This week's picks

Last week I got fairly lucky; there were a handful of deserving books but three books, as soon as I read them, jumped out at me. This week, not so much luck. A lot of good books and only three spots (well, really two once you realize Hawkeye was always going to be on this list) for them all. Let's get at it like the Red Sox got at the Tigers last night, hm?

Hawkeye 13
It's really great to have this book back after a bit of a late summer break as Matt Fraction fulfilled his altogether too numerous other duties. How this guy puts out fantastic book after fantastic book is beyond me but I'm not going to complain about it. Solid work diving back in with an issue that's part recap and part filling-in-blanks without feeling like it's too much of either. Just a really great issue with, of course, amazing David Aja art and Matt Hollingsworth colors, nothing less than what we've come to expect out of the series as a whole. Fraction's toying with time comes back around in a big way here as we jump from moment to moment in Clint's recent life, tying together the narrative we already mostly know. It's an impressive book that can take a story we already know and a character the book has already well-established and create a new story that feels fresh and fits the feel so perfectly while not really telling much new. Great work. Also, as a note, really hard to pick a single panel to showcase for this issue. There were three or four that really fit wonderfully.

Avengers 21 AND New Avengers 11
I know, it's totally a cheat but bear with me here, I'm going somewhere with this. I'm now officially on record as saying that I'm really enjoying Infinity. It's a smart event that doesn't seem like it's going to overstay its welcome and that consists of a story that both feels big enough to be told in such grand manner and could have really big ramifications as the universe pushes on. The structure and the flow of the event, tying directly to Avengers and New Avengers, matches well with the seriousness of the situation and makes this an event well worth reading. However, it feels even more impressive right now, this week, as Avengers and NewAvengers both come out, tying directly into Infinity but, more than that, harvesting seeds that had been planted long before this event in both individual title. Hickman has done a great job working up to this event in direct pieces (Ex Nihilo, Abyss, and the Gardeners, the infinity gems, etc.) but now we're also seeing how intricately he's connected these books to the events we're now getting.

Now we're seeing Captain Universe unleashing tremendous power after being revived by a legion of Ex Nihili, we're seeing war strike Wakanda on the end of Namor's pointing finger, we're seeing incursions, we're seeing the Builders of other universes, we're seeing Captains America and Marvel stepping into universe leadership roles as simply as they did in Avengers. Everything is coming together perfectly and it strengthens both these individual titles and the event as a whole. No reader can look at this event, whether they like it or not, and say that it feels sudden or abrupt. Ultron didn't just happen to show up and take over. Galactus isn't making a beeline for Earth because he's hungry. This is a big event made possible by seemingly every sentence leading up to it in these books. Really well done.

X-Men Legacy 18

Okay, so maybe that was a cheat so I could put X-Men Legacy on this list. Whatever, guys. This was kind of a toss-up between Legacy and Cable and X-Force, which really pulled back and renewed its sense of fun and spirit after what felt a little like a drought in there. Ultimately the choice went to Legacy for a couple of reasons. One, the story is already in full swing and it's a good one, giving Legacy the edge over Cable because Cable has to introduce its story before we can decide if it's a really good one or not. Two, as I said in my review, this is not the first time that I've trusted the Spurrier was telling the story that it outwardly looked like he was telling (David is getting revenge on Cyclops for the death of his father and, in a nutshell, for being his father's favorite son) before realizing that, in fact, he was telling the same story he's been telling since issue one (David is stopping a threat to mutants before it can manifest, no matter the cost). I'm not, despite any snarky remarks you may have, the worst reader who's ever existed; I should really see this coming. But I don't. I haven't any of the other times and I didn't now. The writing is superb, the characters are flawlessly flawed, the story is appropriately huge and quiet at the same time, everything comes together for this book yet again. Really hard to beat it.