a larger audience could lead to a second season (Side note: you should watch Scavengers Reign) the new Image Comics series Convert may scratch the itch left by Scavengers Reign's ending. Whether intentional or not, Convert's basic premise -- a scientist becomes stranded on an alien planet and adapts to survive -- sounds in the same vein, at least on its face. Veteran comics writer John Arcudi (B.P.R.D.) has promised a sci-fi tale firmly focused on the story's human element. Savannah Finley's lithe, intimate artwork with Miguel Co's colors full of natural beauty seems perfectly positioned to deliver on that promise. Convert seems like the must-read title of the week for sci-fi fans. -- Jamie Lovett

Dark Spaces: Dungeon

Written by Scott Snyder
Art by Hayden Sherman
Colors by Patricio Delpeche
Letters by AndWorld Design
Published by IDW Publishing

Along with The Hunger and the Dusk, Scott Snyder's Dark Spaces line of stories exploring the underside of human nature was the standout of the short-lived IDW Originals initiative. Snyder curated the anthology of limited series released under the Dark Spaces banner and kicked it off himself with Dark Space: Wildfire, teaming with artist Hayden Sherman to tell the unflinchingly human tale of a team of convict firefighters presented with a chance to escape. Snyder and Sherman made an incredible team, which made it a delight to learn they'd be closing out the Dark Spaces concept with Dark Spaces: Dungeon, a miniseries about a serial torturer who would trap his victims in contraptions that forced their bodies to contort into painful positions and leave them there for day, weeks, months, or even years. Even darker and more uncomfortable than Wildfire, Dungeon proved not necessarily a pleasant read, but a compelling one nonetheless with a harrowing ending that will leave you feeling like you've woken up from a nightmare. This week, IDW Publishing releases Dark Spaces: Dungeon, in its entirety, in trade paperback format. If you missed Dungeon the first time, don't make the same mistake twice. -- Jamie Lovett

Life #1

Written by Brian Azzarello and Stephanie Phillips
Art by Danijel Žeželj
Colors by Lee Loughridge
Letters by Jared K. Fletcher
Published by DSTLRY

DSTLRY is a publisher with creative lineups that can be characterized as "all killer, no filler," reliably delivering the best new horror and sci-fi comic book series of the past year. This week readers receive Life #1, a flipbook crafted by writers Brian Azzarello and Stephanie Phillips alongside artist Danijel Žeželj. Collectively, they have a bundle of definitive works under their belts, but what makes Life #1 most intriguing is their collective penchant for playing with form. Azzarello is a master of crafting brief character pieces, like in 100 Bullets, but is also ready to develop entire futures complete with their own dialects, like in Spaceman. Combine that with Phillips' outstanding work on stories like Grim and Žeželj's penchant for summoning bleak futuristic landscapes in series like Starve and Cyberpunk 2077, and you have a promise of excellence. It's the sort of creative team capable of delivering not only an intriguing new sci-fi series, but one that hinges on a twist that only exists in comics with multiple narratives literally colliding within the space of the same issue. However it reads, readers can rest assured they won't find anything like it outside of comic book stores this week. -- Chase Magnett

Universal Monsters: Frankenstein #1

Written by Michael Walsh
Art by Michael Walsh
Colors by Toni-Marie Griffin
Letters by Becca Carey
Published by Image Comics

The Universal Monsters line—a collection of horror miniseries featuring modern comics stars updating the iconic monster movies—has proven to be another creative coup at Skybound. Dracula and The Creature From the Black Lagoon Lives! are already celebrated as both creative and aesthetic successes, revitalizing the greatest elements of their source material with concepts that can only be delivered in comics. That's why the addition of cartoonist Michael Walsh and the title Frankenstein to the mix is obviously exciting. Walsh has marked himself as one of the best current artists working in horror comics on the devilishly adaptable anthology The Silver Coin – serving up every sub-genre imaginable from a who's who of writing partners. Bringing his unique style and eye for the essence of terror to the most tragic of the Universal lot of monsters is simply thrilling, no further explanation required. Whether Walsh is depicting the necrotic hellscape of Frankenstein's work or modernizing the gothic soul of Shelley's source material, Universal Monsters: Frankenstein is bound to be the must-read comic of this Halloween season. -- Chase Magnett