Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Villains: Krang: The origins of the new Krang are revealed in this one shot issue and he’s definitely not the sniveling wimp of the original cartoon. This Krang was the spoiled son of the ruler of Ultraminon and his father was waging war against a rebellion on the planet Morbus. Looking to get some respect from his father, Krang leads a small assault team to the planet but is ambushed. The only survivor, Krang learns to fight and hunt on his own, without the need for suits or walkers. I’m really enjoying this mini trend going on right now of fleshing out the villains and this is one of the best with some awesome nods to the old school Krang robot for fans of the cartoon. This IDW universe of the TMNT is probably the best iteration of the Turtles that there has ever been and if you’re a fan, it’s a must read.
X-O Manowar #12: Aric the Visigoth continues his one man war on the alien homeworld of the Vine aliens in the Planet Death arc of X-O Manowar. If you combined Spartacus, Iron Man and Star Wars together, this would probably be the result. What’s interesting is that the Vine, who have pretty much been just straight forward, planet destroying villains are now being fleshed out into two different groups, those that now worship Aric for his bond with the Shansara power armor and those that want to kill him. He also made the shocking discovery this issue that there are descendants of his people living on the alien homeworld. After a brutal battle, Aric is separated from the armor and may have to continue his war by himself.
Age of Ultron #6: We’re past the halfway point in this epic crossover and two teams are racing in the past and future to try and undo the damage done by Ultron. Captain America, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Storm, Quake, Quicksilver and Red Hulk head to the future to try and take the fight to Ultron, but are ambushed by a seemingly unending swarm of Ultron drone heads. Meanwhile, Wolverine and Sue Storm sneak off to the past, where Wolverine is determined to kill Hank Pym before he can even think up the concept of Ultron. It looks there are some major ramifications coming from one or both of the teams screwing with time next issue.
Captain America #6: Steve Rogers is on the warpath in Arnim Zola’s twisted dimension, trying to rescue his adopted son, Ian, who was taken by his sister, Jet, last issue. After everything he’s been through, including having to cut out a clone/virus of Zola from his chest, this is one of the most vicious Caps in recent memory, killing anyone who gets in his way. I’m hoping this storyline will wrap up soon because it’s getting a little tedious and it’s way out of left field for Cap, who’s normally hunting down Hydra agents or dealing with resurrected Nazi/Soviet super soldiers.
Nova #3: Sam Alexander gets some intense training from Gamorra and Rocket Raccoon in this issue and is immediately thrown into the fray when he reveals that The Watcher showed him a fleet of Chitauri ships heading for Earth. If you’re looking to get into the cosmic side of Marvel that will be showing up in the movies in the next few years, this and the new Guardians of the Galaxy are a great way to start.
Thunderbolts #8: The team is on the hunt for an arms dealer selling gamma powered mechs and head to the the Middle East to question a gathering of terrorist leaders. There’s some nice twists where a person who you think is a disguised member of the team turns out not to be, like for example, it looks like Venom is undercover as one of the terrorist leaders but he is actually one of the wives in burka that they were implying was Elektra. Fantastic action as usual too.
Ghostbusters Vol 2 #3: This series continues to be the perfect melting pot of everything Ghostbusters, incorporating the movies, the Real Ghostbusters and the game into one of the comics I look forward to the most every month. Janine is called out this issue by the ghost of one of her ancestors that Grendel is coming to face her at midnight. Meanwhile, Kylie, Ray’s assistant, is questioning Dr. Poha (of Ghostbusters II), who is possessed again by an evil spirit. The big event in this issue though is that the guys are able to escape the dimensional limbo they were trapped in by detonating their proton packs and reunite with the New Ghostbusters.
Savage Wolverine #4: Channeling classic adventure serials and grindhouse movies is this Wolverine mini series, which finds him teamed up with Shanna the She Devil in the Savage Land. The pair are trying to find an ancient power source so they can destory it and escape but it turns out that the power source is also powering a prison for a super powerful being. Super genius Amadeus Cho is on site as well and helps bring back Shanna after she was killed last issue with help from a Man Thing. This is a super fun book, full of great action thanks to artist Frank Cho (whose style makes Shanna even more ridiculously attractive than usual) and definitely superior to the “proper” Wolverine comic going right now.
Judge Dredd #6: Dredd tries to make sense of the robot revolt taking place in Mega City One and has to fight his way out using only his night stick, dragging “author” Lee Preteen along with him. The entire city is trying to kill Dredd whether it’s changing the temperature to extremes or messing with traffic signals. Even his friend Judge Tarjay, who’s mind was tranferred into a robot body, is unable to resist whatever programming is causing the revolt and is seemingly rigged to explode, taking Dredd and Preteen with him.
Lookouts #5: If you’re a fan of Penny Arcade, you probably saw the couple of comics they created with the Lookouts characters, a Boy Scoutsesque group in a fantasy realm that are training to learn to survive in the woods and fight monsters. Cryptozoic has gotten the license and has expanded the world, following a group of Lookouts who are trying to defeat a Sphinx who is terrorizing a local road. The book is fantastic and it does a great job of committing fully to the mythology of the world but trusting the readers to be able to figure out things based on context and visuals and it shares the great art of Penny Aracde, even though Gabe isn’t the one drawing it.
Chew #33: One of the funniest, goriest, wackiest comics currently on going is Chew from Image. Anthony Chu is an agent for the FDA, the most powerful government agency in this universe where everything revolves around food. Tony is a cibopath, which means he can see mental projections of all the food he eats, like where it came from and how it was made. He started using this to take bites out of murder victims and suspects to see what they were doing. In this issue, Tony heads to an island in the South Pacific to take down an egg worshiping cult with the Navy. A new food power is introduced with a thug who gets stronger the more he eats and Tony gets a big clue from one of the cult members about the villain he’s tracking, a “vampire” who killed his sister.
