Black Dynamite #1: The super bad Black Dynamite makes the jump to comics with the newest IDW series. When Too Swole shows up to ruin The Black Community’s block party, Black Dynamite unleashes his kung fu on him, only to find out that the biggest threat to the Black Community is Black Dynamite himself. BD exiles himself, only to run into a group of heavily armed soldiers somewhere south. As you would hope, the cover and art makes it feel right out of the 70’s and it’s a must check out for Black Dynamite fans.
Unity #3: The team of psychic Toyo Harada, Ninjak, technopath Livewire and immortal Gilad finally takes down the rogue Visigoth Aric. Harada at first seemingly condemns to die by drowning at the bottom of the ocean but Livewire, fully in control of the Manowar armor, drops them onto the deck of an aircraft carrier after stopping the Russian nuclear missile fired at the area. Harada takes the armor into his secure vault but Livewire, now more powerful thanks to her contact with the armor, finds evidence of a long list of wrong doing and the latest mission for the Unity team is now to take out Harada.
Astro City #8: The Confessor (a more Catholic take on Batman) arrives at Winged Victory’s (Wonder Woman) HQ and manages to prove that she is being set up by an unknown villain, who wants to discredit her and her female training schools. A brief misunderstanding fight occurs between Confesssor and Samaritan (Superman) but it’s worked out and the two try to run down leads while Winged Victory leaves to let the SHIELD equivalent in the Astro City universe, EAGLE, search the school. Victory learns that the evil Iron Legion is behind the plot to discredit her when a group of their troops ambushes her in the skies outside of Astro City.
Forever Evil: Rogue Rebellion #4: The Rogues face off against Mister Freeze and Clayface in Gotham City, as Freeze wants Weather Wizard to create optimal conditions for Freeze to freeze the city and take control. Black Mask shows up to complicate things but Trickster, having hotwired an armored van and taken out Zasz, picks up the guys as they try to escape. Clayface and Black Mask’s thugs won’t give up, so Heatwave sacrifices himself so the team can escape, only to find out that their leader Glider is being held hostage in her hospital in Central City by the Royal Flush Gang.
Seekers of the Weird #1: Based on a Disney attraction that never came to fruition, this new book finds siblings Max and Melody, whose parents run a bizarre curio shop, thrust into an insane adventure when their parents are kidnapped by living taxidermied animals and a ghostly presence demands a Coffin Clock in exchange for their parents. Their mysterious Uncle Roland shows up with guns that seem to shoot spirits and takes them to the Museum of the Weird, where he claims he will have to collect material for the clock but ends up gravely wounded by some sort of magic, leaving the job in the hands of Max and Melody.
Suicide Squad #27: A little bit of a catch up issue as the Squad tries to find their way out of the base that Harley Quinn and OMAC collapsed on them. Each of the members gets a quick backstory segment as they work their way up and down the base while back at Belle Reve prison, Amanda Waller makes the discovery that there might be sort of intelligence trapped in OMAC asking for help.
Night of the Living Deadpool #1: It seems like every week we’re talking about a new Deadpool comic, which is fine by me because they’ve all been great so far. This mini-series plunges Deadpool into the zombie apocalypse after he wakes up from a chimichanga induced food coma, and what’s cool is that everything is black and white except for Deadpool. The zombies are also a little more disturbing than normal as they seem to be able to talk and express concern for what’s happening but are powerless to stop consuming flesh. Deadpool hooks up with a group of survivors and finds he might be the only “hero” left.
Thor: God of Thunder #17: Thor and The League of Realms battles Malekith beneath the streets of New York, as it’s revealed that Thor did not murder the troll Ud last issue, instead using a bit of Loki treachery to make it only appear that he had smashed his head in. The League battles to a standstill until the Dark Elf council chooses to elect Malekith as their new king. Lady Wazira, to try and avoid future bloodshed, allows her self to take the punishment for Malekith back in the spider prisons. Malekith quickly uses his new position to start building his own dark League, recruiting from Jotunheim and the fiery pits of Muspelheim.
Thunderbolts #20: After finishing Punisher’s mission in the last few issues, General Ross shifts the team’s focus to their rogue member, Mercy, who is some sort of powerful death goddess who can sense suffering people and gains power by ending it. They settle on a plan to send her to Hell, where the most suffering is obviously occuring and enlist the help of Johnny Blaze, who arrives to conduct some sort of spell but sends all but Elektra and Punisher to Hell instead of Mercy.
Fantastic Four #16: Matt Fraction ends his FF run with a final battle against Doom the Annihilating Conqueror. Taking all of their alternate universe counterparts’ powers, the four are able to banish Doom into the time stream, but the effect is that if he shows up in the Earth 616 universe, they won’t get any help from alternate universe Fantastic Fours. The good side is that their powers are restored and not causing any harm to the team anymore, so they head back to Earth and have a BBQ on the moon to celebrate, even getting The Watcher and his expectant wife in on the fun.
Nova #12: Sam responds to Nova distress call and finds a massive Nova spaceship under attack by pirates. Sam manages to fight them off and finds that the ship is being powered by the corpse of a fellow Nova. He interfaces and manages to jump start the ship’s engines, much to the relief of the crew. What Sam doesn’t realize is that he just helped a group of slavers and the leader of the effort to rescue the prisoners, Beta Ray Bill, is not happy.
Secret Avengers #14: Mockingbird, after executing Taskmaster last issue, seemingly begins to recover memories of actually being an AIM agent, with split personalities of Barbara and Bobbi, who is the SHIELD agent. Barbara was apparently working with the current Scientist Supreme, Andrew Folson, on trying to start some sort of doomsday scenario. Meanwhile, Hawkeye, Nick Fury Jr and Black Widow arrive as prisoners to AIM Island but manage to escape and resolve to end the situation.