It's an odd week for new comic releases, with less new projects coming out than recent weeks, but the few that are coming out are all well worth your attention. Who, for example, could turn up the chance to relive their childhood with Power Pack Classic collecting the first issues of Marvel's 1980s pre-teen superteam? Or, for that matter, Batman: The Black Casebook, a collection of some of the out-there 1950s stories referenced by Grant Morrison during Batman RIP? Only those who hate fun, that's who.

If superhero single issues are your thing, Marvel's releasing a new mini-series about Spider-Man's newest bad guy, Dark Reign: Mister Negative, as well as the first (of two) issues of Ultimate Spider-Man: Requiem, hopefully answering the question of whether or not Peter is dead (My money's pretty firmly on "No," but you never can tell with Brian Bendis...). There's also X-Men Origins: Gambit, for those who've fallen for Remy LeBeau following his appearance in the Wolverine movie. Plus the X-Infernus collection for those who fell for the New Mutants back in the 1980s like I did (I can't resist...!).

DC also has the first issue of Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen's Batman: Streets of Gotham for people who still need convincing that Dick Grayson really is Batman these days.

Single issue of the week, though, is easily Project Superpowers: Chapter Two #0, introducing the second series of one of the most bizarre superhero franchises around, complete with Alex Ross art, for just a dollar.

For those with more money to spare, however, there's a trilogy of books vying for your attention: Brian Fies' Whatever Happened To The World Of Tomorrow uses futurism and comic books to explore a character's relationship with his father to stunning effect, while James Stokoe's Wonton Soup Vol. 2 goes entirely in the other direction, making pop art out of space truckers and cookery.

If neither of those catch your eye, the first year of Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips' superhero spy book Sleeper gets reissued tomorrow, and if you missed it the first time around, it's definitely time to fix that.

All of this week's new releases - including the already-released-in-some-stores Captain America #600 - are listed on this week's Diamond Distribution Shipping List, which is just the thing to check before heading to your local comic store to find your four color fantasies. Just remember that three of those four colors are red, white and blue. The potentially undead Steve Rogers would want it that way.

Wonton Soup centers around Johnny Boyo, former star student at the XXX culinary school who gave it all up for life as a space trucker. When a space ninja attack leaves his ship damaged, he ends up temporarily stranded on his former home planet while waiting for repairs, with only his ex-girlfriend, former professor and spatula to help him when he ends up in a cooking challenge from the local bully chef. Giving lots of familiar ideas a sci-fi spin - the alien recipes alone make this book worth reading - writer/artist Stokoe manages to create an SF book that's almost accidental about its science fiction, but in a wonderfully enjoyable way; who doesn't want to read about oven hacking, or ninjas with no muscle power because they've spent too long floating in deep space? With art that's reminiscent of Jamie Hewlett or Brandon Graham, and a drifting slacker plot that takes the long way 'round at all times, Wonton Soup is a book that deserves to make it onto many tables, whether they be bedside-reading or kitchen.

Wonton Soup + 38 Page Preview [Oni Press]

For the first major convention of the year, Wondercon was surprisingly light on any real news, with the biggest player, DC Comics first suggesting that they were going to tell us something big the next day, and then telling us that they'd rather wait until April after all. The lack of any major surprises to take away from the con (Both of the stories that actually did break, J. Michael Straczynski working for DC Comics and Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan working on new issues of Demo for Vertigo, seemed to be common knowledge on the con floor before their official announcements) seemed to affect the regular con-goers with an unusual feeling of malaise hitting even the 501st Legion as they performed con security. This wasn't helped by the no-shows from creators - not only was the Image Comics panel cancelled, but both Boom! Studios' Mark Waid and Aspen Studio's Michael Turner failed to make it to the show.

That isn't to say that the entire show was a disaster, mind you; the pros who did make it there were entertaining and available - Particular shout-outs should be given to Oni Press's James Lucas Jones (Expect me to tell you all about Wonton Soup very soon) as well as DC's Jann Jones and Dan DiDio, whose late-Sunday panel "For The Love of Comics" turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable conversation not about upcoming DC Comics but what is awesome about comics in general (Goofiness and obsessive collecting being two of the answers), entirely free of the kind of hucksterism that you might expect from a DC panel.Bill Willingham proved to be a fine gentleman able to keep people's attention throughout the various panels he dominated (and I'm not just saying that because of his apology to me about this), and even if some DC panels may have been half-empty, the two showings of the animated version of Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier were packed with enthusiastic fans (With good reason; it's a better movie than I expected).

That's not even talking about Saturday's CBLDF party that we co-sponsored, populated by the creme de la creme of comics folk, from retailers to creators (Hi, Cecil!) to fans, with we journalist types mingling and posing for photos that I feel like I should be apologizing for; I didn't mean for my head to be that shiny. Overall, it may not have been the most exciting weekend in terms of comic conventions - that'll be San Diego Comic-Con in July - but it was definitely a fine, exhausting, one nonetheless.