3. Mars Attacks Judge Dredd by Al Ewing and John McCrea (IDW)
Dredd is always a fun character to read but this series is especially notable for being Dredd's first crossover with non-2000AD characters in over a decade. Some of Mega City One's gangsters gather together to reorganise following the death of their godfather only to be jumped by his wayward son - and a mysterious alien goon with a raygun! Enter Dredd as he single-handedly and covertly investigates the growing crime contingent only to discover what he believes to be mutants are behind it all! Al Ewing strikes the right tone for the series from the first page where we're introduced to the various mafia dons, all of whom are silly as hell (my favourite being Don Travolta whose every utterance is a pun on a John Travolta movie title!) in keeping with numerous other Dredd tales. Both Ewing and artist John McCrea have worked on Dredd before so they fit into the comic's style quite naturally with McCrea drawing, among other things, Dredd's chin perfectly. Dredd encounters at least one Martian but it looks like Ewing's going for the slow burn as the desired confrontation fans are picking this book up for looks like will happen later in the mini-series. That said, Dredd's got his work cut out for him battling all manner of crazy inhuman creations so there's plenty of alien action to enjoy here. A great start to the series with laughs and action balanced nicely together.