Start off your August with a fresh new batch of comic books, ready for you to pluck right off our shelves when we crack open our doors on Wednesday!

From Marvel, we have the ninth issue of Avengers Vs. X-Men, the first issue of The First X-Men (with art by the legendary Neal Adams), and issue #16 of what may be my favorite Marvel book right now, the always-terrific Daredevil. We also have the debut issue of a brand new series starring everyone’s avenging archer, Hawkeye!

DC Comics has quite a few goodies this week as well, including the fourth installments of their Second Wave New 52 titles Earth 2, World’s Finest, G.I. Combat, and the sleeper hit Dial H. We also have the second issue of Before Watchmen: Nite Owl, the fourth issue of Smallville: Season 11, and twelfth issues of Detective Comics and Action Comics. Of special note: over the last couple of months, the stars of Swamp Thing and Animal Man have been slowly, oh so slowly, approaching each other like some kind of double-sided Zeno’s Paradox…but at last, the twain have finally met in issue #12 of each series, featuring parts one and two of the “Rotworld” event series.

Dynamite Entertainment: The Boys hits issue #69, only two issues away from its conclusion. We also have fourth issues of the pulp heroes The Shadow and The Spider.

Image Comics: Howard Chaykin’s classic naughty comic Black Kiss starts its sequel series this week, the Harvest mini-series debuts, and we have new issues of old favorites like Spawn (#222) and new favorites like Thief of Thieves (#9).

Cartoon Books: Jeff Smith’s Rasl wraps it all up with issue #15. Hopefully Smith will have a new project in the works very soon!

…And there are lots more comics just waiting for you within our doors. I don’t want to spoil all the surprises!

Also, for those of you who have been waiting…we finally got in our restocks of Batman logo ice-trays and Thor bottle openers for all of your superhero-themed party needs!