Deadpool Annual #1: The special annual issue of Deadpool answers one of the most important questions ever, what happened to Deadpool’s snarky text boxes. The answer is that the text boxes that Deadpool constantly talked with was actually the villain Madcap, who’s consciousness fused with Deadpool’s after a run in with Thor back in the day. After getting into a fight with Luke Cage, Madcap finally gains control of Deadpool’s body and makes Luke Cage and Thor have a dance off but DP comes up with a plan to finally separate them by having Luke Cage and Thor rip his body in half. The two are successfully separated but both miss the other’s insanity.
Five Ghosts #7: Fabian Gray heads out to follow a lead about possible Dreamstones and reunites with an old flame who is a jewel thief. The mysterious enemies in the shadows hire a pirate captain to stop Fabian before he and his friend, Jezebel, can get to the Island of Dreams.
Avengers Arena #18: The kids finally escape the island of Murder World when Deathlocket makes a hard choice and kills Katy/Tim before Katy can unleash all the horrors Arcade saved, like sand monsters, giant bugs and living tsunamis. The teachers of the kids’ respective schools arrive and bring them to safety, but the kids make a pact not to tell about anything that happened to them or who did it to them. Arcade doesn’t keep the same secrecy and starts uploading all of the events of Murder World to Youtube.
Indestructible Hulk #16: After saving time by punching it in the face, Bruce Banner returns to his mission of creating world changing technology every week but he gets beaten to the punch by his fellow Marvel super geniuses. Needing something to do, Bruce and his assistant, Randall Jessup, go against orders and follow SHIELD to a power fluctuation at a Mayan pyramid. A portal to another dimension is opened that Hulk manages to stop by fighting the monsters and bringing down the pyramid.
Judge Dredd #13: Trying to clean up after the “Long Fail” technology disaster, a “retro-virus” is uploaded into Mega City One’s computer systems to bring every back to a month before the psychotic Circuit Court AI took over. A side effect occurs when a mysterious wave of time washes over the city, bringing everything back to 1947, including Dredd. Still trying to uphold the law, Dredd investigates a murder and catches the perp just as time reverts back to normal but the robot situation may not be entirely fixed.
Nova #10: Actually issue 100 if you go back to the prior Nova series, Sam Alexander, after consulting with The Watcher, agrees to join the New Warriors with Speedball and Vince Astrovik and Sam helps a friendly alien ship fight off evil orca whaleesque aliens in a second story from Deadpool writer Gerry Duggan, who is apparently taking over writing duties for Nova, which is awesome.
Savage Wolverine #12: In the latest story of this book, Logan goes on his annual “hunting” trip to Africa where he communes with nature but makes the disturbing discovery that a group of highly efficient poachers are savagely murdering rhinos and other animals. With some intel from Kitty Pryde, Logan finds that the poaching operation is centered in his old stomping ground of Madripoor and he confronts the current head of the crime there, Tyger Tiger, but ends up in an ambush at the warehouse holding the illegal animal parts.
Star Trek #27: The Enterprise crew pieces together almost all of the plot to launch a war between the Romulans and Klingons when Kirk and his away team are “rescued” by Section 31 and brought to a Romulan warbird. The Enterprise comes to the rescue when a fall scale battle breaks out between the Romulan and Klingon ships and is able to beam Kirk and Co. back to the Enterprise. Kirk realizes that Section 31 plans on destroying the Klingon homeworld of Khitomer with red matter and leads a strike team to stop that from happening but learn that Sulu’s sister, Yuki, is with Section 31 and beams down to stop them.
TMNT #28: City Fall ends with a massive battle with the Turtles taking on Bebop and Rocksteady, Splinter fighting Shredder and Angel and Casey taking on Casey’s dad. April arrives with borrowed tech and Hob and Slash clear out the troops outside. Aloplex finally attacks Shredder after learning the truth that he killed her entire family back at the research facility she was created in and gives the Turtles a chance to escape with Leo, who finally breaks the mind control that Shredder did to him. Needing to recuperate, the Turtles, April and Casey head out town but Leo gives Slash his mask and heads off on his own.
Zombie War #2: The grim finale to the Zombie War finds Air Force pilot Jina and her alien ally, Spud, give humanity their only chance to stop the reanimated soldiers, a chemical that dissolves them at the molecular level. The base they take shelter at is overrun and they try and bring the secret to the final base for the US forces but are put into quarantine. The final battle ensues, ending with the centurion leader of the zombies driving a truck full of nuclear weapons into the heart of the base, killing everyone, zombie and human, except for Jina and Spud, who are left wondering what the hell they are going to do now.
Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth #6: It’s an all out monster brawl this issue as Godzilla and the robot Moguera take on Gigan and Orga in Las Vegas. Godzilla seems outmatched by Orga until the surprise arrival of Jet Jaguar, who flies directly into Orga’s mouth and punches his way out of Orga’s stomach.
Ghostbusters #10: The end of the year increase in paranormal activity continues as the Ghostbusters have to deal with a particular nasty spirit during NYC’s Day of the Dead celebration. The usual tricks of zapping and catching don’t seem to work as zapping the ghost splits it into different forms, so the team has to find the source of the ghost, an altar made by a little girl to bring her grandma to her.
