Vol 1: Before the Storm, translated by Greg Pak, illustrated by Keng, lettered (English edition) by Joe Caramagna
In an extremely non-linear plot line, we are introduced to Lei Ling, also known as Aero, a hero in Shanghai who has control over the air. When she’s not flying around her beloved city, Ling is an architect who designs homes for Shanghai citizens. Aero is currently battling animated buildings, some of which she designed, and desperately trying to stop a floating city from crashing into Shanghai. In the alternating scenes, we see glimpses of Ling’s past, where she and her boyfriend dine at a fancy restaurant just before he might get the courage and opportunity to propose to her, but she has to sneak away to save some folks trapped in a cyclone on a ferry. And then we meet Aero’s mentor, Madame Huang, who Aero is battling in the present while past Ling meets her for the first time.
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Illustrated by Manuel Preitano
Willow loves her broken community of Down River in Gotham, and she often is found at protests trying to get City Hall’s attention. Her mom is a brilliant professor fighting brain cancer, so out of desperation, Willow gets mixed up coordinating an illegal gambling ring for her mom’s former friend, E. Nigma. Willow enjoys the work and the money that allows her to secure treatment for her mom, but her friends notice she’s slipping away and not as involved in saving the community anymore. One night, Killer Croc attacks Willow, telling her he’s protecting Down River from E. Nigma and warns her to stop helping him. The attack leaves Willow with special powers and the ability to talk to dogs. She discovers Poison Ivy has been working with E. Nigma to lower property values in Down River to make gentrification more attainable, but Willow draws the line when the next target is her favorite delicatessen. 
Vol 1 (2021): Only Death is Eternal, illustrated by Esad Ribić, colored by Matthew Wilson
The story opens up on the resurrection of Ikaris, the last of the Eternals to be “woken” again. He is given instructions to release Sprite, an eternal who caused a lot of problems for the Eternals recently and has been “reset.” The two travel to the main city of The Eternals and soon find Prime Eternal Zurus has been murdered. This isn’t a majorly big deal because he’ll be resurrected soon, but then they find out The Machine, the system that keeps Earth alive and maintains The Eternals, has been sabotaged, including the mechanism to revive Eternals. There’s no shortage of suspects who would want to bring down Eternals and/or destroy the Earth. Together with Sersi, Thana, Ikaris, Sprite, and a few others try to track down the traitor while keeping humans safe and alive. 
Stella wakes up from a beautiful dream, and finds herself in a strange bedroom in a luxurious manor. Watching over her is Levi, a dashingly handsome young man, who explains her carriage crashed and he saved her, but the driver met his unfortunate demise. Stella was on the way to be a live-in maid at another manor, so she pleads with Levi to employ her as a maid, and he accepts. He introduces Stella to the other residents, one whom attacks her. Stella starts to notice strange things about the manor’s residents, and she’s disturbed that they won’t let her leave to go to the village. Despite their strangeness, Stella finds herself falling for Levi, and the two grow extremely close. When her attacker breaks loose and starts being vicious again, the residents must let Stella in on their secret: they are vampires, and they must do something terrible to keep themselves sane and non-violent.
Illustrated by Yoshi Yoshitani
Starfire’s daughter, Mandy, is trying to live a life outside of the shadow of her famous mother. Mandy has taken on a very dark persona, died her hair black, and wears lots of dark colors, trying desperately to stand out away from her bright, effervescent mother. When Mandy gets paired with the popular Clare for an English assignment, she discovers someone who maybe can be her friend, or even more than that, outside of people seeing her for her famous family and superhero friends. Starfire's past on her home planet catches up with her and makes like more complicated for Mandy, who really wants nothing to do with any of the super-powered politics of Tamaran. Mandy must believe in herself and her own strength to get through this newest challenge. 
Illustrated by Lee Garbett and Jorge Coelho
Collected here is around 20 single issues that survey Loki's time as an Agent of Asgard. This storyline immediately follows the adventures of Kid Loki. THIS Loki took over Kid Loki's body and is trying to erase some of his evil deeds from his past by taking on missions to serve the great good of Asgard. On the throne is the All-Mother, a triumvirate including his mother, Freya, and two others, who give Loki missions but secretly plot against this good Loki in order to secure what they think is a more prosperous future for Asgard. Loki make some new friends, including Verity Willis, who is a human lie detector. This also includes events around Original Sin, where a tenth realm, the realm of Heven, opens, and Loki, along with Thor, try to bring Heven into the Nine Realms under Asgard. 
Vol 3: Flame War, illustrated by Chris Samnee, colored by Matt Wilson
After the attack in his family, Owen decides that there will be no stopping the barrage of ninjas from coming, so he decides to travel to the Temple of the Scorched Earth to get involved in the fight once again. A fierce ninja lady attacks Owen on the plane but bursts into snakes just as he’s about to fireball her into oblivion. No one in the Scorched Earth clan has any idea who she could have been or how she disappeared. The Scorched Earth clan attacks the Temple of the Flaming Fist, with the help of some of Owen’s old foes and a couple friends. The two sides clash in an epic battle that finally brings us into the chamber of the dragon everyone talks so much about, but what they find there isn’t what anyone expected. 
The Amazing Spider-Man (2014), Vol 1: The Parker Luck, illustrated by Humberto Ramos
Peter has finally retaken his body after having his brain swapped with that of Doc Ock for several months. He “reawakenes” to a completed Ph.D, his own research business, Parker Industries, a girlfriend who isn’t Mary Jane, and loads of other surprises. Black Cat is completely ticked off at him for being caputured and humiliated; Electro’s powers are going wonky, and he blames the experiments Spider-Man (Doc Ock) ran on him. J. Jonah Jameson has to resign as Mayor of New York and blames Spidey. So, there’s a lot going against Peter! An encounter with the beings who killed the Watcher gives Peter a peculiar insight - the spider that bit him and gave him his powers also bit a girl, and she’s been holed up in a bunker for ten years, unable to leave under the threat of Morlund coming back and destroying everything. But, she just might be the one to get Peter out of this grave predicament with all these people wanting his hide! 
Penciled by Olivier Coipel, inked by Tim Townsend, Rick Magyar, John Dell, Scott Hanna, colored by Frank D'Armata
This story follows the events of Avengers Disassembled and Planet X, but if you don’t have those, don't worry - there’s a summary at the beginning of this book. Scarlet Witch is mentally breaking down after what she did to some teammates in the previously mentioned storylines. The X-men and Avengers come together to figure out what to do with her, and Pietro thinks this meeting is about whether they should kill her or not. He runs off to warn her, and the next thing we know, reality has shifted into a world where mutants are the regular, sapiens (non-mutants) are almost extinct, and every hero pretty much has the life they’ve always wanted. The problem is, Wolverine remembers everything, and so does a little girl, whose mutant powers can help unlock the subconscious of other people and help them remember the way the world was. They have to confront Wanda and make her put everything right, but this leads to an even bigger disaster! 
Black Widow (2014), Vol 1: The Finely Woven Thread, illustrated by Phil Noto
Natasha takes odd jobs in between missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. because she needs the money. She and her lawyer discuss the intricate web of safe houses as well as the trust funds she has set up that she must pay to maintain. Natasha is doing all of this to atone for her passed actions, so the implication is she is paying into trust funds that benefit the families of those she assassinated. She accepts various jobs to rescue folks, foil assassination attempts, and other feats of espionage, but she’s gotten too comfortable. She’s started to miss signs of danger, signs that someone has it in for her. |
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