All of the ‘spotlighted’ comic covers this week are from the A section of the new release list. That’s how good comics are this week. Don’t take our word for it, though – see for yourself below, and leave a comment to let us know what you’ll be picking up!

Between the new Magic set and Free Comic Book Day, we’re pretty tired here at Mavericks Central, so we’re going to keep this week’s talky-talk brief. Except to ask, did you guys see The Avengers yet? Let us know what you thought, and what looks good in this week’s comics, in the Comments!

From Left to Right: Batman, Superbaby, a Jedi, Jack Sparrow, Gambit, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Supergirl, Princess Leia, Iron Lantern

This past weekend, while the big-screen adaptation of The Avengers was making a gajillion dollars and breaking records left and right (and rightfully so, if you ask this webmaster), Mavericks celebrated Free Comic Book Day in style with our annual FCBD Costume Contest! We had a lot of enthusiastic entrants – here are just a few of them (click photos to enlarge):

Our second-place winner of a $100 gift certificate, Wonder Woman, must've had something in her eyes.

Superbaby is super-tired.

Gambit doesn't like the look of the armored guy.

Amalgam Comics's Iron Lantern walked away with the grand prize - a $200 gift certificate!

Congratulations go to the winners of our contest. Iron Lantern won a $200 gift certificate, Wonder Woman won a $100 gift certificate, and Supergirl won a $50 gift certificate. Thanks again to everyone who participated in the costume contest, and to everyone who came out for Free Comic Book Day! We had a great time, and we hope everyone else did, too!

The annual Free Comic Book Day for 2012 will soon be upon us! Timed to coincide with the release of The Avengers feature film, this year’s FCBD is Saturday, May 4th, and Mavericks is celebrating with a slew of deals and great events for comic fans of all ages! Here’s the full rundown of what we have planned.

COMIC SALE

We’ll have the following comic-related merchandise on sale:
- Trade Paperbacks, regularly 25% off, will be 40% off
- New, packaged toys will be 20% off
- Statues will be 10 to 50% off
- Back issues from 2007 and earlier that are in the boxes will be $1.00 each
- Plus, thousands of FREE COMICS!

COSTUME CONTEST

Mavericks will be holding our second annual costume contest on FCBD. Dress up as your favorite comic, cartoon, sci-fi, or video game character. The top three winners will receive the following prizes:
- First place receives a $200 gift certificate
- Second place receives a $100 gift certificate
- Third place receives a $50 gift certificate
Judging for the contest will be at 2:00 PM, and you must be present for the judging to win one of our prizes, so don’t miss out!

SKETCHES

Local comic creator and storyboard artist Justin Wasson (WAC Comics) will be on hand doing sketches and selling his own comics! Head over to Justin’s website for a look at his art, and be sure to pick up one of his books this weekend while he’s drawing you a sketch!

DID WE MENTION THE FREE COMICS?

What would Free Comic Book Day be without free comics? Here’s a list of all of the FCBD-exclusive titles that we’ll have available:

Gold Titles
- Avengers: Age of Ultron 0.1
- Bongo Comics/Spongebob Squarepants flip-book
- DC Comics – The New 52 Special Edition
- Image 20
- Mega Man
- Mouse Guard: Labyrinth & Other Stories Hardcover
- Peanuts/Adventure Time flip-book
- Star Wars/Serenity flip-book
- Transformers #80.5
- Yo Gabba Gabba! Free Comic Book Time

Silver Titles
- 2000 AD Judge Dredd Special
- Anti
- Atomic Robo & Friends
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer/The Guild flip-book
- Burt Ward: Boy Wonder
- The *Censored* Howard Cruse
- DC Nation/Superman Family Adventures flip-book
- Diary of a Zombie Kid
- Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel
- The Intrinsic
- Jurassic Strikeforce 5
- Lady Death: The Beginning
- Rockhead & Zinc Alloy 2-for-None Special
- The Smurfs/Disney Fairies featuring Tinkerbell
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Spider-Man: Season One Preview
- The Hypernaturals
- Top Shelf Kids Club
- Valiant Comics Preview
- Voltron Force
- Walt Disney’s Donald Duck Family Comics
- Witchblade: Unbalanced Pieces
- Worlds of Aspen

Quantities on these exclusive titles are very limited, and as a result there will be a limit of 3 free comics per customer. Be sure to arrive early to get the books you want! And don’t worry – if you just want free comics and don’t care about the FCBD exclusives, we’ll have hundreds of others to choose from!

For more information about the FCBD exclusive comics, or about Free Comic Book Day in general, head over to the event’s official website.

This year’s Free Comic Book Day is shaping up to be our biggest event in years! We’ll see you there!

There are a lot of great comics out this week. DC’s got Action Comics, plus the premiere issues of Earth 2, Worlds’ Finest, Dial H, and G.I. Combat. Marvel has new issues of Daredevil, vengers vs. X-Men, and Amazing Spider-Man, among many others. A dozen other publishers have equally good titles on the shelves this week.

But if you buy only one book, it must be Darth Vader & Son by Jeffrey Brown. The adventures of the Sith Lord and young Luke are too good to pass up. Flip through it when you’re in the store and we think you’ll agree.

Full listings are below. Hit the comments and let us know what looks good! And don’t forget: FREE COMIC BOOK DAY is THIS SATURDAY, May 5th! We’ll have full details on FCBD on the site shortly, so watch this space!

Magic fans, your long wait is almost over: Avacyn Restored comes out in less then two weeks! The official release date is May 3rd, but we’ll be hosting a pair of pre-release tournaments this weekend! Here are the details:

Saturday, April 28th
Start Time: 9:00 PM
Entry fee: $30

Sunday, April 29th
Start time: 4:00 PM
Entry fee: $25

Don’t forget to pre-order your booster boxes of the new set for the low price of $89.95. Once it’s officially released, booster boxes will return to the regular price of $99.95, so don’t delay!

We’ll see you this weekend for the pre-release tourneys!

Some people have wondered why we shine the proverbial spotlight on specific comics each week by showing their covers above the new release list. Usually it’s because we think those books either look interesting, have been good, or just generally deserve your attention. This week, though, the selection process was a little different.

Avengers vs. X-Men is a massive event, a bi-weekly miniseries in which the two teams face off. Issue two of that series came out just last week. AvX: Versus is a tie-in series to that other miniseries, the first issue of which is out this week. Covers of Avengers vs. X-Men don’t say those words on them, but they do have a neat-looking ‘AvX’ logo on them. Covers of AvX: Versus, on the other hand, do say ‘Avengers vs. X-Men’ on them, and don’t have any sort of AvX logo. These two series are essentially called the same thing, but they are different series. Follow that? If not, feel free to write Marvel a letter and ask for more information.

This week’s issue of Eric Powell’s The Goon features the greatest cover you’ll ever see. Just check out the Dark Horse logo and try to disagree. We couldn’t tell you what the inside’s like – we haven’t had a chance to read it yet – but the cover is hysterical.

Finally, when Jeremy saw the cover of the latest issue of Teen Titans, he described it as the team ‘going to TRON’. We’re pretty sure he’s seen the movie and knows that Tron isn’t an actual place, but still, feel free to mock him when you see him.

New releases below. Let us know what looks good to you!

Round 2 of Avengers vs. X-Men and the beginning of the Batman ‘Night of the Owls’ mini-crossover lead the way for a lot of other great books this week. Wonder Woman does her best John Woo on the cover of her eighth and latest issue, and Punisher #10 serves as the middle of a three-part storyline with Spider-Man and Daredevil.

Outside of the big two, IDW’s got new issues of Doctor Who, G.I. Joe, and Transformers, while Boom! makes its mark with Irredeemable and Planet of the Apes. Plenty of other publishers and plenty of other quality comics this week. Leave us a comment and let us know what looks good!

Cutting the chatter this week and getting right to the good stuff. Lots of great books out this week – leave a comment and let us know what you’re picking up!

First off, thanks to everyone who came out to this past weekend’s 2012 Gem City Comic Con. There was a great turnout, and our booth saw a lot of traffic from store regulars and new faces. We had a great time, and we hope you did, too.

Two very important collections come out this week. One is Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery, the legendary mid-’90s work by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely that has never been reprinted before due to legal issues surrounding Flex’s similarities to one Charles Atlas; the other is Archie Meets KISS. I leave it to you to decide which is the more exciting release.

Lots of other great stuff this week as well. Take a gander, and leave a Comment to let us know what looks good to you!