The history of the United States is in peril. A powerful figure has traveled to the Revolutionary War in 1777 with an offer to help the British win the war. In 1778, Cagliostro has enlisted Benjamin Franklin to help him convince the Avengers of the future to travel back in time to save America. Doctor Strange has gathered some of the big guns – Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Hulk – to return to the birth of the nation and prevent history from changing drastically.

Disney Villains Scar by Chuck Brown expands Scar’s story by showing what the disgruntled lion was doing while everyone else was celebrating the birth of Simba. It gets deeper into the character and shows the early steps that lead to his plan of usurping the throne. Brown does not try to build sympathy for the bad lion prince, but instead focuses on the ways that he tries to sow discord and build allies before making his move.

The Event Horizon has used the Gravity Drive – but it did not take them to their destination. It took them somewhere far, far worse. The chief engineer is dead, others are missing, and several crew members have witnessed horrible, strange things. The captain has secured and barricaded himself on the bridge, and is issuing orders to the remaining crew in the hope of getting the Gravity Drive back online so that they can escape the evil place. But there are monsters on the ship who have other plans for the crew of the Event Horizon.

The first chapter of a four-issue mini-series from writer-artist Howard Chaykin took on three seemingly impossible tasks and made them look easy. While it took until the last page of this issue to show it, it brought The Shadow from the 1930s to the then-present (1986) and did so convincingly. It set the stage for an origin tale that combined many of the disparate story elements – many of them conflicting – that had been sown over the years and pulled them into one story. And it made a whole new generation of fans aware of just how cool The Shadow could be.

Successfully crowdfunded several months back, Rob Liefeld’s return to Youngblood hits the ground running as the team is dispatched to deal with a crisis in the Pacific. All of the bold characters and raw, kinetic energy that made the original Youngblood #1 the symbol of the early days of Image Comics are on display here, but with more polish and sophistication. With creator-writer-artist Rob Liefeld regaining control over the characters, this new, 33-years-later version of the team is crackling.

The Doctor has been traveling through space with Belinda Chandra, a nurse who was abducted from Earth and wants very much to return home. Unfortunately, as they attempted to return to her time, the Doctor and Belinda learned that the fate of Earth had changed and was set to end on May 24, 2025

Written and drawn by Erica Henderson, the first issue of Harley & Ivy: Life & Crimes reads like a cartoon. The pacing is fast, the colors are vivid, nearly every panel has action, and characters are very expressive. It works well for this story, given the tone established in their recent comic and Harley Quinn animated series adventures.

Like the first two issues, Planet Death #2 puts the spotlight on Corporal Scott, apparently the lone survivor of a planetary invasion force that went up against a surprising and overwhelming barrage of alien enemy fire. He’s left to single-handedly fight his way to the failed invasion’s objective, a seemingly impossible task

In Planet She-Hulk #1, writer Stephanie Phillips succinctly catches readers up on the current state of Sakaar and She-Hulk’s attitude toward her situation. She doesn’t want to be a ruler, but understands the need to keep everyone in line. While She-Hulk is taking fancy baths and beating up monsters, there are a few figures who want to make power plays to become the leaders of Sakaar. And we thought Earth weddings were a bit much.

Rook and fellow warden Dire Wolf search for Bloodhound, Dire Wolf’s father and perhaps the only warden left on Exodus who can help salvage the failed world engine and save their lives. If it were only that simple, it might have been a single-issue story, but there are complications galore, and those complications make for some excellent reading.

Just when Elvira thought she was safe to relax and watch a classic movie, her nemesis Vlad returns for more nefarious shenanigans. Vlad has taken Federico Fellini’s magic remote – the very one that sent Elvira through a tour of horror movies – to embark on a tour through vampire movies to build a team of Draculas. The Time-Space cops have tasked Elvira, who has already defeated Vlad on previous occasions, to stop him from completing his task. 

Coming from R. L. Stine, the young adult horror genre master, The Graveyard Club has the hallmarks of a Fear Street book. It’s coming of age meets horror as the club and their nemeses escalate their retaliation against each other. The other strangeness points to a sinister, underlying threat that could have its own plans for the Graveyard Club.