Sexy, glistening space abs sell.  It’s science.  Marvel would do well to put Chris Pratt’s prison-hosedown scene on the cover of every comic from here to August 1st.  We here at Omega-Level are no dummies, and plan on flooding the page with all the Star-Lord gut muscle you can handle, and probably a few more than that.  To that end we’ll also provide some Guardians of the Galaxy related content, as this week in BTFC I’ll be showing you some comics to go check out now that you’ve been thoroughly wow-ed by the movie trailer.  Even though the GoG are generally considered comic-book third-stringers, come August they’ll be as big (or bigger) than the Avengers, and it’s our duty to provide you the research material to impress your friends and neighbors with GoG factoids.  So hit the jump and learn about some books that will get you on your way to being that Guardians fan you always claimed to be.

A full list of this week’s releases can be found HERE.

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It’s Dumpuary for the movies – ya kids know what that is?  Films that otherswise would not be successful get dumped into this month for release in order to ensure some sort of profit.  So, though there can be diamonds found in the rough, most flicks coming out are pure gaaaarbage.  And while I don’t consider this week’s comic book releases to be completely void of merit, some weeks are better than others, ya feel me?  Call it a Weakday, maybe?   So I’m going to do my best to plug some of the more entertaining releases, plus shine a light on some of the cooler trade paperbacks dropping this week.  Hit the jump for all the patronizing pseudo-intellectualism you’ve come to expect from me, plus comics!

A full list of this weeks’s releases can be found HERE but I’m serious this week is pretty stale.

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You all remember your first, right?  The first time the “new kid in school” walked by you, and your jaw hit the floor.  How did you ever walk the earth without seeing beauty like this before?  How is your town suddenly and irrevocably reduced to a sea of troglodytes and inbred circus freaks with the new kid’s mere existence?  Today a comic drops in our laps that reminds me of that first time.  Every once in a while a comic comes along that changes the landscape – a book that forces not just comic fans, but the general public to take notice, to turn heads like the until-now-unimaginably attractive new kid.  Hit the jump and let’s discuss that head-turner – Marvel’s newest marvel, Ms. Marvel, plus a few other books that might deserve a spot on your pull list.

A full rundown of all this week’s releases can be found HERE.

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Wednesday has arrived, and you guys all know what that means, right?  Of course you do, or you wouldn’t be here.  It’s comic book day, and man are there a ton of titles dropping right on our faces this week!  And I’m here to tell you about ‘em.  Meanwhile, CaffPow says I gotta do some housecleaning and start answering all the mail I’ve got piled up in the OL offices.  To be honest I am more than worried that the mail might contain death threats, anthrax, or comped copies of Superior Spider-Man (you can’t make me read that shit! – I won’t!), but I’m going to suffer through it for you, my beloved fans.  All six of you (hi Grandma!).

So let’s get to the comics and the fanmail and the lying cats and the space cowboys, mmkay?

A full list of this weeks comics can be found HERE.

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Wednesday.  The weekly grind slogs on.  The guy one cubicle over won’t shut up about the goddamned weather.  Your neighbor’s dog continues to shit in your yard.  Frozen fishsticks for dinner.  Again.  There is, however, a brightness to be found in the murk.  I wish I could say it was this column, but nay, I am not that good.  No, it’s the subject of this column that is our beacon.  I’m here to round up the best and brightest funnybooks that drop in our laps (and comic shops/tablets/grocery store wire racks circa pre-1992) on this most miserable of days.  So walk towards this brightness with me – seek out the light.  Let’s talk some damned comics, shall we?

Lots of great titles this week, and a full list can be found HERE.

Join me as we discuss new Rick Remender, my favorite West Coast Avenger, and an Omnibus collecting my favorite series of ALL TIME.  Plus I get a little salty at Marvel.  Should be fun!

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What if Superman took over the world…and the story ends there?  Not because there isn’t anything left to tell, or that once a man who is also a god declares himself king there is no more strife in the world.  No – the story ends because DC loses the rights to Superman, and the character remains tied up in litigation for years, and the story CAN’T be told.  Sorry, no third act.  Curtains.

Hit the jump and let’s talk about the very similar story of Miracleman, the dawn of deconstructionism in comics, and how the third act in the story of Miracleman begins again this week courtesy of Marvel!

Oh, and we’ll also be chatting about some of the other cool books dropping this week (full list can be found HERE) so if Miracleman ain’t yo’ thang you might find some other goodies within. 

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I blame myself for ignoring the Starks.  “Winter is coming! Winter is coming!” they kept saying.  And not even with aplomb.  Always some somber ass portending with them.  Well, they were right.  The 2014 Polar Vortex (I prefer Meat Tornados, personally) dropped right square on my section of the country, and I was a fool for ignoring poor, dead Ned (SPOILER ALERT).  I’ve been digging my way out of my house ever since, and have only recently regained feeling in the extremities.  So I’m just now able to bang out this column for you guys, the first BTFC of 2014!  We got a few pretty cool books to check out (if you haven’t already), so hit the jump and let’s discuss, shall we?  Perhaps over a warm fire, with some cocoa and whatnot, yes?

As a reminder, all this week’s new releases can be found here.

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So 2013 is in the rearview, but what a year for comics, am I right?  While Marvel had an impressive and diverse publishing initiative in Marvel NOW, DC alienated fans across the board with bland updates to their characters (save for Batman & Wonder Woman, maybe) and business practices that would seem right at home in the mid 20^th century.  Meanwhile, Image released a flood of new titles that only continued to improve their brand as the go-to company for independent, creator-owned fare.  Paul Pope dropped his long awaited Battle Boy, comic legend Gilbert Hernandez dropped five new books, and we got another issue of Adrian Tomine’s Optic Nerve.  We even got some “Event” books that weren’t half-bad.  Hit the jump and check out what we here on Spaceship Omega thought was the 13 Best Comics of 2013, and make sure to agree/disagree with our rankings in the comments section!

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2013 is no more.  The New Year’s Day hangover has worn off, the world keeps turning, and the universe cares not how we mark the time.  Nevertheless, we are here to reminisce, and the past year for me was pretty good, I gotta say.  I’d describe it in detail, but I’m saving this shit for my autobiography.  I can’t spoil the goods now, ya know?  Let’s just say it was epic.  Like “ripping Conan the Cimmerian from fictionspace, injecting him with bath salts and letting him loose during a live taping of Big Bang Theory” kinda epic.

What I can divulge to you all is the stuff that I really loved about the pop culture of 2013, and there was a lot to love, to be honest.  Television has never been more bountiful, comic books had a banner year, and I bought more music in 2013 than I have in quite some time.

So, without further ado, and because I’m a goddamned list-maker/lover at heart, here’s some of my favorite stuff from the past 365.

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Admittedly, I don’t get out much.  More often than not I can be found in the bowels of Spaceship Omega, hiberbating in my nanotumblr chrysalis-tomb, forever scrolling through pictures of Kate Upton and 80’s pop-culture ephemera.  Time well spent, to be sure, but it also keeps me well behind the game – the game in this instance being knowledge of all the greatest media the current year in pop culture has to offer.  Oh sure, I know about the Sagas, Infinities, Prophets, and X-Menonites, they big guys, but what have I let slip through the cracks?  What great funnybooks have I failed to verse myself in, and in turn, failed bringing to you guys?  These past couple weeks I’ve shed the nano-skin, hopped in actual clothing and went outside to the local brick and mortar to find some of the best and brightest books I was missing out on in 2013.  Wanna know what I found?  Hit the jump and read on, kids!

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