This week's picks

Did you guys remember that Infinity and Avengers came out this week? I KNOW, it feels like it was so long ago but it was just this week. Well geez, that might complicate some things, right? Let's mix it up a bit though this week, huh? Like, kind of mix it up. Not mix it up so much from my regular picks that I'm going crazy and picking Battle of the Atom or something like that, I'm still me. But let's leave both Infinity and Avengers off this list. Save 'em up for the finale.

Captain America Living Legend 2

I really like the approach on this book. It's a book about Captain America but it kind of feels like it's only tangentially about Cap. You can go a few ways in a mini-series. Your time is limited so you kind of have to hit your points hard and fast. Is this a story-heavy series? Is it a character-revealing series? You can still absolutely make it both, but it's going to find you pressed for time. I'd say Diggle is doing a fantastic job making it about both character and story without having to push too hard in either direction. Cap has had some major character arcs through his existence but, by and large, Captain America is the most unchanged character in the Marvel Universe through his existence and that's intentional. He's the symbol of all things morally right. As such, there's not a huge need to explain his character here so we're seeing little facets of his personality mixed with the personality of those around him and we're seeing the story in bloom. It's well-approached and everyone really comes off as a full-fledged character because of it.

Scarlet Spider 23

Uhh, spoilers, I guess

Scarlet Spider was in a competition with Superior Spider-Man to make the cut this week (both of them edging out Infinity, Avengers, and Cataclysm) and ultimately won out because of its clear purpose. If Spider-Man had won, it would have been because of the "dear god" factor of his fight with Black Cat. The ideas and the character win the day though with Scarlet Spider as we see Kaine officially in a position where he's done killing people, a pretty recent decision, and immediately being forced to kill or watching his friends die. His decision and his desire to be a hero are respectable but his friends are still torn on it as, at current, it directly impacts them. This issue puts Kaine in a place where making the right decision suddenly feels like the wrong decision and his supporting cast doesn't know what he should have done either, though at least Wally has an idea about it. Really solid issue, just another one to add to the bank.

Ultimate X-Men 33

I continue to really like this series, a series that Marvel editor Tom Brevoort called a "sleeper title" on his rather fascinating Tumblr. As far as I'm concerned (and I've said this before but whatever, I'll keep saying it), this book does pacing better than any book out there. Pacing is so hugely important and, though it's a somewhat intangible thing, such a make-or-break factor of the way a book comes across and it's so easy to drop it. Some of my least favorite issues of books from this past year have been paced ridiculously slowly, to the point where I'd end up feeling exhausted by the book and look to see that I was, somehow, only on page 10 or 12. Ultimate X-Men has never felt that way and, as a series, has never really let an arc overstay its welcome. This is hands-down the best book coming out of the Ultimate Universe right now and probably lands somewhere in the top five, definitely top ten from Marvel as a whole, who is putting out a slew of fantastic books. What's more impressive about that statement is that this series was one of my top ten series of 2012 as well so it's not like this is a new phenomenon, this is just a book that has been churning out great issues throughout its run.