My ten most anticipated books of 2013

RING IN THE NEW YEAR. I hope everyone is having a good 2013 so far, now that we're a solid 10 hours in. I'll be the first to say it: I'm proud of us. I'm proud of you, I'm proud of me, look how far we've come in such a short 10 hours. Why, just 11 hours ago, we were in that year when everyone thought we were going to die and look at us now! So advanced!

Right, here are ten of the reasons I was thrilled that 2012 wasn't the end of humanity.

Avengers

Also charts. I'm a sucker for charts.

I'm glad that, alphabetically speaking, Avengers is first on this list because, as you will soon see, it's a bit of a running theme of things I'm interested in for 2013. With Marvel NOW! comes a wave of new writers to books (not new writers, just new to this respective book, sorry for the vagueness, won't happen again until it does) and boy do I think this part of the Universe needs it. I have varied feelings for Brian Michael Bendis. I think he's done a great deal of good in the Marvel Universe. I am also almost entirely averse to his last few years on Avengers and New Avengers. New blood is good blood in this case and, after a strong first two issues, I'm excited to see where Avengers goes from here.


Captain America

Haha, no Cap. No good. But we appreciate your spirit

I said yesterday that Cap is my favorite character in the Marvel Universe. I also said that Brubaker's run did phenomenal things for him so I was terribly sad to see him go. However, even more hawkeyed readers will recognize that I had something of a love affair with Rick Remender's X-Force book, recently ended. So now he takes over Cap, sends him to what appears to be an alternate reality and/or planet and, by issue two, has stranded him there for a year. He also had longtime on-and-off girlfriend Sharon Carter propose to him off-panel and currently has Cap raising a pseudo-son in a Cable-Hope parallel. Well. We'll see, anyway, after issue three comes out, if I have to redact that. Look, I'm thrilled for this series to continue, is what I'm saying.


Hawkeye
Hawkeyed readers will note that I said the word "hawkeyed" in the last entry as well and spell-check is insisting that it's not a word. I also said "Hawkeye" in my favorite books of 2012 and, as such, it's the only book that will make both lists despite not changing appearances in Marvel NOW! Whatever, it's still a young book, I'm fully warranted in picking it for both favorite of 2012 and anticipated of 2013. LOOK, I'm really enjoying it. If you're not reading it, you should be. It's aiming bigger and better still, but layers have been added to Clint that we haven't seen before, layers that can't really come out when he's splitting time with a team in a book. Definitely worth reading the 2012 chronicles and definitely worth checking out the 2013 entries.

Indestructible Hulk

After Jason Aaron's memorable run on Hulk in the wake of Fear Itself, not to mention his appearance in The Avengers and his character in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, I'm pretty firmly on the Hulk bandwagon. Every time he appeared outside of his own book, it seemed to always follow the same formula: "Oh no, it's the Hulk! He has to be stopped! Wait, he seems to be helping! Maybe he's misunderstood! Goodbye Hulk, perhaps friend, perhaps enemy!" Marvel has wisely steered away from that in recent years, preferring to dissect why people react this way and play on it. I like the new turn and I'll trust Mark Waid after Daredevil made yesterday's list. Leinil Yu is also always to be trusted.

Journey into Mystery
I bemoaned the lack of female-driven books in Marvel yesterday while similarly moaning about how great Captain Marvel has been. Captain Marvel, like Hawkeye, has my interest in the coming year, though I still like Hawkeye a tad more. HOWEVER, Journey into Mystery is switching away from Kieron Gillen's kid Loki and into Kathryn Immonen's Lady Sif. We're three issues and several bodies in already and this promises to have all the action inherent to a book about warriors and all the character traits I associate with my admittedly limited knowledge of Sif. She's Heimdall's sister, she's a badass, she's got a great helmet, and she very much would like to be rightfully seen as the best warrior in Asgard. Pick it up before we dive too far into the plot and you get left behind.

New Avengers

SNAP, I also always forget Epting is drawing it.
THIS BOOK WILL BE RAD.

Like I said earlier, I wasn't thrilled by New Avengers over the last couple years. This upset me because I really adored most of the team. I'm not a big Luke Cage or Jessica Jones fan (which, sadly for me, happened to be the majority of the book) but I am big on Iron Fist, Doc Strange, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ms./Captain Marvel, and Daredevil. My not feeling a particular affinity for the book was one of my bigger disappointments over the last year. You know who else I'm a big fan of, though? The Illuminati (stay out of this, REED). They'll highlight at least the start of this book and all of my affections for Black Panther, Namor, Black Bolt, Beast (he's in there now, okay, just deal with it), and Iron Man will likely come just gushing out of me. Guys. I really love Black Panther.

Secret Avengers

I really hope this book is good. This is the book, of all of these that I'm excited about in the coming year, that I can't help giggling about when I think of it. The team seems like it will have Hawkeye, Black Widow, Mockingbird, Taskmaster, a new Iron Patriot, Hulk, and occasionally Winter Soldier. I saved those two for last INTENTIONALLY (good writing, guys) because all I want to read, every day, is Hulk interacting with Bucky. LOOK, except for the new Iron Patriot (who I know nothing about but I wouldn't be surprised if it was Rhodey with a tie-in to the new Iron Man movie), I know and love everyone I just mentioned. The downside I see is that the team seems to be run by or at least involve Maria Hill and I hate Maria Hill. Sorry dudes. Also, it has to do with memory implant technology and we'll see how that goes. Whatever, I'm pumped, you should be too.

Superior Spider-Man

I think I proved that I was rather touched by Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man 700 in my first post in this blog. I'm a long-time Spider-Man/Peter Parker fan (as I think most Marvel fans can claim). I'm still a little shell-shocked by the events of that issue, but I am intrigued about what happens next. I don't know what to expect out of Superior Spider-Man. I don't know the challenges he'll face, the way he'll handle the challenges, the way others will react to them, the way he'll react to others reacting to him. I don't know anything about this book. This is uncharted waters, at least in my eyes, and I'm looking forward to seeing where we end up.




Thor: God of Thunder

I like grand, epic, sprawling stories, particularly if they're done right. I also like stories tied to religion. For necessary reasons (such as Asgard appearing on Earth), Marvel has strayed away from the "gods" association to Thor and the Asgardians for a while. I don't think that's a bad idea, per se, because you don't want to drive it into the ground and they're cast as not-really-but-sort-of gods anyway. Confusing, that. The first arc, however, of Thor: God of Thunder, has dealt with a story spanning hundreds or thousands of years, a story of a god-killer hunting down and eliminating gods. We know nothing about its motives or its background, only what we've seen as its pertained to Thor. We've seen three Thors; young and arrogant Thor, modern-day and heroic Thor, and Odin-esque and last-god-standing Thor. This story is something to watch. Also, Esad Ribic's art is, as always, phenomenal and surreal.

Uncanny Avengers

This book makes the cut for a couple reasons, edging out the surprise start to Avengers Arena, both upcoming X-Force books, and the Kieron Gillen-Jamie McKelvie led Young Avengers book. The first and most basic, as some readers will no doubt predict, is Rick Remender. I inherently trust him after X-Force. I also like when one writer has a chance to write two characters regularly in two different environments (it doesn't hurt if that writer is writing Captain America, no, but I also liked when Remender handled Venom in Venom and Secret Avengers, for example). I also find the base team that we already know to exist as pretty encouraging. I love Cap and Thor (and their relationship) and Wolverine, I like Havok and Scarlet Witch, and Rogue grows on me pretty regularly. Remender has also hinted that we'll soon see them come up against Red Skull, Kang, and Apocalypse, all at once. If that doesn't make you want to read this book, I don't know what will.


That's it for me today. We're quickly approaching a new Wednesday. My first full week of reviews is imminent. I'm sorry in advance.