This week's picks!

I say this a lot but this was a pretty hard week to pick. Here's the thing: there weren't any huge standouts this week. There was no book that I read this week that I put down and thought "that book's one of the best this week. It doesn't matter what else I read, this makes the top three." That doesn't mean books weren't good; in fact, that's rather the problem. Plenty of books were good, but around the same level of good. So I decided to take one from three different areas this week.

Young Avengers

I didn't really know I was going to pick this over Uncanny Avengers for the Avengers area until I just wrote it down. It was a big toss-up. I liked a lot of what happened in Uncanny and I like some of the nods towards tradition that I saw. However, Young Avengers steals it with a great, fun feel and phenomenal art. It's tough for anyone to compete with Jamie McKelvie's art when I'm the one making the decision. We still have yet to see the whole team converge with one another, but we have 4/6 present right now and we saw the other two in the first issue and have heard from Kate texting Billy in the last couple. Really fun issue with a lot of interesting developments, especially with Loki admittedly playing the Tyrion Lannister role and presenting a case why he should be given Billy's reality-twisting powers for a few minutes. It's not easy (nor probably wise) to trust him but do the Young Avengers have a choice?




X-Men Legacy 8

My intent all along had been to pick Astonishing X-Men over Legacy to represent the X-corner of the Universe. I found Astonishing X-Men, the second chapter of the X-Termination event, to be pretty exciting, even if it was a little crowded. As someone who should know everyone in that book, I came in with something of an advantage, but still found myself unsure of everyone's motivation. Still, the book was a very fast read and certainly enjoyable. It's set itself up for a solid event. However, at the end of the day, X-Men Legacy continues to be the book I find myself talking about and thinking about most. I really like the idea of Santi Sardina's power and I think it's a perfect example of the way David wants to change the world. Throwing in the drama between the monster in David's head and the Charles Xavier there just made the book that much more exciting. I love a lot of what this book is doing and I find myself consistently pleased with it. I'm excited to see where the book plans on going; will David continue to find himself in little once-off scenarios or will the arc that's dying to be told bubble up to the surface soon? We'll have to wait and see.

Fantastic Four 5AU

Unlike X-Termination, I'm not totally sold on the Age of Ultron event. Obviously I have some personal biases here (considering the writer for the event and the characters he's chosen to kill in the event of late) but the truth is I'm having some trouble understanding the weight of an event like this. I like big, grand stories as much as the next person but this one seems like it's a little too grand, especially since there's a whole universe of other things happening. Don't get me wrong, I'd be infinitely more upset by this event if every book had to take a couple issues out to tie-in, but that does have a certain appeal. Now it just feels weird and misplaced. However, the tie-in Fantastic Four issue gave the event more weight than I think even the main book could. Suddenly it feels like it's set in the regular Marvel Universe. Suddenly it feels like there are real consequences. Suddenly it feels like people are affected by this event. Fraction did a great job to show the team off as the family they are. The losses in the eyes of the children are an easy way to understand how meaningful this event would be in this universe even if, as readers, we're jaded by the fifteen events we seem to get per year. Great tie-in issue that really went out of its way to stabilize the event some.