The Weekly Pull: X-Factor, TMNT: Nightwatcher, Batman, and More

X-Men: From the Ashes and the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles eras expand this week.

By Jamie Lovett - August 13, 2024 05:42 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 have us the most excited 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, Marvel launches its new X-Factor series, IDW introduces a new Nightwatcher to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe, and Batman: Year One gets the artist's edition treatment. Plus, another Batman omnibus, a new Garth Ennis series, 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.

Babs #1

Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Jacen Burrows
Colors by Andy Troy
Letters by Rob Steen
Published by Ahoy Comics

Recommending this comic only requires about four words (and one conjunction): Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows. Whether this duo is engaged in eldritch horror like The Ribbon Queen or war comics with a familiar twist like Get Fury, they always deliver outstanding comics, making them one of the definitive writer-artist pairings of the modern era. Babs #1 delivers a very different genre of story for fans of this collaborative team, though, as it takes on high fantasy in a humorous tone. Babs centers upon its eponymous heroine who rides about a fantasy landscape in skimpy scale mail slaying monsters and retrieving loot much like Red Sonja. Yet Ennis has never been one for reheating old ideas and brings his own cynical sense of humor and digs at both fantasy comics and modern politics to the script. Burrows proves how adaptable he is as an artist as he veers away from the body horror that no one in the industry does better to design a wide array of monsters in a rich setting filled with fantasy tropes. Babs #1 is something genuinely unexpected from two of the best creators working in the direct market today, and that's simply too exciting to pass up. -- Chase Magnett

Batman by Paul Dini Omnibus

Written by Paul Dini
Art by various
Published by DC

Watching Batman: Caped Crusader got me thinking about Batman: The Animated Series. Many fans know that some of The Animated Series' best episodes were written by Paul Dini. Surprisingly few of those fans are aware that Dini went on to write some stellar Batman stories in Detective Comics and elsewhere. Luckily for them, DC is this week reprinting its omnibus collecting all of Dini's Batman comics stories, including his Detective Comics runs and other stories from series like Batman: Streets of Gotham, Batman: Gotham Knights, and Batman: Black and White. This volume should make a great extension of any Batman: The Animated Series fans' collection. -- Jamie Lovett

David Mazzucchelli's Batman Year One Artist's Edition

Written by Frank Miller
Art by David Mazzucchelli
Colors by Richmond Lewis
Letters by Todd Klein
Published by IDW Publishing

The "Artist's Edition" line edited by IDW Publishing is the Criterion Collection of comics and each new edition merits a close look from aficionados of both the specific stories presented and the medium as a whole. That's why the release of David Mazzucchelli's Batman Year One Artist Edition merits even more attention as it combines one of the medium's greatest working artists with one of its most significant characters in a story that has aged flawlessly across decades. Batman: Year One and Mazzucchelli are just that good, and neither will receive a better presentation than the beautiful hardcover released this week. Not only is the entire story reprinted in beautiful, 14x21 inch, black and white pages, but also his layouts for the definitive work. In addition to all of that, this edition features both a new introduction from Mazzucchelli and is designed by the extraordinary Chip Kidd. When comics connoisseurs speak about excellence, this is the sort of volume used to define that word and it's available for all of us who love comics on Wednesday. -- Chase Magnett

House of Secrets #92

Written by Various
Art by Various
Published by DC

Initially published in May of 1971, this issue of House of Secrets changed the DC Universe forever with the launch of Swamp Thing. The champion of The Green was launched by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, paving the way for countless beautiful and horrifying stories to follow. Before the character heads back to the big screen with James Mangold's movie in James Gunn's DCU, you owe it to yourself to check out where it all began, and this week's new facsimile issue provides a great opportunity to do that. -- Jenna Anderson

Sensational She-Hulk #10

Written by Rainbow Rowell
Art by Andres Genolet
Published by Marvel Comics

For the past two years, Rainbow Rowell and a slew of artists have helped bring She-Hulk squarely in the modern era, with a new comic run coiniciding with the debut of her Disney+ series. This week brings the end of the series' second chapter, a new revival of Sensational She-Hulk that has been jam-packed with heart, romance, and fun cameos from Jen Walters' friends and foes. This run is being cut way too short, but I have no doubt that it will deliver a great finale. -- Jenna Anderson

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher #1

Written by Juni Ba
Art by Fero Pe
Colors by Luis Antonio Delgado
Letters by Nathan Widick
Published by IDW Publishing

The new era of IDW Publishing's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics got off to a stellar start in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1. Now it expands in Nightwatcher #1, the start of a new series from rising star Juni Ba and former TMNT artist Fero Pe. IDW has kept the new Nightwatcher's identity a mystery for the time being, but the FCBD story it released earlier this year suggested that this brutal vigilante is keeping Mutant Town safe while the Turtles are scattered elsewhere. Who is the new (anti?)hero hiding beneath the mask? TMNT fans should be eager to find out. -- Jamie Lovett

X-Factor #1

Written by Mark Russell
Art by Bob Quinn
Colors by Jesus Aburtov
Letters by Joe Caramagna
Published by Marvel Comics

There's plenty of 1990s nostalgia baked into Marvel's "From the Ashes" relaunch of the X-Men line, and when people talk about '90s nostalgia, they're mostly thinking of the comics drawn by artists who'd soon after leave to found Image Comics. But there's another cult favorite comic from that era that's often overlooked and that's X-Factor, relaunched under writer Peter David and artists like Larry Stroman and Joe Quesada. During this phase of X-Men history, X-Factor abandoned its original mission statement (reunite the original X-Men) for something different, introducing a new X-Factor team comprised of mutant B-listers with government funding and sanction to show, theoretically, that there's a way to make the world better for mutants from within the system. That sounds heady and political, and it had that baked into it, but it was most often played for laughs and satire. If Marvel is hoping to recapture that same energy in its "From the Ashes" relaunch of X-Factor, as seems to be the case, they couldn't find a better writer to work in that satirical mold than Mark Russell, joined by Bob Quinn, an artist who impressed with their contributions during the X-Men's Krakoa era. With all of that in mind, this is one '90s throwback I can get behind. -- Jamie Lovett