Following three Biblically-titled series (Armageddon, Revelations and Number Of The Beast), the Earth has been knocked off its axis, London has been destroyed by a crashed spaceship, and entire cities have been flooded and left unhabitible, all thanks to a battle between superhumans that didn't really go as well as could be expected. Wildstorm editor Ben Abernathy explained the thinking behind permanently changing the status quo of this particular superhero universe:

Looking at the landscape of the industry, we realized we needed to move our universe in a different direction, something that the “Big Two” couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do for a long period of time. And we decided that direction should be toward a sci-fi/horror direction of a post-apocalyptic setting (to a degree, an almost logical extension to where the [Wildstorm Universe] has been headed for years). There have been “visions” of a devastated, bleak future in other mainstream super-hero books, but nothing with the lasting impact or direction that the World’s End books will be tackling.

The World's End setting definitely isn't a cosmetic change for the line; former fan-favorite books have been relaunched with significant changes, including depowering (and deforming) half of The Authority before stranding them in an electricity-less radioactive former London and placing the Wildcats in charge of the sole refugees of a dying New York City.
This isn't the first time that the Wildstorm line has gone all out for change; in 2003, their Coup D'Tat series had the Authority depose the US Government and set themselves up as dictators of the United States, before they realized that they couldn't be bothered with all the paperwork. But with fans still hurting about 2006's failed Worldstorm relaunch (which died when Grant Morrison's core two series Wildcats and The Authority disappeared after one and two issues, respectively), will even the end of the world get them interested in checking out the series again?

Possibly not - comic fans are a notoriously fickle bunch, and I say that as one of the more fickle - but they should; although the lead-ins vary wildly in quality (Armageddon is fairly avoidable, and Revelations could've been half the length; Number Of The Beast, though again overlong, is very enjoyable, however), the World's End relaunch works.With this shift, the books have not only become far less of the generic superhero titles that they used to be, they also move outside of the superhero genre in general, having more in common with movies like I Am Legend and 28 Days Later, and it finally gives them an identity that isn't just "Superheroes who are a little bit more violent than the more famous ones," and watching characters who are more than slightly responsible for the end of the world as we know it having to be responsible for trying to rebuild society - while dealing with their guilt is, if nothing else, different from the traditional superhero angst. I'm not sure about the longterm prospects of the project - and hope that there's no deus ex machina planned, even though they've already partially set one up at the end of Number of The Beast - but for now, World's End is doing something that very few superhero comics can do: Showing what happens when everything goes wrong and no-one can save the day anymore.

Wildstorm: World's End [DC Comics]

Actually, it's really a relatively quiet book outside of the major publishers, with Chopper Zombie - which we've previously written about here - the only new indie book of interest coming out. The Chopper in question was on show at San Diego, freaking small children out while simultaneously getting gearheads excited:

If your tastes run towards the less gory and more whimsical, then perhaps you should check out Dark Horse's Robots & Donuts, a collection of fantasy artist Eric Joyner's paintings of toy robots from the early 20th century in unexpected settings. Equally whimsical is Marvel's Skrulls Vs. Power Pack, which brings Marvel's second-favorite family of superheroes face to face with everyone's favorite Secret Invaders.

Skipping over to DC for a moment, they have a couple of big books this week: Justice Society of America Annual has Geoff Johns exploring the multiverse by returning Power Girl to Earth-2 finally, while Keith Giffen explores the afterlife in the first issue of Reign In Hell. Maybe more appropriately for the io9 audience, Wildstorm's new dystopic reality begins in the first issue of the re-re-relaunched Wildcats; no Grant Morrison or Jim Lee this time around, but there is a completely-fucked world for our heroes to deal with.

Image sidesteps any notion of continuity with their second Popgun anthology by an amazing selection of creators including James Kochalka, Dan Hipp and Paul Pope, and it's probably the pick of the week. Nonetheless, Marvel has two more books that I must mention: Fantastic Four: True Story sees Doctor Who writer and io9 favorite Paul Cornell take on Marvel's first-family of superheroes (admit it; you thought I'd leave you hanging on that one), while True Believers may be the ideal io9 comic book: A team of superpowered bloggers on a mission to expose the seedy underbelly of the Marvel Universe in a first issue that features a superpowered all-female fight club watched over by old men dressed up as the Hulk, Spider-Man and other familiar faces? With one of our heroes undercover as a hooker who complains that she won't give a john a "crusty bunker"? Who could resist? It's not perfect, of course - Paul Gulacy draws it, for one thing - but it's the kind of zeitgeist-shagging over-written schlock that we don't see enough of these days, and therefore highly recommended.

By now you know the drill: You can find the whole list of this week's releases here, and look for your local comic book store here. Just ask them for the one about the crusty bunkers.