Comic Suggestions

Hey guys, been a while since I've had an extra post/a Monday post at all, so thought I'd drop one in this week. FULL DISCLOSURE: this is actually the body of an email I sent to a family member not long ago when he asked me for comic recommendations, particularly ones that didn't require much extra reading beyond the main series. This is my answer, full of Marvel and Image recommendations. And just, you know, really full. You think I ramble on HERE? Imagine answering a question I love answering to a family member. Actually, NO NEED TO IMAGINE, my friends, JUST LOOK BELOW... (I added the pictures, just to make this look better on a blog)

So you're not wrong, obviously, in saying that it's hard in superhero comics to find something that doesn't tie into a ton of other books (I can't speak much for DC since I don't know as much over there but I know I was turned off of BATMAN for exactly that reason, though that book was pretty solid. I also hear good things about RED SONJA, but we're getting off-topic already). If it is an ongoing superhero comic you're looking for, I have several recommendations, though obviously it depends on what you like to read.

HAWKEYE is one of the best series I've ever read and stays really self-contained for a book about a guy who has only ever been viewed in context of Avengers teams. It's not a prototypical superhero book (Hawkeye himself appears in a Santa hat for more panels than in his actual costume) so if you're looking for a little more action, this one may be a little slower.

While we're talking about solo titles, BLACK WIDOW and ELEKTRA are both really impressive right now and are staying fairly self-contained (BLACK WIDOW just had a very small crossover with PUNISHER, which has also been good, but you certainly don't need to read the PUNISHER issue to get the full feel for it). BLACK WIDOW has a really strong narrative and outstanding art. It's featured other characters in bit roles here and there but nothing aside from the slight PUNISHER crossover that requires other reading. ELEKTRA is fairly new but it also has great art and a really interesting and dark story.

DAREDEVIL is another good one that has been good for some time now (it's very recently tied in to the Marvel event ORIGINAL SIN but it's not a tie-in that requires you to know more than the very basic outline of the event). Mark Waid and Chris Samnee have taken a character who has been more than a little dark and brooding since Frank Miller and made him a little more fun, kind of more classic DAREDEVIL but with a Miller darkness at the edges. It just renumbered to give fans a jumping-on point so it's only on issue four or five, though this creative team has been working with the character for a couple years now. CAPTAIN AMERICA too has been very strong and kept itself as contained as a major character like Cap can.

As a matter of fact, most solo titles, while I'm thinking about it, are keeping relatively to themselves. The X-MEN books are a little more interconnected (though Si Spurrier's new X-FORCE has already been phenomenal through seven issues and is worth checking out if you like a bit of a heady run mixed with a bunch of asterisk's-out swears; Spurrier wrote X-MEN LEGACY recently and it was my favorite book last year) and some of the main AVENGERS titles have been bouncing in and out with one another (though NEW AVENGERS has more or less kept to itself since INFINITY, last year's event, and that book has been great since the start). There are definitely more Marvel books I'd be happy to recommend but I'm inexplicably already at something like nineteen paragraphs and I haven't even gotten what I'm slowly getting around to.

The worry that a book you like will tie in to a bigger universe is certainly not irrational but it's something you don't really have to worry about with books from, say, Image. I've been reading a handful of those books recently and there are certainly some great ones worth looking into if it's your thing (though they do tend to be a bit more explicit because, I suppose, they can be). SAGA is pretty fun and interesting and it wins Eisner after Eisner, though I personally think it's a little overrated. VELVET and LAZARUS are both really good and pretty new books. VELVET (from Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, the guys who created the Winter Soldier storyline in CAPTAIN AMERICA) focuses on a spy who has been accused of killing her department's best spy (Brubaker pitches it as "if Moneypenny was accused of killing James Bond"). LAZARUS is about a dystopian future where America is divided up between the richest families while the rest of the world lives in a really regimented caste system. Each family has a programmed warrior to defend them, called a Lazarus, a member of the family who has been genetically augmented and trained to keep his or her family protected and the series focuses on Forever Carlyle, the Lazarus of the powerful and corrupt Carlyle family.

While we're talking about dystopian futures, Jonathan Hickman's EAST OF WEST might be the best comic I've ever read. It's certainly in contention and it's just fourteen issues or so in. The conceit of the book is that there was a giant meteor that struck the dead-center of America in the middle of the Civil War, putting an end to the fighting but also leading to the formation of several separate nations within America. At the same time, a prophecy about the end of the world emerged from a few different sources. Now, centuries later, the nations of America stand on the precipice of war while a handful of zealots sit atop each nation and meet in secret to discuss The Message. If that weren't enough, the driving storyline is about Death falling out with the three other Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It's got a lot of really great art in it and Hickman's writing is really detailed, cool, and smart. I've read that he plans out his arcs in two year blocks, which is pretty crazy in and of itself. Look, it's a really great book, but only, I would think, if the heady plot is your kind of thing.

FINAL PSEUDO-RECOMMENDATION: Ryan North and Boom! Comics just finished an eight-issue run on an original series called THE MIDAS FLESH that explores the myth of King Midas and what its effects on a world/universe would be. I love North, who writes the very funny webcomic Dinosaur Comics, and his humor and interesting scientific questions are all on display in this series. Lots of fun in this series based on an idea in one of his Dinosaur Comics though it did just end, so not a ton of longevity on that one.

X-Force 2, X-Men Legacy 300

X-Force 2
Spurrier (w) and R. Kim (a and c)

Cable is adamant about uniting mutants in terms of seeing everyone as one people as opposed to their separate factions. In that hope, he contacts every individual faction he can (including Wolverine and Storm at the Jean Grey School, Mystique wherever Mystique's at leading her villains, Magneto wherever Magneto's at, Cyclops at the Xavier School, Polaris at X-Factor, and Havok with the Avengers) to tell them about the recent attacks to mutants and about the new mutant they've found, who he and his team have dubbed Meme. Everyone he talks to is very reluctant to actually care about his information about the war they're fighting and the idea that the mutant race needs to really take care of its own, even after he reveals that Meme is just one in a line of people who seemingly have been experimented on and whose powers have been tested and synthesized. Of course, it seems like both Hope and Marrow are members of that group with Marrow being particularly a strange case as she was depowered on M-Day. The key for Cable and his X-Force now is to track down the person responsible for the events at Alexandria. Cable goes to Fiqh, a higher-up in Saudi intelligence and strikes a deal; Cable and his team will kill someone in his way and he'll give them information. The team succeeds, giving Fiqh a direct line to the head of his agency. He happily gives up the information he promised, leaving Cable and his team with a look at Yevgeny-Malevitch Volga, a billionaire with the means to destroy Alexandria.

Another really compelling issue. I think this one is a little heavier than the last, covering multiple locations and giving a harder-to-follow running narration from Cable instead of Marrow this time. Still, it's a more worthwhile read for how deep it gets. Like in issue one, there are mysteries peeking in from the corners here and ones that you already know will be driving points later down the road but are secondary to the missions now. It's a lot of very cool stuff and Spurrier has very clearly defined the sort of story this one is going to be and the sort of parameters driving the team. I think that Cable being so determined to make the mutants see themselves as one race is really interesting and a really smart move that hasn't really been done before. It's been touched on in the past, particularly after M-Day and with the X-Men's move to Utopia but it's never been on this sort of scale, where Cable so desperately wants everyone involved. The characters are showing a lot of personality and the story certainly has legs. I think this one is going to be another one that builds its world first and then really takes off, like Spurrier did in X-MEN LEGACY, though I'd be surprised if it took quite as long here. Great stuff.

X-Men Legacy 300
Spurrier, M. Carey, and Gage (w) and Huat, Kurth, Sandoval, Yeung, A. Martinez, and Tarragona (a) and Villarrubia, Rosenberg, and Arreola (c)

A young woman with serious injuries to her face has appeared at the Jean Grey School and subsequently been trapped by one of the defense measures surrounding the school: a fence that sucks you in and keeps you trapped more and more the more you want to get into the school. She's trapped pretty badly and none of the X-Men appear to be on hand to help her except one, a mutant man named ForgetMeNot. ForgetMeNot explains that he is an X-Man but is one who is almost entirely unknown because his power is one that makes anyone not focused on him forget about him entirely (not unlike the Silence from Doctor Who but, you know, he's a good guy). The girl explains that she came to the school in the hopes that the X-Men, who she always loved, would accept her although she's not a mutant because, after a sexual attack from a man in her town, her entire home life has pushed her away. However, there's apparently no way to get out of this gate. ForgetMeNot decides to tell her a story to take her mind off how much she wants to get in, something that will hopefully release her. So he tells her a couple of stories, including one about his efforts saving enemy soldiers, or at least giving dying ones some brief moments of peace, when the X-Men were at Fortress X, one about Professor X being the kind of guy who set his watch to remind him about ForgetMeNot every hour so someone knew he was always there, and one about trying to get Weapon Omega and Mimic to take his powers after Professor X died so that he could be noticed at last. The lesson of the stories end up being, essentially, that you are what you are and you are what the past has made you but the key is to do something with it that matters, to live the life you have and make the best of it. Eventually the wall traps ForgetMeNot, who Beast apparently forgot when he programmed the defenses, and frees the girl, allowing her to escape with the lesson learned but forgetting about ForgetMeNot.

It's a solid frame story and the sort of story that makes you go "ahhh, clever" as you start to get the gist of the idea. ForgetMeNot is the sort of perfect character for a retrospective and sweet tale like this one, one that requires an observer from X-Men history but one who is decidedly separate from it. It's like dropping the Watcher in something like this, but a Watcher who is human and therefore more complex. The character and the issue are also impressively tailored to fit the themes of this long and storied series. While ForgetMeNot only interacts briefly with Professor X and never with, say, Rogue or Legion, he spends a long time dealing with Weapon Omega and Mimic, who have powers rather similar to Rogue's and who had spent a lot of time with Rogue in their most recent appearance, and the entire key to the issue is about being forgotten as a character who had never before existed, like a sort of opposite Legion. There's a lot to like about the oversized issue and it's certainly worth a read as long as you're not looking for something that will contribute to a larger story or a larger world and rather looking for a standalone and very introspective issue like so many of these style books tend to be.

Comics this week

Geez guys, just a whole bunch of new releases to talk about. Plenty of good and/or interesting stuff out this week so let's get into it.

Avengers Undercover 1
Dennis Hopeless and a few of the AVENGERS ARENA kids return as, following the events on Murderworld, most of the survivors are more than a little lost. Will the at-risk youths turn to villainy with Baron Zemo or are they putting their lives in danger for a greater cause? I was caught off-guard by the quality of AVENGERS ARENA but their will be no such surprises here as I'm expecting a fun ride with some fun characters.

Black Widow 4
It's the first issue of BLACK WIDOW after the whirlwind first three issues all came out within about a month and a half. Will monthly shipping mean that BLACK WIDOW loses some of its fast-paced magic? PROBABLY NOT, it's just a really good book and it's on this list more for that than for anything else.

Captain Marvel 1
The relaunch of everyone's favorite Kree-based human superhero! After a phenomenal series last time out under the guiding hand of all-star Kelly Sue DeConnick, Carol Danvers returns, but how much of her is really there? With ENEMY WITHIN not that far behind her, how much of her memory does she have? How prepared for new threats and old friends is she? How prepared is she for her upcoming journey into space with, who else, the Guardians of the Galaxy?

Hawkeye 17
Clint and Barney are seriously injured and presumably easy pickings for the tracksuit draculas and the Clown, if he's to return. On top of the injuries themselves, Clint has sustained serious hearing damage. As someone who already had hearing issues in the past, what will this mean for everyone's favorite Hawkguy? Fraction and Aja are calling this the dog-issue of sign-issue issues. Confusing, sure, but certainly good news.

X-Force 2
After a thrilling first issue with a lot to keep an eye on, Si Spurrier launches the controversial team into their first undoubtedly action-packed mystery. Who is the new mutant that X-Force's enemies have used as a weapon and bound up to be used later? What will Psylocke do after she so quickly broke her "no killing" vow? How crazy will Marrow continue to be? What's happening with Hope that's got Cable so on edge and Hope so "technically alive?" So many questions and so much to look forward to.


HONORARY MENTION:
X-Men Legacy 300
Be sure this week to check out the very special X-MEN LEGACY 300, the 300th issue of books titled X-MEN LEGACY. I believe it's meant to be a special extra-sized issue, priced at 4.99, and it will feature story from X-MEN LEGACY writers Mike Carey (focusing on Xavier, currently dead), Christos Gage (focusing on Rogue, currently dead), and Si Spurrier (focusing on Legion, currently never existed). Should be a really fun time and boy it'll be nice to see one more Spurrier-David Haller story. Looking forward to it.

Deadpool 24, Thunderbolts 22

Deadpool 24
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Hawthorne (a) and Bellaire (c)

It's time for Preston to go into her own body but it turns out Deadpool is having a bit of a harder time letting go than he thought. For all his solitude and multiple personalities, he had gained someone real to talk to and apparently had benefitted from that. Still, he goes to SHIELD to have the process done but, after the transfer begins, problems arise. Agent Gorman had sabotaged the machines making it harder to hold everything together as Preston's consciousness goes into her new body. To help keep everything together, Michael, Ben Franklin, and Dr. Strange travel into Deadpool's mind only to find it overrun by other versions of Deadpool all intent on keep Preston from transferring. Strange realizes that these rogue Deadpools weren't caused by the machines, they're pieces of Deadpool rebelling on their own, something only Deadpool can stop. With some reluctance, he does and he carries Preston to her new home himself, helped by one of the Deadpool versions who refuses to identify himself except as someone who he hasn't met yet before mysteriously leaving. The transfer appears to be successful as Preston later wakes up in her new body but it's not over yet as Deadpool, sulking in a bar, discovers Preston is still in his head.

One of the things people love to do, particularly with Deadpool, is show off various different versions of him. It's a thing artists and writers like to use for all characters across dimensional rifts and the like but Deadpool adds a certain layer of fun to the proceedings because, as we saw in DEADPOOL KILLS DEADPOOL, Deadpool is such a wild card that any sort of amalgamation Deadpool you can build is a possibility. You can have Beespool, a Deadpool filled with bees, where you can't have Beesghost Rider (though Nic Cage may disagree and would likely sign on for a film combining Ghost Rider and The Wicker Man). So the book is helped by an ample dose of separate personality Deadpools, though these ones are largely tame considering what we're used to seeing. The story is the culmination of the long journey from Preston's head to Deadpool's head and finally back to Preston's head but it's hard to say that everything's over just yet as we still need to figure out exactly why Preston is still showing up for Deadpool. Is he just crazy? Probably! Crossbones may be the only one available to get to the bottom of it next time out, as he entered the bar just as Preston revealed herself.

Thunderbolts 22
Soule (w) and Barberi (a) and Silva (c)

The contract is completed and signed and the Thunderbolts are tasked with deposing Guido, the ruler of Hell, in favor of Mephisto, pretty much the actual devil. Though it's a slight wrinkle in Red Hulk's plan, he and the rest of the Thunderbolts begin the fight against Hell's Court, all the demons and monsters the create the first line of defense for Guido. It's a long and arduous fight and Ghost Rider, preferring to skip it, grabs hold of Red Hulk and the two take off to head straight at Guido. Back on Earth, Mercy attacks Punisher and Elektra. Though they manage to survive her attacks, she's immensely more powerful and seemingly unstoppable, leaving them in a bit of a bind. Back in Hell, Guido tells Red Hulk the very short version of how he got there and how he doesn't want to leave because he needs to find his soul and he's actually doing good for people, or as much good as he can, and he can't leave Mephisto in charge of that. Red Hulk convinces Guido to yield and Mephisto takes his throne. He fulfills his part of the bargain and brings Mercy into Hell, dropping Punisher and Elektra from quite a height as she's whisked away, and granting Deadpool his wish of a portal to anywhere he pleases. Deadpool uses the portal, apparently, to enter Heaven and get a new and better feather for his hat, leading an entire Heavenly Host to Hell as Mercy appears and begins to call all the souls to her. Mephisto, of course, is pissed but can't punish the T-Bolts as one of the stipulations of the contract was no retaliation. They return to Earth to find Elektra trying to save an immensely injured Punisher but, before they can come up with a plan of action, Deadpool's new feather reaches out to Frank and restores him with angel powers. Johnny Blaze officially joins the team.

More fun stuff as this book continues to be one of the best that Marvel's putting out consistently. It's found that perfect mix of action and fun without having to get too over-the-top in either. The characters are all their own and have their own distinct personalities and styles and the situations play to all of them equally. Even the sort of deus ex machina of the angel feather saving Frank's life is all built up to, making it less of a deus ex and more of a well-scripted machine. We all know how much I like this series and it just continues perfectly here but I really want to call attention to the covers now. Julian Totino Tedesco has been doing the covers for much of this recent run and he has been absolutely killing it out there. More than the fact that each cover, even aside from the fact I know what to expect from the book, makes me want to buy each issue, his covers completely mix the fun and seriousness in exactly the same amounts and ways that Soule mixes it in his writing. They're the perfect complement to this book in the same way that Mike del Mundo's covers perfectly complemented Spurrier's weird and lovely X-MEN LEGACY. Tedesco's covers unfailingly make me laugh and make me think about the book and the art itself is stunning in its own right. Marvel's been doing a great job with covers lately, from LEGACY and THUNDERBOLTS to the baby/animal variants to the noir-ish ones like WINTER SOLDIER: BITTER MARCH to the simplistically stunning HAWKEYE to anything Jamie McKelvie does. Wonderful stuff.

X-Men 11, Uncanny X-Men 17, Amazing X-Men 4

X-Men 11
Wood (w) and Anka (a) and Keith (c)
AND Wood (w) and C. Mann and S. Mann (a) and Mounts (c)

A story in two parts as part one, the significantly longer part, finds the majority of the team working to try to figure out what Arkea's plan is and why they've come across an empty boat. They actually do a pretty good job of figuring out what Arkea is up to, based on who she's allied herself with and where the money's coming from, tracing Arkea even to the resurrection of Selene Galio and Madelyne Pryor. Their solid deductions still don't stop the infighting amongst them, of course, not helped by the fact that now the always argumentative Monet is on the team. They also realize that the boat being out there has lured all of them out to it, leaving whatever other targets they might be at unprotected. CUT TO the second part of the story, illustrated by the Manns, which focuses on Jubilee leading the fight against the restored and constantly healing Sentinels. The fight goes well enough but Jubilee does the "vampire mist thing" and suddenly no one can trace where she's gone.

The X-Men aren't the only ones with infighting as Ana Cortes pleads with Typhoid Mary to kill her, worrying about the implications of the things she's done and knowing that she won't be able to keep up with the supervillains as their plans progress. On top of that, John Sublime is asking some pointed questions to Quentin Quire, the care of whom he has been not-so-lovingly placed under. There's a lot here to enjoy and a lot to think about as this book suddenly has real steam. The characters are all strong, the relationships between them are already pretty defined and are growing more defined by the issue, and the threat is becoming more and more real. In truth, the threat and the plot are still the vaguest part about this book, but that's a little to be expected with a new villain and a new team finding its way. It's rare that a team book features a team that feels so fleshed out so early on. Wood is deftly drawing on years of backstory from each of these characters to show that this isn't some randomly assembled team, it's a team meant to work together and who know better than to get hung up on their relationships. Lots of good stuff here and the art (I'm particularly fond of Kris Anka's) is matching the writing really well.

Uncanny X-Men 17
Bendis (w) and Bachalo and Townsend w/ Vey and Mendoza (a) and Bachalo (c)

It's training day for the new X-Men and Magik dumps them off in Tabula Rasa, the section of Montana that Archangel deposited a life seed in back in UNCANNY X-FORCE (but, you know, not the last UNCANNY X-FORCE. Thanks, comics). Everyone toys with their powers a bit and some of them have to square off against highly evolved life-forms. Eva goes through something serious that she refuses to talk about and it's possible she's aged a bit out there. Hijack's cellphone, which he refused to give up, alerts SHIELD to their whereabouts and, after a little bit of time, they show up and attempt to escort them out. Hijack turns their armor against them and they manage to escape before Magik brings them home. Cyclops is unimpressed by the way they handled themselves and particularly by the fact that Hijack didn't relinquish his phone and allowed SHIELD to track them, then didn't admit to his mistake when pressed about it. Unwilling to allow that kind of careless attitude, he kicks Hijack off the team and sends him home.

Here's the thing that's a little impossible to explain. I get why training is necessary and why showing the kids here training is necessary. I also get that they're kids and that they're unexperienced and even that they're very new to their powers. However, I can't believe that these kids would get dumped into some foreign situation and all immediately start back-and-forth dialoguing and talking about who Eva has a crush on (GUYS, it's Cyclops because Bendis can't go five seconds without throwing in a hundred love triangles with a lead male protagonist in his book!) and debating where they are. Of those things, the last one is the only thing I am willing to buy. The rest is just...it's kind of unbearable to read. I've talked at length about back-and-forth dialogue slowing scenes but the worst part is it's not even doing the job it's actually effective at doing, which is creating chaos. If someone who doesn't use that style of dialogue regularly starts using it, it makes a scene more out of control. More word bubbles, depending on the word count inside, can make things seem out of control and harried. If there are too many words, though, it just makes things slow down tremendously. It does that here and it makes everyone fairly unlikeable because everyone is the same and everyone is making this book a treacherous and slow read.

Amazing X-Men 4
Aaron (w) and McGuinness and Vines (a) and Gracia (c)

Nightcrawler and Storm work to free Beast from his rage and manage it just before he strangles Nightcrawler. From there, they set sail in their new boat and Nightcrawler and his legion of bamfs spread out to find the others, first rescuing Firestar and Iceman from Hell, where Iceman had tried to freeze the whole place and Firestar had tried to burn the whole place, before tracking down Wolverine and Northstar in the horrible icy lands of maybe-limbo. There are plenty of reunions and Kurt even explains the history of the bamfs, claiming that they were born in Hell of a union between a giant maggot and a shapeshifter and Azazel found them all starving and fed them his blood, binding them to him. Kurt, however, made a dark deal with them, one that has yet to be revealed, to bring them (or many of them, anyway) to his side and they, in turn, have helped him find his friends here in the afterlife to wage his war against Azazel.

I have combatting feelings about all of this, just as I did with Aaron's WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN. The comic landscape right now is a very different one than its ever been, allowing for books that are extremely dark, books that are much lighter, books that are deeper than ever, and books that are none of the above. I can't necessarily fit AMAZING X-MEN into any of these places and I'm not sure I should be trying to. It's absolutely its own book and I'd like to judge it on its own grounds and not weigh it against a greater universe. At the same time, though, it is undoubtedly part of a greater universe and that reality makes it very hard if not impossible to distinguish it. That greater universe, while certainly not having a unified tone, thus allowing books like X-MEN LEGACY or YOUNG AVENGERS or HAWKEYE or SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN in, tends to feel...I don't know, more grown-up than this book. ON THE CONTRARY AGAIN, comics started in the hands of children and it is sad that, aside from specific made-for-a-younger-audience books, there are no major titles out that kids can really read and get into (maybe SPIDER-MAN but that strays pretty dark occasionally too...like how Peter Parker's archnemesis killed him that time and took over his body). So it's hard for me to get into this book and hard for me to find a place in my brain for this book, as it was for WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN. I like to think I'm still capable of fun and whimsy but GEEZ, it's starting to look like maybe not so much. Oh, and I rather have decided that I don't care for Ed McGuinness' art style after seeing it here and in NOVA and finding all the same problems with it. Gracia's color work is solid here, though, and shows really great range as the issue traverses just about every imaginable landscape and lighting.

This week's picks

Geez, didn't quite realize how hard these three would be to choose until I actually started to think about it. Sometimes I'm not particularly confident in my pre-game picks so the pull list is pretty up-for-grabs. This week I was totally sure of my pre-game, barring possible freak inexplicably bad issues from really talented creators, so I had a good feeling that was where the picks would go. With the exception of one possibility jumping into the fray, I'm torn. The worst part is I know two of my three picks already. Alphabetically, though, they're the last two and I just hate working out of order. Well, let's see what I decide! It's a journey for ALL OF US!

She-Hulk 1

GUYS, this was a really tough pick and I'm writing these words without knowing if I'm going to use them or delete them later. SHE-HULK beats out, just by a hair, SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN 27, which gets lots of points for tying together all of its plots and constructing a very interesting upcoming arc to lead us back to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and WINTER SOLDIER: BITTER MARCH, which established an amazing tone and is just a really well-constructed book. SHE-HULK wins the day, though, as it's hard to come away from a first issue with such a good grasp on who this character is and what to expect from this book. I'm not going to say that things won't change or that the book won't be dynamic or anything like that, that we're just going to get this style of issue every time out; quite the opposite, in fact. SHE-HULK shows itself as an interesting and quirky book with a real sense of its main character and of the world she inhabits. I can't imagine how hard it is, though Soule is helped by his many forebears, to take a character who is constantly giant and green (by choice, mind you) and drop her into a real world and make it still relatable and not crazy. Soule does it, though, with absolutely no problems and with a nice little flair for humor and personality through every single character. This book was almost hurt by the next book on the list if only because I don't want to look stupid when I say that "number ones are rarely this good" twice in one post but, hey, whatever, I think I've proven just how stupid I can look already.

X-Force 1

Number ones are rarely this good. This one doesn't have the kind of shock value of the sheer beauty of something like BLACK WIDOW or NEW AVENGERS but it has such a well-defined sense of itself and such a wonderful sense of the narrative that anyone, whether they're new to X-MEN, new to X-FORCE, new to Marvel, or probably even new to comics, can, I would speculate, pick up what's happening in this book so far. Despite the amount of information that kind of comfortability requires, Spurrier makes sure the book isn't loaded with exposition. It leaves us with exactly the right amount of questions and the right tone for this series as it moves forward. Our team is well-established, their purpose even more so. Spurrier even knocks it out of the park with the decision to cast our initial narrator as Marrow, easily the least visible member of the team in recent years. He took the risk of alienating readers by putting in a relative unknown with a relatively unknown point of view and a rather crazed perspective as our narrator and it pays off well, allowing us to understand her better than we would have if it were, say, Psylocke or Cable's more tempered narration, or no narration at all. Rock-He Kim's art flows well with the book and I look forward to the way that Spurrier and Kim continue to improve as they work more and more together. There is, of course, also a measure of trust in this pick. As I said earlier, the book leaves us with exactly the right amount of questions by the end and the trust comes in as I trust Spurrier to eventually reveal those questions before they fade into "does anyone really care any more?" territory. I think one of the big problems with, say, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD is that they prodded the watchers to ask so many questions (and like, explicitly told them to ask, unlike something like Lost where the characters were just as in the dark, or lost, even, as the audience) and refused answers that it's gotten fairly monotonous and annoying. I don't want to have to ask questions that I know you have the answers to and that you'll only divulge at the right time. That is, I don't if you don't overstay that time. Like a good mystery novel, the satisfaction is in the figuring it out, not in the asking. I trust Spurrier to lead us to that point because he's done it so masterfully across his other works.

X-Men Legacy 24

If you didn't think this book was going to be on this list after the "review" I posted this week that was less review and more open love letter, I can't help you any more. This is the kind of book that will stay with me for years to come and this issue has been on my mind as much as anything else in the last week. I can't stress enough how much I want you all to read it. I've made just about everyone who's come into contact with me in the last few days read it because I need people to talk to about it or even just to know it exists. Every bit as meaningful as the comic itself was to me, so too was Spurrier's little letter to the audience at the issue's conclusion. There's so much to love about this and it's so hard to be sad that the book's over since, you know, kind of the point of this is that we shouldn't be sad that it's over. David himself told us not to be, you guys. As a whole, this series has been one of the best Marvel, or any publisher out there, has put out in quite some time. David is one of the most well-characterized and, despite all of his power and the scale of his problems, relatable characters I've seen. Check this title out and tell me what you think. Am I overblowing it? Maybe. But I suppose that's my right, isn't it?

X-Men Legacy 24, X-Force 1

X-Men Legacy 24
Spurrier (w) and Huat and Yeung (a) and Villarrubia (c)

My plan, right, was to lead Wednesday off with AVENGERS and SECRET AVENGERS, as I tend to put Avengers titles out first if I have them. Scheduling forced my hand, though, and had me lead with X-MEN LEGACY, the end of my favorite book of the year, and X-FORCE, the start of what I hope will be a favorite (I'm writing this before I read that one). I think, given the impact of these two stories (and particularly this one), it's the right call to highlight these books as early as I am, middle of the day on a release day, but it also makes me more wary of spoilers. I've toyed, going back and forth, with having reviews that wholly summarize the book and having reviews that vaguely point at things and reviews that are more log lines with analysis of something I refuse to define. I've more or less settled on fully summarization, leaving out some of the finer details to allow potential readers the chance to find those out for themselves.

There's no room for that here.

This book is not only totally spoiler-laden, it's maybe the most incredible story I've read in comics since Gillen's JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY or the Winter Soldier creation. It's meaningful, it's wonderful, and it, above all else, knows exactly what it is. I refuse to spoil it here and I refuse especially to do so on a Wednesday, when plenty of people won't even have a chance to get to it. All I'll do is advise you to go out, buy this book, buy any copy of X-MEN LEGACY you can find, and absorb it all. Drink it all in. As Spurrier says in the traditional final letter to the audience, the book is "a title, a character, a creative team and above all a vibe so bloodymindedly unlike its fellows." If it's not for you, it's not for you. But it's absolutely been for me and it's absolutely been something to watch. It's an incredible departure from any other superhero comic in the way that YOUNG AVENGERS played with the medium and the art form as a whole or the way HAWKEYE insists on not being about superheroes. It's something worth seeing even if it's not what you're looking for. Please take note of it. I'll end this not-quite-review with more of Spurrier's words:

There will be some, I think, angered by these last few pages, on the grounds that a tale's "importance" can only be weighed according to some grand impact on its Universe. I understand but disagree with that view. Instead I wouldn't have chosen quite such a perversely bittersweet ending if I didn't think it the best way to emphasize a very important point: even when nothing else has changed, when all the explodo and punching seems to have been for nothing, it's the lesson learnt - even the merest echo of it - that renders the journey valuable. Our memories remain.

X-Force 1
Spurrier (w) and R. Kim (a and c)

Cable has assembled Psylocke and formerly-powered Marrow to be a part of his new mutant strike team, a "dirty tricks crew" for mutant nation. The reasoning behind this one is more firm than the reasoning behind the most recent couple of X-Force teams, one brought together by threat and one brought together to prevent disasters Cable foresaw. This one is here to do a little bit of everything, including making sure mutants don't get dealt out of the world-building hand. After an attack in Alexandria (which may be linked to why Hope is suddenly strapped up to machines with Doctor Nemesis claiming that she's "theoretically alive") took over three thousand lives with a mutant square in the center of it, Cable wants to figure out what the mutant's tie was to the explosion, hoping to keep people from getting more mad at mutants, and to recover whatever the weapon was, hoping to arm up the mutants. His "broadly trustworthy" informant has discovered that the cyber-weapon that shut down communications in Alexandria was also used in various other countries at various other strikes to gain data. Now this informant is being held by the Chinese and the team needs to get him out before they can advance to the next stage. Of course, to Psylocke's dismay, the informant is Fantomex. Fantomex reports that the weapon is being carried by a plane always airborne over Antarctica (international air) and it's only susceptible to attack when it's being refueled. He also happens to know the refueling schedule. The team dispatches in EVA to attack the refueling plane, hijacking it to allow the formerly-depowered Marrow to hurl herself at the plane with a Doc Nemesis concocted timefreeze grenade, allowing her 30 seconds of unfettered access. She shatters the engine of the plane before sticking a parachute on the weapon container and launching it and herself out of the wreckage in that 30 seconds (real time a few tenths of a second) before the plane blows. Inside the weapon's container is, as Cable suspected, a new mutant.

Very interesting first issue and one that makes completely clear that these characters will all very much have their own distinct personalities and uses. I talked a little bit in my pre-game this week about the upside to having a team that's a little smaller than the recent X-FORCE teams (and really than most teams in general) and, after reading this issue, I have to emphasize again how neat it is. Four people on the team (plus unofficial member Doctor Nemesis) means we get ample time to check in with each character and get a feel for everyone, even in just the first issue. Marrow, the biggest question mark of the roster, handles narration duty and it gives us a look into an adrenaline junkie's mind, one that we can also see through her action and her dialogue. The narration colors her as something more than just a deranged thrill-seeker, which her dialogue may not have done so well. Cable, of course, is the terse general, always plotting and always leading. Psylocke is the most complicated and perhaps the least fleshed out here, though not because Spurrier does a bad job with her. She's probably the most prevalent character in the wider universe from this team right now so there's less need to really get too far into her character but it still sticks the landing (OLYMPICS) by showing her as the uber-powerful and lethal telepath with a complex history and a vow to stop killing. Fantomex gets perhaps the biggest makeover with Spurrier really relishing the dive into his over-the-top personality and his French aspects. Fantomex sometimes confounds writers thanks to his strange origins. He chose to be French when he was raised as part of the Weapon Plus program and it's something that writers don't tend to bring out too much (even Remender didn't focus on it besides a word here or there and Wolverine's insistence that his nickname be "Le Pew," a nickname which Wolvy would be pleased to know carries over here). Spurrier sees it as a key character point and I can't help but agree. The man chose to be French, of course he's going to embrace it. It also gives him the unerring air of smugness and irritation so points to that as well. Really fun first issue, looking forward to this one as it continues and as we start to go deeper into the story and the people.

Comics this week

Rarely is it as easy as recording the list of comics out this week to find my top five. Sure a couple will come from a cursory glance; titles I like, events, big issues I remember are big, number ones, final issues, etc., but they don't typically all congregate like this. This week found an important launch title, a good series starting a new year, a personal favorite character of mine headlining a new limited series, and two issues I can safely say are two of my most highly anticipated issues of the year, one kicking off a probably great new series and one finishing an amazing series. Did I give it all away yet? What if I say that, alphabetically, this entire post begins at "s?"

She-Hulk 1

Surprise, you guys, I love Marvel. I also love gender parity. So it was a tough couple of years (okay, decades and decades) where Marvel wasn't trusting in female-led books. I'm not going to say "okay, we got a few, all better" but it's very clear that Marvel is taking real, legitimate steps to righting the wrong. SHE-HULK is another example, adding to MS. MARVEL, CAPTAIN MARVEL, BLACK WIDOW, and...god, I could swear there's another one. It'll come to me (or it doesn't exist and so won't). You could even lump HAWKEYE in there as Kate takes center stage aaa much or more than Clint and is just as much the titular Hawkeye as the avenging archer. Throw Charles Soule, savior of THUNDERBOLTS and up-and-coming comics star from both sides of the big two and we should have a solid book in store (FUN FACT: Soule is a lawyer himself so expect some solid law to make its way into the title). WAIT, it's ELEKTRA. That's the other one I was thinking of. That one should be fun too.

Thor: God of Thunder 19

For as old as this series sometimes seems, it's really only gone through two separate story lines since Aaron took over on the title. Thor(s) fought Gorr and Thor fought Malekith. Two stories in three acts and one bonus self-contained story last time out. Now present Thor finds himself embroiled in intrigue on Earth and with SHIELD, no less, as King Thor hangs out with old Galactus (okay, probably "hangs out with" is the wrong turn of phrase here but I'd also read that series). Esad Ribic rejoins Jason Aaron to take our resident god of thunder back to Midgard in what should be another defining run for the series, firmly planted now in its sophomore year.

Winter Soldier: Bitter March 1

Winter Soldier returns in a limited series set sometime between Bucky's "death" and Cap's re-emergence, AKA true Winter Soldier days. So why check out the brainwashed Russian hitman trying to, probably, destabilize America in or around the Cold War? Because it's bound to go a bit deeper than that. Rick Remender tries his hand at Winter Soldier, a character who, despite his popularity and now with about five+ years under his belt,  has only really been handled by Brubaker and Latour, as he tells a story of drama and intrigue that will tie into the events of today, particularly in Remender's CAPTAIN AMERICA. Keep an eye out for the Iron Nail and the corruption of SHIELD as we kick off a limited series that should, presuming it's coming in monthly installments and not, say, bi-weekly, take us right up to Captain America: Winter Soldier. Sound like it might relate? Guess we'll find out.

X-Force 1

Hot on the heels of the conclusion of UNCANNY X-FORCE and CABLE AND X-FORCE, Si Spurrier launches the new underground mutant wet works team. Featuring a considerably smaller roster than its predecessors (even all the way back to Remender's terrific put-him-on-the-map run), X-FORCE promises to be a top-flight series full of twists and turns with exciting character pieces and lots of depth. Looking forward to it immensely and I can't stress enough how much Si Spurrier has totally won me over with his work on X-MEN LEGACY (not to mention the thrilling web/print series CROSSED: WISH YOU WERE HERE). And now Spurrier has Fantomex to control. It's come to my attention lately that Fantomex is a very polarizing character either very loved or very hated. Readers of this blog should know I'm in the first camp and I can't really imagine anyone being in the second. If you are, though, give this series a shot. I'm willing to bet, with almost no indication of the way Spurrier is going to write him, that Fantomex will have something of a fascinating character this time out. Worth giving him another shot, you strange, probably non-existent Fantomex haters.

X-Men Legacy 24

This is it, dear readers. The first comics week of this year saw the end of YOUNG AVENGERS, the book I named my second best book of 2013. Now, as we enter into the second week of the second month of 2014, the top book ends. Both books are unique in that they both seemed to wind down to their finales more based on the writer's wishes than the usual business of it (I don't officially know that that's the case with LEGACY but Spurrier has intimated all along that a story isn't a story without an end). Regardless, it's time to say a very reluctant goodbye to this beautiful and wildly creative book that Spurrier has crafted with such love and such deftness as to make even the woe-begotten son of Charles Xavier and the stammering, oft-nonsensical young Blindfold two of the most complicated and tragic characters in the Marvel Universe. It's a testament to the power of a really well-written and well-executed character study and it's, for my money, one of the best and most satisfying examples of the superhero genre in the past decade, if not longer. Everyone involved deserves untold credit, from Spurrier's mad writing to Tan Eng Huat and Khoi Pham's alternating artistic approaches to José Villarrubia and Rachelle Rosenberg's colors to the amazing Mike del Mundo covers each and every issue. I'm so sad to see it go but so thrilled that it ever existed.

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

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of post yesterday. Time got a little bit away from me and suddenly I found myself across state lines and away from my computer watching a truly awful Super Bowl and a truly amazing Captain America: Winter Soldier trailer (why they didn't show the full amazing trailer on television is beyond me but WHATEVER). ANYWAY, here are the picks for this week on this special Monday edition of PICKS.

Superior Spider-Man 26

This one just edges out AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, which was a delightful little romp mixed with seriousness and fun, and THUNDERBOLTS, which I think is hurt a little bit by the fact it's been so good of late that a slightly slower issue looks weaker in comparison but still strong to everything else. SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN was a nice travel through three separate storylines expertly guided by Dan Slott and a trio of artists perfectly matched to their portion of the issue. Really nice book, covers a lot of ground and gives us a sense of what we can expect in the coming months leading to the April resurrection of Peter Parker, just in time for May's Amazing Spider-Man 2 (the full trailer of which I also liked more than I thought I would. I think that Garfield's a pretty strong Spider-Man and I like the world they've created about him. Time will tell about the influx of villains and the look of said villains). Should be a nice little time coming up and it's presented and set-up well here.

Uncanny Avengers 16
Another issue separated into three or so storylines but this one with McNiven art throughout (I like Steve McNiven a lot and he's obviously a pro in the industry but I will say I still kind of miss Daniel Acuña after three issues without) and with the storylines merging and separating and merging and separating. I'd also say this has some of the best fighting I've seen in a book in a while with some great Cap moments and some great Thor moments (including Thor yelling "I CARE NOT" about a hundred times at varying degrees of intensity). There's been a lot happening in this book for a long time (Remender can get into some long arcs but they almost always prove worthwhile, as he's shown in books like UNCANNY X-FORCE and CAPTAIN AMERICA) and this issue might be the first time where you can really start to see that there could be an ending. It's been a great story but no story should go un-ended in comics (I know, crazy thing to say considering the nature of comics and the way I'll mourn, for example, the next book on this list). This was one of the books where I came away after reading it and felt like I needed to instantly read it again and make my girlfriend read it so that I could talk to someone about it.

X-Men Legacy 23

Spurrier again manages to do something completely unexpected and pause the game a little bit for something exceedingly necessary in the penultimate issue of David's run. This issue, typically reserved for part of the big battle or the culmination of the big battle or the wind-up of a series, finds David and Ruth finally officially getting together while the fight scene, which envelops much of the world, rages on outside. I don't know that pausing everything for this works with any other book or any other character but it not only works here, after reading the issue it feels like it was the only way this could have gone. It's a great story and, no matter the outcome of the final issue of this epic tale of the world's most powerful mutant, you can't help but adore the fact that David finally got something nice here. Also some wonderful Tan Eng Huat art and some great and appropriately jarring Jose Villarrubia colors to match it. Amazing stuff, waiting with bated breath for the final issue, as everyone should be.

X-Men Legacy 23, Uncanny X-Force 17

X-Men Legacy 23
Spurrier (w) and Huat and Yeung (a) and Villarrubia (c)

David's world worm is in full effect as he finds himself trapped in his own mind while the sum of his powers begin to envelop everyone around him, calling forth all mutants to join him, which they do, convinced by David's powers that it's for the best. The only one who isn't called into David is Blindfold, who tries to stop the other mutants from being taken but who also recognizes that she won't be able to. She enters David's mind as her physical body keeps fighting the world worm outside and the two of them talk. It's a surprisingly soft talk with everything that's happening outside and it has a lot to do with his regret that he won't be able to spend more time with Ruth. It's then, though, that the smallest of loopholes occurs to him (particularly notable since he also spends a fair amount of time lamenting that the beautiful people in this world always get loopholes and manage to worm their way out of death but he just worms his way into it. Get it? Worms. Guys, I'm working on LAYERS here): one of the powers he's gestalt-ed into him is the powers of the Chronodon, who can make time stand still. He uses these powers not to stop anything that's about to happen but to give himself and Ruth just a little more time. And then they make love in that time.

This series and this story have been incredible all the way through, highlighted by a very distinct narrator and protagonist but certainly helped by a well-developed and maintained supporting cast. In the end, though, this was always meant to be a love story between David and Ruth and finally, after 23 issues, they get their moment. Albeit, it's a short lived one as they had to literally stop time to have it and their return to time will return their physical forms to fighting with one needing to kill the other to ensure their better future, but it's still a moment. It's a lovely moment at that and it's backed by an issue that gives us exactly what we've come to expect from this book; it's a solid mix of action, high stakes, and character drama with the typical comic book world-ending possibility and, as David knew it would, it all comes down to punching. Really great visual issue too. Striking images and jarring colors (lots of yellow and grey) really help to highlight everything that's happening and give it sort of an epic feel. So excited for the last issue but also so incredibly depressed by the idea of it.

Uncanny X-Force 17
Humphries (w) and Tolibao, Soy, Tadeo, Young, and Paris (a) and Curiel (c)

The conclusion of UNCANNY X-FORCE, CABLE AND X-FORCE, and the VENDETTA crossover itself kicks off with Hope plunging the psimitar into Bishop's gut. Bishop, though, convinces her to take the psimitar out without actually killing him by again pointing out that he's totally sorry but more so that she shouldn't throw her life away by killing and that she shouldn't throw her life away on him. Not to say he wouldn't deserve it, he admits, but that it's still not worth it (it doesn't hurt that he's not a threat any more). With this, the rest of the X-Force teams locate and attack Stryfe, splitting into two groups, one to attack Stryfe and one to locate their missing teammates. The attack on Stryfe is well-managed by Psylocke but ultimately fails to the omega-level mutant. Stryfe captures everyone in a telekinetic hold except for Spiral, who had left earlier, and Cable, who was still removed from the fight. Spiral, though, hadn't actually left officially but had, instead, gone to pick up Cable and they return to stab Stryfe with the psimitar, which does not kill him but does force him to flee. However, before he goes, he forces Hope to take his powers, knowing she can't contain them and will likely kill them all with the psychic reverb. With Stryfe gone, everyone is free to worry about Hope exploding but, before she can, Bishop rushes forth and talks to her, understanding what she's going through as someone whose powers also rely on absorption and release. Bishop manages to get her to contain the power and then blast it upwards, impacting no one. With everyone safe, the two teams reconvene and hang out a bit, effectively ending the books with Psylocke and Cable walking into the sunset together.

It's not a bad little ending but most of it hinges on Bishop and Hope, which is certainly a worthwhile story and one that's executed as well as anything in these two series has been. However, it also means that the rest of the players in this book kind of get pushed to the side a little and actually end up feeling a little unnecessary. The story was never about them and their rescue of the hostages only ended up serving as a distraction for Cable to get to Stryfe. Kind of a weird way to end the two series, which is kind of what I've been saying since the get-go. I've also been saying that this crossover has hit every beat in a sort of predictable fashion and, with the quality of the issue aside, this issue is no different. Still, like I said, the story of Cable, Hope, and Bishop was one certainly worth telling and I think it's told pretty well here. I don't think either of these series got to end on a particularly strong note with this crossover, sadly, but it's certainly an acceptable note and it paves the way rather nicely for Si Spurrier's X-FORCE next month (woo!).

Comics this week

GUYS. ONLY 14 BOOKS OUT THIS WEEK. AND THAT INCLUDES SOME THAT I MAY NOT EVEN REVIEW! WHAT A WEEK! PRAISE BE TO THE END OF JANUARY.

Inhumanity 2
Little confused about this one going into the week so that should be good for us! INHUMANITY continues after a bit of a wait in INHUMANITY 2, previously known as INHUMANITY - MEDUSA. Why the change? Well smart money says its in the crossfire of the switch from Fraction to Soule as writer on INHUMANITY. Who's writing this issue? Who knows! But it should probably be a big one!

Superior Spider-Man 26
With GOBLIN NATION just getting under way and impacting the entire Spider-Man universe and with the knowledge that Peter Parker is still alive inside his own mind somewhere, things are set to start ramping up for this series before April's launch of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Now seems as good a time as any to get onboard if you've been curious.

Thunderbolts 21
Fun! Whimsy! Adventure! Most of the Thunderbolts in Hell and Elektra and Punisher likely facing off against Mercy! Just read this book and enjoy it, you guys.

Uncanny Avengers 16
Things are happening in this book and they've been happening for quite some time in this book. All of the mutants have been whisked away to the ark and put into stasis for the journey, seemingly ending any hope at rebellion against the Apocalypse twins. So what stands in their way? Well it seems probably not Earth since the Earth has been sentenced to death for the death of a Celestial. Geez guys, didn't you have enough problems already?

X-Men Legacy 23
This amazing title has reached its penultimate issue. Well, I mean, it's going to number 25, which will be number 300, but that won't really have to do with David and won't be by Si Spurrier. Well, Spurrier will have a story in it and it might focus on David, I don't know that. OKAY LOOK, this book has been incredible and the story we know is rushing towards its conclusion in the very next issue. Seems like maybe this is a bit of a weird time to jump on but seriously, give this book your money while you have the chance (also buy the trades and tell every single person you know about it, regardless of everything else you know about them).



Here's one of the super awesome things though: THESE FIVE BOOKS ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES WORTHY OF YOUR ATTENTION. There's also CATACLYSM - ULTIMATES' LAST STAND, which will likely feature the death of a hero whose image is STILL blocked out on certain sites despite the fact they didn't block it out in the back of last week's CATACLYSM - ULTIMATE X-MEN. There's UNCANNY X-FORCE, which will end the VENDETTA crossover and will effectively say goodbye to both CABLE AND X-FORCE and UNCANNY X-FORCE in one fell swoop. There's MIRACLEMAN 2, another fully colored reprint of Alan Moore's original series. There's THOR: GOD OF THUNDER, which will mark the start of another new arc for a series that so violently jumps back and forth between really good and tolerable and may ALSO mark the return of Esad Ribic art. REVOLUTIONARY WAR - KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON is out this week and it stars...the KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON, one of whom is UNION JACK. GUYS. I've only NOT named like, four books and frankly, even some of them will probably catch your eye. Look, what I'm saying is get to your comic book store this week and check out some of these neat books coming out this week.

This week's picks

There are weeks where I know I'm going to have a tough time working out what books to choose for the top three and know not to make any calls until I've checked them all out and given some time to process. There are also weeks where two books lock in to the top three from the moment I read them and I have to carefully think about the other books to figure out which one is third. This week is the latter.

Daredevil 35

I was wondering how, with only two issues left, DAREDEVIL was going to really shake things up before its relaunch. My fear, especially with the ending of last issue, was that they would kill Foggy. I don't really believe they would but it seemed like we were awfully close to the end and Foggy took a turn for the worse and I just didn't know, okay? This is much better and far less...cheap, I suppose. A character's life is always important, especially one as fundamental to our title as Foggy, but that often means that they could be used to raise the stakes for our hero. Instead, we get Daredevil choosing to turn his whole life upside down to make a play that his enemies won't expect. It's so Daredevil that I can't believe no one's done it before. It feels, now that it's all said and done, so perfect for the man without fear to refuse to be part of the game that the Sons of the Serpent would play with him. It's also nice that Waid's (first) run didn't conclude without seeing Elektra and similarly nice that she was so influential in his decision. Just a really well-told story.

Thunderbolts 20

This book was the one that still, even as I write these words, is trying to fight off other titles to stay on this list. SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN was my stand-in pretty much all week for this because of the surprise of the reveal and I can't help wondering if it wouldn't have made the cut if it hadn't been spoiled early in the week. However, there were also some really choppy lines in there that broke flow and maybe a little too much exposition from every angle to keep it up there. In fact, INHUMANITY - SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN might have beat it out if THUNDERBOLTS hadn't, thanks to stellar Chris Gage writing and unbelievable Stephanie Hans art. But THUNDERBOLTS, as it has so often of recent, takes control as it again stands out with its dialogue and characterization. It feels like every line in this book is there for a purpose, that every line advances plot or characterizes someone. Charles Soule is writing a really good book and Marvel has done a solid job finding him artists that match the tone, as Carlos Barberi shows off some skill on this one. Really fun, really engaging title. Check it out.

X-Men Legacy 22

As I said above, there were two books that, from the moment I read them, I knew they'd make the top three. Sometimes you just know. It's a mix of sheer greatness from the book and gut feeling and the level of competition out there for the rest of the week. There was never any doubt with X-MEN LEGACY but even if there had been it certainly still would have garnered serious consideration because, like with most weeks when it's released, LEGACY stuck in my head far longer than any of the other books out this week. I really enjoyed DAREDEVIL and if I think back on it I can recall exactly what happened and what I liked about it. I loved X-MEN LEGACY and I don't have to think back on it because it's pretty much at the front of my mind, days after I read and reviewed it last. This series has turned from one that I loved for its kind of slow burn into one that I love for its immediate impact AND the slow burn as I think about it later in the week. I'm very excited to see how this one wraps up and also a little devastated inside that the hole this book filled will reopen (though hopefully some of the new books launching from Marvel will ease that pain).

X-Men Legacy 22, Uncanny X-Force 16

X-Men Legacy 22
Spurrier (w) and Pham (a) and Rosenberg (c)

The evil mind-Xavier has launched a missile containing all sorts of nuclear firepower at Washington, knowing that the very act, once it shows on the radar, will cause a chain reaction around the world currently filled with hate that the gold Xavier has permeated. David, though, unknowingly has called for his allies. From Wolverine's team to Cyclops' team to Abigail Brand and Sydren to Pete Wisdom to anyone he's teamed up with and they all show, helping to take apart the nuke before it can cause too much trouble (as David points out, taking apart a nuke was the first thing the X-Men did). The gold Xavier is less a gold Xavier at current and more a giant rock monster thing with crazy seemingly disintegration ray powers so it'll take all the X-Men and David's considerable might to bring him down. There are casualties in the fight that David, as a leader, has to be able to move past, including the apparent deaths of Abigail Brand, Chamber, and Karasu Tengu. David pushes through and gets the X-Men to push through and work together, to put aside the hate they have stored up in them and the hate that Xavier is trying to force to the surface. David destroys the body and pulls the power into the astral plane. It's at this moment that Blindfold wakes up, with the power taken by her brother restored (now that Luca's body is destroyed), and projects herself to the fight while her actual body hurries its way there. David squares off against the gold Xavier, who begins to weaken and transform away from the Xavier image and into something small and sickly, goblin-like, in his mind. David prepares to either cage the personality or destroy it but the personality denies him, asking David how a person with a sickness of the mind cures it. The answer is, of course, that he doesn't: he finds ways to live with it. With that, he dives into David's legion and David, unprepared to take it on, emerges back into the real world and becomes the world worm they knew he would become.

The last time I talked about X-MEN LEGACY it was to name it 2013's best Marvel title. This issue does absolutely nothing to disavow me of that notion, even though last week saw the conclusion and therefore the wrap-up of the amazing YOUNG AVENGERS. This book is just truly something else. There's a feeling with the last year or two of Marvel books that they're all echoing something different out there. I think that has a lot to do with books like HAWKEYE, which really broke the mold of a superhero comic, and the rise of Image comics. Superhero books can be different and they can maybe be a little niche and you can take the superhero world, with all of its tropes and eccentricities and over-the-top action and death and resurrection and superpowers and supervillains, and you can, if you want, stick it in a real-ish world and tell really great, really character-centric stories. It's not necessarily a new idea when it's framed that way but it certainly feels new and the books that are doing it well are doing it with such excellence that they're about the best books I've ever seen. Even books that feel a little more traditional, like DAREDEVIL, are bringing such a level of personality and depth that they're changing the face of superhero comics. X-MEN LEGACY is a book about the mutant son of Charles Xavier who happens to be the most powerful mutant in existence. David himself says that his father thought of him as a mutant with "godlike powers and childlike control." Despite this and despite the amazing stories that Spurrier can be and has told with the character, it's remained remarkably personal and remarkably moving. This issue moves David into a spot (where he's been moving for a while, actually) where the main villain has been the sickness in himself and, instead of the typical superhero solution of "punch down the bad guys," you can't find a cure for every sickness. It's an amazing book. Khoi Pham's art is incredible here and, though his style is a departure from Tan Eng Huat (the other major series artist), gives the book a very distinct feel. Huat's art has really grown on me as the series has progressed and, honestly, it's at the point where I love Pham's art in this book but I can see it just as well as if Huat drew it. That's thanks in no small part, too, to Rachelle Rosenberg's colors, which unify the title and makes it look unlike any other out there. Amazing, amazing book. If we ever get a full omnibus style release for this title, I'd urge everyone to get it. Urge, you guys.

Uncanny X-Force 16
Humphries (w) and Tolibao and Soy (a) and Curiel (c)

Hope and Bishop have been taken by Stryfe and both Cable's X-Force and the Uncanny X-Force are interested in finding them. However, the reasons for their mutual interest don't exactly match up and the two teams begin to fight one another through LA. Cable's team shows up to support their leader as he gets knocked out by Storm and Psylocke and they play a bit of keep away as Cable's team works to get him back. Meanwhile, Bishop tries to convince Hope that he's really changed but nothing he can say, as he well understands, can make up for the horrors he's inflicted on Hope. Stryfe shows up to taunt at them for a bit and because he's sworn revenge on Bishop, who betrayed him and left him stranded in the future the last time they saw each other. He offers Hope a chance at her wildest dreams (to be revealed next issue). Back in LA, the dust settles to find Cable awake again. Cable instructs Dr. Nemesis to give Spiral a nightmare, which he does with one of his drug concoctions. In the midst of Spiral's Mojo-based nightmare, Cable convinces her to teleport him to Stryfe's location, which she somewhat unwittingly does. They arrive to find Stryfe waiting for them.

What I typically like about four-issue crossovers is that there's usually a lot to explain and not a lot of room to do it in, so you tend to get only the exposition that you truly need and the action has to move at a certain pace to convey the entire story of two separate entities (in this case, CABLE AND X-FORCE and UNCANNY X-FORCE) over only four issues. For the most part, VENDETTA is proving to be no different. The fights move pretty quickly, the inciting incident and rising action all move well, and you can feel the story both winding up and preparing to wind down at any point. On the weaker ones, you can usually map out the beats after the first issue. I wouldn't say this is entirely one of the weaker ones; the story there, particularly the story about Hope and Bishop, is intriguing enough to keep the audience guessing and to keep the crossover moving well. I will say, I almost would have preferred it if this issue wasn't a big fight issue. Not only would a quick team-up without the typical big fight be something of a surprise in a crossover of this style, it would make a little more sense. To both Sam Humphries' and Dennis Hopeless' credit, they've created a reason for the fight that's more than just "this is the second beat of a four-issue crossover." Still, these are two teams comprised of people who are friends and unquestionably heroes (well, except for the reformed villains you tend to ruin into) and you'd like to see that, just once, mean something. Still not a bad issue. There's some clunky fight-dialogue sprinkled throughout but the arguments for both side are good enough that you can get past it. Also not complaining that the resolution of this crossover will set us into the February launch of Si Spurrier's (see above review) X-FORCE.