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.

Written by Tini Howard with artwork by Jenna Cha, the story brings back the Priestess of Pain, who finds herself at odds with the Engineer after he attempts to rebuild her. Rather than accepting her place, she takes a path that leads deeper into the horrifying world of Hell and the brutal process of becoming a Cenobite.

On any list of distinctive, game-changing works comic book works from the 1980s must be Dean Motter’s Mister X, a brilliant blend of crisp design sensibilities, early German cinema, the art deco movement, and the concept of “retro futurism” and mysteries wrapped in further mysteries.

Detective Amy Sun is in a tough spot. She’s investigating the death of Bella Rhinebeck, a young woman who narrowly escaped being murdered by a serial killer only to have the leader of the police’s tactical team who saved her become a bit of a stalker. Now she’s dead and police officer Keith Connolly is the number one suspect. But, Amy will quickly learn that something else much more sinister is also at play.

It’s Halloween night in Greendale and all Sabrina Spellman wants to do is go to a Halloween party. Instead, she is confronted again and again that she is no longer a regular teenage girl – now she’s a teenage witch.