Five Ghosts #3: Coming from Image comics, Five Ghosts is a great, pulpy throwback book that follows adventurer, Fabian Gray, who is possessed by five literary ghosts and is able to access their powers. None of the ghosts are named but, for instance, one them is clearly Sherlock Holmes and gives Fabian higher deduction and observation. This issue finds Fabian being taken to Shangri-La by a new ally and being offered a way to control his powers, which are slowly destroying him. While Fabian undergoes a series of trials, the city comes under attack by a giant dragon. The art and concept is great and is definitely worth checking out, either right now in individual issues or when it’s inevitably collected into a trade paperback.
Deadpool #10: While Deadpool’s necromancer friend Michael tries to get an audience with Mephisto in Hell (after Deadpool killed him last issue), Pool goes after the next damned soul on the demon Vetis’ list, the wall street tycoon Daniel Gump. The Superior Spider-Man is also after Gump and an awkward Marvel Team Up commences. There’s some great back and forth between Spidey and Pool and this series continues to be one of the funnest reads every issue.
Ghostbusters (2013) #4: The old and new Ghostbusters team up to take down The Collectors, a group of spirits who can be hired to capture any living being, at the cost of your sanity, and their latest target is the Ghostbusters themselves. Lots of great ghostbusting action, as The Collectors prove to be tougher than the normal ghosts the team faces but they ultimately win the day but now have to figure out what to do with two teams of ‘Busters. This series continues to pull from all aspects of the Ghostbusters with a key character in this arc being Dr. Janosz Poha and Venkman asking why Janine why they didn’t bring in the “Rookie ” from Ghostbusters: The Video Game.
Avengers #12: The Avengers take it upon themselves to impart life lessons to a group of children in the Savage Land, created by one of the organic growth bombs launched by Ex Nilhilo to change the planet. The kids do not sleep, eat, drink or even breath and the group tries a number of different techniques to teach them skills so they can eventually become a part of the larger world. It’s not as fun as the last issue but at least it’s something I can wrap my head around, as opposed to the insane cosmic wanking of the previous issues.
TMNT Villains: Stockman: The backstory of Baxter Stockman is revealed in this one shot issue and also possible foreshadowing to him becoming the mutated fly creature we saw in the classic cartoon. Stockman is currently working on constructing the Technodome for General Krang, but realizes that it is built to terraform the Earth and is looking for a way to, if not stop it completely, take control of it himself. To this end, he builds a mutant fly creature that is half organic, half cybernetic and fakes losing control of it to steal intelligence from Krang.
Judge Dredd #7: Dredd manages to get back to Judge HQ with Mega-City 1 still falling apart due to the technological rebellion. Dredd’s undercover robot source, Judge Myers, loses control of body and mind, due to being implanted in a robot body, and forces Judge Anderson to lower the firewall surrounding the Hall of Justice, leaving it open to attack. Meanwhile, Dredd finds out that a number of clones who were created as part of a blackmail scheme on the wealthy of MC1 seems to be related to the robot rebellion and heads out to investigate.
Fantastic Four #8: Ben Grimm, with one day to be a human due to some sort of half cure developed by Franklin and Val Richards, has to family fly him back in time to his old neighborhood, where he helps the people stand up for themselves against some extorting gangsters. That’s about it, although it seems like next issue there may be a revelation about Ben’s involvement in a failed Dr. Doom experiment when they were at college.
