Let's start with Electropolis, the new Dark Horse collection of Dean Motter's Retrofuture Deco Noir story (Preview here). Filled with robot detectives, femme fatales and the power of electricity, it's just one of many off-beat genre books appearing at comic book stores this week.

And if Electropolis' pulp fiction is your thing, then maybe the Batman/Doc Savage Special (Dark Knight Detective versus Man of Bronze!) will also float your boat, after all. Or maybe Sky Doll: Doll Factory, a collection of unseen material from the awesome European strip Sky Doll, will provide your reading material for the next few days.

But if you prefer your heroines a little less suggestible than Sky Doll, the first issue of Tank Girl: Skidmarks is probably more your speed. Unsurprisingly, we'd also point you in the direction of the debut of Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows, but we're biased.

Maybe you're looking for something you've already seen in major motion pictures? That's okay; not only is there a preview issue of the new series of Wall-E, but there's also Star Wars Purge: Seconds To Die, which follows a young Darth Vader killing off as many Jedi as possible, post Revenge of The Sith. And that's not all! There's also a paperback collection of DC/Wildstorm's recent The X-Files series.

For those who can't get enough of those superheroes, then I'd recommend the first issue of Warren Ellis' Supergod, his latest "What if superheroes were bastards?" series. Or, on the opposite end of the superhero spectrum, the Absolute Justice hardcover, collecting Alex Ross' expansive love letter to the Super Friends (No, really).

In between those two extremes, there's Dynamite's Project Superpowers: The Black Terror Vol. 1 collection, DC's Green Lantern: Agent Orange collection, which leads into the current Blackest Night storyline, Supergirl: Who Is Superwoman? (in which Sterling Gates and Jamil Igle manage to undo years of abuse and make Supergirl a likable, working character again - good job, people) and the Authority: The Lost Year Reader (reprinting Grant Morrison and Gene Ha's two completed issues of their abandoned run, ahead of Keith Giffen and other artists aiming to complete the story in their absence).

There's also Marvel's PunisherMax (Yes, one word. It's the new "mature readers" title for the character, and maybe Marvel thinks pushing words together is more adult?), Green Hulk/Red Hulk collection (Heroes' writer Jeph Loeb writes a couple of gamma-irradiated monsters in a couple of adventures), the first issue of Strange (Mark Waid's reboot of the former Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme). And also, there's all manner of X-Men books: the Dark Avengers/X-Men: Utopia collection, as well as collections of Wolverine: Tales of Weapon X, Wolverine Weapon X: Adamantium Men and Wolverine/Gambit. All your Wolverine needs should definitely be met this week, let's face it.

If there are any other needs looking unserviced, I'd recommend checking out the complete list of books shipping from Diamond Distributors this week, and then remembering that your local comic book store can be found here. If this week seems overly expensive, don't worry; there's an entire skip week at the end of the year to get some of that money back. Look at it as a loan. Or something.

The heirs to Kirby, who co-created the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America - and had a hand in creating Spider-Man, pretty much completing the set - have sent out 45 notices of copyright termination to companies including Marvel Entertainment, Disney, Paramount (distributors for Iron Man, Hulk and the next five Marvel movies), Sony (the studio behind the Spider-Man movies, 20th Century Fox (X-Men and Fantastic Four) and others, expressing intent to own copyright on Kirby's creations. The notices did not only involve comic books and movies; apparently, Hasbro and Universal also received notices, for the toy and theme park rights as well.

The Kirby estate is taking the claim seriously, hiring Marc Toberoff, the attorney who's been representing the Siegel estate in the recent Superman/Superboy lawsuits. While Marvel itself has offered no comment on the notices yet, Disney issued a statement saying, essentially, that it's not a big deal:

The notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition.

Considering Kirby's importance to the creation of the core characters in the Marvel Universe, losing any control over the rights of his creations could be costly at best, devastating at worst, for Marvel and Disney. Considering that the Kirby estate was on good terms with Marvel as recently as 2006, when Marvel released a series based upon the previously unseen Kirby concept Galactic Bounty Hunters, expect some form of negotiations to be taking place sooner rather than later.

In Wake of Disney-Marvel Deal, Cartoonist's Heirs Seek to Reclaim Rights [New York Times]

With the exception of Image Comics' Dead Space: Extraction special issue (tying in with the upcoming videogame from EA) and Harris' latest revival of Vampirella (Called, somewhat incorrectly, Vampirella: The Second Coming), Marvel Comics really owns the single issue market this week when it comes to new launches of interest.

From Marvel, there are the latest special issues in the ongoing Dark Reign storyline (Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus or Dark Reign: The List: The Avengers). And then there's the launch of Marvel's latest Orson Scott Card adaptation (Ender's Game: Command School). Or even the surprise launch of a new series starring the sidekick of an alternate Earth Captain America (Nomad: Girl Without A World).

Besides Marvel, there's not really that much else for superhero fans looking for a first issue this week (Okay, there is DC Comics' The Shield, which is gritty Captain America from an idea by J. Michael Straczynski... but still).

(Actually, if you're looking for something superhero-ish and none of the above sound promising, I'd direct your attention to the seventh issue of DC's Superman: World Of New Krypton, which begins its second half with what looks like the slow march to war between Earth and Superman's new adopted home planet, offering as much fun politicking as it does fisticuffs. But that's just me.)

In terms of collections, it's actually fairly evenly split: IDW has Astro Boy Movie Prequel: Underground, allowing you to catch up on your robot Pinocchio before next month's movie.

Meanwhile, DC's Gotham Central Vol. 2: Jokers and Madmen offers up easily the best Joker story in comics in the last decade alongside some other, equally good, stories about Batman's hometown police force.

Rebellion puts out Strontium Dog: Traitor To His Kind, which reboots the 2000AD franchise back into fine shape courtesy of the character's creators. (Short version: He's a time-traveling mutant bounty hunter in the far future. His partner is a Viking. Surely that's all you need to know.)

And Marvel again, may have grabbed the win with Marvel Superhero Team-Up, the disappointingly-renamed (It was originally Marvel Bromance) anthology of male bonding stories from the company's long and rich history. Mickey and Donald would be proud.

As ever, the complete list of comics reaching your local stores this week can be found here before you decide to purchase your picks at your local comic store. Look on the bright side: Such a light week this week just lets you save up for all the goodies still to come next week.

From DC, there are two not-really-io9-but-still-worth-looking-into books in the new "Vertigo Crime" imprint: Brian Azzarello's Filthy Rich and novelist Ian Rankin's John Constantine story Dark Entries, although the latter isn't really a crime book per se.

But leaving those aside, DC's big releases of the week include Blackest Night: Superman, in which the Man of Steel has to come to terms with his daddy issues because, hey, his dad has risen from the dead (but which dad? That's why you have to buy it, people). And the first issue of the new Batgirl series, which will hopefully answer the question of who's taken on that name these days once and for all.

A week of new starts, then, but Marvel are taking the opposite tack with some great collections of old material. Okay, Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes isn't really old - it's the start of Warren Ellis' run on the series. But for classic stuff, you can't really go wrong with Kurt Busiek's time-bending Avengers Forever. Or the Spider-Man/Mary Jane: You Just Hit The Jackpot collection, which brings together lots of stories of the comics couple that only Joe Quesada and a Satan analogue could tear apart. Less well-known but not less interesting, Black Widow: Sting Of The Widow offers a hardcover introduction to Scarlett Johannson's femme fatale before next year's Iron Man 2 hits theaters, collecting some of the character's earliest appearances.

Elsewhere, the idea of the Bad Girl gets two different hardcover takes. Image's exploitathon Bomb Queen gets her very own Omnibust (Get it? Because she has tits! Ah, subtlety...) And Boom!'s enjoyable Buffy with an attitude series Hexed gets a deluxe collection that's well worth picking up.

If you're looking for some movie action, IDW releases the first issue of its Astro Boy Movie Adaptation, while Dynamite brings Bruce and Barack together in the opener to Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama (Yes, really). Dynamite also has the first issue of Project Superpowers: Meet The Bad Guys, wherein Alex Ross' revamped Golden Age heroes meet their matches for the first time.

Most interesting book of the week has to be Days Missing, a new mini-series created by the production company owned by Gene Rodenberry's son, Rod. Pushing itself as being created "in the Roddenberry tradition of thoughtful, philosophical, and topical science fiction," the first issue boasts a good creative pedigree, with Phil Hester and Frazer Irving providing writing and art (Each issue will feature a different creative team), and a story about a mysterious figure who shows people their true potential... for a price. We'll have a review tomorrow, but it's definitely worth looking out for in the stores.

As always, you can find a list of all the books being released this week here, and then look for your local comic book store here. Just beware of mysterious figures offering to expose new sides to you that were unaware of; it never ends well.

Although it doesn't say so anywhere on the ad itself, the image is for the final issue of Jeph Loeb's Ultimatum series, which has gleefully been killing off characters and wrecking landmarks in Marvel's "Ultimate" universe for the last few months - The date of 7/29/09 (The release date of Ultimatum's final issue) and recognizable style of series artist David Finch being the giveaways.

The biggest tease in the ad is really whose skeleton that is in the bottom right of the image... but fans could try to work out who it is based upon the already-released solicitations for the following months' series in the relaunched Ultimate line that follow in August and September: Ultimate Comics Avengers shows Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye and Nick Fury, while Ultimate Comics Spider-Man teases "maybe even a new Spider-Man", whereas series for both X-Men and Fantastic Four are entirely missing post-August. Would Marvel really permanently kill off books based on two of their biggest franchises, even in the alternate-reality "Ultimate" world? Apparently, we'll find out on the 29th.

The End [Marvel.com]

Admittedly, fans of beefcake may find the amusingly titled Milo Ventimiglia Presents Berserker #1 - All Beef Edition more to their liking. (I promise, I am not making that title up.) But I'm sure there's an audience out there for Barack The Barbarian, the swords and sorcery satire launched by Devil's Due this week.

If equally ridiculous comics are your forte, then DC's Superman: Tales From The Phantom Zone reprints some stories about Superman's least favorite interdimensional prison, while William Shatner Presents Tek War promises to be ridiculous in a whole other, ego-trippical, way.

Marvel Comics's weekly haul may look very grim at first view, with so many books tying into the ongoing Dark Reign storyline. The books The Sinister Spider-Man, about Venom, Zodiac, about a new - and suitably deadly - character up to no good, and Dark Avengers/X-Men: Utopia, bringing Norman Osborn's bad guys to San Francisco to screw around with mutantkind.

But fans of ultraviolence and snark will treasure the complete collection of The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, while everyone else can treasure two recent classics: Kathryn Immonen and David LaFuente's Patsy Walker: Hellcat and a hardcover collection of The Immortal Iron Fist by Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker and David Aja, both of which are as highly recommended as I can manage.

Over at DC, it's all about the ladies for their two new releases. Paul Dini brings together Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy for the new series Gotham City Sirens. And Greg Rucka and JH Williams III launch Detective Comics into a new era of greatness, with the beautiful new Batwoman strip (and Rucka and Cully Hamner provide a Question back-up, for extra value).

Dark Horse, meanwhile, have the first issue of their great new Predator series coming out. And IDW have three GI Joe books for you to use as preparation for next month's movie: the Movie Adaptation, a Movie Prequel and the first volume of a new regular series. Who knew that military maneuvers had so much homework?

If you're still looking for more four color fantasies, you could do worse than take a peek at this week's Diamond Distributors Shipping List, which - as ever - is completely printable for a trip to your local comic store. Just make sure that your credit card is ready to take a pounding.

Now, we know that this list is going to upset more than a few of you (Especially if you disliked the three Star Wars prequels), but we're not ranking these killer robots in order of awesome - Because then you would have seen IG-88 and KARR, amongst others - nor even in order of evil, but literally in terms of estimated kill-rate. Which robot has killed the most living things? That's all we're interested in.

So, get started with the countdown, and feel free to dispute our choices in the comments. Just don't send a robot after us, to change our minds.

Who else have we missed? Tell all here.

Next: See who didn't make the list.

Next: Science Fiction's Most Killhappy Robots!

Next: Planet-Eating Robots!

Next: Genocidal Robots With A Plan!

Next: Ineffectual-But-Deadly Droids!

Next: Time-Traveling Murder Machines!

Next: Eco-Friendly Killbots!

Next: Mutant-Hunting Robots!

Next: The Self-repairing Murderbot!

Next: Robot Warriors!

It's a surprisingly good week for books this week, with a lot of unusual projects making their debut at the stores. How unusual?

Well, take Marvel's Lockjaw And The Pet Avengers, for example. It's a book about the superheroes of the animal kingdom, whether they're teleporting dogs, firebreathing dragons or frog versions of Thor. It's one of a number of first issues from the self-styled House of Ideas this week, with the others including Dark Reign: Young Avengers (wherein Doctor Who's Paul Cornell takes on Marvel's answer to the Teen Titans) and GeNext United (continuing Chris Claremont's alternate future tale of the X-Men's children).

But can anything really eclipse what may be Marvel's most eagerly-anticipated hardcover collection? No, not World War Hulk or X-Men: Manifest Destiny (although both are released tomorrow.) I'm talking about Secret Wars II, the seemingly-endless, seemingly-cocaine-fueled 1980s excess of Marvel Comics' then-boss Jim Shooter trying to write a story about the meaning of life. Seriously, if you can spare the $99.99, you owe it to yourself to experience it.

By comparison, DC has little to match up... But that's not to say that The Unwritten (which we previewed yesterday) and a new edition of The History of The DC Universe aren't worth picking up. And Superman: New Krypton Volume 1 catches you up on the current crazy status quo for the character, that sees him abandon Earth in favor of his own race.

Elsewhere, IDW launches a new Angel series, Not Fade Away, for the Whedonites, while also putting out Astro Boy Movie Prequel: Underground for those looking forward to this fall's revival of everyone's favorite atomic Pinocchio.

Similar nostalgia will be found in the Flash Gordon 75th Anniversary Special hardcover from Ardden Entertainment. But I'd rather draw your attention to Boom!'s Unthinkable - which Alyssa reviewed this weekend - and The Unknown, which offers up the start of a story that feels more than a little Fringe-esque in all the right ways, as the world's greatest detective decides to investigate what happens after death, considering she's only six months away from her end.

No matter what you're looking for, chances are you'll find some variation of it in this week's complete list of comics shipping to comic stores, and the Comic Store Locator will help you find where your closest store is, so you'll know just where to find your goodies. Just don't be too embarrassed to ask for that book with the frog God Of Thunder.

The crossover, bringing Marvel's bad-guys-pretending-to-be-good face-to-face with everyone's favorite mutants, starts with June's Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Alpha, before running through each of the two titles for two months and concluding with another special issue in September. Don't expect this to be a quiet meeting of the teams, though; according to writer Matt Fraction, "[t]his ain't one of those stories that the teams can settle by a rousing game of softball":

Things are certainly dire, and the stakes are certainly high, and through it all there are still no more mutants being born. And this confrontation propels the whole of the Marvel Universe forward, whether it's the Avengers family or the X-Men family of stories. What comes next is as inevitable as the sunrise.
We've both got some big stories to tell — here's where they intersect... It's great – you never get to write like this, so it's a lot of fun. And what comes out of the X-Men/Dark Avengers story is big - it's another game changer on top of the earlier game changers. It's virgin territory for these kinds of stories. The bad guys have never won this big before – this...perpetually before, so it's a blast because we've never gotten to put the heroes through wringers like this before. It's a lot of fun.

That's fun for the readers, of course; there's less chance that the X-Men are going to find themselves laughing and smiling by the time this story reaches its conclusion.

Fraction Talks Uncanny X-Men/ Dark Avengers [Newsarama.com]