Scouring out the weekly singles scene … in comics!
Although not as good as the recent HOUSE OF MYSTERY HALLOWEEN SPECIAL, the DC UNIVERSE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL ’09 #1 makes for a major improvement over the past couple of DCU trick-or-treat annuals, which crammed so much stuff into too tight of a space that they felt like tricks. In this 13-tale anthology, the Green Lantern Corps throw a costume party, the Outsiders visit Castle Dracula, Robin fights an evil dentist, Kid Flash battles Mirror Master in a twist on the Bloody Mary legend, and Wonder Woman investigates the legend of BLAIR WITCH (without directly calling it that). Other heroes featured include Superman, Batman, The Flash, Beast Boy, Ravager, Red Robin and The Creeper, with a Bizarro Superman wraparound.
Things don’t look so good for Frank Castle in DARK REIGN: THE LIST — PUNISHER #1. In the one-shot from Rick Remender and John Romita Jr., Norman Osborn (aka The Green Goblin) orders the H.A.M.M.E.R. military agency to take down The Punisher once and for all. Of all those thrown into the hunt, Wolverine seems most up to the challenge, leading to a rooftop, rain-soaked duel in which at least one panel is bathed entirely in red. Not to give anything away, but this one apparently plays for keeps. The last few pages give a preview of where the story goes from here, in an utterly crazed “Franken-Castle” arc by Remender and Tony Moore. I’ll be there (at least when it eventually hits trade paperback).
In Marvel’s SPIDER-MAN MAGAZINE #8, our favorite neighborhood wall-crawler keeps the halls of his high school safe from a loinclothed android named Intello, thunked up by the Mad Thinker. In another adventure, “Nightmare on Spidey Street!,” he has an ever-increasingly bad dream, courtesy of a supernatural baddie named Nightmare. In the two non-Spidey stories, sibling rivalry threatens to turn the Power Pack team into a three-piece, rather than a quartet, and Iron Man finds his suit beyond his control when the industrial saboteur known as Spymaster comes a-calling. Four stories in all, all for fun, sure to keep you company over several bowls of breakfast cereal.
In DAREDEVIL #500, blind do-gooder Matt Murdock is running from a clan of ninjas, and partners with his enemy Kingpin to get rid of them, in a dark, sober tale written by Ed Brubaker. That’s the main draw of a super-sized issue filled with other goodies, the best of which is “3 Jacks,” an Ann Nocenti/David Aja story featuring Daredevil vs. Bullseye. You also get a preview of the DARK REIGN: THE LIST — DAREDEVIL one-shot; a pinup gallery with art by Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Quesada and John Romita Sr., among others; Frank Miller’s complete issue of DAREDEVIL #191; and a gallery with thumbnails of every DAREDEVIL cover in history. Dig out your magnifying glass. —Rod Lott
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