MARVEL TEAM-UP #20

As a kid, Marvel Team-Up was always one of my favorite titles. It always seemed like such a deal, getting a story with not just Spider-Man but some other seemingly random and unknown-to-my-young-peabrain Marvel hero. With Marvel’s third stab at the "Team-Up" concept, writer Robert Kirkman discards the monthly appearance of Spider-Man in favor of an "anything is game" mindset. Kirkman’s knack for stringing together multiple plot threads for months at a time is even more unpredictable here than in his creator-owned books Invincible and Walking Dead, featuring an array of characters old and new alike. This issue sets up the five-part "Freedom Ring", and Captain America teams up with...er, himself as a young man finds himself on the receiving end of fate in the form of a ring.

HARD TIME SEASON TWO #6

You think you have it hard? Imagine being the scapegoat of the courts after a bloody school shooting at age 15, forced to live out your years in prison, loved by few and hated by many. On top of that, you’re able to manifest a strange spirit form that seems mostly out of your control and brings you as much harm as it does good. And as if all that isn’t enough, your book’s just been canceled. Being Ethan Harrow isn’t an easy job, but at least he has this plus one more issue for his tale to be told.

EXILES #80

World Tour is one step closer to its finale, and that means Proteus finds himself one step closer to victory. Every contingency planned by the ever-changing Exiles has fallen through, and the reality warping mutant now has his sights set on the Maestro, a nearly invulnerable future version of the Hulk. If the Exiles can get the Maestro to work with them, they may finally be able to put an end to Proteus, but has the Hulk now or ever been one to play along? Yeah, things are about to get uglier, more than you’d ever guess...

CIVIL WAR #1

Oh, you’re not going to want to read this, are you? It’s only the biggest event Marvel has ever planned, promising to pit hero against hero in a story set to change the landscape of the Marvel Universe for quite some time (and of course you’ve heard that line before). It’s written by Mark Millar, a writer of little consequence, having only delivered a few little-known books like Ultimates and Wanted and Authority, and no one read those, did they? It’s drawn by Steve McNiven, who you may remember from his work at defunct company CrossGen and who recently delivered some reasonably passable work on Marvel Knights: Four and New Avengers. Now ask yourself, why would you want to read anything like that? I think you know the answer.

SUPERGIRL #6

More One Year Later action, brought to you by Greg Rucka and Ian Churchill! Don’t let the news of Rucka’s quick departure from this title keep you away, as his short stint on Supergirl is sure to be just as exciting as any one of the other DC books that will be keeping his attention after he leaves with issue seven. In this issue, the two Karas (Supergirl and Power Girl for the uninitiated) emerge One Year Later as the heroines Flamebird and Nightwing in the Bottle City of Kandor!

DETECTIVE COMICS #819

In part five of the eight-part "Face to Face", writer James Robinson continues his reinstatement of Gotham’s protector after the events of Infinite Crisis. After several years of growing into an unlikable paranoid loner and a year-long exile from Gotham, Batman has returned to take back his city from its darker inhabitants. In Batman’s absence, the seemingly cured Harvey Dent helped to keep the streets clean, but is Dent’s deadly alter ego Two-Face hiding just beneath the surface?