This week's picks

I'm always a little weirdly disappointed when my top three picks all come from my pre-game five picks at the start of each week. I don't know why. In theory, that should be true the majority of weeks. My top five picks should translate to, at least, a majority of my three post-game picks. And, in truth, I'm often disappointed when NO picks from my top five make it to the top three (okay look, I don't know if that's ever happened and I'm not about to go and check. But there have totally been weeks where my top three picks largely didn't match my top five anticipatory picks). That makes total sense to me. The top five picks at the start of the week are the books I'm most looking forward to. The three at the end are the top three I recommend. There should be some crossover. This week, it's all crossover, which I suppose is good. Oh well. Seems kind of anticlimactic.

Avengers Arena 6

This book, as I'll keep saying, has been such a pleasant surprise for me. It's a strong story with a big cast of characters which is adamant in developing those characters while never sacrificing story. It's a big, beautiful circle of plot and people. To top it all off, there are morality questions at the root of the conflict and who loves morality questions? This guy. And probably plenty of other people. But for all intents and purposes of this blog, this guy. Will these young heroes, many of whom are still teetering between hero and villain and all of whom are too young to be set in any ways, overcome their surroundings and come out alive? This is comics, remember, so another pertinent question: are the kids who haven't lived through this really dead? Does it matter that the targets in this book are kids? Would the grown heroes of the Marvel Universe keep their heads on straight? Lots of great questions and a very solid book to prop them up.

Thor: God of Thunder 6

The tale of Thor and one of the best new villains of recent days, Gorr, continues, this week focusing on the origin of Gorr (Gorrigin). Though it was a kind of an expected story, it's expected because it makes sense. If Aaron had gone well out of his way to demonstrate a reason that Gorr hated gods that wasn't the Occam's razor answer of "because the gods ignored him," I'd be here asking why it had to be so convoluted. It's a good story and it works and it really gives you a sense of who Gorr was before his never-ending hate. We also get some interesting plots moving forward, such as Gorr viewed as a god and Gorr's child. Those are all interesting plot points in this book that don't even have to do with Thor (tangentially). Next issue we should be getting back to Thor's story as he teams up with at least one other timeline Thor. The best thing about this book is that I was excited about the issue featuring Gorr and I'm equally excited about the issues featuring Thor. Always good when your book has a compelling hero against an equally compelling villain.

X-Men Legacy 7

X-Men Legacy makes its regular appearance on my top pick list after another excellent entry featuring the first new storyline following the defining first arc. Just as I liked the first arc, I like the way this comic is heading for its new plot. David Haller is becoming a one man pre-emptive strike force against threats to mutants. He successfully takes down his first target, despite his own troubled mind and coming in perhaps a little unprepared. It sets a real tone for this book. Quite frankly, I think that this book would still be a great read and very entertaining even if David had all his powers and was omega-level a thousand times over. He's an incredibly interesting character with a lot of upside and plenty of flaws. If the book stays at all like it is now, it'll be on my top pick list for quite some time. It's a good time for Marvel comics. Honorable mentions this week go to Secret Avengers, Avengers Assemble, Avenging Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four.