Over the years, the companies have deployed an arsenal of schemes in an attempt to outmaneuver the competition, whether it be stealing ideas, poaching employees, planting spies, ripping off characters or launching price wars. Sometimes the feud has been vicious, at other times, more cordial. But it has never completely disappeared, and it simmers on a low boil to this day. This is the story of the greatest corporate rivalry never told. Other books have revealed elements of the Marvel-DC battle, but this will be the first one to put it all together into a single, juicy narrative. It will also serve as an alternate history of the superhero, told through the lens of these two publishers.

Anthony and Agatha Award-nominated Rosemary Harris is back with her fourth Dirty Business mystery, Slugfest, set at a legendary Northeast flower show where more than the plants are dying. When Paula Holliday agrees to act as exhibit manager for a reclusive artist she’s expecting a laidback weekend picking up gardening tips. She doesn’t expect to be knee-deep in horticultural sabotage, beheaded gnomes, homicide, and something called The Javits Curse. Then an overeager attendee is found floating in the river and Paula realizes she accidentally holds a clue to his murder—that’s when the garden gloves come off and this flower show turns into a real Slugfest! This time out Paula is joined by a colorful cast that includes Rolanda “Fort” Knox, a no-nonsense security guard; Guy Anzalone, Brooklyn's Tumbled Stone King; Jamal Harrington, a high school kid with a black belt and a green thumb; JC Kaufman, a feisty lady who hates leaving home without her weapon of choice; and a slick marketing guy hawking the hottest new product at the show, a foolproof pest repellant that people are dying to get their hands on. With limited means and her ragtag crew, Paula must solve her toughest mystery yet and root out a killer before she finds herself pushing up daisies.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Unteachables comes a hilarious new story about a group of underdogs who come together when they are forced to attend summer school—for failing PE. Yash is the best athlete at Robinette Middle School. So good, in fact, that he’s already been playing on the high school’s JV sports teams. Imagine his shock when he learns that his JV practices have kept him from earning a board-mandated credit for eighth-grade PE. To graduate, he has to take Physical Education Equivalency — PEE — which is also known as “Slugfest,” in summer school. At Slugfest, Yash meets the other students. Kaden is an academic superstar who’s physically hopeless. Twins Sarah and Stuart are too busy trying to kill each other to actually pay attention in class. Jesse is a notorious prankster. Arabella protests just about everything — including mandatory PE. And Cleo is a natural athlete who has sworn off sports. Then there’s their “coach,” Mrs. Tamara Finnerty, a retired teacher whose idea of physical education seems to have frozen in preschool. But Yash doesn’t care — as long as he gets the credit. Too bad one of his fellow “slugs” is determined to blow the lid off a scandal that could make all their time in summer school a waste. And if that weren’t bad enough, Yash is in danger of losing his star spot on the JV football team. So Yash recruits his fellow PE rejects to train with him. Spending the summer with the most hapless crew in school can really surprise a person. And their teacher might be hiding the biggest surprise yet . . .

The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes book treatment of the rivalry between the two comic book giants. THEY ARE THE TWO TITANS OF THE COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY--the Coke and Pepsi of superheroes--and for more than 50 years, Marvel and DC have been locked in an epic battle for spandex supremacy. At stake is not just sales, but cultural relevancy and the hearts of millions of fans. To many partisans, Marvel is now on top. But for much of the early 20th century, it was DC that was the undisputed leader, having launched the American superhero genre with the 1938 publication of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel's Superman strip. DC's titles sold millions of copies every year, and its iconic characters were familiar to nearly everyone in America. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman -- DC had them all. And then in 1961, an upstart company came out of nowhere to smack mighty DC in the chops. With the publication of Fantastic Four #1, Marvel changed the way superheroes stories were done. Writer-editor Stan Lee, artists Jack Kirby, and the talented Marvel bullpen subsequently unleashed a string of dazzling new creations, including the Avengers, Hulk, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Iron Man. Marvel's rise forever split fandom into two opposing tribes. Suddenly the most telling question you could ask a superhero lover became "Marvel or DC?" Slugfest, the first book to chronicle the history of this epic rivalry into a single, in-depth narrative, is the story of the greatest corporate rivalry never told. Complete with interviews with the major names in the industry, Slugfest reveals the arsenal of schemes the two companies have employed in their attempts to outmaneuver the competition, whether it be stealing ideas, poaching employees, planting spies, or launching price wars. The feud has never completely disappeared, and it simmers on a low boil to this day. With DC and Marvel characters becoming global icons worth billions, if anything, the stakes are higher now than ever before.

Vejay investigates the poisoning death of one of the town’s most powerful citizens during its oddest annual event Though it sounds violent, Henderson’s annual slugfest is less vicious than it is slimy. The regional festival honors the normally detested California banana slug with competitions to prove which slug is the biggest, fastest, or—in the event that gives the festival its notoriety—the tastiest. Rather than eat crow, the area’s local politicians atone for their sins by eating slug hot dogs, slug chili, and slug pie. This year, one dish will prove murderously foul. Edwina Henderson is the last of her family to live in the town that bears their name. A committed environmentalist, she is also the woman responsible for this year’s slugfest, and will take her place at the judge’s table. When a slug-pizza knocks her flat, the crowd assumes it was just an especially gross slice. But when she doesn’t get up, meter-reader Vejay Haskell must confront the devious murder of the town’s leading treehugger. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Susan Dunlap including rare images from the author’s personal collection. The Last Annual Slugfest is the 3rd book in the Vejay Haskell Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Collects Hulkverines 1-3 & Totally Awesome Hulk #22. The clash you’ve been waiting for! At last, Weapon H takes on his predecessors: Wolverine and the Hulk! Not long ago, the Weapon X program sought to re-create two of the Marvel Universe’s deadliest warriors. They ended up with Clay, A.K.A. Weapon H, a soldier with Adamantium claws and gamma juiced blood. But now Wolverine and the Hulk want a piece of the dangerous creation made in their name! And they’re not the only threats coming for Clay. Weapon H’s maker, Dr. Alba, is about to meet the Leader — and the result will transform not only the course of Clay’s life, but also Wolverine and the Hulk! As Marvel’s greatest titans rampage out of control, it’s up to Clay to stop them — but what is one Hulkverine against two? Prepare for the fight of the century!

It has long been one of the most fundamental problems of philosophy, and it is now, John Searle writes, "the most important problem in the biological sciences": What is consciousness? Is my inner awareness of myself something separate from my body? In what began as a series of essays in The New York Review of Books, John Searle evaluates the positions on consciousness of such well-known scientists and philosophers as Francis Crick, Gerald Edelman, Roger Penrose, Daniel Dennett, David Chalmers, and Israel Rosenfield. He challenges claims that the mind works like a computer, and that brain functions can be reproduced by computer programs. With a sharp eye for confusion and contradiction, he points out which avenues of current research are most likely to come up with a biological examination of how conscious states are caused by the brain. Only when we understand how the brain works will we solve the mystery of consciousness, and only then will we begin to understand issues ranging from artificial intelligence to our very nature as human beings.