Mars Attacks Judge Dredd #1: Two of IDW’s best series cross over in this new mini series as the devious Martians arrive in Mega City One, backing the local Mega-Mafia and Dredd’s investigation into one of the mob’s fronts puts him into the claws of one of the Martians giant insects. There’s great integration of the Mars Attacks cards to tell exposition and the Martians fit perfectly into the bizarre world of Judge Dredd.
Reverse Flash #1: One of the Flash’s most dangerous villains is unleashed for Villain Month as Daniel West’s origin is revealed. He suffered at the hands of an abusive father and ran away from home after he pushed him down the stairs. Much later, he ended up in the lair of the Rogues during an invasion by the Gorillas and ended up tossed into the speed force and gaining the ability to travel back and forth in time.
Avengers Arena #15: Cullen Bloodstone’s attempts to protect his friends from X-23 goes horribly awry as the creature he transforms into goes on a rampage and the super powered teens are barely able to contain him. Tech expert Cammie, barbarian Anachronism and Atlantean Nara rush to try and find the ring that will bring Cullen back to normal. Nara’s origin is revealed before she is killed by Cullen’s beast form but manages to turn Cullen back before she dies.
TMNT Villains #6: Hun: Casey Jones’ father has been a deadbeat for most of the time we’ve seen him but it’s revealed in this spotlight issue that he used to be the head of the Purple Dragons, now led by Casey’s friend Angel. Shredder enlists Leonardo to bring Arnold to their lair and he makes him an offer to give him mutagen that will enhance his strength if he takes over the Purple Dragons and works with the Foot, which Arnold agrees to as it gives him a sense of purpose and self worth again and he even wants to patch things up with Casey.
Mr. Freeze #1: The New 52’s Mister Freeze is much different than his previous iterations in that he is slightly more insane and is most likely obsesses with a woman who is not even his wife. His father left he and his mother at an early age and his mother fell into an icy pond soon afterward. This Villains Month issue reveals that Victor has a step family out there and he sets out to find them in the absence of Batman.
Harley Quinn #1: Harley goes on a crime rampage with the absence of the Bat family and her leaving the Suicide Squad but none of the random crime she is perpetrating has the same thrill as when she did it with “Mistah J”. Deadshot shows up at the end of the issue and recruits her back into the Squad to help Waller and possibly help clean up some of the mess caused by Secret Society.
Solomon Grundy #1: Traditionally a Batman villain, Solomon Grundy is apparently up against a “green” hero on Earth 2, whether that means Swamp Thing or Green Lantern remains to be seen. Grundy’s New 52 origin is that he was a lowly farmer in the 1890’s who is forced to work at a slaughterhouse for a sleazy boss. Things escalate and Solomon’s wife kills herself and Solomon goes on a murderous revenge rampage and then attempts to kill himself as well, but is reborn with rot powers and is seemingly unkillable.
Brainiac #1: Brainiac’s New 52 origin is pretty similar to his original one. A brilliant scientist on his homeworld, Vril Dox detected a threat coming from “the 5th dimension” and decided his species needed to evolve in order to meet it. He was viewed as a monster and banished but “evolved” himself and came back and started his task of collecting important cities and planets from doomed planets. Krypton is the only planet that is seemingly able to repel the dangers of the 5th dimension, and Brainiac becomes obsessed with figuring out what Jor-El was able to do and replicate it.
Deadpool #16: If undead presidents and evil pimps and the various other craziness of the new Deadpool have not been your thing (which I don’t know how it couldn’t be), this current arc is a fantastic throwback to the darker and more realistic feel of classic Deadpool. Captured by evil scientists from Weapon Plus, Deadpool learns he’s being held in North Korea, part of a plan to give the country their own super soldiers. A motley crew of not X-men are the results of grafting DP’s DNA to human hosts and Agent Preston, who takes over DP’s body temporarily, agrees to help them escape. There’s also mention that DP may have a daughter and DP and Preston find that they might have some help in their escape in the form of Wolverine and Captain America, also captured by the North Koreans.
Fantastic Four #12: The Richards family is reunited thanks to time travel, but they first have to fight off the beasts of a prehistoric alien planet. They are marooned by the time terrorist Preservation League but their grandchildren force them to come to their senses and they return to rescue the FF with a souped up time travel machine. There’s also a second, older Johnny who has apparently experienced everything already and Ben completely loses his rocky exterior.
Indestructible Hulk #13: The Hulk’s latest mission in time takes him to Camelot where another “chronanarchist” has taken over Camelot. Recruiting the Black Knight, King Arthur and Merlin, the robo Bruce comes up with a plan that place the Hulk in perfect position to fight the chronanarchist and a tag team between the Black Knight and the Hulk ends his takeover of Camelot but the third known chronoanarchist may be trying to mess with the Hulk’s past and the gamma bomb accident that created him.
Captain America #11: Cap tries to adjust to returning to Earth after 12 years in Dimension Z, but it’s only been seconds since he left. After getting all traces of Zola’s virus removed by Hank Pym and Bruce Banner, Cap returns home with Jet as the two try to put things behind them. Steve realizes his advice to put things in the past sounds slightly hypocritical as his apartment is full of mementos of his past exploits, so he burns them in a symbolic gesture on the roof with Jet. Meanwhile, a deranged freak claiming to be fighting for America goes on a rampage on an innocent village in Russia with a mini gun.
Wolverine #9: Wolverine interprets Mystique’s infiltration into the Jean Grey School as a message from Sabertooth and sets out to a location left in his destroyed office. Kitty Pryde comes with him and the two end up on the recieving end of a rocket launcher from Batroc the Leaper. Despite losing all of his healing factor, Logan manages to best Batroc with his superior fighting skills.
Robocop: Last Stand #2: Murphy takes his one man resistance against a behavior modification clinic run by OCP and manages to gain a rewired ED-209 and the abused patients into his army. His new hacker ally, Marie, also reveals that the reasons she is helping Robocop may be more personal than business and OCP calls in a specialist from their partner company in Japan to help deal with Murphy.
Zod #1: Zod’s origins in the New 52 are revealed and, when he was a boy, his parents took him on expedition to a hostile planet and they were killed. He managed to survive and Jor-El and his brother found him and rescued him. Zod became one of Krypton’s greatest warrior and found followers like Faora and Non. An ancient foe called the Char seemingly restarts their war with Krypton and Zod leads Krypton’s army to victory but Jor-El discovers that Zod orchestrated the entire war and the Char people were innocent, causing Zod and his followers to be banished to the Phantom Zone for treason.
The Riddler #1: With his greatest foe seemingly defeated, Edward Nygma attacks Wayne Tower just for shits and giggles, takes revenge on a guard who used to work at Arkham and then heads to the roof to play solitaire until Batman returns. Even for something as simple as that, The Riddler has an elaborate, multi layered plan involving riddles and different pieces coming together.
Eternal Warrior #1: After battling Aric and his Manowar armor in the pages of X-O Manowar, the Eternal Warrior gets his own series and it’s revealed in this first issue that he had a son and daughter who he led, along with a massive army, against an army of death worshipping monster barbarians. His daughter Xaran, filled with bloodlust, tried to attack the barbarians wives and children, which Gilad attempts to stop but takes a spear to the chest that incapacitates him and kills his son, Mitu. Gilad decides to give up fighting and eventually ends up in present day Africa living a solitary life when his daughter, who is also immortal, arrives claiming to need his help to restore balance to the world.
