This week's picks

Another long and exciting week of Marvel comics down so it's another attempt to choose the three most worthy of recognition this week. Tricky in a week full of ambitious number ones, game-changing ultimate or penultimate issues, and fifth issues of varying degrees of interest. Look, lots of books out this week, is what I'm saying. Let's pick some.

All-New Ghost Rider 1

I don't know that this is truly one of the top three books of the week (it edges out books like UNCANNY AVENGERS, NEW AVENGERS, AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, SILVER SURFER, etc.) but it is the most ambitious of the new books out this week and probably of all the other books out this week. The unique art style and coloring, on top of the creation of a new character who tries to shield his younger brother from the darkness of the world suddenly becoming one of the darkest anti-heroes out there, made for a book that feels like it's got places it can go. For a number one, not being locked in to some specific trajectory so early on feels like such a big first step. Robbie Reyes has a whole world out in front of him and we'll see that world with art that isn't really any where else on the shelves right now.

Hawkeye 18

Don't get me wrong, I adore this series. But as a reviewer, it was almost a relief when HAWKEYE stumbled a bit in production and took a little longer to come out than it normally would have because then there were wild cards in the weekly pull list post. With HAWKEYE rocketing out several times in the last month+, it's almost a given that it's going to wind up on this list every single time. Annie Wu's art is tremendous and matches the tone and style of Fraction's writing for Kate, the story is compelling and engaging, the characters in Kate's new life are well-developed, and the stakes of the story rise at what seems like the perfect speed. It's a phenomenal series. Don't let the fact that it's regularly up on this list make you feel like it's going to stagnate at a certain point, albeit a rather high point. Each one makes it on to this list for all of the same reasons but also entirely new reasons. It's clearly Fraction, Aja, Wu, and Hollingsworth aren't really up for doing the same thing twice at any point with this book. Check it out if, for some ridiculous reason, you haven't already.

Superior Spider-Man 30

I'll be honest, this one, like so many issues of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN or even AMAZING SPIDER-MAN before it isn't necessarily as clean as the books I tend to pick and put up here (which is why these books tend to go through waves of making the list and not making the list); it often has a little more over-explanation than I'm looking for in a book, maybe a few too many mentions that Spider-Man 2099 is from the future, maybe it gets a little more heavy-handed and leaves a little less to the audience. HOWEVER, Slott and Gage both clearly understand the reasons we're involved in a Spider-Man story and even though we all pretty firmly knew that Peter Parker was on his way back (particularly as solicit news broke it a couple months ago) seeing him get back into action is fulfilling in every way as a Spider-Man fan. So as the trials and tribulations of the Superior Spider-Man come to a close, Gage and Slott do a fantastic job to get us back into the swing of things (PUN) with Peter Parker's triumphant return. Boy, he's got a lot of cleaning up to do. Nothing's ever easy for that guy.




REAL BEST BOOK OF THE WEEK:
Captain America 117

I mean obviously this was the best book of this week and any other week it "debuted." WATCH, AS RED SKULL ENACTS HIS MOST DASTARDLY PLAN: NOT PAYING FOR A CAB RIDE ACROSS TOWN.

Hawkeye 18, Indestructible Hulk 20

Hawkeye 18
Fraction (w) and Wu (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Kate's mysterious friend from the cat food aisle is on his way out of LA, despite Kate's objections. Before he goes, he gives her his demon cat, which she immediately wants to return. Hoping against hope that he hasn't left yet, she and her neighbors Marcus and Finch go to the address on the cat's carrier to return it, finding an unexpected mansion of a home. Inside, they find Kate's friend, Harold H. Harold (the H. also stands for Harold) bleeding on the couch, muttering that he's going to die in LA. They take care of him and hear his story, which explains just a whole bunch about him. He was a crime writer out in LA to search all the weird crime beats and to uncover crazy stories. When he sold one of his stories to Hollywood, he got wrapped into all new intrigue and inadvertently ended up on the radar of Count Nefaria and his daughter Madam Masque. He accidentally discovered that they've been involved in murder and re-creation, Frankensteining people together from their Hollywood features. With the secret revealed to Harold, he's never been able to leave LA. Every time he tries, he gets run off the road or beat up or something. This time was no exception. Kate buys a ticket in his name out of the city and accompanies him to LAX in the hopes that she will see him on the plane personally, or at least gets a sense of the people after him. While trying to watch over him, none other than Flynt Ward the weed lord (from way back in HAWKEYE 14) turns up and escorts him out with his jackbooted thugs. Kate, Marcus, and Finch try to follow but eventually lose sight of him. Kate, who had learned that her police "contact" had actually been friends with Harold from Harold's crime writer experience, goes to see Officer Caudle about Harold's story and his subsequent disappearance. She tells him everything she knows and he tells her to disentangle herself from it before she winds up hurt. Madam Masque sends a threatening note along to Kate as well as a serious message when Harold winds up dead, arrowed to the Hollywood sign, and Kate's trailer ends up ablaze (Lucky and the cat are okay).

Another phenomenal issue of HAWKEYE and it's hard not to point out here just how impressive this series continues to be. Beyond all the things we already know about how great this series is, one of the things that I haven't talked about too much is just how different the Clint and Kate issues are. Not just that they are in different places with different casts and different artists, it's a wholly different writing style. Kate, of course, is more loquacious and more outgoing than Clint but even beyond that; there's a greater focus on the story and the backstory. There's just so much happening and Fraction so clearly understands his characters and is able to shift almost effortlessly between them, developing completely different voices for each one and building stories that suit each character and that very clearly change depending on which character is leading the book. Wonderful and well-done. The decision to swap between Aja and Wu for the art, while almost startling at first considering how great David Aja is and how great he's been for this book, has been nothing but the most amazing decision as Annie Wu absolutely kills it each and every time out.

Indestructible Hulk 20
Waid (w) and J. Bennett and R. Jose w/ Hanna (a) and Staples (c)

As the kidnapped Jessup is told about the operation that his kidnapper, Ted Goodrich, is running, the rest of Banner's team is forced to work with Hulk to try to get him back. Jessup immediately understands that Goodrich's setup, based on the work of underground experimental scientists who failed badly, is incredibly dangerous and tries to plot a way to stop it. Meanwhile, Hulk's team manages to breach Goodrich's hideaway while Jessup sacrifices himself to his new Inhuman so that he and Hulk can attack the biggest concern, a massive and unstable power source. Eventually Jessup drains all of Hulk's strength, powering himself up incredibly, and takes the brunt of the explosion. It reverts him back down to his human self and Banner commands they stay in Goodrich's lab (Goodrich and his assistant died trying to rip open a cocoon they had stolen) to help Jessup instead of returning to SHIELD only to draw the ire of Maria Hill. Banner returns and explains what happened to Hill but tells her that the team was lost and that he had no idea what happened at the end. She doesn't believe him and is sick of dealing with him. He returns to his lab and is promptly shot in the back of the head.

Geez, pretty abrupt ending to that one, huh? Anyway, the story of Jessup and Banner's lab team as a whole comes to an end here as Banner releases them into the wild. Banner also has made some revelations here, realizing that maybe his "Hulk destroys, Banner builds" mantra isn't as applicable as he thought it was; throughout the series, for all the good Banner has tried to do, he's done just as much destroying as Hulk thanks to his ego and his desperation. It's a real "Who Shot Mr. Burns" ending to this one as we're likely to rejoin this story at the start of its new "season," a rebooted Hulk series coming with the rest of the ALL-NEW MARVEL NOW! relaunches. This one continues to baffle me a bit as Hulk seemed to start in the midst of the ALL-NEW relaunches, or certainly close enough and, while the change seems pretty obvious, it doesn't sound like it's a change the size of, say, Daredevil moving to San Francisco or Captain Marvel moving to space. We'll just have to see. Still, if this is the wrap-up to this series, it's certainly been a worthwhile one. There have been ups and downs but a pretty good core throughout, one that shined the spotlight on Banner and only used Hulk in a more limited capacity. Interesting idea and Mark Waid certainly did a solid job getting his point across.