One of the traditional joys of San Diego Comic-Con - or any comic convention, really - are all the strange and wonderful costumes that fans wander around in for days on end. From Hello Kitty Darth Vaders to creepily lifelike Simpsons characters, we've seen them all... or, at least, almost all. Under the jump, we'd like to suggest some characters that we're hoping will be brought to life during next week's nerd prom.

Old-School Star Trek Characters: I know it's a cliche, but when was the last time you actually saw Vulcans at a comic convention? Sure, every year brings a smattering of Klingons out of the woodwork, but even they've been falling in number in recent years, replaced by even more Stormtroopers and men and woman treating Johnny Depp's Pirates of The Carribean outfit as a lifestyle choice. With JJ Abrams' Trek reboot building buzz, here's to seeing some people in black slacks, blue sweaters and pointy ears wandering around the convention center.

Torchwood's Cyberwoman: Why should the midriff-revealing Stormtroopers get to hog all the uncomfortable attempts to sexualize faceless soldiers? And unlike the Britney Spears-esque female clone warriors for the Empire, this "sexy" cybernetic killer is even in continuity!

Skrullized Superheroes: If we don't see versions of our favorite superheroes with large green rippled chins, then quite simply, Marvel Comics' Secret Invasion series - where our favorite superheroes discover that some of their number have been replaced by alien versions of themselves with large green rippled chins - will have failed. It's the ideal outfit for the lazy costume fan, requiring very little editing to be completely topical.

Dr. Mrs. The Monarch/Lady Au Pair: Don't get me wrong - I'm as happy to see women dressed up as the husky-voiced femme fatale Dr. Girlfriend from The Venture Bros. as the next man, but now that we've seen a couple of her other identities, it's time to ditch the Jackie O-inspired pillbox hat and get more inventive. Remember, it's just like Dean said: Go, Team Boobies.

One-Legged Singing Gaeta from Battlestar Galactica: The rise of Colonial Warriors has been noticeable at various conventions over the last few years, but very few seem to want to emulate specific characters. Maybe they've been put off by the lack of distinguishing features - in which case, poor Mr. Gaeta's leg amputation is a gift to any ambitious cosplayer. Who wouldn't want to see a hobbling hero in line for Ron Moore's autograph, singing painful space shanties?

Let's get the bigger publishers out of the way first: With the exception of a preview of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's next project, Captain America: White, Marvel pretty much lets this week slide to focus on the latest issue of Secret Invasion and a hardcover collection for Joss Whedon's (disappointing, let's be honest) Runaways story. DC, on the other hand, just seem to be letting it slide altogether, with the exception of Final Crisis: Requiem, a one-shot memorializing the dearly-departed Martian Manhunter. Instead, turn your attention to Dark Horse Comics, which is happy to fill the gap with their new Hellboy spin-off, BPRD: The Warning and equally new Indiana Jones series, Indiana Jones And The Tomb Of The Gods.

Perhaps, however, you'd rather read about robots in disguise who don't go around raping each other; if that's the case, then you should definitely pick up the first issue of Transformers: All Hail Megatron, the "What if the Decepticons took over the Earth?" series that we've told you about already and happen to be waiting for with baited breath. Watching Megatron rule our planet with a literal iron fist seem too much of a downer? Then there's also Transformers Movie Prequel: Saga Of The Allspark premiering this week, giving you all the backstory about the deus ex machina that Michael Bay didn't quite manage to get around to.

For the books of the week, however, you have to go to Image Comics and Ben 10 co-creator Joe Kelly. Not only does his new series I Kill Giants launch on Thursday (featuring Barbara Thorson, a fifth-grader who either has a very, very active imagination or really does kill giants, pixies and other mythical creatures in her spare time), but his children's book Captain Stoneheart And The Truth Fairy also gets a fine re-release. Stoneheart, which started life as an issue of the Elephantmen series, bills itself as "a grim tale of broken bones and broken hearts," but really it's just a beautifully-written, wonderfully-illustrated (by X-Men and Amazing Spider-Man artist Chris Bachalo) children's story... albeit one that you can now get in a deluxe package including the original script, uncolored pencil artwork and CD of the audio version of the story. You can see a trailer for the book here.

As is really honestly always the case, you can find the complete list of everything hitting stores here and then go and buy whatever you want at the store closest to you, a fact that you can work out by going here. Just make sure that your stack has a hippo or robot somewhere in there. Preferably both.Hel

So now that we solved the problem about the individual spoiler pages turning up in your RSS feed, we've decided to try this new format for the next week. Let us know how you're liking it. I thought it was a good sign that we had comment threads happening in the individual spoiler posts, which wouldn't show up on the front page as featured comments. Also, this gets around the "videos all start playing at once" problem. But let me know what you think!

Avatar:
Wanted:
The Dark Knight:
Doctor Who:
Lost:
Heroes:
Fringe:
Marvel Secret Invasion:

Secret Invasion, Marvel's big crossover has a few things on its side. Being written by arguably Marvel's most popular writer Brian Michael Bendis - writer of New Avengers, Mighty Avengers and Ultimate Spider-Man - and the result of literally years of planning (Bendis started laying the groundwork for this storyline with his 2004 Avengers Disassembled story), the idea of aliens having infiltrated Earth by disguising themselves as superheroes and villains throughout history allows for any and all character development (including deaths - This week's second issue brought back a character by retconning the death into having happened to an undercover Skrull - to be undone without having to say that all those old stories never actually happened. They just happened to aliens, is all.

Final Crisis, on the other hand, comes somewhat out of left field. It's also the result of a long-running storyline, but one previously told in scattered titles - Who knew that Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle would be so important? - before ultimately spinning out of an unpopular, critically-panned, series (Countdown to Final Crisis). Its real problem, however, may be its lack of high concept hook; sure, it's what happens when "evil wins," but what does that actually mean?

Let's compare the two in what we do know:

The Pitch: Like all of Marvel's big event stories, Secret Invasion has a movie-conscious high concept sale: "Aliens are amongst us, trying to take over the world! Who do you trust?" Final Crisis, though, is pretty much relying on the creators' star power and a vague promise of putting favored heroes through bad times to sell itself. Evil may have won the cosmic struggle, but how does that concept translate into a story...?

Win: Secret Invasion

The Scale: Secret Invasion more or less takes over the entire Marvel line for its' run - The main series is eight monthly issues, but there are multiple spin-off titles (including Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust, Secret Invasion: Front Line, Secret Invasion: X-Men, Secret Invasion: Spider-Man, Secret Invasion: Thor, Secret Invasion: Young Avengers/Runaways, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four and Secret Invasion: Inhumans) as well as continuations of the storyline in issues of other series; by midway through its run, the storyline will have totaled 34 comics, and that's not counting all the stories that led up to the official launch. By contrast, Final Crisis is fairly self-contained; besides the seven-issue main series, there are seven spin-offs to bear the brand (The mini-series Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge, Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds and Final Crisis: Revelations, and the one-off issues Final Crisis: Requiem, Final Crisis: Submit, Final Crisis: Resist and Final Crisis: Superman Beyond) with a minimum of crossover into regular series promised. By midway through Crisis' run, you'll have had to purchase nine comics - again, not counting all of the prologue books - to get the whole story.

Win: Depends on how you look at it; Secret Invasion is bigger, but Final Crisis is cheaper

The Creators: Invasion's Bendis and artist Lenil Yu have the fan-favorite thing sewn up, having previously worked together on New Avengers and having separate runs on books like Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man, Superman: Birthright and X-Men. However, they've probably not got the cache of Final Crisis' Grant Morrison and JG Jones. Having written acclaimed runs on JLA, X-Men, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, 52 and more personal projects like The Invisibles and We3, Morrison is easily one of the most highly-regarded comic writers around, and Jones' work on Wanted and the covers for 52 have made him a well-loved artist... and one who rarely does anything other than covers. Crisis will be his first sequential work in four years.

Win: Final Crisis

So, is it a tie? Can you play comics Switzerland and not choose a side? The final choice may simply come down to what kind of comics you like - Both series are, in their own way, dealing with cultural and political zeitgeists, so it may just come down to whether you want to see bad guy aliens in positions of power punching Iron Man, or the more metaphorical thrills of submission and subjugation of free will by a New, evil, God. The decision, as they used to say on Blind Date, is yours.

Final Crisis #1 [DC Comics]
Secret Invasion [Marvel Comics]

• Secret Invasion: Marvel showed a Secret Invasion preview video. Apparently the Skrulls have already infiltrated the entire United States of America. Plus, they've got Electra, Black Bolt, and Echo, and they're after eyepatch-wearing superspy Nick Fury. And formerly dead heroes Hawkeye and Mockingbird are on the previously unreleased cover for Secret Invasion #2, which comes out May 7.
• Secret Invasion crossovers: Thor WILL be part of Secret Invasion, and his tie-in will be written by Matt Fraction. Also, Peter David is writing a She-Hulk/X-Factor/Secret Invasion crossover! And Secret Invasion will also hit the Cosmic Heroes in another crossover. And Brian Reed writes Spider-Man Brand New Day/Secret Invasion. Also, Secret Invasion: Humans launches in August, featuring a writer from Heroes and art by Tom Raney.
• New developments with Spider-Man: the "lawsuit" storyline will be resolved in the Brand New Day special, coming soon. Also, you may want to re-read the end of the One More Day story, because there was a time lapse between Mary Jane kissed Peter and he woke up alone. Did something happen in between those two events? Also, Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada said the only thing that changed as a result of One More Day was Peter and Mary Jane's wedding day. Everything else stayed the same. Also, Mark Waid will join the writing team on Amazing Spider-Man, and John Romita, Jr. will draw 6 issues.
• New comics coming from Marvel: a new Deadpool comic, written by Daniel Way and feature art by Paco Medina, is coming in September. There'll be a new Avengers Initiative one-shot coming soon, written by Christos Gage and featuring Komodo and Hardball. Destroyer Max by Robert Kirkman and Craig Walker will be out in fall 2008. The NYX miniseries, about one of Wolverine's female counterparts, will return in September 2008. Also, editor Jim McCann says, "There are definite plans for Nick Fury — if he survives Secret Invasion."
• The Avengers: Avengers Initiative #7 is apparently a huge puzzle piece — the story features a lot of clues for upcoming storylines, and the comic itself will be worth a lot of money in the future. Dan Slott guarantees it. So if you buy that comic and it doesn't appreciate massively in value, send your invoices to Dan Slott. And after Secret Invasion is over, the Taskmaster and the Initiative will be around a lot more — so we hope you like them.
• Speedball: Quesada made a quick side comment about the return of Speedball, the formerly carefree hero who's now the guilt-ridden masochist Penance — and then did the shifty eyes. Could Speedball really be coming back?
• Upcoming Hulk comics: Greg Pak's long-awaited Skaar: Son Of Hulk is coming in June, penciled by Ron Garney. It details the life of the savage son of Hulk, left behind on a war-torn planet. Penciled by Ron Garney, this will be released in June. Both Incredible Hercules and Hulk v. Hercules, are coming soon, featuring drawings by Bob Layton! And there are more Hercules projects on the way, but the editors refused to spill.

"Nothing Will Ever Be The Same Again!": What you have to remember at all times is that you should use this line, or variations on it, at all times when talking about your event, but fail to actually follow through on it. On the rare occasions when you appear to follow through, leave yourself at least two different ways of getting out of it if the fan backlash becomes too loud. Case in point: Marvel's Civil War can easily be undone if all of the pro-registration heroes are revealed to have been undercover aliens or brainwashed into becoming fascist dictators. Or, for that matter, if the Scarlet Witch re-writes reality, as per-House of M. Or Mephisto gets rid of another marriage. Or one of another hundred of reasons.

(The corollary of that statement is "What the hell happened?": There should be a point in the center of each event where even the most jaded fan feels the stirrings of something resembling hope that maybe, just maybe, this one will be different and actually mean something. A plot point, perhaps, which promises the potential of real change and growth for characters or a situation. This point should be immediately followed by a return to the status quo or as close to the status quo as is possible while still pretending to be something new. Think of the aftermath of Civil War where none of the "unregistered" heroes had to actually deal with the fact that they're theoretically being hunted down by government forces and breaking the law. Yes, I know that the New Avengers keep being threatened with arrest every couple of issues. But each time that they do, those threatening arrest always change their mind and let them walk away, so it really doesn't count.)

"No-one Gets Out Of Here Alive!": No "event" is complete without a superhero or two dying. What you have to remember is to make sure that the superhero dying is one who is well known enough for fans to feel something approaching nerd emotion but not popular enough to actually matter. See: Any of the body count in DC's Infinite Crisis. I mean, people got their arms ripped off and their heads punched off their bodies, and besides the fact that they were Teen Titans, I have no idea who they were. This idea ties in tightly with...

"From Out Of The Ashes... A Hero Reborn!": If you're killing off some characters, it's only fair to renew some trademarks at the same time. The ideal crossover book will set up multiple new comics to spin off, most if not all of which will be critical and commercial flops that ultimately sully whatever credibility your event will have. For example: Civil War spun out Heroes for Hire, World War Hulk spun out Warbound and Gamma Corps and Infinite Crisis spun out (deep breath) The Trials of Shazam, OMAC and a Creeper book that I can't even remember the name of.

The most important lesson to remember when crafting your ideal superhero crossover epic, of course, is "Everything Can Be Solved With Punching": Sure, it makes the rubes lay down their hard-earned dollars by having some kind of psychological hook to sell your story on ("The heroes of the DC Universe have ideological differences regarding killing!" "The heroes of the Marvel Universe don't know who to trust because of alien invaders!"), but just remember this: There is no problem that can't be solved with good, old-fashioned violence. And if there is, then that's not something that people will want to read (Who really remembers, for example, DC's Genesis, where superheroes tried to discover the shared root of their superpowers without punching, or The Final Night, where superheroes tried to relight the extinguished sun without punching? Exactly). Look at some recent greats: Infinite Crisis started with Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman having fallen out over the murder of a supervillain, and by the end had turned into everyone punching an evil Superboy. Result? Happy fans.

Civil War was initially about whether superheroes needed to be trained in order to be superheroes, but ended with Captain America whaling on Iron Man before losing when he was too much of a pussy to beat his privileged face into mush. Fans may have been upset when Cap lost, but it wasn't because he had the better argument - It was because he had given up punching. That's why he had to die. Almost everyone who has ever read a comic agrees that the greatest recent crossover was World War Hulk, because it started with punching, and then kept punching for each and every issue following. Yes, the conclusion may have disappointed, but that's only because they replaced punching with a deus ex machine laser beam that made the Hulk happy and non-Hulklike or something like that. If it had ended with someone punching the Hulk to death? Comics could've just given up as a medium right there and then; it wouldn't have gotten any better.

So now you know: Promise change, fail to deliver, kill off minor characters, service trademarks and have lots of punching. Follow those simple instructions and one day, you too may be the one person fans pretend could manage to kill Batman.

Marvel & DC - The Summer's Events In A Nutshell [Comic Nerd]

While "the comics internet" had been focusing its fury on faux viral marketing blog "Marvel B0y," hundreds of people on the rest of the internet have been tuning into the MySpace video blog of Kinsey, an all-American teen who's been posting for the last month about being excited about her upcoming prom, how much school sucks and... well, how weird her brother Hank has been. What most of those viewers didn't realize at the time - until professional comics gossip Rich Johnston pointed it out - was that Kinsey was the creation of Marvel's Jim McCann and Ben Morse (Kinsey herself is portrayed by Megan Sherlock, Morse's partner), and that this latest lonelygirl15 would end her final video blog by discovering that her brother Hank was actually a Skrull invader from beyond the stars.
Surprisingly, the story didn't end with that reveal - Instead, it continues over on Marvel's own website in a three-times-a-week comic strip, Home Invasion:

An Internet sensation when her video blog started appearing on MySpace, Kinsey's adventures continue right here! Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited brings you the exclusive FREE digital comic — SECRET INVASION: HOME INVASION! Take an intimate look inside the life of a normal teenager living through the Skrull invasion and dealing with the fact that her brother's one of the enemy aliens!

Okay, so back to those Amazon-fightin', zombie-hatin' robots. As you may be able to guess, Zombies Vs. Robots Vs. Amazons is a hardcover collection of the sequel to Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood's Zombies Vs. Robots, and just like its predecessor, it pretty much does what it promises in the title. As the solicitation for the book explains:

When last we visited the Zombies vs. Robots world, nuclear war had decimated the population of the entire globe, including zombies and robots alike. So who is left to fight? And how is an island of Amazon warrior-women involved this time around?

Elsewhere in the world of comics, one of Judge Dredd's most popular stories gets the deluxe treatment with the release of Judge Dredd: The Complete America, showing just why freedom and democracy are bad ideas in the 23rd century land of the free (Here's a clue: He is the law). Fans of dystopian British pulp SF may also want to pick up Warren Ellis' new series, Anna Mercury, which mixes Lara Croft, the Shadow and — apparently — Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon together to come up with five issues of potential good stuff.

(Also worth checking out in the same vein, but not necessarily SF: Holmes, an alternate-history take on Arthur Conan Doyle's favorite dick, which gets a collection courtesy of AiT-PlanetLar this week.)

For those who find all that dystopian crap too much to deal with, then DC Comics has you covered. You can follow the adventures of the original Last Boy on Earth in the Planet Of The Apes-inspired Countdown Special: Kamandi oneshot. Or you could go for the cute with Shazam - The Greatest Stories Ever Told, which collects more Captain Marvel magic than you could ever want to see.

Of course, it's possible that you would rather avoid old men inviting children into caves, but thankfully, there's a world of other wonders in this week's shipping list, and as for where to buy those beauties of amazement? You can track down your nearest store right here.

A spin-off of a Green Lantern subplot, Millennium wasn't exactly the paranoiac's delight that Secret Invasion threatens to be, in that there was an upside to the story, as well. Representatives of the well-named Guardians of The Universe had come to Earth to select ten humans that would help usher in the greatest evolutionary step in a thousand years (hence the title), and the alien Manhunters - themselves created by the Guardians - went undercover to try and make sure that no-one helped that happen. The result was a line-wide story that switched between hippie lessons about the nature of life as the chosen few expanded their cosmic consciousness and revelations that many familiar faces - including a hypnotized Lana Lang, replaced Commisioner Gordon and the DC-Universe Nancy Reagan - were actually working with the bad guys to stall the process.

The series is a wonderful example of the schizophrenia of late-80s superhero comics, where political themes are attempted (The Iraqi woman chosen by the Guardians is stoned to death, for example, while the English chosen doesn't see the point of helping a humanity that helped put Margaret Thatcher in power) but everything devolves into a punchfest nonetheless. Once they achieve cosmic consciousness, the chosen turn into... more superheroes. Sadly never reprinted, there are two things that this series should be remembered for - the creation of the first openly gay superhero for either DC or Marvel (Admittedly, he called himself Extrano, but that's because he was a Mexican rip-off of Marvel's Doctor Strange as much as any queer joke), and the fact that The New Guardians, the spin-off comic starring the chosen cosmic avatars, not only featured HIV+ vampire assassins and bad guys fuelled by magic cocaine in its desire to be socially relevant. Ah, those more innocent days before it was all evil aliens trying to take over the world...

Millennium [Amazon]

In the "exclusive" Marvel.com preview comic - which requires you to sign up for their Digitial Comics Unlimited program if you want to read it - longtime sidekick "Dum Dum" Dugan gets replaced by a no-good Skrull agent, just in time to be present at secret spy agency SHIELD's headquarters watching a Skrull ship hurtling towards Earth in Entertainment Weekly's preview of the "official" first issue. Given certain rumors about other characters who may be aliens, there seems to be a visual code being created to identify who is actually no good: they're shown in silhouette in a panel where everyone else appears entirely normally (See also Jarvis the Butler, Wolverine, in this preview). Or maybe that's just what they want you to think...

The first issue of the series appears in stores next week.

First Look: Secret Invasion [EW.com]
Read the Secret Invasion Preview [Marvel.com]

Batman: The Dark Knight

Harvey Dent is only Two-Face for "a couple of minutes" towards the very end of The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins. The transformation into Two-Face at the movie's end sets up a confrontation in the third movie, making the Nolan Bat-films seem even more like a trilogy. (And Knight a bit more Empire Strikes Back-ish.) Mind you, this whole spoiler is based on what some reps told a guy at a costume show, where there was no Two-Face costume on display. [Superhero Hype]

Y: The Last Man (the movie)

As we'd previously reported, the Y: The Last Man movie only covers the first 12 issues of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's comic, unlike Vaughan's own movie script which tried to cover the entire saga. D.J. Caruso's Y movie would be the first of a planned trilogy, says Caruso. Also, Caruso will use a real monkey for Ampersand, and Shia LaBoeuf is definitely the front-runner to play Yorick. [Ain't It Cool]

Land Of The Lost:

Here's a first look at Will Ferrell as a park ranger who explores a hidden land and meets dinosaurs, Sleestaks and other weird creatures, in the new Land of the Lost movie. He's kind of a slob, since apparently this scene ends with him tossing his cigarette butt and cheetos bag in the lake. [JFX Online]

The reason Ferrell's scientist character is working as a park ranger (at the LaBrea Tar Pits) is because he assaulted disabled physics great Steven Hawking during an interview on Anderson Cooper 360. A young scientist, played by Anna Friel, approaches Ferrell at the Tar Pits and asks him to guide her (and his kids, for some reason) to the Land of the Lost. Are you excited yet? At least Anna Friel is fun to watch. [Slashfilm]

Doctor Who:

Here are some new Doctor Who season four teasers that have been airing on British TV. They're really only spoilery if you didn't know the Daleks were coming back:

Smallville

The person who dies in the April 17 Smallville has never been presumed dead by the audience... which means he/she may have been presumed dead by the characters on the show, as long as we knew better. [Ask Ausiello]

Also, that April 17 episode, "Descent," is when Lex Luthor jumps off the good/evil fence once and for all, and goes totally evil. He falls into his "own personal hell," says executive producer Brian Peterson. "There is a major turn that happens in his life that drives him into pure darkness. ... It's Lex's real descent into the villain he becomes." [Sci Fi Wire]

Lost

There actually will be a Jack-centric Lost episode this spring, despite reports to the contrary. [Ask Ausiello again]

Secret Invasion

More spoilers for Secret Invasion, Marvel Comics' upcoming "everyone is a shape-changing Skrull invader" storyline: Supposedly Jarvis, the Avengers' man-servant, is a Skrull, who uploads an alien virus that makes all of Tony Stark's technology crash, including Iron Man's armor. A Skrull briefly impersonates Invisible Girl, just long enough to send the Fantastic Four into the Negative Zone. A Skrull Hank Pym shoots Reed Richards, and a Skrull Captain Marvel blows open Thunderbolts Mountain. Also, a Skrull busts all the supervillains out of their supervillain prison, the Raft. Meanwhile, one of the X-Men, Nightcrawler, is a Skrull, and the X-men are the only ones on the West Coast standing in the massive Skrull Armada.

Secret Invasion #1 begins with a Skrull ship crash-landing in the Savage Land, Marvel's version of the Land of the Lost. Both the New Avengers and the Mighty Avengers rush to the crash site. The ship opens up, and the classic 1970s versions of the Marvel characters come out, including webbed-armpits Spider-Man, nose-armor Iron Man, tiara-wearing Power Man, the furry Beast, Sue Storm, Mockingbird, Wonder-Man, Captain America, evil Emma Frost and old-school Wolverine. "The modern, darker, dirty versions of all the characters stare at their more innocent version of themselves in shock." But it turns out the 1970s versions aren't the real characters returned, but a Skrull trick meant to sow doubt. Or something. Only Mockingbird turns out to be real. [Schwapp!!!]

Sadly, this attempt at building excitement seems to have backfired slightly; over at comics news hub Newsarama, Marvel's faithful fanbase seemed to have become slightly less faithful in the wake of the video:

Dear Lord, I might have to sue Marvel for that one.

I think that video permanently damaged my eyes...Cloverfield at least had decent video quality...*barf*

Oh! And I think I became 30% dumber from watching it.

Seriously, I'm really excited about [Secret Invasion] and that did absolutely nothing for me and cant imagine it making anyone actually want to read it.

That SUCKED. Someone thought they were being clever, when all they really were doing was being DULL and irritating by cribbing the hand held schitck for "Cloverfield".

Try again Marvel, you guys are capable of better...aren't you??

One of the major launches for this week is Image Comics' adaptation of the upcoming EA video game Dead Space. With art by 30 Days of Night's Ben Templesmith and writing by friend-of-Alan-Moore Antony Johnston, the six-issue series gives you the backstory of just how the game's mysterious alien race (which possesses and transforms human beings into lumbering killer monsters) got loose in the first place. Murky art and murkier morality will undoubtedly come into play in this one.

For those who prefer their morally-compromised heroes to be much shinier, perhaps you'd be interested in Marvel's Iron Man: Demon In A Bottle, a new hardcover collection of the classic, overwrought 1980s storyline where industrialist-turned-armored avenger Tony Stark comes to terms with his alcoholism and realizes that 12-step programs are harder when you have boot jets. If there's a better way to prep for the upcoming Robert Downey Jr. movie, then it's not coming out this week.

Speaking of morally compromised heroes, DC's Wonder Woman lost some of her satin-tights sheen after she executed a baddie a few years ago. But she burst back onto the comics scene after a few months' absence in 2006, with a delay-plagued storyline from TV writer Allen Heinberg (The OC, Gray's Anatomy) that tried to redefine the character and remind you of why you liked her in the first place. The final result is collected in tomorrow's Wonder Woman: Who is Wonder Woman? hardcover, and — you'll be happy to know — it does include her changing identities by spinning around. Also, Darwyn Cooke returns to his most popular creation with a special one-off Justice League: The New Frontier issue, to promote last week's DVD release.

Marvel's big release of the week isn't actually the Iron Man book; instead, some guy called Stephen King is putting his stamp of approval on The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home, a new mini-series based on his series of novels. It's also a follow-up to last year's hyper-successful The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born mini-series. This one's by the same creative team (writers Robin Furth and Peter David with artists Jae Lee and Richard Isanove), and undoubtedly about to sell as many copies to eager King fans.

Marvel's also launching a new series starring your favorite time-traveling cyborg, Cable (written by novelist Dwayne Swiercynski). And a new Wolverine mini-series called Logan is getting attention due to the involvement of Brian K. Vaughan (Y The Last Man.) If all that new stuff bothers you, though, you could just pick up Secret Invasion Saga and get the background on that whole alien invasion thing they have going on over there.

As usual, you can read through the official list of books shipping to comic stores on Wednesday here and find out where your local comic store is here. Just watch out for spacemen trying to eat your brains.

Will any of these heroes turn out to be aliens and, if they do, will anyone really care that much? So far, reaction to the teaser images has been somewhat muted, with fans posting comments like "I'm looking forward to secret invasion and everything, but these teasers are stupid." Maybe it should be less "who do you trust?" and more "what will make these people satisfied?"

Secret Invasion: Infiltration [Marvel.com]