the vynsane asylum

So. I started reading last week’s books. But I only got three issues into the pile, because the end of Batman 163(which is the end of HToosh, which is also the end of the previous Batman ongoing, even though the current ongoing is on issue 10 already) infuriated me SOOO much that I literally stopped reading this weeks comics. I will eventually get back to them before the end of the week, and this week’s books come out today, so I’ll have two weeks worth of reading to do. But in the meantime, here is Jed MacKay’s Avengers run, which I finished instead of reading last week’s books.

Avengers 1-2. Carol becomes Chairman and puts together a new team. While fighting Terminus, Carol gets knocked into a time-fractal where she finds a mortally wounded Kang(who was attacked in the Timeless oneshot from that year by a new “villain” Myrrdin and his Twilight Court. Kang offers Carol insight on future calamities called “Tribulation Events” in exchange for the Avengers helping him find a ‘missing moment’ in time that can’t be accessed by time travel before Myrddin finds it and does something diabolical with the knowledge.

3-6. The first Tribulation Event is the attack of team of incredibly powered individuals called the Ashen Combine. From their space station called the Impossible City, each of the Combine attacks a specific city on Earth. T’Challa and Sam Wilson head to their Impossible City to sabotage it, but they realize it’s sentient and convince it to aid the Avengers in defeating the Combine and City becomes the Avengers new HQ for the duration of the series. They are keeping the Ashen Combine is stasis aboard the City.

7-10. Myrddin and his Twilight Court(their designs are roughly analogous to Arthur and Round Table Knights) arrive and battle the Avengers and their new sentient base while their leader sneaks into Kang’s medical room, and steals his knowledge of the missing moment and the upcoming Tribulation Events from his mind. Kang is furious that the Avengers allowed the one thing he had asked them to prevent happening and departs once again as their sworn enemy.

11. A one off issue where Jarvis arrives on the Impossible City to help it acclimate to assisting the Avengers. He helps foil a plot by the Mad Thinker to infiltrate the City, but before he’s ejected, he finds the Combine is stasis.

12-13. Fall of the House of X tie-in. The Avengers finally join the fray against Orchis with a series of strategic strikes on Orchis facilities around the world. Orchis, controlled by former Avengers 3D Man, sends an armada of StarkTech Sentinels towards the Impossible City. The twist is T’Challa sent a hypnotized 3D Man into Orchis undercover, and they wake him up with the trigger words to stop the Sentinel Attack. Issue 13 also marked Tom Brevoort’s final issue as editor. He’d been editing the Avengers for the last 26 years, since the first issue of the Heroes Return series by Busiek and Perez back in 1998.

14-16. Blood Hunt tie in. While the main Avengers team were fighting Blade and his vampire army in the main BloodHunt book, Steve Rogers put together an adhoc team of Hercules, Quicksilver, Hazmat, and Kate Bishop to fight Baron Blood and a helicarrier full of Nazi Vampires who were kidnapping citizens.

17-18. Storm joins the team and Thor leaves(because of what was happening in his solo series). The Hyperion from the Heroes Reborn event returns. He realizes he’s a fictional construct of Mephisto and begins a suicide run at Earth from the orbit of Pluto. The Avengers are contemplating having to kill him before he destroys Earth, but Vision teleports him to an alt-Earth that the Ashen Combine had destroyed and tells Hyperion this world needs a hero since their’s were all destroyed. He accepts.

19-20. The new Sorcerer Supreme Doom confronts the Avengers about how best to protect Earth. And T’Challa goes on a mission into the Ashen Combine stasis to free thousands of souls one of the Combine had trapped while he was attacking Earth.

21. Softball game between the Avengers and X-Men. MacKay was writing both series at the time. Plenty of character moments for both teams.

22-24. A lead on Kang’s back up key being stored on a space casino run by the Grandmaster sends the Avengers on a heist mission. But Kang has recruited Black Cat and her time displaced father to beat the Avengers to the key(MacKay had previously written a Black Cat series, so this was a nice little coda to that series as well). Myrddin has placed a wager with Grandmaster on whether Kang or the Avengers will be successful. When the Avengers get back home, they find out Doom has taken over…

25-28. One World Under Doom tie in. While the main team is fighting Doom in Latveria, Sam is recuperating on the City alone. Mad Thinker recruits a new team of Masters of Evil to invade the Impossible City and use the Ashen Combine as basically a nuclear deterrent threat. Sam and the City fight alone to neutralize the Masters one by one. Then T’Challa emerges from his months long mission and together he and Sam take down the Thinker himself.

29. The ‘missing moment’ is revealed as ‘glitch’ Reed Richards purposefully left while the FF were recreating the cosmos after Secret Wars. The Avengers travel into a sub-dimension that is the leftover remnants of Battleworld.

30-32. Myrddin shows up and releases hordes of Marvel Zombies on the heroes, and ultimately reveals that he is a future version of Kang that was using his own team of heroes(the Twilight Court) to find the missing moment. But realized they were ineffective, so he had to manipulate his past self into goading the Avengers into helping him track it down. He’s going to use the missing moment to reset the universe again, but at the last minute the Impossible City shows up and reveals it was originally the Twilight Court’s base all along and it was called Camelot!

33. The origin of the Twilight Court and Impossible City/Camelot was originally the Damocles Space Station from, holy shit, waaaaay back in Kurt Busiek’s massive Kang invasion storyline from the 1998 Avengers run.

34-36. The series wrapped up with a massive tryptich cover featuring every Avenger ever. Kang/Myrddin triggers the missing moment and the Avengers don’t know how to stop it. They open a portal and Camelot releases the Ashen Combine from stasis. They greedily grab the moment and jump thru the portal which ends up being the point in time before the first cosmos(the Zeroth Cosmos if you will) so when the moment detonates it creates the original
first cosmos. (For context, Galan was the last survivor of the Sixth Cosmos, and became Galactus in the Seventh. Secret Wars ended the Seventh, and the current iteration that Franklin Richards and the Molecule Man created after Secret Wars is the Eighth iteration). So basically, the Avengers created…everything.

There were also two Annuals. But they both had a “1” on them. One was the final part of the Contest of Chaos where Agatha Harkness had a bunch of heroes fighting each other, and ends up recreating the Darkhold book, but instead of a book, it’s a little kid.
The other annual was the finale of the of the new Infinity Watch saga where Thanos is trying to gather the new Infinity Stones and the new stone bearers all work together to stop him.

Hmmm. So, this wasn’t a bad series. But it closed its own loop and will probably not be remembered in the great scheme of Avengers runs. I also think maybe MacKay was forced to wrap it up earlier than he wanted. They had made a big deal of all these “Tribulation Events” at the start of the series, giving them names. But after the “Endless Night” one(which ended up being Blood Hunt) they discarded the rest in favor of the Myrddin/Kang reveal. So perhaps declining sales forced him to pivot towards his endgame sooner than he wanted. It also wasn’t nearly as epic as Jason Aaron’s run.

There are more Avengers books. There were short ongoing West Coast Avengers and New Avengers series that also recently concluded, as well as several minis like Avengers Twilight and Aliens vs Avengers. That will get me current on all things Avengers, just in time for the Armageddon Event starting next month.

But first I’ll catch up on last week and this week’s books.

May 27ths books.

Absolute Wonder Woman 20. Diana is captured and tortured by Veronica Cale. But thanks to her ingesting Persephone’s seed, she is obligated to return to Hades’ underworld once a month. Her getting involuntarily whisked away against her wishes is incorrectly interpreted by her friend and ally Barbara as Diana escaping and leaving her in Cale’s hands alone.

ASM:Spider-Versity 2. Norman Osborn and Jessica Drew continue to train all the secondary spin-off Spider characters in one team book.

Batman 163. Ugh. No. This might be the issue that makes me boycott Jeph Loeb for the rest of his career.

Batman:Dark Knight Falls. The final fascimile issue of DKR.

Detective Comics 1109. Batman and Green Arrow come up against a teenage assassin using the same codename as a previous retconned ally of theirs.

Doomquest 1. Dr. Doom conceives of a new plan to seed history with reality changing events to be triggered simultaneously that will “fix” humanity’s endless conflicts throughout time. But Reed Richards sabotages the Time Machine and sends Doom to the Titanic the night it sinks.

Planet of the Apes vs FF 4. The FF get their powers restored, stop the pending Ape conflict started by the Red Ghost and Dr Doom, and get back to their own reality/era. Bleh.

Flash 33. With the help of Captain Cold, Flash tracks down a nuke set to explode somewhere in Central City seconds before it detonates. He also practices refining his newest superpower, seeing a few seconds into the future; his ‘Flashes of insight’

Generation X23 4. Laura and two of the Facility mutates track down Gabby and the other kidnapped kids. But then X-Infinite predictably betrays her once they are in the facility. But the time-traveling chick that died in the first issue shows up via time travel.

Infernal Hulk 7. The Eldest sends out a psychic invitation to all mutants to join her army of ‘monsters’. Eldest kills off several ancillary mutant characters like Marrow and Erg so she can kidnap Leech. Then uses Leech to attack Cyclops’s team in Alaska to kidnap Glob Herman and show him his future evolved version(which looks pretty badass TBH). Meanwhile, Banner shows up at the Avengers/FF meeting, ready to get back in the fight. I dislike writers casually killing off minor characters for shock value.

Justice League Unlimited 19. The League has to do PR damage control after Lex Luthor revealed their villain Ammesty program to the world. After Dr. Polaris publicly quells a dangerous situation, public opinion shifts. Then Brainiac Queen shows up. I have no idea who that is.

Marvel Free Previews 57. June’s solicits for August. Man, this new ‘Midnight’ Imprint looks like a huge whiff. Also Amazing Spidey hits 1000 issues, and Thor hits 800.

Psylocke:Ninja 5. The retro-mini concludes with Psylocke and Elektra teaming up to rescue Jubilee from the Hand’s Snakeroot ninjas.

Sentry 3. Reed suspects the crystalline infection of the world might have something to do with Bob. Bob takes his dog to the vet to say goodbye to him. And now I’m fucking crying about a fictitious dog. Thanks a lot.

Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge Echoes of the Empire 2. What are the odds that Darth Vader and a bunch of Imperials show up at the exact same time as Leia and bunch of Rebels in the tiny outpost on a backwater planet that just so happens to be a licensed theme park at Disneyworld?!

Superman 38. Superboy Prime teams up with Witchfire to stop a demon invasion of Metropolis. Then Manchester Black breaks the fourth wall and reduces Prime to his in progress art pages on the issue, before sending him back in time to his fateful battle during Infinite Crisis.

Ultimates 24. The final issue of the series. The Ultimates finally confront the last of the Maker’s Council. After a huge battle, She-Hulk literally beats Hulk to death. To be concluded in Ultimate Endgame 5.

Void Rivals 30. Fleeber’s dad(the president of the left half of the planet or whatever) gets eaten by Sharkticons. He and Dildoia have to escape the planet with Pythona from Cobra-La. Dildoia’s brother(who is the new emperor of the right side of the planet or whatever) surrenders to the Quintessons.

Wiccan and Hulkling:Raid of Ultron oneshot. A Marvel Voices issue. Teddy and Billy invite their complicated extended family over for a barbecue, and Ultron attacks. Meh.

Wonder Man 3. The Spot is trying to kill Simon’s friend, who’s been accused of murder. We find out the Spot is working with Simon’s agent. This confusing murder mystery is failing to hold my interest.

X-Men 30. Jed MacKay has a thing for sentient bases. The X-Men recruit “Leviathan” the sentient cargo ship that was designed to lure them to their deaths. Psylocke and her team, track down the designers behind the new Danger Room, but Maxine gets away. After, Cyclops and the entire team show up in Bohannon’s bedroom and give him a final warning; the next time ONE assaults the X-Men, he’s dead.

Zatanna 2. Eh. I’m dropping this one. Jamal Campbell’s art isn’t enough to keep my interest.

Up next, June 3rds books.

Last week’s (June 3rd’s) books.

Absolute Green Lantern 15. While the Lantern ship barrelsntowards Mogo, the Blackstars are in battle against Jo’s allies John, Guy, and Hal. Meanwhile, Jo and Tomar Re are locked in a spiritual and moral battle in Jo’s mindscape. Tomar wants to sacrifice the few thousand residents of Evergreen to save trillions of others and Jo is opposed to sacrificing her neighbors, even if she doesn’t care for them all that much.

Amazing Spidey 30.
Batgirl 20.
Batman 10. Commissioner Vandal Savage has declared victory against the vigilante Bat-family after the GCPD raids on their backup caches. Batman sends a different message by stopping a bunch of crime in one night, and unleashing the new Bat Signal: 3000 light drones coordinated in a bat symbol pattern in the sky. Fucking awesome.

Cyclops 5. A blinded Cyclops rescues the enslaved hostage children from Donald Pierce and ends his attempts to mine Uru metal.

DC x Sonic: Metal Legion 2. Lex and Eggman collaborate while trying to out-duplicit each other. They succeed in trapping the Justice League and their Team Sonic Allies in a sub-universe.

Deadman 1. New mini series about the deceased DC hero Boston Brand. Not interesting enough for me. I’ll find the cheap back issues later on. Dropped.

Deadpool 5. Wade and Al retrieve her notebook of premonitions from Hammerhead.

Doctor Strange 7. While investigating magic users being murdered by Downfall, Strange must unleash his dark scythe magic alter ego to travel to the God Quarry for answers.

Fantastic Four XII(aka 12). To stop time traveling alien invaders from deleting history, Reed and Johnny travel to ancient Gaul and team up with a Roman Legion. Fun stuff.

Godzilla Infinity Roar 5. Knull and Godzilla have returned to Earth and conquered it. All that stands in their way is Dr. Doom and his handpicked team of Avengers; Miles Morales, Johnny Storm, Emma Frost, Kang, The Punisher, Man-Thing, and a Latverian baker to venture into the Multiverse! To be concluded in the third miniseries in the trilogy this summer.

Harley and Ivy Life and Crimes 6. The story of how Harley and Ivy fell in love concludes. This was a cute series from Erica Henderson.

Iron Man 6. When the Iron Patriot Armor is stolen, Tony has to reluctantly team up with Norman Osborn and Spidey to confront the real thief, The Ghost.

It’s Jeff! Brand New Week oneshot. More cute digital first stories about everyone’s favorite baby land shark.

J Scott Campbell’s Just Spectacular Collection oneshot. JSC did a series of variant covers a few months ago. They collected them in this issue and interviewed JSC about which characters got chosen.

Moon Knight 5. Moon Knight heads into the haunted mansion to rescue his friends, only to have his possessed sword betray him and join the bad guy. MK goes to Clea for help to reconvene the Midnight Sons as backup.

Star Wars Rogue One:Jyn Erso oneshot. Jyn helps some other prisoners escape in a prequel story to when she got rescued.

Storm 5. Storm confronts and rejects Eternity’s second attempt to let him/it possess her body before the coming War. Then the series is abruptly cut short and like five subplots are “resolved” on the final page. Tragic mishandling of what was a wonderful series.

Supergirl:Survive 1. An Elseworlds mini series where Kara is given baby Kal and they take off in the same ship before Krypton’s destruction. It was a decent start, but I don’t think I’ll finish it.

Transformers:The Movie 1. 40th anniversary reprint of the original Marvel adaptation.

What If…? A new series of oneshots celebrating the 50th anniversary of What If…? begins with Scott staying with Madelyn Pryor and raising their son Nathan. The domino effect up to Arrako invading Krakoa and the world ending in nuclear destruction.

Uncanny X-Men 29. The end of the Greymalkin Prison arc. Monet and Quicksilver defeat the new bad guy Perimeter with Rogue’s team’s help.

X-Men of Apocalypse 4. Gambit tried going to the past to stop Rogue from absorbing Ms. Marvel’s powers. X-Man goes back and stops Gambit from changing the past. In the present, Holocaust and Sinister from AoA arrive via a space portal that the traitor Forge made so they could conquer the main Marvel timeline. To be concluded in an Omega issue next month. I’ll finish this story arc, but after this I’m boycotting anything Jeph Loeb writes in the future because he has become the shittiest writer ever. Between this series and the abortion HToosh in Batman, I’m downright perturbed he’s still getting work.

Up next, more Avengers stuff.

Here are some more Avengers titles. Three short “ongoings” that lasted ten issues or less.

West Coast Avengers 1-10. This series spin out of Gerry Duggan’s Iron Man run. Tony and Rhodey form a new version of the WCA that is inviting reformed villains to join in exchange for reduced prison sentences. The only one who’s accepted is the fringe D-List villain Killerwatt. Firestar also joins but she’s got some PTSD from being the “traitor”/deep cover mutant working for Orchis, and eventually checks into rehab. The main “villain” to join is Ultron. Apparently after events in other books I haven’t read yet, Ultron was separated from Hank Pym, and Ultron realized his ceaseless attempts to end humanity were fruitless, so he split into different entities. One became a hero, one started a religious cult in LA, and another flew himself into the sun. While the WCA are dealing with the new Flag Smasher(the evil Hydra clone Steve Rogers from the Secret Empire event) they’re trying to convince the main Avengers team that Ultron is trying his best to be heroic. Then the Ultron that flew into the sun, comes back and decides to try and destroy humanity. He subverts and controls the guru-cult version of Ultron and all his cyborg-ified disciples. The heroic version then sacrifices himself to stop the evil version. And they build a statue of him at the West Coast campus. There were some sorta clever ideas here, but overall the concept was half baked, like Duggan had some leftover story plots from his Iron Man run and just wanted to play them out.

New Avengers 1-10. This was the series that Marvel kept marketing as a new Thunderbolts book up until it was released(a la the movie twist). Sam Humphries has a solid plot device here with Black Widow and Winter Soldier putting a team together consisting of Laura Kinney, Hulk, Namor, Clea Strange, and Carnage. Someone has employed the Jackal to build imperfect evil clones of the Illuminati who then start wreaking havoc across the globe. It’s fun seeing completely amoral version of Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Prof X, etc and watching this ad hoc team of Avengers defeat them one by one. The twist is that Natasha had a Trojan horse program in her and she’s the one behind the Jackal so that they can resurrect Baron Zemo(who Dr Doom killed during One World Under Doom). Nat realizes she’s her own double agent and needs Bucky and the Avengers help so she can outwit herself to stop Zemo’s return and stop the Killuminati. It’s a solid premise and the villains are cool. My big problem is that there’s a giant explosion in Osaka Japan half way thru the book that kills 12,000 people and NOBODY addresses it. Like, remember when 600 people died in Stamford and the entire world freaked out and the fallout from Civil War lasted for YEARS in the Marvel U? Now, in the last year, Columbus Ohio got nuked(in OWUD) and this thing in Osaka kills 12,000 people and it’s like no big deal. There’s zero accountability. It put a huge damper on what otherwise I would’ve said was a good story.

Avengers, Inc 1-5. This was a third ongoing that immediately got downgraded to a miniseries after the first issues sales were crap. A bunch of supervillains get assassinated while in prison. Janet VanDyne and a mysterious amnesiac named Victor Shade, who is inhabiting the body of her ex-foe Whirlwind are tasked with solving the murders. After several one off adventures involving some pretty obscure deep dive background characters(like Spymaster’s Elite Operatives) Janet realizes Hank Pym is alive and he’s been “killing” supervillains only so he can recruit them into a new Lethal Legion because he’s convinced Ultron is still embedded in his psyche and he needs the Legion to fight Ultron when he returns. As it turns out, Ultron was secretly using Pym to build him a new body, but Pym was thinking ahead and Victor Shade is actually the “heroic” Ultron-12 from an old 80s story arc(not to be confused with the other heroic Ultron from WCA series above) and Ultron-12 defeats the evil Ultron and takes over the body Pym had built. This was a fun series from Al Ewing, but I can see why nobody bought it. It’s Janet VanDyne as a plain clothes detective with some schmo nobody has heard of.

Avengers Academy:Assemble oneshot. A digital first web series collected the first six issues into print. Adolescent heroes like Moon Girl, Escapade, Bloodline, Normie Osborn and his symbiote Rascal, the hobo train hopping Capt America, and Kid Juggernaut are all enrolled at a new Avengers Academy. Nothing consequential happens, but it wasn’t atrocious.

Up next, five more Avengers miniseries, and I’ll be completely caught up on Avengers, just in time for Armageddon.

The rest of the Avengers minis.

Uncanny Avengers 1-5. Set during the Fall of Krakoa. Orchis resurrects a mysterious villain, who then dons the Captain Krakoa uniform to begin false flag terrorist attacks meant to implicate mutants. Captain America restarts the Unity Squad, recruiting Rogue, Monet, Psylocke, Quicksilver, and Deadpool to combat the impostor, who is eventually revealed to be “Stevil” Rogers, the Hydra clone Capt America from Secret Empire.

Avengers:Twilight 1-6. Set in a future where most of the heroes died on a mysterious “H-Day” and a new totalitarian regime ‘protects’ the citizens of the US. An elderly Steve Rogers comes out of retirement to lead an underground resistance calling itself the Defenders. Eventually he’s joined by Kamala Khan, a returned Thor, and a new Hawkeye to defeat the govt being puppeted by Wasp and Iron Man’s son and a disguised Red Skull. The authoritarianism and propaganda controlled media just felt like what’s currently happening in the real world, so it just felt like a downer to read. Especially when Cap gives a rousing speech about freedom and democracy, and it’s met with indifference.

Ultraman x Avengers 1-4. I know literally nothing about Ultraman. After the first issue, I just skimmed the rest and got the gist. The Avengers cross over into Ultraman’s universe and fight some Kaiju and stop Galactus from eating that Earth.

Avengers Assemble 1-5. After Blood Hunt, Cap reopens Avengers Mansion and starts an Emergency Response Unit where various heroes get picked to go on rapid fire adventures at moments notice. New recruits who’d never been Avengers before like Night Thrasher and Lightspeed from Power Pack joined. They also brought back the “unified” bomber jacket look from the 90s. After the initial five issues, the concept continued in a digital first Infinity Comix series.

Aliens vs Avengers 1-4. Hickman and Ribic’s epic crossover. The David synthetic unleashes xenomorphs into the multiverse, and eventually Earth is overrun. Tony Stark and handful of survivors manage to escape in city sized rocket, but it’s damaged and has to set down on Mars/Arrako. Mr Sinister has collaborated with the Xenomorphs and kills the remaining survivors on the rocket. The final remaining heroes; Logan, Emma Frost, Miles+Venom, T’Challa, and Carol Danvers are the sole survivors in the entire universe. Bleak. Also, each issue was $8. It was a good read, but not $8 a pop good.

Up next, this weeks books. And then a Batgirls ongoing that starred Cassie and Spoiler that ran like 20 or so issues.

June 10th’s books.

Absolute Catwoman 1. Spinning out of Absolute Batman, Selina has a had a good career and has deduced to retire at the ripe old age of 25. But then a bunch of thieves dressed in Catwoman costumes attack and blow up her apartment, she gets on her fancy motorcycle that transforms into a robot cat and goes after the perps. The leader of which turns out to be Absolute Cassandra Cain. Absolute Batman is stupid. This is stupid adjacent.

Alias Red Band 4.
Avengers Armageddon 1. Thunderbolt Ross has taken over Latveria and renamed it New America. He’s targeting dictatorships around the globe in a bid for “world democracy”. With Capt America in a coma, the rest of the Avengers saddle up to confront Ross, but are told to stand down by the UN(with a pretty convincing argument I might add. The Avengers ignore the UN and go ask the X-Men teams for help, both of which decline (because again the UN made a solid point that the Avengers being involved won’t help.) But Logan suggests they go ask the recently super powered Dave Colton for help. After a brief skirmish, he joins the team. Just before the Avengers head out, the UN AGAIN tells them to stay out of it. Then they Lol at the UN and head off to confront Ross. What could possibly go wrong here?

Barbara Gordon:Breakout 2. While in prison, Barbara gets her ass beat and sent to the infirmary. A mysterious inmate begins helping her. It’s suggested that her dad made some calls to get her some backup while she’s in prison.

Bishop 1. Bishop is all mopey because he’s a displaced time-traveler and his sister and his friends all died(he’s kind of a one trick pony. Has this dude had any character development beyond that in the last thirty years??) so he goes out drinking with Storm. Then on the way home, he’s attacked by time-traveling mutants, and then his sister shows up. Also, why does he have a normal name, Lucas, and his sister’s name is Shard. And not, like, Janice or something?

Black Cat 11. While escaping from the mafia in a car, Felicia accidentally runs over the Punisher’s dog. He’s unhappy about it. (The dog is in surgery at the Vet by the way. Not dead.)

Captain Marvel:Dark Past 4. The new villain, the Desecrator, kidnaps Carol and while she’s in a Kree torture chair he unloads his secret villain origin story on her. He’s her step-cousin or something from the half of the family that are raging bigots.

Civil War Unmasked 2. The secret behind the scenes conversation Peter had with May and MJ before he decided to unmask.

Daredevil 3. Spidey helps DD focus his senses to be able to ‘see’ the new villain Omen coming. Then Matt enlists Ben Urich’s help to lure Omen into a confrontation via the personal ads(are those still a thing??)

Firestorm 3. Firehawk goes to Jason Rusch for help, but he’s no longer part of the Firestorm drama. He does point her in the direction of Professor Stein, who’s living a hermit Unabomber life somewhere. Stein confesses that Firestorm’s entire origin was a lie as writer Jeff Lemire retcons everything into a vast govt conspiracy.

GIJoe:ARAH 329. Dr. Mindbender and Revanche cycle thru Snake Eyes mind patterns that Dr. Viper left a brainwash override code in and trigger it. Dawn is at the Pit, Sean is in assignment in Darklonia, and OG Snake is at his cabin in the Sierras with Scarlet when they all get triggered.

Jay and Silent Bob:Jays of Future Past oneshot. Every Marvel pun, ViewAskewniverse reference, and joke about New Jersey you can think of is in this love letter bucket list Kevin Smith’s been waiting to write ever since Mallrats. The entire issue made me smile.

MASK 1. The fourth ongoing title in the Energon Universe begins. Matt Trakker is tasked with stopping Miles Mayhem’s new VENOM organization.

Sentry 4. Sentry helps the FF and the Avengers stop the crystalline virus sweeping the city. Then he goes into space and resurrects Laika, the Russian cosmonaut dog to replace the dog he said goodbye to last issue.

Star Wars Shadow of Maul 4. An “illegal” pod race takes center stage. When some of the betting piques Lawson’s interest, he realizes the entire race is a cover for a heist of the casino’s vault. But the double cross turns into a triple cross when somebody kills the thieves and gets away with the stolen money(spoiler. It was Maul)

Action Comics 1099. Superboy is getting used to living without his powers. But his power erasure is affecting the future and Mary, J’onn, and Booster fade from existence(a la Back to the Future) leaving a powerless Clark to fight the time traveling bad guy alone.

Mortal Thor 11. Sigurd confronts the Minotaur in the penthouse of the Roxxon Tower. After a futile, one sided confrontation, Sigurd tricks him into tripping thru the plate glass window and falling several stories to his death. Maybe. You never know with Dario Agger.

Transformers 33. Elita Prime is back on Cybertron with her new assortment of Autobots. Springer and HotRod show up with a bunch of Energon cubes from Void Rivals. Back on Earth, Optimus is all mopey about giving up the Matrix. WheelJack discovers something in the remains of the Cybertron shard that fell to Earth. And Starscream isn’t dead.

Wolverine 21. Logan and Kurt go on vacation. While they are there, they run across Absorbing Man and Titania, who are also on vacation. Rather than just ignoring each other, they get a fight and ruin the vacations of everyone else there.

X-Men 31. Beast leads a team to investigate an anomalous power signature in the Canadian wilderness. It ends up being Schwarzchild, the 3K Mutant. Then Dept H shows up.

Up next, Batgirls.