This week's picks

This is a bit of an interesting week for me as none of my standbys were out. I'm not saying that's a bad thing; there are tons of great books out there from Marvel and I don't love that my chosen picks are always from the same well of series but I can't help what I find best, I suppose. It's nice, though, to be able to spotlight other books for a change, even if one of them is just a one shot for an event that features a book/writer I do always pick.

Avengers: The Enemy Within 1

Obviously it helps a great deal to have an event focused on a character and/or going between a couple books if the author of the event is the same author behind that character/those books. What I'm trying to say is that Kelly Sue DeConnick has a perfect handle on Carol and on the way she acts and the troubles she faces. Add to that an intriguing story and the promise of more characters showing up and you have a great event starter in Enemy Within. In my review, I didn't even touch on Carol's fear that she'll start hallucinating as Helen reportedly did (though Helen may actually have been transported through time, jury's still out). On top of that, DeConnick has done something no other writer has ever been able to do: made me enjoy reading Spider-Woman. There's plenty to think about going forward with this arc and I'm confident that the event will be a solid one.

FF 7

Incredibly sweet story that serves many purposes as far as this pretty young series goes. Scott steps into the leader role and away, if only a little bit, from the overprotective and fearful father role. The FF comes together as a famiy. Darla shows her chops and fights as hard as anyone else out there. The story itself is resolved and Medusa is freed from the Wizard's control. Bentley-23 fights for the FF and sends Blastaar into his recent story with the Fantastic Four. All in one issue. It's emotionally satisfying to watch Scott take charge and show himself as not too in over his head. It's a nice wrap-up for this arc while still giving ample opportunities to expand later. Add to that the promise of Doom sooner or later and FF seems to be in pretty good shape.

Iron Man 10

We've already had the surprise that 451 was working alongside Howard Stark in some capacity but this issue does a good job to not rest on that secret. Gillen isn't afraid to delve into places in Tony's history that other writers haven't gone. Given the popularity of the character right now particularly, that isn't a lightly made decision, I'm sure. Tony should have been dead in the womb or just out of it. Somehow he didn't die and somehow it has to do with his father making some sort of deal or something with 451, a somewhat nefarious robot whose true goal hasn't really been revealed yet. Is he the fact-gatherer who is sincerely trying to make the best out of bad situations or is he more sinister than that? I guess we'll have to keep reading to find out. That doesn't even mention the fact that Gillen and Eaglesham put in a full-on heist in about five pages and it's interesting and well-executed while keep up the fun of heist movies and the like. Solid issue and a great launching point for the arc.


Best Panel:
I had far less trouble than I should have had picking this week's panel. We had Cable and his X-Force in space, we had Carol Danvers punching out dinosaurs, we had Gambit with a jetpack, we had Venom shielding an explosion, we had Scott Lang looking into the Negative Zone and saying "What." (Fun fact: I will always giggle at "what" not asked as a question. Hilarious every time). However, we also had two dogs with goggles to protect their eyes from explosion debris. So should I have maybe gone with something different here? There's a chance. Was I ever going to? Nope.