Archie, Betty, and Jughead picked up a little extra cash by working as servers at a Riverdale High alumni reunion. It seemed like an easy gig – walking around with trays of canapés and cocktails. Then Archie is strongarmed into hearing life lessons from two alums that have opposing opinions about life lessons.

Joshua Williamson introduces a 31st century that isn’t exactly the wonderful future Superman might have imagined. The United Planets is dealing with political violence, oppressive authorities, and a society where putting on a costume and helping people can get you into serious trouble. It’s an interesting setting for characters who traditionally represent the promise of a better tomorrow.

In the earliest days of S.H.I.E.L.D. stories, the tales were being told only about 20 years after World War II concluded. It made sense that a character like Fury would have continued to serve and to move up the ranks, doing what needed to be done. But since time generally passes very differently in comics than it does in reality, and the final days of the war got further and further away, something had to explain how Fury could keep so spry as his counterparts aged.

The Bride of Frankenstein’s story begins with a shock – literally and figuratively. She wakes up disoriented to find two men hovering over her, and then a monstrous figure emerges to the darkness. Her abject horror sets off a chain of events involving an explosive fire in the laboratory and the Bride hurtling through the air into the river below the castle. And that’s just the beginning of the story.

Edward Hale is a video game designer who has grown tired of being just a cog in the machine at Blazestar Games. At a video game convention, Edward solved a puzzle put forth by the Masterminds, a mysterious and powerful organization that helps its members succeed by any means necessary. 

In the first volume, Darth Vader is on a mission of vengeance against the Rebels that goes far beyond their disobedience against the Empire. He is even bold enough to investigate what the Emperor is planning and fellow high status members of the Empire.

Marv Wolfman and George Pérez kicked off the second year of their New Teen Titans series with one of the best issues of their entire run, the November 1981 cover-dated The New Teen Titans #13. One issue after a 10¢ cover price increase provided DC’s issues with more story pages, the creative duo took full advantage of the extra space and packed extra adventure, suspense, and danger into the issue.

Some comic book characters just stick with you, and for me, the Doom Patrol has always been one of them. I’ve never needed my superheroes to be particularly normal, and this bunch has never come close. That’s probably why I’ve followed them for so many years. When I heard DC was giving them another shot, I immediately put this book at the top of my reading list.

The first issue of Archie vs. The Terminator starts off with a plausible premise that could happen in any Archie book. A cool new guy shows up, the girls are interested in him, the other guys like him, but Archie gets jealous and makes a fool of himself. However, readers know all about John and Sarah Connor and the Terminators, so there’s a lowkey sense of foreboding throughout the issue.  

The first issue of Hammer Head drops several hooks into the water. It teases what Hammer Head did in the past, it hints at something big that Jules participated in, and makes it clear that the facility staff is up to something beyond treatment or incarceration.

Written by Sarah Gailey with artwork by Alessio Avallone, this issue takes us inside the tortured existence of Elliot Spencer, the man who became the Hell Priest. Trapped in Middle Hell, he’s subjected to something far worse than physical torture.

Created by writer-artist-editor Carl Potts, Alien Legion is the continuing story of Nomad Squadron, a unit in the TOPHAN Galactica Union’s multi-species military. It is essentially modeled after the French Foreign Legion, but instead of humans with different nationalities it is populated with a wide array of species – mostly, but not exclusively humanoids – who come with an equally wide array of financial, social, political, and criminal backgrounds from the Union’s member planets.