This week's picks!

Like I said in my pregame this week, 22 books in a week means there's a good pile of great books, a reasonable amount of mediocre books, and a couple of unfortunate books. However, it's rare that all three books that I choose in my pull list post come from the same review. Where do we find ourselves this week, you may ask? IN THAT VERY POSITION.

Captain America 8

This book, though starring my personal favorite character, was the closest to not making this list. I don't think what happened here was predictable, though I did pick up on the possibility of it about halfway through the issue, nor do I think it was written purely to shock. I think this is a real story that has a real place to go and real consequences for its characters but it's hard to shake the shock of it. In that way, it was almost edged out by Young Avengers, which I found delightful and full of character and story, despite only have twenty pages or so to introduce and establish two brand new (to this series) characters. However, Cap edged it out as a perfect culmination of everything Remender's worked for. The story isn't as palpable and crushing as it ended up being if Remender doesn't put in the proper amount of set-up time throughout the series. We know what Ian means to Steve and what Steve knows about situations like this and Remender forces us to ask if Steve did the right thing, taking Ian away from Zola. That's right; Rick Remender makes an argument worth listening to wherein we ask ourselves if Captain America, the pinnacle of morality, should have taken a child from notorious madman and Nazi Arnim Zola and raised it as his own. No brainer, right? Maybe not.

Daredevil 27

This is another book that makes the list as much for this issue as for the time dedicating to setting it up. Not only is it enough of a wait from Daredevil snapping and killing Bullseye to go back and pull Bullseye as the villain and give him a viable enough story to set him up as the mastermind behind all this, Waid and Samnee perfectly created tension and fear in Daredevil before this issue, making Ikari a real threat and giving the audience the sense of dread that permeates through the scenes that show Murdock's friends and associates with unseen and quite possibly psychopathic agents. Then we get the perfect twist for someone dubbed "the man without fear;" he's overcome his mental blocks in this case and has prepared wonderfully for this moment, enlisting Daredevil's friends to keep watch over Matt's friends and fighting Ikari in smart (if lucky) ways. It's a wonderful book and the perfect finish to this story. Each part feels like it needs the next as much as anything. No space went to waste in this arc and it all comes together in the end. Truly an issue worth reading of a series worth reading.

Hawkeye 11

Ever since this issue was announced I knew it was going to end up here. First and foremost, I'm a sucker for dogs. Most dogs but particularly good sized ones. I've been sold on this series since Arrow/Pizza Dog/Lucky joined the cast. Even putting that aside, though, this book is gorgeous. There's a real story that comes through with a beautiful idea of the way that dogs think. It's not condescending, it's not cutesy, and it's not a waste issue. It respects the subject matter, the narrator, and the audience by not treating this as if it was just an idea they had and it didn't matter beyond that. There was care and purpose put into this issue. When I was in school, many times when I had the chance to pick my own subject matter for an essay or a presentation, I chose something that I could be entertained writing about. It often came down to Sonic the Hedgehog or comics. Despite the first instinct that would say these papers would be garbage, I know that I poured more into them and made them far better papers because I'd need to convince the reader that it was even more legitimate than maybe more serious subject matter. This issue kind of rings of that; they knew from the start this was an uphill battle to prove this issue was going to be worth reading and paying for. So they did it. Great issue.

Best cover

GUYS, I know, I'm picking the same thing as one of these books. I know, I know. But sometimes covers are just amazing and even if I've seen them for weeks before they were released I have to pull myself out and say "BOY this is a really good cover." So this is a great cover and it deserves to be here even if this post SEEMS super lazy because they're all pulled from the same day of posting comics but guys, I can't help it if I wanted to read all three of these books real bad. So you're going to have to deal with it and also be thankful that I'm not also choosing a best panel because, hey guys, it would be from one of these three books.