This week's picks

I really need to stop prefacing these posts with a "gee whiz, but this was awful hard!" intro because it's a little worn by now. Is it hard to pick the three best comics Marvel put out this week in a totally subjective method? Yes. Most of the time. Well like, one third of the time. In that I usually have two picks or so right up at the top and need to whittle down the third. So let's start off with those two this week and see if I come up with the third one along the way.

Captain America 4

I don't think I can stress enough how much I'm enjoying this book. It has a leg-up on this kind of subjective "pick of the week" post because Cap is my favorite character, yes. I won't deny that, I'm biased. But after a huge switch from the Captain America veteran Ed Brubaker to Rick Remender there was the possibility that I wouldn't like this book as much and would write it off more easily than if Brubaker's run had just kept going. I am thrilled to report that is not the case. The look backwards into Steve's childhood tied with the present of his raising a child of (sort of) his own is a pretty delightful change. On top of that, the series is tense and rife with action and adventure and what not. I don't think Remender sacrificed any one aspect of the book to build on another; they're all there in seemingly equal parts. The art and colors are matching the tone perfectly. It's just a lovely book.

Captain Marvel 10

No surprises that this is on my list, as it keeps landing here and on my pre-game lists. The last two issues have received a boost with Filipe Andrade's art but they'd be landing here regardless. This is just a great series with a great main character and the fearlessness to add new characters to its pages. A lot of writers starting a new book would hesitate to build up a supporting cast and throw the book so deep into the Marvel Universe, but DeConnick has pushed Carol's fellow Avengers into this book in nice and easy increments while also giving Carol a few non-hero contacts to strengthen her personality. From the people she crosses every day to the people who live around her to the people she bumps into, Carol has a unique relationship with every single character she meets. That's a rare trait, especially in a comic. One of the reasons I've liked Fraction's Hawkeye so much is that he has an easy-going kind of personality with all the people outside of his world. It's similar to Captain Marvel's, except that Hawkeye doesn't have to ever switch from that personality into huge ultra-powered hero. Sure he still is a hero and does heroic things, but he can't talk to someone then fly off mid-conversation to energy blast some bad guys. I'm not saying Hawkeye's easier to write or anything like that because it has its own challenges, but for Captain Marvel to so believably transfer from that friendly conversational mode into hard-hitting action is no easy feat. Great book.

Daredevil 23

I had to go back and read this issue before choosing it. My plan was to read the few that were up for this spot (Thor, Superior Spider-Man, Avengers, Nova) but I got to Daredevil first and, by the end, there was no question. The emotional punch that this issue packed teamed with the fact that there's a real long-running story going on here made for a pretty easy choice after all (though it's always hard not to pick Thor). On top of the fact that this issue ends in a gorgeous and heart-breaking, near-wordless page about where Foggy's going from here (pictured at left), not to mention that the rest of this issue beautifully showed Matt and Foggy's friendship, the individual behind a recent string of direct attacks on Daredevil is taking new and extreme steps to challenge the man without fear. This issue shows an attempt to replicate the accident that made Matt into Daredevil, using prison inmates as subjects. There are lots of places for this series to go right now and I think pretty much any of them are going to be exciting. Also, Samnee and Rodriguez are killing it on art and colors.