Weekly Comics to Come - August 23, 2006:
Looks like a really good week. A few anticipated second issues (Jack of Fables, Elephantmen, Wonder Woman), several first issues of interest (Batman and Mad Monk, Eberron, Heroes for Hire) and a good crop of trades and ongoing series. I had ten potential "top five picks" and it was tough whittling them down.

TOP FIVE PICKS
Batman And The Mad Monk #1 (I've read this one already, and it's great, following up nicely off Batman and The Monster Men and featuring terrific art by Wagner, intriguing villains and a "Year One" vibe that I love. If you liked Long Halloween, you'll love Wagner's Batman stuff)
Eberron Eye Of The Wolf #1 (I love the Eberron setting, probably my favorite D&D campaign I've ever run, and I'm excited by the possibility of comics)
Elephantmen #2 (First issue was fantastic, with beautiful art. No reason to expect the second will be any less impressive)
Jack Of Fables #2 (Again, great first issue, and with that cliffhanger, I can't wait to see where it's headed next. Quite possibly as good as the book that it spun off from, which would make it one of the top five books in the industry right out of the gate)
Thing Idol Of Millions TP (Dan Slott's highly underrated old school fun series, collected in its entirety. Everybody buy this so maybe Marvel will greenlight a miniseries or direct-to-trade follow-up or something)

THE REST
Batman #656 (Grant Morrison's first issue left me more with a "what the hell was that?" feeling, but I'm still reading along to see if he'll hook me. He always has in the past)
Batman And The Monster Men TP (One of the best Batman stories of the past few years, with fantastic art by Matt Wagner)
Birds Of Prey #97 (The Birds face off with Black Alice again. I like the character, although not so much the Secret Society elements of the story)
Children Of Grave TP (Military ghost story moves to IDW for its collection, with a gorgeous Dan Brereton cover)
Daredevil #88 (Now that I have a better idea where Brubaker's going with Foggy, I'm able to enjoy the rest of the book a whole lot more, and it's one of my most-anticipated reads)
DMZ #10 (Concluding the excellent "Body of a Journalist" arc)
Eternals #3 (Neil Gaiman does traditional Kirby superheroes with his usual flair. Romita Jr. provides beautiful art... a great book. And no Civil War in sight)
Exiles #85 (An Exiles team made up entirely of Wolverines... potentially really funny gag story here)
Fear Agent #7 (I'd kind of like to see a story arc conclude here at some point, but it seems Remender is going more old school long-form in his plotting... still a blast of fun sci-fi action every time it comes out)
GI Joe Declassified #2 (Good to see Hama back on G.I. Joe for a tale of the early days)
Heroes For Hire #1 (Liked Daughters of the Dragon, curious to see what Gray/Palmiotti do here, although the Civil War tie-in and Tucci art weaken my interest)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #9 (Sigh... only 6 more issues of Miyazawa art on this book. I'll enjoy it while I can, and hope for a great follow-up artist... I'd love to see Eric Kim from Oni on this book, if he could still do Love As A Foreign Language too)
Supermarket #4 (Wood and Donaldson's futuristic crime/action saga concludes)
Walking Dead #30 (I'm dying to see how this arc plays out)
Wonder Woman #2 (Read this one as well, and it's good, although I'm not sure it's so good as to outweigh the months-long wait for it)