The double-sized Archie’s Halloween Spectacular opens with a story by Ian Flynn and Bill Galvan that has appearances by Archie Comics’ supernatural, sci-fi, and superhero characters. When Medusa Doom tries to take over Halloween at Eyegore Estate, Cosmo the Mighty Martian and Fly Girl from the Crusaders step in to help.

What if you were a brilliant scientist – Stephen Hawking-type brilliant – but, also like Hawking, you were in a body that betrayed you?

After reading Hellraiser: Resurrections – The Onanistic Ritual #1, I think Zac Thompson and Gavin Mitchell made the right choice. This is nasty, disturbing, and exactly the kind of horror comic I want from Hellraiser. The story takes a very modern kind of messed up personality and drops him directly into the world of the Cenobites.

Linnea Kent is a former homicide detective who turned in her badge for a private detective license. She and her doting husband Parker, a former professional boxer, run the Pine & Merrimac Detective Agency. Typically, they investigate infidelity, insurance fraud, and similar cases – that is until Linnea takes a more complicated case that reveals a seedier side to their otherwise charming town.

This is the final issue of Event Horizon: Inferno, and writer Christian Ward brings it to a wild conclusion. The four prominent characters face their demons, literally, as they race to get off of the ship. Starck has taken on the role of hero and faces monsters of the past, while Skylar and Annabelle are given the opportunity for retribution. Daniel has spent his entire life taking what he wanted and doesn’t even consider that the doomed ship might have different plans.

The Firestorm matrix is out of control. It has trapped Pittsburgh and is planning to destroy the city atom by atom. In the last issue, Professor Stein tried to use a device that would break through the matrix’s control. Lorraine attempted to reach Ronnie who has been buried deep inside of the matrix where he is reliving Firestorm’s early adventures.

James Tynion IV and Michael Avon Oeming’s Blue Book – Volume 1 was first published in trade paperback form in September 2023 by Dark Horse Comics. It collected Blue Book #1-5, which in turn collected the series that originally appeared on Tynion’s Substack. Written by Tynion, illustrated and colored by Oeming, and lettered by Aditya Bidikar, it’s a dramatization of the well-known story of the UFO encounter story related by Betty and Barney Hill.

The creative team alone caught my attention. Joe Casey and Robert Kirkman are writing, Andy Kubert handles the artwork, Dave McCaig is on colors, and Rus Wooton provides the lettering. That’s a hell of a lineup for a new superhero series, and Kubert’s artwork immediately gives the book a personality of its own.

The first issue of Archie starts with everyone’s favorite Riverdale teenager running late for school. The main story follows Archie around town as he reluctantly stars in an array of student films directed by his friends. Then Jughead contemplates life and the future while enjoying a couple of burgers at Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe.

I’m a sucker for a good dirty B-movie, and Hammerfist #1 feels like someone took one of those crazy 1980s movies, threw it into a blender with horror and crime, and turned the whole thing into a comic.

The Madness by J. Michael Straczynski begins with a daring theft, then introduces morally ambiguous people with superpowers masquerading as heroes, and the unseemly side of government deals. It’s a six-issue superhero story with a dark side, and a lot of action in nearly every issue.

Rook: Exodus #11 is the penultimate one in the second arc and it’s really hard to overstate the frightening elements in it. Rook, Dire Wolf, and the others have had to fight tremendous battles to get this far, and now they’re surrounded by the creepiest creatures and settings the creative team has given us to date. It’s a great issue, one that sets that stage for December’s conclusion.