Captain America 22, Black Widow 8

Captain America 22
Remender (w) and Pacheco (p) and Taibo (i) and White w/Loughridge (c) and Caramagna (l)

Everyone needs a rest once in a while and I can't think of anyone in the Marvel Universe after the past few months who needs one as badly as Captain America. The serum-less and frail Steve Rogers spends a day in his big bed at Avengers Mansion watching his reputation be tarnished and his ethics questioned by a number of SHIELD critics in the wake of Nrosvekistan and watching Louie while Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and (kind of) Thor try to find some trace of the serum in his blood and to restore him to Cap status. Steve is roused from his bed at last, though, when a portal to Dimension Z opens and Zola's minions come pouring out with Zola himself discussing his plans with the Red Skull.

I've said it before and I'll no doubt say it again: every book needs a sort of rest issue now and again to slow things down and to keep the intensity of the action-based issues high by giving something to compare against. That's what this is for CAPTAIN AMERICA, a solid rest issue that establishes where we stand right now and what we should be thinking about as the series continues (mostly Zola, Red Skull, the serum-less Cap, and the fact that Jet and Falcon have, against Falcon's better impulses, started up some sort of a relationship following a wine-fueled night). It's a very good book and one that manages to reset the pace and tone, exactly what Remender set out to do, while still not resting on its laurels, preferring to still push the plot forward.

Total Score: 5/5


Black Widow 8
Edmondson (w) and Noto (a and c) and Cowles (l)

While Isaiah tries to secure some funds for their operation, Black Widow has a new job: stealing back some key data for a client from a courier on a train in Prague, or a reverse train heist, as she calls it. She easily makes it on to the train and recovers the package but she's surprised when Winter Soldier turns up, hired to stop an international gang from robbing the train. They work together well to get off the train and evade the attacking gang but Natasha is shot in the leg in the process and the two make their way to an empty house for Bucky to patch her up and for them to plan the next move. Bucky insists that she leaves before the gang catches up to them, arguing that her job was to secure the briefcase and that his was to handle the gang. She accepts reluctantly and begins to leave before Bucky calls out to her again. Unable to say anything to her about their one-time relationship (thanks to Natasha's complete amnesia of it), he wishes her luck and she leaves. She returns home to find a new lead waiting for her from Maria Hill while Isaiah has been taken by some anonymous party.

It's no surprise for me to say that I absolutely adore this book and that this issue, one that teased a Winter Soldier appearance that would team the two for the first time since Natasha's memory wipe at the hands of Leo Novokov, had a particular draw for me. Edmondson and Noto deliver as the book is appropriately exciting and fast while also being layered and heart-breaking. Edmondson handles the team-up extraordinarily well, not letting on (save for a few quick lines that could go either way) until the very end that something is on Bucky's mind while making their interaction feel like two spies who are really good at their jobs and who have an obvious chemistry together. Noto continues to amaze as both Natasha and Winter Soldier look incredible (my girlfriend pointed out how consistent Noto is in Natasha's appearance, something that you can't always expect from this medium) and setting their fight against some gorgeous backgrounds and colors. Another month, another great BLACK WIDOW issue.

Total Score: 5/5

This week's picks!

Another pretty solid week on the books and all that's left to do is break down the most highly recommended books we had this week. EASY PEASY.

Black Widow 5
I wrote a review later on this list about five times talking about how it had barely beat out BLACK WIDOW because, unfair as it is to BLACK WIDOW, it's held to a higher standard because of four amazing issues to start it off. Then, as I kept trying to explain why it had barely beaten it out, I found myself disagreeing with my own arguments. So here we are, replacing PUNISHER with BLACK WIDOW on this list. I thought that PUNISHER had the upper hand this week in the narrative, which Edmondson uses in both books, but I liked the action, the characters, and the art more on BLACK WIDOW, enough to push it just past the great action, characters, and art on PUNISHER. In truth, it was also partly because Natasha made Molot Boga get sucked into a jet turbine and because of the panel right before it happened (seen at left). Great, great book.

Moon Knight 2

This one definitely stuck with me through the week. The layout, the narration, the chilling midway point as your comfort in the narration takes a turn; it's all perfectly handled and it makes the book a really quick and tense, though gorgeous, read. The initial narration, simple black print on a white background, reminds you of Moon Knight and therefore quickly reads like Moon Knight's narration, not to mention that it sounds just like his origin. Then you realize that it's not just a character saying it while all the action goes on, it's the character behind the action saying it and it forces you to wonder if Moon Knight is killing these people. Then, when all of the eight targets on the page have been killed, the first person you see in the aftermath is Moon Knight himself. It's a wonderful turn and just about the best way for Ellis and Shalvey to show us how crazy we even think Moon Knight is, that we believed it could have been him. Amazing, thought-provoking, mind-blowing, great stuff.

New Warriors 3
Also just beating out PUNISHER this week, I think that NEW WARRIORS had a real turnaround issue this week. I don't think the book was bad in any way before this issue or anything like that, it just felt like it was going to take longer to set up with all of the moving parts and the big storyline that Yost was creating. However, this third issue really did a great job explaining our plot and further establishing our characters, all in a pretty quick reading twenty pages or so. Really well done by Yost and artist Marcus To as they continue to build the world of these young superheroes and start to get the audience a little more situated. Bonus points go to NEW WARRIORS this week for giving just about the simplest but most accurate breakdown of so many of the off-shoot races on Earth, like mutants, Atlanteans, Lemurians, Inhumans, Eternals, Deviants, GOD SO MANY.


BONUS PICK OF THE WEEK
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Seriously, just everyone go see it. Though I imagine if you're on this blog, I probably don't need to tell you.

This week's picks

Some really good comics out this week and some comics I really, really disliked this week (looking over at you SECRET AVENGERS). So which three comics make up the list of the top three of the week? Well...look, I'm figuring that out.

Avengers Undercover 1
I thought this was a good issue, maybe even a very good issue, in and of itself. What elevates it to "top picks" status over, say, CAPTAIN MARVEL or X-FORCE (which, truth told, I think I probably enjoyed more as a book), is that I think it's setting up its own world so extremely well. I think it's often really hard to incorporate what came before either as a direct or indirect sequel and build another story with changed characters around it. I think that AVENGERS UNDERCOVER has already done a marvelous job at showing what these kids are up to and what they're up against for this series, which is an incredibly difficult feat for a first issue. Very rarely does a series world build so effectively in one issue. Of course, that comes with the caution label that reads "AVENGERS ARENA finished just a couple months ago and is fresh in my mind so maybe that's what has built the world more than this issue" but I think you could come into this book without having read AVENGERS ARENA and still have a good sense of what's happening here. More impressively, I think you could come into this book knowing what happened in AVENGERS ARENA and not be plagued by over-excessive backstory and summarizing. That's particularly hard to do in the case of books that take such a huge shift, especially where so much tangibly happened last series. Good start to this one, really looking forward to how it shapes up.

Black Widow 4

Another new release week, another issue of BLACK WIDOW gracing the top picks list (get ready to see another familiar name on the top of the next entry). BLACK WIDOW is the kind of book that seems to have everything; writing, characters, plot, art, and colors. Everything is working on this series and, as Edmondson and Noto enter into Natasha's first arc of the new series, it seems like this is going to be more of the same. Normally when people say "more of the same" it's a negative, worrying that the book isn't trying anything new. WELL GOOD NEWS, this book is incredible already so "more of the same" is just "more of the doing great work" kind of thing. This one didn't get as much into Natasha's character as the last three did, though it works here because Edmondson clearly set out to establish her character in those first three issues and did a magnificent job of it. Getting us into story now is definitely a good way to go. Also, this book will find it hard not to make my top three every time if Phil Noto continues to absolutely bring his A-game in the art. Incredible and definitely able to carry a subpar book anyway. Fortunately, this isn't a subpar book.

Hawkeye 17

HAWKEYE has long been doing things unprecedented in mainstream superhero comics. The conceit of the book as a whole was that it would focus on the days when Hawkeye wasn't with the Avengers or whatever other team he may be a part of at the time. That means it was the daily life of a superhero with no powers while he set up his DVR or bought tape or watched a holiday special. With this most recent issue, these are all things he's done in this series, and done to tremendous effect. This issue finds Clint falling asleep watching a wintertime holiday special and dreaming of said special which happens to mirror his own thoughts on things and his own situation. He denies help from everyone repeatedly but they refuse to be sent away and, as a result, he and the others overcome the problems. Will this message translate to Clint's life? Probably not. He's kind of stupid. But it's a wonderful book and it's one that's incredibly well-done with artist Chris Eliopolous stepping in for series regular David Aja and providing exactly the right style of art and the right feel for the book (as well as expert colorist Jordie Bellaire stepping in for series regular expert colorist Matt Hollingsworth). I talked a lot in my full post this week about how HAWKEYE has succeeded while trying all sorts of new things and things that, on paper, absolutely should not work, so I won't recount it all here (just click that link above, guuuyyyys) but all of that is part of why this book makes this list. Also because it's great.

Possible Black Widow movie in the works

Pretty early to say but Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently said in Total Film magazine that, on top of a bigger role in Captain America: Winter Soldier that would expand her story, "exploring that even further in her own film would be great, and we have some development work with that." The wording is still pretty vague and certainly promises nothing but it would make some sense, given Scarlett Johansson's visibility and the cinematic feel of Edmondson and Noto's new series. Excuses are constantly made about why female-led superhero movies wouldn't work but we've never actually seen one tried and more people, it seems are realizing that it simply isn't a good excuse any more. That said, it shows that studios haven't been willing to take a chance yet so it's hard to say whether or not Feige's comments are giving anything new away just yet. I'll believe it when I see it but here's hoping someone figures this out.

Black Widow 3, Iron Man 21

Black Widow 3
N. Edmondson (w) and Noto (a and c)

Natasha's been hired to break a man out of a prison sentence in Argentina for crimes he did not commit. The job pays well and it's one that's not particularly hard for someone as good as she is. On her way out the door to head to Argentina from her Little Russia home, she comes across her neighbor Ana, who has a black eye from the husband Natasha has told her to leave. She has no time to dwell on this and goes to Argentina, successfully breaking her charge, a man named Angelo, out of the prison. She takes down every guard in their path non-lethally, refusing even to carry a gun in the situation, telling Angelo that these are good men just doing their jobs and that his wrongful imprisonment is no reason to take it out on them. She has to leave him at a riverbed for a moment while she attends to guards on foot and, while she's gone, Angelo murders one of the guards and tosses him into the river, telling Natasha when she returns that he slipped. When Natasha and Angelo meet up with Angelo's contact and their extraction, Natasha hears the man call Angelo "lobo blanco," the white wolf. As they begin to take off, she realizes who the man is, someone known as the butcher of Argentina. The crimes he was imprisoned for truly weren't his own but there were plenty he wasn't arrested for that were his own. She makes a snap call and drags Angelo out of the rising helicopter, landing them both back in the river. She stabs Angelo and lets the crocodiles eat him as she swims to shore. She's extracted from Argentina by Maria Hill as she's needed for a SHIELD op and requests to stop over at her apartment for some gear. While there, she pushes into Ana's apartment and pins down her husband, swearing to break his spine if she ever touches Ana again.

It's very, very rare to come across a book that I'm so enamored with so quickly, particularly one where I don't have a ton of familiarity with the creative team. I didn't really know Edmondson going in and I knew Noto but hadn't seen him be THIS good before. I think probably the last book that kind of had this feel for me was maybe NEW AVENGERS, which started so dramatically and felt so epic. Even books like X-MEN LEGACY (which I obviously adore but had a bit more of a slow burn for me) and YOUNG AVENGERS (which I loved out of the gate but also rather knew I would given the team behind it) didn't land in quite the same way this one has so quickly. Noto's art is absolutely gorgeous, Edmondson is telling a really compelling story and building a really amazing character out of Natasha, and, well, everything is just going really, really well. Natasha's narration again leads us through the story as she talks about how she doesn't really call any place a home, how she can't because homes are a distraction and she can't afford distractions in her life. Not having a home means that she feels she can belong everywhere but, as she points out, also feels that she belongs nowhere. It's such a wonderful and powerful idea for always traveling, always in exotic locales character and it's made even more tragic when she reveals that her real home is where she finds pain, that that's what's most familiar to her. It's a wonderful story and a wonderful book. GUYS, I haven't even talked about the fact that this is an amazingly strong female character who has spent three books doing nothing but being entirely amazing at her job, passing the Bechdel test, not being a sex symbol, and having real conversations with real people. GUYS. HOW AMAZING IS THIS BOOK?

Iron Man 21
Gillen (w) and Bennett and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Arno and Tony have been trying and trying to track the Mandarin Rings but seem unable to find them when they're not immediately in use. The longer it takes, the more damage Troy suffers, particularly from the Remaker Ring, which keeps turning up to bomb parts of the city. Troy's PR head Marc Kumar meets with ex-girlfriend (and current Mandarin Seven) Abigail "Red Peril" Burns and tells her that she needs to stop acting the terrorist, a role that doesn't fit her. She swears the bombings haven't been her and decides to go see what's so special about the city. Iron Man tracks her and uses his stealth suit to follow her through the city. She finds that Troy is a self-sustaining, self-repairing city, capable even of taking care of its derelict population by creating energy efficient homes for them and everyone else. She realizes that the city she's been fighting against is actually nothing worth fighting against, that for as much as she dislikes Stark and what he stands for, this is a worthwhile place. Her ring leads her to two more rings active in the city, the Remaker, in the possession of the previous would-be warlord of Mandarin City after the fall of the Mandarin, and the Night-Bringer, in the possession of Victor Kohl, the jerk kid who felt so slighted by Iron Man after Kohl was responsible for killing his father in a drunken rage. The three talk and realize how their views perhaps don't really match up, including how the Remaker is preparing to launch a missile at Stark's current HQ, and prepare to fight one another. The rings then identify that Tony's in the room with them and he gets pulled into a fight he wasn't expecting while he's trying to get out to stop the missile and save Arno. The Night-Bringer won't allow him to leave in time and he ends up with a view of the building as the missile hits it, presumably with Arno still inside.

The fight against the Mandarin Rings escalates even further as Tony and Arno become directly involved. Well, even more directly involved than they were. We also get a better sense of the people behind a few of the rings and a better sense, perhaps, of why the rings chose these people. There seems to be some discord out there between the rings' new owners but, perhaps, also between the rings. Burns, for all of her hatred for the establishment and distrust of Tony, isn't a terrorist and has a real belief in her progressive views. The Remaker, meanwhile, wants only to have ruled the city or for no one to rule the city. The Night-Bringer is a punk kid who refuses to be held responsible for his own actions. And these are just three of the ten. Will Arno be okay? Will Troy survive its first arc? The next arc is called "Rings of the Mandarin" and will focus on one new ring-bearer in particular trying to gain control of the other nine. Gillen's already talked about the next arc and who that one new ring-bearer is (click that link to read his pretty good interview with CBR and find out who) and it's got me pretty excited about what's in the near future but there are still some pretty good questions for the immediate future.

This week's picks

Pretty good week for comics. I'd say there were a solid handful up near the top, worthy of consideration for the top three (marred by the fact that two pretty quickly took two of the top spots), plenty of books that drifted between "fine" and "good" and really none that slumped into "unreadable" or even "irredeemable." This blog should be called the Irredeemable Unreadable. Anyway. Picks!

Black Widow 2

After a very impressive debut just two short weeks ago, BLACK WIDOW lands on the top picks again with another thought-provoking, character-driven and absolutely gorgeous book. This one is particularly neat because you open the comic and the very first page is a beautiful full-page panel of Natasha flipping away from a car crash ("flipping" perhaps implies a little too much intent). There's a lot to like here and it's not hard to find it all. The action scenes are very impressive and well choreographed, the quieter moments hold their spots perfectly, Natasha's dialogue is exactly what you'd want it to be, the art continues to be amazing (guys, I can't stress how pretty this book is), we get some plot both with the introduction of the Iron Scorpion and with Isaiah's sudden ability to take care of problems. It's just a very interesting, very well made book. I'm really looking forward to this one and I think everyone should probably get in on the ground floor of it now.

Hawkeye 16

Proving that sequential numbering isn't for everyone, HAWKEYE 16 leapt ahead of HAWKEYE 15 in release date and shows, for anyone who may have been asking, that Kate Bishop can absolutely kill in two issues back-to-back about her. I don't know who possibly could have been asking that but, as much as I like the idea of the alternating story and I rather miss seeing what's happening with Clint, Fraction has made Kate such a compelling and entertaining character, pulling her from her more rigidly set YOUNG AVENGERS past and giving her solo adventures the likes of which have never been seen and she's knocking it out of the park every time. Add to that Annie Wu's incredible art and her uncanny ability for expression and emotion and this is a book with both immediate payoff and re-readability through the roof. Look, I love this title anyway and I don't know what else I can say to convince you but this book is amazing.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 9

I like the Spider-Man team-up books in general, with AVENGING SPIDER-MAN earning a special place in my heart and now SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM-UP pulling in good issue after good issue, but this one feels different in a way because of just how tied to the current plot of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN it appears to be. Up to now, the team-up books have been good and extremely entertaining for the most part but have been pretty self-contained. Instead, this one has its roots very much in the GOBLIN NATION arc from SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN and has repercussions that must be felt throughout both books. Also, the writing is impressive, the art is fantastic, and the characterization is spot on. One of the things that always impresses me about this book and AVENGING SPIDER-MAN before it is the adaptability of the writer to pull in a score of other characters, write them for only an issue or two, and somehow nail down the personality. Impressive feat and Kevin Shinick does it every bit as well as people like Christos Gage and Christopher Yost. Great stuff here, enough even to beat out other top picks contenders X-MEN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, and IRON MAN.

This week's picks

Geez, I usually use this space to talk about how hard it was to narrow things down on a week full of comics. Not so, this week. Pretty easy and I had it pretty well in hand from the get-go. Apologies to IRON MAN and MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN which were pretty much the closest ones to making it but weren't close enough to warrant further discussion.

Avengers World 1

AVENGERS WORLD feels like Avengers back-to-basics, giving us a look at smaller teams dealing with smaller problems. Don't get me wrong, they're still pretty big problems, big enough to warrant the Avengers' involvement, but it's smaller than what Hickman's done throughout the AVENGERS series. It also breaks the team up into more manageable parts, so hopefully we'll get to see a little more personality out of the team as a whole. Interested to see where this one goes and I think it made the right steps in issue one.

Black Widow 1

Truly gorgeous book on its first time out and one that has the plot power to deliver interesting stories throughout its hopefully long run. I talked a little bit about how BLACK WIDOW books don't tend to last long for one reason or another but I hope that the distinguishing art and the full spy-feel of this book hold reader interest long enough to put this one on the map. With a slew of woman-led books coming out this year (though very few of them still created by women, sadly), it would be a real shame if a couple didn't catch on. High hopes for this one.




Young Avengers 15

One of the best comics of 2013 has, horribly depressing as it is, officially come to a close in the first comics week of 2014 and, while I'm sad to see it go, I'm happy that it got to finish the way it wanted to finish. YOUNG AVENGERS 15 is an homage to the rest of the series, a love note to the title at large that gives a final look at our characters as individuals dealing with their new lives and lets us see them as a team one last time. More gorgeous art out of Becky Cloonan (whose art may be the most impressive in the issue), Ming Doyle, Joe Quinones, Jordie Bellaire, Maris Wicks, Matt Wilson, and, of course, Jamie McKelvie and some top-notch character writing from Kieron Gillen to send this series to archives. Sad time but at least we got more than we could have ever asked from this series.