October Surprise: a roundup of the biggest stories from a crazy month

We knew October would be busy. We had the invitations, the embargoes, and a stockpile of coffee and seltzer. But this past month turned out to be more insane and more exciting than almost any month in the past year.There was rarely a moment to rest, and it seems like the internet was always reacting to something, somewhere. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google responded with equal parts panic and determination to the onslaught of Apple’s hype machine. People around the world watched with reverence as Felix Baumgartner successfully completely a historic free-fall from the edge of space. Live, on the internet. Reddit’s insular community reacted when one of its most unsavory characters was outed by the media. Apple attempted to avoid a reaction by announcing a major executive shake up in the middle of a catastrophic hurricane. New York City reacted to hurricane Sandy, and the rest of the internet reacted to our reactions via social media. And then Disney bought Lucasfilm, and the internet almost exploded. Beyond the massive, non-stop wave of news, The Verge also explored the culture of Philip K. Dick, got to know the cosplayers of New York Comic Con, broke down the K-Pop phenomenon, spoke with the Singularity's true believers, and got the inside scoop on what's next for Android — straight from Google. In hindsight, it seems like all of this more or less happened at once, making the past 31 days one of the most intense and exciting months since The Verge began. And that’s fitting because tomorrow is our first birthday. We're only scratching the surface here, so dig into the stories below to get the best of the month's news, features, reviews, and original reporting from The Verge.