Comics this week

Another somewhat short week with a bittersweet bent to it; somehow Dark Avengers is releasing its last issue this week without me realizing ahead of time. I'm somewhat depressed about it, but I suppose I'll get into that more when I choose it as one of my five to watch for this week. SPOILERS, Dark Avengers 190 is on there.

Captain America 7
I'm excited for this book whenever it comes out. Of course, Cap's my favorite hero out there so I know I'm likely to be excited for it for my own personal reasons but I can't stress enough how interesting I'm finding this series. From seeing new angles of Steve's life (including as a child and as a father) to leaving Cap in a place where the flag on his uniform doesn't really mean much and he can't hope for support to come, every part of this series is dedicated to exploring different facets of Steve Rogers and Captain America and it's all great.

Dark Avengers 190
I was rather sad when I checked the new comic list and saw that this was the final issue of Dark Avengers for a few reasons. First and foremost, this book has been interesting all the way across and has featured a team of villains who might be heroes in a place where heroes are villains. Very interesting in its conceit. Also, it follows a trail of other cancelled books like Winter Soldier, Age of Apocalypse, and Red She-Hulk which have all featured heroes who maybe aren't quite popular enough to sustain a solo book but also don't really fit into any team or take place somewhere on the outskirts of the Marvel Universe. There are books far more deserving of cancellation and there are corners of the MU that are over-saturated with books so we see too much of them. Dark Avengers was different and had already gone to different places. Also, it means (unless I'm forgetting something) Jeff Parker isn't writing a regular book for Marvel and that's a shame after fun runs on Dark Avengers and Red She-Hulk. Hurtful, guys.

New Avengers 6
I love this book. I don't know if there's more to say than that. I love everything this book has done and every place its been willing to go. It's a very dark story with appropriately dark characters delving into the darkest places they can go. They've been trying to keep the incursions on the down-low and have attempted to keep the information between only themselves, to the point of erasing Cap's memory of the disasters. However, it's going to be awfully hard to do that for this issue as the newest incursion is happening over Latveria. Adding Doctor Doom to this mix is very exciting for me. Doom fits so interestingly into this equation and I'm thrilled about where this could go.

Uncanny X-Force 5
This is going to be a very important issue for Sam Humphries' X-Force issue as it's the issue that will bridge the first two arcs. The first arc wasn't a bad arc but it certainly didn't blow me away either. This issue will help establish the team and its goals and the way that the team interacts with one another outside of an event. Not to say that an event won't start up in this issue (it probably will) but there's likely to be a bit of cool-down to establish the team a bit further. This issue will be crucial for setting up the rest of the series so here's hoping for a strong showing.

X-Men 1
Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel return into the Marvel Universe with a new X-Men title. The most notable thing about this series, though, is the decision to make the team an all-female one, featuring Storm, Kitty Pryde, Psylocke, Rogue, Jubilee, and Rachel Grey. There are some cases where this kind of team would feel like pandering (and make no mistake, Marvel comics should absolutely be pandering. Well, not pandering, but they should 100% be featuring more female driven-comics) but this team works on paper. It's a very powerful team with a lot of character but also it seems to have a reason for these women to come together. They don't feel just thrown together out of nowhere, they're all friends and they're fighting for the same causes, by and large. This is a big deal book because Marvel needs to see more female-led books survive and thrive. It's also a flat X-Men book, without any sort of bells or whistles on the name. This isn't X-Treme X-Men or All-New X-Men. This is X-Men, plain and simple. Calling this book "X-Men" shows a dedication to this team and the female-led principle, now the audience (and the writer and artist) need to make that pay off.