This week's picks

Geez, I usually use this space to talk about how hard it was to narrow things down on a week full of comics. Not so, this week. Pretty easy and I had it pretty well in hand from the get-go. Apologies to IRON MAN and MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN which were pretty much the closest ones to making it but weren't close enough to warrant further discussion.

Avengers World 1

AVENGERS WORLD feels like Avengers back-to-basics, giving us a look at smaller teams dealing with smaller problems. Don't get me wrong, they're still pretty big problems, big enough to warrant the Avengers' involvement, but it's smaller than what Hickman's done throughout the AVENGERS series. It also breaks the team up into more manageable parts, so hopefully we'll get to see a little more personality out of the team as a whole. Interested to see where this one goes and I think it made the right steps in issue one.

Black Widow 1

Truly gorgeous book on its first time out and one that has the plot power to deliver interesting stories throughout its hopefully long run. I talked a little bit about how BLACK WIDOW books don't tend to last long for one reason or another but I hope that the distinguishing art and the full spy-feel of this book hold reader interest long enough to put this one on the map. With a slew of woman-led books coming out this year (though very few of them still created by women, sadly), it would be a real shame if a couple didn't catch on. High hopes for this one.




Young Avengers 15

One of the best comics of 2013 has, horribly depressing as it is, officially come to a close in the first comics week of 2014 and, while I'm sad to see it go, I'm happy that it got to finish the way it wanted to finish. YOUNG AVENGERS 15 is an homage to the rest of the series, a love note to the title at large that gives a final look at our characters as individuals dealing with their new lives and lets us see them as a team one last time. More gorgeous art out of Becky Cloonan (whose art may be the most impressive in the issue), Ming Doyle, Joe Quinones, Jordie Bellaire, Maris Wicks, Matt Wilson, and, of course, Jamie McKelvie and some top-notch character writing from Kieron Gillen to send this series to archives. Sad time but at least we got more than we could have ever asked from this series.