This week's picks

There are five or six books I'm trying to narrow down to three for this week's picks and it seems like, at any moment, any three books could take the spots. It can be frustrating trying to whittle that many books down to three, but the upside, of course, is that I got to read a bunch of really good comics this week. Never going to be upset about that.

Daredevil 26

Daredevil has long been billed "the man without fear" and he almost always lives up to that title. Even if he's losing a fight, he tends to appear unafraid, just angry or depressed. His lack of fear often pushes him to keep fighting. However, here, in Daredevil 26, he is flat out terrified of what's going to happen next. After being soundly defeated by Ikari last issue and told that he'll be killed at some point, Daredevil is seeing threats everywhere. The really great thing, though, is that he's not necessarily wrong. Yes the people he's accusing could be completely innocent and appear to be after he attacks them, but each time something additional happens to show that he wasn't wrong. The issue culminates in a nice Matt/Foggy scene and in the reveal that Bullseye is behind everything. Daredevil gets back on track and finds Bullseye, taking out Lady Bullseye in the process. It's a great examination of everything Matt tries to be and what it takes to make him break. Great issue for comic fans and extra great for Daredevil fans.

X-Men Legacy 11

Like seeing Matt's resolve weaken under all his pressure and strengthen again after Foggy's pep talk, we get a chance to watch David tested over and over, by his own father's brain, by his own feelings about himself, and by the Red Skull. Instead of Matt, whose strength makes him aim to take down the villains he's facing, David's strength means giving up against Red Skull and sacrificing himself to save the world from the future he causes. The writing continues to be tight and David continues to be a perfectly broken protagonist. One of the great things about this issue is that it turns the expectations about comics on its head. As David keeps getting opportunities to turn tail or to discover that the facility he wants to use is, in fact, evil, his resolve continues not to break and he continues to want the chance to take his powers out. In every other comic that Marvel puts out, the hero MIGHT have made it this far, but then would have fought Red Skull and tried to think of another way or something. In this case, everything that piles up makes David say "I don't care, someone will deal with you eventually, the pill works, I want it." It's really brilliant and such a twist if simply because it's what he had wanted all along and he stuck to it. It's a twist without a twist. Fantastic.

Young Avengers 5

I like everything that happened in this issue. There's a lot of really fun stuff and anything that could be construed as cheesy is pointed out to be cheesy right away, before the reader can do it himself. What really boosts this book over other books this week like Avengers or Fantastic Four or Journey into Mystery or Superior Spider-Man is the Loki discussion that it generates. Loki finally reveals himself to the audience to be the original Loki posing as the much more lovable and kind of trustworthy kid Loki but there's a twist; kid Loki is still there as Loki's conscience of sorts (he points out that he's not real, of course, but he's still in there). For anyone who loved Gillen's run on Journey into Mystery (if you didn't, maybe go read all of it this instant), there's tons to be excited about going forward. There are lots of directions to go with this series and with these kids and with Loki. The book jumped right in and clearly intends to keep at this level even as the first arc winds down. This is a near perfect book for anyone. I would recommend this title to any comic reader and to a whole lot of non-comic readers.


Best Cover

Again, a lot of good ones out there. Superior Spider-Man had a weirdly haunting cover, Daredevil's cover is more beautiful Samnee art and Young Avengers is a really neat concept well executed by McKelvie. However, this run of X-Men Legacy covers have kind of blown me away one after another and manages to continue to do so here. It's a great image of David sliding on a bunch of pills, a bit out of control, as the pills form up to make the Red Skull. It highlights everything that needs to be highlighted that will come in the story and that the character is going through without giving the whole book away. Also, the art is solid on it and the very basic color scheme makes the image stand out even more.