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.

Apparently inspired as much by writer Jim Shooter's pretentions as the desire to produce a sequel to toy tie-in hit Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars, the original nine issue series from 1985 tied into over thirty other comics, as mysterious god-like being "The Beyonder" - part deus ex machina, part McGuffin who "comes from beyond" - traveled around the Marvel Universe to try and understand this thing we call life. Trying to stretch the superhero comic outside of its usual subject matters, the Beyonder ran into abused children, hookers with hearts of gold and, yes, lots and lots of super-heroes on his quest, but apparently not enough superheroes to stop fans remembering it as "dull, pedantic, pretentious, lackwitted and just plain no fun" and "nine issues worth of mood swings and whiny bitching on an Olympic level".

Surprisingly, if pre-order options at Amazon and Target are to be believed, almost the entire story (Issues of Rom and The Micronauts have had to be skipped because of rights issues) is being collected in a 1168 page-long celebration to the excesses of the '80s. The seemingly-official PR for the book reads:

He rescued the Hulk and destroyed the New Mutants, he wrestled the Thing and made a deal with Mephisto, he created Kurse and Thundersword and a tower of gold! Doctor Strange tried to teach him; Dazzler tried to romance him! The Avengers wanted to recruit him, Daredevil to sue him, and Puma and Deadpool just wanted him dead! Hero, villain, force of nature and deus ex machina all in one: the Beyonder! For good or ill, he was one of the most powerful agents of change in the eighties, and now you can see all of his work all at once!

At almost $100, it's a pricey way to relive childhood memories of a god shooting up heroin to understand what it is to be a junkie (Oh, it actually happens), but it's also a surprisingly pursuasive one...

Amazon Pre-Order: Secret Wars II
Target Pre-Order: Secret Wars II