National Network for Equitable Library Service

Professor X, the X-Men's founder and mentor, and Shi'ar Empress Lilandra have been forced to love each other from afar-he has to remain on Earth to lead the X-Men, and she must stay with the Shi'ar to run the empire. Now, Lilandra must turn to the X-Men for help against a threat to her domain-and possibly the Earth as well. Shi'ar scientists have learned of a creature that devours galaxies and is heading toward Shi'ar space.

Brian Timilty is running for mayor on an anti-superhero ticket, and the amazing Spider-Man is his biggest target. But Timilty is secretly the pawn of Tyler Stewart, a wealthy businessman seeking to take over New York's mobs. To ensure his success, Stewart hires two of Spider-Man's deadliest foes, Electro and the Rhino, and executes a plan guaranteed to keep the wall-crawler from interfering with his grand designs: He frames Spider-Man for a grisly murder! Forced into hiding, Spider-Man must find a way to clear his name without being shot on sight, for he is wanted dead or alive.

An investigation into a simple cellular-phone fraud leads both Peter Parker and his alter-ego, the Amazing Spider-Man, to a fiendish plot: using unique counterfeiting equipment and a devastatingly large stock-pile of bombs, someone plans to destabilize the world's economy and destroy several major cities. The mysterious corporation CCRC is involved in this plan-and they have caused trouble in the past for Spider-Man and for the alien symbiote Venom, who has sworn to kill Spidey.

When Kat Jamison retreats to the Blue Ridge Mountains, she's counting on peace and solitude to help her make a difficult decision. Her breast cancer has returned, but after the death of her husband, her will to fight is dampened. Now she has a choice to make: face yet another round of chemotherapy or surrender gracefully. Self-reflection quickly proves impossible as her getaway is complicated by a pair of abandoned dogs and two friendly children staying nearby, Lily and Nirav. In no time at all, Kat's quiet seclusion is invaded by the happy confusion of children and pets.

This exciting new anthology has over a dozen original tales starring the vicious foes of Marvel's superheroes: Greg Cox's chronicle of the Super-Skrull's conflict with the Avengers, Michael Jan Friendman's story of evil Loki's latest attempt to snare his stepbrother Thor, Adam-Troy Castro's tale of a mutant who brings Magneto and X-Men's Professor X together in a unique manner, Glenn Greenberg's pairing of Venom and the Absorbing Man in an unlikely jailbreak, plus stories featuring Typhoid by Ann Nocenti, Carnage by Robert Sheckley, Kang the Conquerer by Richard Lee Byers, Mephisto by Rober

They live as outcasts, hated and feared by the very humanity they protect. They are mutants, born with strange and wonderful powers that set them apart from the rest of the human race. Under the tutelage of Professor Charles Xavier, they are more than mutants. They are the X-Men. Magneto, the X-Men's oldest, deadliest foe, has taken over a top-secret government installation that houses the Sentinels, powerful mutant-hunting robots. The X-Men must fight to keep this deadly technology out of Magneto's hands.

The Avengers journey into deep space, where they unite the intergalactic races against the Builders-deadly aliens who seek to destroy the known galaxy. While the heroes are gone, Thanos sets his sights on Earth, sending the Black Order to launch the assault. It falls to the other heroes of Earth-the Inhumans, the Black Panther, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange, the X-Men, and more-to defend Attilan, Wakanda, Atlantis, and the rest of the planet. To defeat Thanos, the defending forces will need to deploy a new weapon-one that may be as deadly as the invading force.

Hoping to snag some rent-paying photos of his arachnid-like alter ego in action, Peter Parker goes looking for trouble-and finds it in the form of a mysterious, mythical stone tablet coveted by both the Kingpin and the Maggia. Caught in the crosshairs of New York's most nefarious villains, Peter also runs afoul of his friends-and the police! His girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, isn't too happy with him either. And the past comes back to haunt him when the Maggia's assumed-dead leader resurfaces in pursuit of the troublesome tablet.

When a mysterious spacecraft comes hurtling toward Earth, Carol Danvers-the hero known as Captain Marvel-narrowly prevents it from crashing and killing its pilot. The young woman, Rhi, is an Inhuman, part of a group who rejected that society's caste system and left for the stars in search of a new life. What they found, however, was imprisonment on a planet ruled by a cruel patriarchy. There, Inhumans are treated like currency, and possession of an Inhuman girl brings a master great power and influence. To refuse means death, and Rhi has risked everything to seek help.

The African nation of Wakanda stood alone as an unconquerable land filled with incredible technological advancements for ten centuries. T'Challa, the latest in a lineage of warrior-kings, is the Black Panther, endowed with enhanced speed and strength, along with a suit made of the indestructible metal that secured his country's future: Vibranium. Now, outsiders have returned to plunder Wakanda's riches-including its store of the rare metal. Leading this brutal assault is Klaw, an assassin with the blood of T'Challa's father on his hands.