This week's picks

Lotta books out this week. Several good books, several okay books, a couple of not so great books, and only a few great books. So which ones are they? LET'S FIND 'EM TOGETHER.

Avengers Undercover 2
I think there are really interesting ideas coming out of this book right now and that those ideas are really driving this book. Dennis Hopeless has done something very cool with this batch of characters and looks to continue it here. They're characters we can't help but care about because we saw what they went through and he did such a good job characterizing them the first time out. Now we can dive right into the brand new story and bring our feelings about these characters with us. It's almost a perfect situation as we're already guaranteed to care if we made the leap with this team already and now Hopeless just needs to find a good story to keep us here. I think he has, which is a great thing to be able to say on just issue two. There's plenty here and there's a lot to keep us onboard not to mention the interesting plot Hopeless has already established here. Gonna be another fun ride on this one.




Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 1

Kaare Andrews is off to a really strong start with this book. I was ready for the art to be fantastic and to care about the character because I love Iron Fist but I wasn't sure what to expect out of the story or the characters or the writing or anything. I hadn't read anything big by Andrews and it's not super easy to write a good Iron Fist story; Iron Fist fans are lucky because his most recent ongoing series was written by Duane Swierczynski...and also by Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker just before that. So yeah, not a bad team-up. ANYWAY, I wasn't sure what to expect out of IRON FIST: THE LIVING WEAPON but almost immediately Andrews has shown that he has some interesting ideas and that he's ready to take this character and this book to cool new places. He's already taken a look at the origin and put his own completely believable twist on it (assuming you bought into his origin anyway). The art, of course, is also amazing, but I'm really impressed by the story and the character that Andrews has already begun developing. I'm looking forward to this series as it keeps going.

Iron Man 24

Okay, this is where things kind of break down for me on this list. It was between IRON MAN, CAPTAIN MARVEL, THUNDERBOLTS, DEADPOOL, and ALL-NEW X-FACTOR. Frankly, that's too many books to have to choose from. There are upsides to each but I didn't think any were necessarily at the top of their respective games. Of them all then, I thought IRON MAN had the strongest outing. CAPTAIN MARVEL got maybe a little too caught up in the introduction of the Guardians of the Galaxy for my liking (and that cover really did put me off). T-BOLTS has really built up too much of a great book for its own good so a good issue still doesn't really measure. DEADPOOL was strong and a worthwhile look for the content inside but it's hard to fully recommend it for anyone but big ol' Deadpool fans. ALL-NEW X-FACTOR is taking good steps but doesn't quite feel there yet, you know? Also, kinda annoyed still with the ALL-NEW titles. Anyway, IRON MAN was a pretty strong book as Tony directly interacts with Malekith and dives headfirst into his war with the rings. There's a lot happening here and I think Gillen's right on the edge of throwing us some juicy Tony Stark character development. It's a fun read, it's a good story, and it's a strong character showing. I think IRON MAN is still kind of on the rebound for me after the amazing SECRET ORIGIN OF TONY STARK storyline but I am liking this story anyway. Look, it's hard to explain feelings, you guys.