This week's picks

A lot of strong books out this week that landed probably somewhere in that above average to great line but a limited number of truly great books and a fair amount of "I'm finding it hard to get through this one" books. Good thing we don't highlight the latter here over at Marvels so LET'S FIND THOSE GOOD'UNS.

Daredevil 1

How much will change for everyone's favorite blind lawyer/superhero in the wake of his major identity reveal and subsequent move to San Francisco? Well probably a lot. We just don't have the time or the desire to see it all here because that would be crappy writing. What we do see is a clear shift in some of Daredevil's normal actions as he adjusts to his new life, including acting almost as more of a detective with the police, able to reveal how he knows as much as he does about certain situations, and his getting acclimated to a vastly different San Francisco skyline. There's a lot to like in this first issue and I think there's a lot to build on for Waid and Samnee as they move forward with this new new look for DAREDEVIL (their new look was already with the last DAREDEVIL launch so this is new new).

Thunderbolts 23

This one narrowly won out this week over other titles like IRON MAN, SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL, and AVENGERS WORLD, in part because I think this one was just about the most fun book to read this week, on top of giving a level of depth to our much loved team. Obviously it's a somewhat big issue on its own as Venom leaves the team but there are also revelations about how the team views one another (though we've seen a good amount of that already) and how the team works as a team (or, perhaps, specifically how it doesn't). It also continues to be one of the best books at infusing humor into whatever dark (or light) scene. It's not heavy-handed, it's not a joke for a joke's sake, it's just there, in the words or actions of characters from whom you believe the humor. THUNDERBOLTS continues to be both fun and exciting while altogether maintaining a complete comic book.

Winter Soldier: Bitter March 2

I'm very impressed with the workmanship of this book. Remender is threading plot lines back and forth between this not-quite-prequel to the current events of CAPTAIN AMERICA and CAPTAIN AMERICA and he's making it look easy. We're getting a taste of everything here, between Ran Shen's history with SHIELD and his blossoming thoughts on how the world should work (thoughts that would eventually lead him to his new persona as the Iron Nail), Horace Littleton and his work (that would eventually lead him to his new persona as Dr. Mindbubble), and a taste of the hatred between SHIELD and Hydra/other factions of the world. It's doing all of that, which is neat enough on its own, but more than that it's a really interesting WINTER SOLDIER story by itself. I feel confident that if you weren't reading CAPTAIN AMERICA right now and you picked this up because you were like "oh hey, that Winter Soldier seems like a pretty cool cat and by golly he's the star of an upcoming movie I take it," you'd still be reading a book that you can completely understand and one that still holds your interest. Great stuff. And look at that cover. Just really cool.