Unity #1: Valiant Comics has made a massive comeback in the past year or so with great books like X-O Manowar, Shadowman, etc and now in their first major crossover, Aric of X-O Manowar is the villain. With Aric carving out Romania as his private kingdrom, and no one able to confront him with his Manowar armor, a plan is set in motion by Toyo Harada, the world’s most dangerous man. A team of young super powered beings is sent into Romania but are quickly slaughtered by Aric while assassin Ninjak is captured by Aric as well. Harada and the Eternal Warrior then set out to regroup and recruit some more seasoned powered beings. It’s interesting that Aric, from the new Unity team’s POV, is the villain but you can definitely see things both ways.
Batman #25: Zero Year is in full effect as the city wide blackout of Gotham by the Riddler continues. Batman’s focus has to turn to a series of gruesome murders though as Wayne Enterprises scientists are somehow having their skeletons exploded out of their bodies and the culprit seems to be a Dr. Helfern and Bruce visits Lucius Fox for more info, but Fox seems to be working with Halfern, who may be the hideous, skeleton like Dr. Death.
Captain America: Living Legend #3: Cap teams with a squad of Russian soldiers, one of whom knows first hand what the cosmonaut Volkov is capable of. Cap fights off more soldiers who are fused into their technology by dark energy but Cap’s shield seems to protect those around him and is the only thing capable of stopping the alien force, which is bad when Cap loses it and seems to get infected by the alien dark energy.
Savage Wolverine #11: Logan’s adventure in space courtesy of Jock comes to an end with Logan and his young clone finding a lab full of clones and one of the aliens who created them. Logan kills the alien and learns that his young friend may have been tricked into injecting a “cure” into the clones that would kill them. With no cure and no way to help them, Logan lets the boy kill the clones and the two of them wait for alien reinforcements to arrive so they can get off planet. It was a cool idea but never really felt fleshed out enough but there’s a new story starting next issue, so we’ll see what that brings.
Thor: God of Thunder #15: Malekith may have been defeated in Thor: The Dark World but he’s still running rampant across the Nine Realms in Thor: God of Thunder. Thor and his League of Realms rescue a group of dark elf refugees in the candy filled wonderland of Alftheim but Malekith escapes again and leads the league (after a night of drinking) to Jotunheim where it’s revealed Malekith is in league with the Frost Giants.
Deadpool #19: The dramatic “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” arc wraps up this issue as Deadpool confronts Butler, the man who took away his memory and created the army of mutant clones for North Korea using DNA stolen from Deadpool. Butler’s sister lets DP in to kill Butler, as she hates him as much as DP and Logan wires the base to blow and DP, Logan and Cap head to Tokyo to get home. If zombie presidents and demonic deals were too goofy for you, you should definitely check out this story, as it’s one of the more serious Deadpool stories I’ve read and really brings him down to reality and it’s not clear if Deadpool will ever be the same again after his experience in North Korea.
Wolverine #11: Kitty Pryde and Wolverine find themselves in a mall trapped by Hand ninjas and Logan is at his most vulnerable with no healing factor. There’s also a bunch of security guards to worry about and other villains like Silver Samurai and Lord Deathstrike to deal with, so a bad situation all around.
Astro City #6: Astro City’s exploration into all sides of superheroes continues with local mobster Thatcher Jerome getting set up as the main supplier to the visiting alien Ambadassor and in turn, may have deliberately or accidentally been given access to some powerful alien tech that gives normal people powers based on their inner self, which is used on Thatcher’s brother in law, a geologist who is turned into the super villain called Ore Master.
Constantine #8: I’m getting a little close to dropping this book as it’s getting increasingly confusing about what the hell is happening, especially as it’s still working on storylines from Trinity War which was probably almost a year ago. Constantine manages to defeat one of his magical rivals, Mister E, and traps him in a Moonstone sword and then joins the Cult of Cold Fire in order to destroy them from within.
Mars Attacks Judge Dredd #3: The Martians up the stakes in this issue when Dredd and Anderson crash their meeting with the various criminal bosses. Anderson uses her psychic ability to trick the criminals into shooting most of the Martians but they set off their mysterious sphere devices, which cause a blackout in Mega City One (which seems to be a major trend right now). If you’re a fan of either franchise, you should definitely check this book out as it combines the humor of both and it somehow makes perfect sense story wise as well.
Arkham War #2: Bane continues to try and stake his claim on Gotham by making a deal for information with The Penguin, who reveals that Scarecrow and Man-Bat are attempting to steal the Talon soldiers from Blackgate. Bane manages to stop Man-Bat, who also has an army of fellow bat mutated criminals and returns the captured assistant of Blackgate warden, Agatha Zorobatos, recently rescued by Jim Gordon.
Suicide Squad #25: Working for the Crime Syndicate, The Thinker sends two teams of after OMAC with Suicide Squadders like Deadshot, Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang against heroes like Steel and Power Girl. Everyone realizes they were being played after a light skirmish but Harley Quinn betrays them all by secretly working with The Thinker the entire time and taking OMAC for herself. Amanda Waller, meanwhile, heads into the lower levels of Belle Reve to unleash a last ditch weapon, the imprisoned Kane, who is the father of the powerful and bloodthirsty Suicide Squad member, King Shark.
GI Joe #10: Things wrap up in NYC as Duke faces off with the Mad Monk, who was in the Middle East with Duke and it’s revealed he was kicked out for killing a bunch of unarmed, surrending insurgents. Scarlett’s team and a squad of BATs arrive at the Mad Monk’s headquarters and he gets away in the chaos while Destro and Baroness escape Cobra Commander’s wrath at Castle Destro.
Star Trek: Khan #2: The Eugenics War is detailed this issue as Khan Noonien Singh and his fellow genetically engineered soldiers take over all the major countries of the world in the distant past of 1992 and crush all opposition using every weapon at their disposal, including nuclear weapons. It’s still not totally clear if it’s the same Khan, as the Khan in the past is clearly Indian and not a super British Benedict Cumberbatch.
