It Girl! and the Atomics #2

From Image's 20th anniversary lineup comes this bright, pop-art burst of a comic — It Girl! and the Atomics #2, part of Michael Allred's beloved Madman universe. The cover itself is a delight: It Girl leaps exuberantly skyward clutching a quill pen, while her Atomics teammates — a red-suited hero, a robotic figure, a meditative white-clad character, and a small lurking creature — crowd a rocky clifftop, with a speech bubble cheekily breaking the fourth wall ("Stop, It Girl! None of this happens in the book!"). With Jamie Rich, Mike Norton, and Hilary Salsalaqua's names on the cover, this 2012 series delivers exactly the kind of colorful, playful superhero energy that made critics compare it to The Venture Brothers set to the Ramones.