This week's picks

Sorry about the somewhat erratic posting schedule this week (that may only concern me). I've just started a new job that I will, in theory, get paid for as opposed to this one which I only pretend to get paid for (unless someone wants to start doing that, right, literally anyone?). That could mean more erratic posts in the future. My thought is that either things will get much better with scheduling posts or much worse. We'll talk about it later, you guys. Anyway, this week's a little bit tricky because there weren't many standouts and, in fact, the non-standouts weren't all that good anyway. Let's talk about it ANYWAY.

Avengers Arena 15

This one never really has a non-standout issue and this week's was no exception. Some more character-building, even this late in the game and even with the character we're building dying in this issue. I think we're in for some really stellar finale books coming up. There's still so much to do in this book, so many plots that need wrapping and so many characters who need arcs resolved. The main villain of the piece hasn't come close to even being touched pretty much since issue one. Now Apex and Death Locket might be in the best position for that but god knows what way they'll go when we get down to it (mostly what way Apex will go and which way Death Locket will have to go as a result). That's not even to talk about what's going to happen with Anachronism as his girlfriend, with whom it seemed to be getting rather serious fairly quickly, has been killed by a monster his best friend, who not so secretly has a bit of a crush on him, turned into. Guys. That's a real sentence I just wrote about this series. Why aren't you reading this series?

Captain America 11

Another nice entry into what has been a pretty reliably solid new series for Cap. There's decidedly less action in this than in the first ten issues, giving Cap and the audience a chance to kind of catch their breath (though Nuke is still all action all the time). Emotionally, though, taking a breath isn't necessarily what Cap wants to do. He's still reeling from the loss of both Ian and Sharon and now he's being asked to reacquaint himself with a time period he left more than a decade ago. That's not easy for anyone, let alone someone who has so much loss in his past. The way to hopefully get through it? Forget the past, focus on the future. As good as separating from the past might be for Cap, who has always been anchored there in some way or another, it's still a bit of a gut-wrenching moment as he piles all of his memorabilia on the roof and sets it aflame. Tough stuff. Really interested to see what next issue brings.

Ultimates 30

This one came as a bit of a surprise to me. Not the quality of the book, that's been pretty solid for a good time now. It wasn't really on my radar for the last pick though until as I was doing my last check over the list of new comics this week. This beats out primarily Avengers and Deadpool (Mighty Avengers is somewhere not far behind but far enough out that it was only going to make it if every other book got injured this week). Avengers had, I think, just as good of a plot and solid writing but really, the male gaze thing I talked about in my review of it lingers for me as a big negative. Deadpool makes a surprise pull but I think Preston and the middle of the issue in general slowed the book down a bit too much to make the final leap. Ultimates, though, was a great lesson in tone and momentum swings, which are huge in a book like this. The plot has remained interesting and the characters have been key as every Ultimate gets a chance to shine at one point or another in this one. There's a lot to like here, even if it got a little muddled in the middle and maybe a little too "don't peak behind the curtains" at certain points. Solid stuff.


Best Cover
Avengers 19
Yu and L. Martin

Well, I mean, this one. Sure the issue lost some points for male gaze but boy if this cover isn't beautiful. Great characterization of Carol. Great, kind of haunting image. Fantastic colors. If I was in the comic shop and not concerned with reading every single issue of every single week, I'd look into buying this one to find more out about this character who resembles Captain Marvel but maybe in this reality I don't know her history so like, why's she on fire? The last issue of Captain Marvel featured Carol going Binary too but it wasn't quite as dramatic nor impressive as this (also I think it kind of ruined the surprise at the end of the issue, frankly). Really nice cover here.

Ultimates 29, Thunderbolts 14, Nova 7

Ultimates 29
Fialkov (w) and Di Giandomenico and Ruggiero (a) and Charalampidis (c)

Reed's team only needs the one remaining Infinity Gem to finish out the gauntlet and things really should be less complicated as Tony Stark is dead and his armor seemingly under Reed's control and the Ultimates are imprisoned. Unfortunately for Reed, Tony's smart enough to have uploaded his consciousness into his network, meaning that he can hack just about anything now. Bit of a buzzkill for Reed as it allows him to take his own armor offline, mostly, instead of allowing Reed to use it and it means he can hack Reed's systems and control a suit himself. The book moves incredibly fast as Tony works his way through all of Reed's plans, culminating in a rescue of the Ultimates and the serious delay of all of Reed's work, if not the ultimate end. Meanwhile, Quicksilver has used John Storm to drill to the Earth's core to retrieve the last Infinity Gem for Kang, who he believes is his sister Wanda. As he returns with the gem, he reads through Reed's math (Pietro admits he's not smart but he's great at math because the speed he can analyze it means that he knows math well purely through repetition) and realizes that Kang's plan isn't going to end the way he thought it would and it's not anything that Wanda would ever do. She's not Wanda. Kang realizes that Quicksilver's found out and quickly catches up with him, admitting it to him before taking the gem and ending his life, giving him 30 seconds in which he sprints to Wanda's grave to give a final speech to her, pouring his heart out before he dies by her side. It's that speech that serves as a sort of narrator for this book, starting right with the beginning of the comic and ending as Pietro actually reaches the grave before starting anew out of Pietro's actual mouth. So who is Kang? The Ultimates find out as they gang up on Reed that Kang is future Sue Storm and she'll kill every one of them if they get in her way.

There is a TON happening here. Really impressive the level of climax we had here. Guys, I know this is the Ultimate universe and people die here but Tony Stark is kind of dead and Quicksilver just died. I recounted this book to my girlfriend and the fact that Quicksilver died came up and was, honestly, kind of off-handed because Tony obviously is a bigger death and she had to stop me to be like, "wait, what? Don't they stay dead over there?" I know! That's not to say it's poorly done or something, the fact that it's more off-handedly mentioned. In fact, it's very well done. It's incredibly sweet (ignoring the weird Pietro-Wanda relationship in the Ultimate universe) and it justifies a lot of his actions. He's suddenly more understandable and more helpless than conniving and kind of pure evil, as he's been shown lately. But it still fits nicely and his sentiments are very sweet and very touching. The pace of the book is great as Tony consciousness runs circles around Reed, thwarting and mocking him at every turn. Everything is fast and smart and the Sue Storm end reveal (with present Sue Storm in the room working against future Sue) is pleasantly surprising and well hidden. Solid work here. I've had some skepticisms about this Ultimates Disassembled business but this issue really straightened some worries out, giving us plenty to look forward to next time. High fives all around.

Thunderbolts 14
Soule (w) and Palo and Pallot (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Guys, I'm going to be honest and give some review-spoilers here: the three books reviewed today all get slightly surprised high fives. I could not be happier that this is true; I've had my troubles with each of these series that extended even as far as the most recent issues before these but I found myself genuinely enjoying each of these books and happy to be reading them. Let's talk about the specifics more, hm? Okay, so Thunderbolts. The change is official: Charles Soule is the new Thunderbolts writer with Daniel Way stepping aside to make way for him. I'm a Daniel Way fan; I thought his run on Deadpool was great and really helped the character along in the Marvel Universe (don't talk to me about the new one, whatever guys, I'm having fun right now) and he carried that solid Deadpool into this book. There was plenty to like about this Thunderbolts team but I wasn't falling in with the tone of the book, which wasn't particularly well-established, and the other characters didn't have too too much meat to them. Soule takes over along with artist Jeffte Palo and the tone is immediately changed. I've liked the last couple issues a bit but they were meant to tie up final plotlines. In 12, Soule's first issue, Punisher hunted down Elektra's brother. In 13, we learned about Mercy. Here, in 14, Soule is building his first set of issues. They're kind of tied-in to Infinity in that the Avengers are off-Earth here and Thanos is likely on his way, which might have an effect or might be a backdrop to our story. But Ross is keeping to his promise for the team; he built the team with the assurance to each member that they'd have resources and a team at their disposal to do things for themselves and that the team would alternate missions, one for Ross, one for another team member, one for Ross, one for another team member, and so on. So he's sticking to it. The first team member to get to choose a mission, after picking names from a ridiculous hat, is Punisher. He says that his mission is that he wants their help taking down a crime family in New York, which is followed by this nearly perfect beat (I don't often post panels in my summaries but this was too perfect to pass up. It might still make its way to panel of the week this week):

Great, right? Anyway, Punisher wants help taking out a dangerous crime family who has the support of every other crime family in New York. A success would mean crippling New York crime, potentially even by taking out tons of players, but the risk comes with the fact that every crime family in New York is willing to drop everything to defend the Paguro family. Risky business. There's another fun moment where Punisher starts to make a plan which dances around utilizing the whole team, knowing that attracting the attention of the Avengers isn't a great idea but, as soon as he learns the Avengers are off-world, he changes the plan to a full on assault.

Look, this is a really long post because I'm very happy with this change in tone and pace and even art. I liked Phil Noto's stuff but it was kind of as tone ambiguous as Way's writing. The book had funny moments but wasn't funny and it had serious moments but didn't feel that serious. This book has its own serious moments but the humor really shines. The art also gives it a lighter feel, with Jeffte Palo's more cartoony artwork giving us a really great match for the writing. Lots of great moments, genuinely fun beats and an exciting plot. I can't ask for more out of a team that I originally anticipated being incredibly fun and exciting. Full-on applause for this one.

Nova 7
Z. Wells (w) and Medina and Vlasco (a) and Curiel (c)

Nova has been given permission to keep Nova-ing but isn't yet ready to join the Avengers. Point of fact, he's not really ready to keep Nova-ing. He ignores the damage he did to the skate park in his hometown during his first arc and speeds to New York, only to be immediately accosted by angry NYPD and to crash into a more angry and more dangerous Spider-Man. Spidey curses him out for his inexperience and naivety before sending him on his way with the useful suggestions of getting a police scanner to identify real emergencies and maybe going to a city without superheroes to practice (which would be any other city on Earth, practically). Sam rushes off to do these things, using his helmet to identify some real world problems and zooming around after a failed attempt in Los Angeles (with a not-so-thinly-veiled and a bit eye-roll-worthy nod to Joss Whedon and a quick cameo by former New Warriors Justice and Speedball). He quickly learns that rushing into situations isn't the best approach (there are some neat bits where he admits to construction workers back at his skate park where he's reluctantly decided to help that firemen are better at fires than he is and that angry crowds aren't easy to talk to) and slows things down, returning to Carefree, Arizona to start small. However, Thanos is on the horizon, so don't expect him to stay small for too long.

I really enjoyed this issue. Nova sounds like the fifteen year-old he's supposed to sound like and the book wants to have a more fun feel to it, something that books that try to hard fail miserably at. Instead, it works very well here and the laughs are mostly genuine (the Joss Whedon does indeed get an eye-roll). This one's applause comes with rather a wary eye, though. I wasn't a huge fan of the Nova reboot here. First and foremost, he spins right out of the newish Ultimate Spider-Man TV show which is garbage. Still, comics don't necessarily follow TV or movies word for word so he was still jumping into an established universe. I liked the idea behind the Black Nova corps but I didn't love the story or the character particularly under Jeph Loeb. It felt strained and very cliché. Zeb Wells took over recently and got me a little more onboard, giving Nova a more genuine sounding voice and putting the character back on new ground on Earth. I've liked the work he's done and this issue is certainly no exception; in fact, I'd say it's the strongest of the series so far. But issue 10 will see another writer change on the book, replacing Wells with Gerry Duggan. Remember above, in my Thunderbolts post, when I mentioned not liking the new Deadpool book? Or every Deadpool review where I've said that? Duggan is one of the men behind that. Don't get me wrong, that certainly doesn't mean Nova is bound to cross borders I don't care for. Deadpool's a different character and Duggan's a pro, who is also, it should be mentioned, writing Deadpool alongside a stand-up comedian in Brian Posehn. Still, I'm wary of the new direction that could be coming, especially after I liked this issue so much. Hoping that Wells' stay, if nothing else, is memorable. Truly hoping for better beyond that, but I'd except a solid five issues.


Geez guys, sorry for the really long post today. I've tried to limit my number of three review posts but sometimes you have fourteen books and you can't help yourself in four days. Also, I was really impressed by these three books and really surprised at how impressed I was. Days like these make me love comics anew. Wonderful. Maybe not the best books this week (building suspense for THIS WEEK'S PICKS tomorrow) but good enough to make me excited.

This week's picks

Woo, tricky week for picking my top three. Only, in my head, one real stand out and everything else was middling, maybe a step over or under, or despicably bad. So let's start with the stand out.

Iron Man 14

This series continues to impress as the characters are so nailed down and well-thought out and the story is so compelling. For this issue specifically, we have characters falling nicely into perfect roles for them, set up beautifully by the way they've been presented throughout the series, such as Death's Head willfully going against 451's orders while not going against his orders, Tony using his ingenuity to escape 451's control, and even 451 with a bit of regret and sadness overpowered by his drive to complete this mission. Just a great book with sharp writing and stand-out characters and a story really worth reading. The stakes have been raised higher than ever for Tony as the issue ends, leading to what will surely be another great issue from Gillen.

Superior Spider-Man 15

Dan Slott's insistence on building up Phil Urich is paying off now as everything Phil has built for himself comes crashing down around his shoulders. Fired by the Kingpin in dramatic fashion and hunted by Spider-Man, Phil's checkbook has been taken away and he still has bills to pay. As his life gets more and more chaotic, he finds himself targeted again by Spider-Man and, unbeknownst to him, by the former Horizon employee he burned, Ty Stone (it occurs to me know I have two cousins, one named Ty and one named Stone, in the same family. That's not ideal). As Spider-Man reveals his identity to the world at large, Phil is surrounded by the bit role players of the Daily Bugle, which should put Spider-Man in a bit of a delicate situation as the next issue starts with a psychopath surrounded by Peter's old friends and colleagues.

Hunger 2

This book is definitely getting in on the weakness of the week. It's edged out Avengers (which would have been in on Manifold's back alone), the other two Superior books, and Daredevil Dark Nights (which was probably the closest bet but still had a couple of lingering problems that irked me). I don't think this is a wholly remarkable book so far (though it will show up in the best panel segment) but the story is enticing, it's well-written and well-illustrated. Can't ask for much more out of a book than that. I'll be interested to see where the mini-series goes after this and what it means for the Ultimate and standard Marvel Universes as a whole when the dust settles. Like I said in the review, I also can't get too close to the characters in this book because I have smart money on one or both of them dying before it's all over.


Best Panel

This one comes from Hunger 2 and it's a pretty astoundingly drawn panel. It rather blew me a way when I turned the page to it. I think it's probably helped by the fact that Ultimate characters can and do tend to die at a moment's notice, meaning that Surfer pulling Nova out of the swarm had been a real threat. Still, even if it hadn't been, the image is very impressive and it's incredibly well-drawn and colored. This panel has stuck with me throughout the week in the way that only the best Best Panels do. Made my job easier, I tell you (though there were a handful of solid covers I considered choosing for a Best Cover segment instead).