And before anyone else says it, yes there a few well-known covers sprinkled in here. Because I couldn't resist. I'll post what all these covers are either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Thanks to Irene Gallo for the idea!

This week, Marvel offers the centerpiece of their current Dark Reign branding, Dark Avengers (the premise of which has been kept secret by the publisher, but appears to be "What if the bad guys dressed up as the good guys and got to do whatever they wanted?") Also intriguing: the first issue of villain-centric series Doctor Doom And The Masters Of Evil, (which is worth checking out based on the creative team alone; Paul Tobin and Patrick Scherberger have done some very fun work on the Marvel Adventures titles before)

Meanwhile, DC has a couple of collections that you should consider picking up: The Strange Deaths Of Batman lets you relive seven near-death experiences for the Dark Knight in light of last week's (not-really) death in Final Crisis. And The Flash: Emergency Stop brings back some of Grant Morrison and Mark Millar's enjoyable run (no pun intended) on the scarlet speedster's comic from the mid-90s.

Not to be outdone, Image Comics offers up a couple of classics, in their own way. Frank Frazetta's Moon Maid continues the publisher's trend of adapting well-known Frazetta paintings into full-length comics. The Ted McKeever Library: Eddy Current brings McKeever's wonderful series about a lunatic asylum-escapee who fights crime back into print, in luscious hardcover format.

IDW, meanwhile, continues to have your movie needs covered, with the first issues of Star Trek prequel Countdown and Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen Movie Prequel: Defiance both waiting for you on the shelves tomorrow.

But, as wonderful as all of these books are, none of them are as essential to your happiness this week as the first issue of Mysterius The Unfathomable. This new series, from DC's Wildstorm imprint, comes via writer Jeff Parker and artist Tom Fowler, who mix spiritual fathers Doctor Who and Dirk Gently to come up with what Parker calls "a book about an unlikable magical guy" who doesn't age, adopts (and discards) new assistants with worrying frequency and investigates the unknown... well, for a price. There's a six page preview of the series here, but really: This one you need to read.

The doubters amongst you can look at this week's shipping list to be convinced, and then consult the Comic Shop Locator just to remind themselves where to buy such fine four-color-funnies. Luckily, I know that you aren't a doubter... I'm sure that you're already working out how many copies of Mysterius you can pick up for friends and family, you're so convinced. Congratulations. We like people like you.

[Sci Fi O Rama and Heritage Auction Galleries and All-Star Auctions]