Mars Attacks: First Born #1: Despite the cutesy, almost crayon like art, Mars Attacks is back and as dark as ever. Picking up shortly after the invasion, a man named Woody tries to keep his niece safe, who went blind because of the horror of seeing her parents vaporized. Because of this blindness, she doesn’t realize that the “baby” they rescued is a Martian infant and the other Martians may have found them, as Woody is abducted by a hovering saucer.
Deadpool #28: Taking a quick break from his honeymoon, Wade and Shiklah head to Japan to deliver a mysterious briefcase to a friend. The Hand, Yakuza and street orphans who use hologram monsters all try to steal the case but Wade and Shiklah manage to take them down and Wade delivers the case, full of money, to Kim, the clone of Nightcrawler infused with Wade’s DNA who Wade, Wolverine and Captain America rescued from North Korea. Kim needs the money to try and find and help his family, which Wade is happy to help him with.
Astro City #12: The Gentleman Bandit is featured this issue, a criminal who has a deep love for dressing well and pulling off precision heists. He eventually gets caught while part of a barbershop quartet robbery gang and upon getting out, tries to go straight for his wife and daughter but the lure is too strong and he’s caught again, this time by the brutal Stray and loses both his looks and his family.
Wolverine #6: Wolverine and his new team arrive in Madripoor to try and recover a mysterious object that fell to Earth nearby before Sabretooth can get it. Logan adopts his old ID, Patch, and meets in secret with a British team led by Black Knight, who are looking to recover the object and arrest Sabretooth. They give Logan a subdermal tracker, that pulses as he gets close to the coordinates of the object, but he catches the scent of Sabretooth in an ally and the thirst for revenge is too strong.
Judge Dredd #19: Dredd manages to take down a few of the unleashed Dark Judges, finding incendiary rounds most effective. Crazed Chief Judge Cal orders his SJS judges to ignore the rampaging Dark Judges and capture Dredd, which they do but Dredd reveals the Dark Judges are trying to circumvent barriers and takes a hostage to try and get control of the command center and stop Death and his cronies.
Future’s End #2: The funeral for Green Arrow takes up most of the issue, with tributes from heroes like Animal Man but the event is interrupted by a fight between Arsenal and Firestorm, the former of which blames the latter for Oliver’s death. Meanwhile, Terry McGuiness learns that the Brother Eye satellite that doomed his future is in orbit but inactive and his goal now is to stop it from being activated and heads to the site that built it.
Batman Eternal #6: Adding to the already chaotic events happening, Batwing is sent by Batman to work with Jim Corrigan aka The Spectre, to investigate dark things happening under Arkham Asylum. Joker’s Daughter is capturing and mutilating inmates, sending them on some sort of twisted quest into the bowels of the asylum’s basement while Doctor Phosphorous roams the Gotham sewers and triggers an explosion trying to catch Batman in the Batmobile as he heads to the site of another explosion.
Fantastic Four #4: The Fantastic Four takes on the new Frightful Four, with Wizard recruiting Piledriver, Wrecker and Thunderball of the Wrecking Crew. The backup FF of Ms. Thing, Ant-Man and She-Hulk and, together, they are able to stop the quartet, although Wizard says they were just a small part of a larger plan by a mysterious mastermind. After the battle, the Four are shocked to learn that SHIELD has barricaded the Baxter Building and demanding that Reed appear in court to face possible charges related to the earlier attack by inter-dimensional monsters.
Captain America #20: Cap manages to fight off the mind control of Dr. Mindbubble, after realizing the reality he was being shown was “too perfect” but is still held hostage as Mindbubble threatens to have captive SHIELD agents hurl themselves off the Gungir helicarrier. Jet Black arrives to back up Cap and they manage to stop Mindbubble by damaging the source of mind control, overloading his brain and causing him to jump to his death off the helicarrier. Iron Nail, in the confusion, sets Gungir on it’s course and destroys the control console, seemingly causing Gungir to be unstoppable as it travels to destroy the small country of Nrosvekistan to try and kick start World War III.
Ash and the Army of Darkness #7: Ash learns some secrets from the lovely sorceress of the woods, including the fact that he’s faced Deadites since he was a boy and that he cannot say the phrase “Faceless Man” three times in his life or he will arrive and cast the world into darkness. Ash manages to say it twice in about five minutes before stopping himself before the third time. The sorceress is abruptly overpowered by Deadites led by the possessed Sheila and her newly constructed Ash clone, who attack the secret forest sanctuary.
Star Wars #17: Luke learns that the Arrochar alpine rangers are planning on contacting the Empire to take over the planet and capture the Rebels but Luke uses his burgeoning Force powers to escape. Back at the capitol, Leia gets ready for her marriage to the Prince of Arrochar but before the ceremony can start, explosions rock the palace and it’s reported that three Imperial Star Destroyers are in orbit.
