Coming off of a holiday weekend always make it difficult to get back into the swing of things, but fortunately, there’s a whole slew of brand new comics to ease the pain of workaday drudgery. This week, we’ve got a veritable motherlode of awesome new titles, including a brand new Star Wars event series, a seminal issue of Batman, and a killer steampunk series from BOOM! Box. So, read on and see what’s awaiting you at your local comic book store this week.

Star Wars: Shattered Empire #1

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Marco Checchetto
Colorist: Andres Mossa
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

The Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues in the brand new Star Wars: Shattered Empire #1. As the title suggest, the Empire is scattered to the wind, but by no means down for the count. Picking up in the final moments of the Battle of Endor, we follow Lieutenant Shara Bey, an ace pilot for the Rebel Alliance who goes by the callsign Green Four. Writer Greg Rucka has a proven track record of complex, dynamic, and decidedly badass female protagonists and Bey is no exception, providing covering fire for Luke Skywalker and flying Han Solo into a combat zone without batting an eyelash. Speaking of combat zones, artist Marco Checchetto’s kinetic pencils and stunningly cinematic style make this one of the prettiest Star Wars comics around.

However, despite her calm and collected exterior, Bey finds herself constantly concerned for her husband, Sergeant Kes Dameron, who is a member of the Pathfinders, an elite special forces unit within the Rebel Alliance. (And you can bet that he’ll likely have some relation to The Force Awakens’ Poe Dameron too.) Together—along with some familiar faces—the Rebels lead a raid on the last remaining Imperial base on the forest moon of Endor. Other than that, not a whole lot happens, but it does light the fuse on what feels like a powderkeg ready to explode. While this is merely an incremental march forward past the chronology of Return of the Jedi, Rucka and Checchetto have proven that they have the makings of a must-read book and one that definitely deserves a place on any Star Wars fan’s pull list.

Batman #44

Publisher: DC Comics
Writers: Scott Snyder and Brian Azzarello
Artist: Jock
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Deron Bennett

This isn’t just one of the best comics this week, Batman #44 is one of the best single issues of 2015, period. Written by Scott Snyder and Brian Azzarello, “A Simple Case” is told in flashback and follows the Bruce Wayne version of Batman as he investigates a murder case in one of Gotham’s roughest neighborhoods. The victim is a 15-year-old boy named Peter Duggio. His body was found bloodied, battered, and riddled with bullets—except that wasn’t the cause of death; he was dropped from a great height. Hellbent on solving the mystery, Batman journeys into The Narrows, a rough-and-tumble section of Gotham plagued by poverty, gang violence, and a profound lack of concern from the Gotham City Police Department. What Batman finds during his investigation is searing stuff, even by Gotham City’s standards.

As the mystery bobs and weaves through Gotham’s fractured landscape, Snyder and Azzarello tell a story of economic hardship, police brutality, and racial tension that touches on a raw nerve present in our own society. Comics are meant to be a form of escapism, yes, but as Batman #44 shows, they can also be powerful prisms through which our own society is refracted and examined. The version put forth in “A Simple Case” is powerful, damning stuff, brought to chilling life by Jock’s visceral artwork, which delivers an emotional haymaker. Quite simply put, “A Simple Case” is required reading for any comics fan.

Tyson Hesse’s Diesel #1

Publisher: BOOM! Box
Writer: Tyson Hesse
Artist: Tyson Hesse
Colorist: Mariel Cartwright
Letterer: Jim Campbell

I first met Tyson Hesse while guest-hosting on Geek and Sundry’s weekly comic book show The Pull, and was instantly charmed by the easy-going comics creator. When he mentioned he had a new series coming out through BOOM! Studios, I filed it away and made a note to check it out. And boy am I glad that I did because Tyson Hesse’s Diesel #1 is a rollicking, raucously fun adventure that creates blends elements of steampunk, Studio Ghibli, and Final Fantasy to create a riotously fun all-ages comic.

The four-issue mini-series follows Diandra Diesel, an airship mechanic with aspirations of being a pilot who lives aboard the airship Peacetown, a gigantic floating city. Though she may be low on the totem pole, Diandra — or Dee, as she prefers to be called—is actually the heir to Peacetowne itself; her father bequeathed it to her, but she cannot take control until her eighteenth birthday…which just so happens to be right around the corner.

With a decidedly dry wit, Hesse shows us that Dee is something of a square peg in a round hole, someone who desperately wants to find her place in the world, but just can’t seem to get out of her own way. But all of that has to go on hold when Peacetowne suddenly comes under attack from a mysterious energy field that threatens to rend the ship—and Dee’s inheritance—asunder. All in all, it’s a fast-paced, delightfully illustrated, and entirely charming series debut, and I cannot wait to read the remaining three issues.

The Complete List 

(via PreviewsWorld.com)

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What’s on your pull list this week? Let us know in the comments below!