This week's picks

So after a long marathon session yesterday and Friday of reading and posting, we reach this, the end of the week. This is one of the first times where I wasn't sure about any of the three I could put on this list. Most weeks I come in with one sure-fire pick, maybe another, and one that's a toss-up between a few different ones. This week was different. I don't think that means this was a bad week for comics; the opposite, even. I will say, I didn't like any of the books this week as much as I like some of my past choices, like New Avengers or Hawkeye or Captain Marvel. However, most of the books that came out this week could land a respectable pick on any week of the year. There are a bunch of above average books without huge stand-outs, maybe, but without huge disappointments, largely. So let's get to it.

Cable and X-Force 4

As I said in my review, I'm pleasantly surprised by this book. On top of Dennis Hopeless' writing going above and beyond in both of his Marvel NOW! books, I find myself happy with the team he's built quickly in Cable and X-Force. There's a camaraderie there that I think some of the best team books Marvel has to offer find. It's a little the way I feel about X-Factor, though this smaller team means more personal moments between each character. I also, so far, seem to like the plots a little more than a title like X-Factor. There are interesting things going on that X-Force has to deal with and Hopeless has given us a pretty great team to deal with them. I'm excited as this book moves forward.

Avengers Arena 4

Dennis Hopeless makes the cut again here in the weekly picks. I can't overstate how impressed I am with his books and, really, with this book in particular. I like Cable and X-Force a lot, despite my initial wariness of there being two X-Force books and neither of them involving Rick Remender. That said, that one still has a pretty tried and true premise with a bunch of reliable characters. It's still great to see it doing well, but there was a little less risk there, I feel. Avengers Arena, on the other hand, had me actively cautious about enjoying this book. The Hunger Games parallel, which Hopeless does nothing to hide, tied to a suddenly very powerful villain in Arcade made me very skeptical. After a no-holds-barred first issue which saw a fan-favorite-ish character exploded in front of us, the series hasn't slowed down. There haven't really been other grotesque deaths or anything (which is totally fine by me), but we've had a lot of character building making the audience care about characters they likely don't know a ton about. Throw in a plot with seemingly real consequences and mystery and we've got a solid book.

Fantastic Four 4

This book wasn't decided until I saw myself typing it in. It's still not officially decided as I write this (okay, it's probably pretty official if you're reading it now, which I imagine you are, but at time of writing, this is still up in the air), as I could just as well delete it and write in Ultimate X-Men 22 or Avengers Assemble 12. The reason I choose Fantastic Four instead is that I'm really impressed by what's happening throughout this series so far. We have a lonely and sulking Ben who is intriguing me far more than any of his seemingly regular other emotions, like anger or playfulness or whatever. We have Reed hiding things from the family and Franklin and Sue suspicious. We also have Reed breaking time and scientific ethical time travel code to make a society love Sue as much as he does. And we have a disease that even Reed Richards can't science away looming over everyone's heads. There's a lot here building and a lot in this issue by itself. Also, I like a Fantastic Four book. Well done Fraction. Well done.