Summer and fall tend to be the seasons of renewal for the comic industry. It’s when superhero publishers tweak their branding, blockbuster events explode and independent houses release their literary gems. The sweltering months are great for venturing into swimming pools and Florida theme parks, but they’re even better for decompressing with a stack of comics and graphic novels as the AC hums. The biggest books in the coming months are slightly more introspective than in previous years; if 2016 embraced the hyperbole of Marvel’s Civil War II and DC’s line-wide rebirth, this summer specializes in illuminating key pockets of the superhero strata. Tom King’s new Batman arc “War of Jokes and Riddles” dissects the psychology of the Dark Knight’s two smartest adversaries while the author also reteams with Sheriff of Babylon illustrator Mitch Gerads for a Mister Miracle maxiseries. Matt Wagner returns to his epic meta-fantasy in Mage: The Hero Denied after 18 years, while Marvel also explores decades of bravery in Generations. Drawn & Quarterly readies its next grand autobiographical suckerpunch—Poppies of Iraq—with Fantagraphics planting Johnny Appleseed years after its finish. It’s not enough to say that there’s something for everyone, but that everything looks exceptionally thoughtful and delightfully immersive, a promise of empathy and escape as the thermometer’s crimson head ascends heavenward. 
Batman: The War of Jokes and Riddles
Writer:Tom King
Artist: Mikel Janin
Publisher: DC Comics
Tom King tackles three of the most complex psyches in the Batman mythos in his new arc, “The War of Jokes and Riddles.” Told as a flashback from Bruce Wayne to current fiancé Selina Kyle, the six issues recount a brutal conflict that erupts between The Joker and The Riddler, with the Dark Knight attempting to assuage the collateral damage. Stories of this nature require a writer to slip into the personage of a genius—or in this case, three geniuses. It’s a daunting task to emulate the thought patterns of an OCD vigilante, a symbology savant and an antisocial clown who uses the concept of laughter to cope with…something, but King is one of the few writers whose cerebral approach can do it justice. This is a scenario where the reader can watch the punchlines, fists and brainteasers collide, knowing that its author probably spent sleepless nights concocting this deep narrative algorithm. Artist Mikel Janin’s sleek, bloody figures render the chaos with vivid clarity, promising a book as sexy as it is smart. Sean Edgar
Dark Nights: Metal
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Greg Capullo
Publisher: DC Comics
Since their work together on the main Batman comic came to a close, writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo have been hinting at a new collaboration. Snyder has continued to influence the world of the Dark Knight in All Star Batman, but this summer’s big event from DC is the first time the two will join forces since April 2016.
Snyder has spoken at length about how long this story has been incubating, and it seems to track towards DC’s recent habit of leaning on multiple universes for big events. It allows for the opportunity of a dreaded Super Fight without forcing conflict between two characters who are ostensibly allies, which is one of the chief complaints aimed at summer events in general. Snyder and Capullo have cooked up a story that wonders what the DC universe would look like if invaded by evil versions of Batman. Snyder and Capullo’s names will draw a lot of fans to the title, and the idea of pitting the detective who is prepared for every eventuality against multiple versions of himself makes the attraction that much greater. Caitlin Rosberg
Demon Vol. 3
Writer/Artist: Jason Shiga
Publisher: First Second
Release Date: July 18, 2017
Jason Shiga’s multi-volume book about game theory and the philosophy of ethics is a rip-roaring good read full of disgusting jokes and terrible behavior issues, and now enters its third volume this summer. If you didn’t read the whole thing online when it was being serialized, the second volume ended on an especially tense cliffhanger, driving anticipation for this volume. Unlike most of publisher First Second’s books, this one is not for kids, reveling in ultra-violence and addressing topics like suicide and crippling adult malaise. Volume four is due in November and wraps things up. Hillary Brown
Generations
Writers/Artists: Various
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Date: August 2017
Let’s not mince words: Marvel is floundering. The absence of comprehensive sales data, as well as Marvel’s strategy of flooding the market, makes it hard to pin down economic specifics, but the books themselves are mired in endless staggered relaunches, event tie-ins, title dilution, too many replaced heroes and creative teams that rarely have the time to build into anything remarkable. The publisher is in the process of rolling out details of its Legacy initiative, which means you’ll either feel more optimistic or more hopeless for the Marvel U.’s future by the time you read this, but the first attempt to recapture the magic comes in the form of the already-announced Generations one-shots. These 10 standalone stories touch on 10 of the publisher’s most popular “legacy characters”: heroes who have inherited or taken on the mantles of older characters, from Jane Foster Thor to Teen Jean Grey (who qualifies via time anomaly).
The idea is to both confirm the validity of the newer mantle-bearers and strengthen the foundation of the original heroes, and results will surely be mixed; Captain Marvel writer Margaret Stohl, for instance, hasn’t done much to help Carol Danvers’ struggling profile, and few of Captain Marvel’s modern fans are likely to care about her relationship to the male former Captain Marvel, who has been dead in the Marvel universe for three decades. Still, these opportunities occasionally bring out the best in creators like Jason Aaron, who wowed years ago with a Dark Reign one-shot and will likely do the same here paired with Mahmud Asrar for a Thor team-up pitting both Thunder Gods against an ancient Apocalypse. Marvel has worn down fan enthusiasm in the last few years—here’s hoping Generations is the first step toward righting the ship. Steve Foxe
Grosz
Writer/Artist: Lars Fiske
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: September 5, 2017
Lars Fiske’s new, nearly wordless biography of the German artist George Grosz is an explosive, fierce, foul howl of anger, and it’s quite a read. Strongly anti-Nazi, Grosz left his home country in 1933 for the United States, but continued to make trouble wherever he was. He pissed off German nationalists, the church, the army, the ruling classes and traditionalists in the art world, among others. Crude and harsh, his art still has force decades later, and Fiske captures its impact through similar effects. Hillary Brown
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