SPEED ROUND: Punisher 6, New Warriors 5

Quick note to start: having a pretty busy weekend (they're only going to get busier from here, it seems, but I'm going to do my best here) and so the last two sets of reviews this week, both set to drop today, will be done in SPEED ROUND fashion, where I tell very little about the comics (though especially these two deserve a little more) and just drop a rating in. Sorry for all of the format changes recently but such are the ways of a blogger on a limited schedule.


Punisher 6
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a and c) and Petit (l)

Punisher nearly kills Electro but is stopped by a reluctant Domino, allowing both mercs to escape. He sets out to stop Guillermo Del Sol but finds himself caught in an explosion, seemingly killing Del Sol. He's caught in two more explosions and eventually shot through the back as he lands on a moving city bus by the Howling Commandos, still hot on his trail.

The book keeps its intensity up and manages to fit three nice explosions in (impressively, they all look really good too) without it going so over the top it loses itself. Instead, Punisher even points out how much he's getting blown up. It's smart and quick writing and it's easy to lose yourself in this book, as it's been pretty easy throughout its run so far. Very strong stuff coming from Edmondson on both this and BLACK WIDOW and equally strong stuff from Gerads on this title.

Total Score: 5/5


New Warriors 5
Yost (w) and Roche (a) and Redmond (c) and Caramagna (l)

Still examining things to do with the High Evolutionary, the New Warriors (minus Nova, home per his mom's request) have made their way to the Wundagore Mountains to investigate possible monsters in the mountain. While Justice, Scarlet Spider, and Water Snake search the mountain (complete with Water Snake seeing visions of the whole team dead), Speedball, Hummingbird, Sun Girl, and Haechi make sure the villagers are fine (they are) and chat together. In the mountain are an evolved dog and cat who agree to return the team home but plan to do it by teleporting the mountain to New York.

The book continues to be a lot of fun and Nick Roche's art here matches the tone of this issue, which is a little more humorous and light, brilliantly, right up to and including when Hummingbird questions Speedball's involvement in Stamford and his time as Penance, which silences Speedball for just about the only time we've seen so far. It's a deep, dark moment juxtaposed against the lightness and fun of the issue (minus, of course, the visions Water Snake's having). Definitely worth reading this title, which is something of a breath of fresh air in exactly the sort of way Yost's SCARLET SPIDER was.

Total Score 5/5



BOY I wish I had swapped CYCLOPS and LOKI with these two because I didn't say much about those books and I have more about these books but TOO LATE FOR WISHES NOW.

This week's picks!

Another pretty solid week on the books and all that's left to do is break down the most highly recommended books we had this week. EASY PEASY.

Black Widow 5
I wrote a review later on this list about five times talking about how it had barely beat out BLACK WIDOW because, unfair as it is to BLACK WIDOW, it's held to a higher standard because of four amazing issues to start it off. Then, as I kept trying to explain why it had barely beaten it out, I found myself disagreeing with my own arguments. So here we are, replacing PUNISHER with BLACK WIDOW on this list. I thought that PUNISHER had the upper hand this week in the narrative, which Edmondson uses in both books, but I liked the action, the characters, and the art more on BLACK WIDOW, enough to push it just past the great action, characters, and art on PUNISHER. In truth, it was also partly because Natasha made Molot Boga get sucked into a jet turbine and because of the panel right before it happened (seen at left). Great, great book.

Moon Knight 2

This one definitely stuck with me through the week. The layout, the narration, the chilling midway point as your comfort in the narration takes a turn; it's all perfectly handled and it makes the book a really quick and tense, though gorgeous, read. The initial narration, simple black print on a white background, reminds you of Moon Knight and therefore quickly reads like Moon Knight's narration, not to mention that it sounds just like his origin. Then you realize that it's not just a character saying it while all the action goes on, it's the character behind the action saying it and it forces you to wonder if Moon Knight is killing these people. Then, when all of the eight targets on the page have been killed, the first person you see in the aftermath is Moon Knight himself. It's a wonderful turn and just about the best way for Ellis and Shalvey to show us how crazy we even think Moon Knight is, that we believed it could have been him. Amazing, thought-provoking, mind-blowing, great stuff.

New Warriors 3
Also just beating out PUNISHER this week, I think that NEW WARRIORS had a real turnaround issue this week. I don't think the book was bad in any way before this issue or anything like that, it just felt like it was going to take longer to set up with all of the moving parts and the big storyline that Yost was creating. However, this third issue really did a great job explaining our plot and further establishing our characters, all in a pretty quick reading twenty pages or so. Really well done by Yost and artist Marcus To as they continue to build the world of these young superheroes and start to get the audience a little more situated. Bonus points go to NEW WARRIORS this week for giving just about the simplest but most accurate breakdown of so many of the off-shoot races on Earth, like mutants, Atlanteans, Lemurians, Inhumans, Eternals, Deviants, GOD SO MANY.


BONUS PICK OF THE WEEK
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Seriously, just everyone go see it. Though I imagine if you're on this blog, I probably don't need to tell you.

This weeks picks

Kind of a slow week this week. Not a lot of standouts and not many that'll really stick with me but surely enough to fill this list out, right? Right?

Daredevil 36

It's a little hard to add too much weight to this finale as the book will pick up again next month with the same creative team. Fortunately, that's not really why it stands out this week. The fight and the court case are all good, particularly as Matt realizes just why he's protected his identity for so long and just what that protection has meant. There are a couple of really nice pages in the issue but the real driving force is the opening scene between Matt and Foggy. They have one of the best relationships in comics and one of the most unique and it's come through pretty well here as they've repaired their friendship pretty solidly (though it still had its bumps this volume) and the series ends with Foggy, despite the pressure it'll bring on him and the health care it will take away, urging Matt to reveal himself as Daredevil. Very nice stuff.

New Warriors 1

I don't think this was a perfect first issue by any means. I wasn't blown away by it in the same sort of way I was by NEW AVENGERS or BLACK WIDOW or HAWKEYE though, if I compare every book to those, most books will lose. What I really liked about this book, though, is it was a very confident set-up book. Sometimes writers on a new book will try to cram too much in or try to introduce too many storylines all at once. What makes this number one even better is that, looking back at it, it feels like this book very much could have had those problems as it showed a bunch of our new heroes and showed them all up against a new enemy but it never felt overloaded or slow. It moved well, it had a good tone, and I think it's planting seeds that will work pretty well. Very interested to see where this one goes.

Punisher 2

I don't know that this was really the best book out there this week and it certainly makes this list as a benefit of the slow week but all of these qualifications don't mean that this book isn't still worthy of consideration or of checking out. One of the things that this book is already doing really well is one of the intangibles of any sort of literature or media, creating a tone. It's still pretty early and so there's not really a way to even guarantee what that tone is but it's certainly establishing a unique and consistent feel for the series. A lot of that tone is built with Mitch Gerards' art and colors but I think Edmondson has also shown between this book and BLACK WIDOW that he understands the worlds that his characters inhabit. Time will still tell if this is a really top-notch book, more than just a top-notch Punisher book, even, but there are certainly hints of a greater world and greater character development and plot here, all helped by the established tone.

Best Marvel comics of 2013 (part three of five): 11-15

Let's keep it rolling with picks 11-15.

15. Scarlet Spider

One of the real surprises on the list even though it probably shouldn't have been. Writer Chris Yost has an impressive resumé and 2013 saw issues 13-25 of SCARLET SPIDER so it's not like we hadn't had a year's worth of comics to deem this one "good" already. Even still, I think there's a part of me that still believes this book had no right being good. An evil clone version of Peter Parker flees New York to start a new life in Mexico and gets held up doing good in Houston with a whole new cast of characters doesn't really sounds like the best pitch. Yost never gave it up, though, and showed us what a well-written and well-established Kaine can do. The character was great, the writing was fun, the story was engaging, the fights were impressive and unique, and the ending was appropriately brutal for Kaine. After establishing himself as a reluctant hero in Houston, a city that apparently desperately needed one, and finding himself a slew of new friends in the city, Kaine's life was turned upside down by none other than Kraven the Hunter, the man who most recently killed Kaine, and things spiraled out of control quickly from there, culminating in an unhappy ending as Kaine finally reaches Mexico after all. Sad to see the series go, glad that Yost will pick up Kaine's reins again on NEW WARRIORS in the coming year.

14. Venom

This is another one of those books that lasted far longer than I would have predicted going in. This book kicked off a few years ago with Rick Remender at the helm of a Flash-Thompson-is-Venom story where the high school bully of Peter Parker turned war hero turned paraplegic alcoholic is called back into duty as a newly weaponized military-controlled Venom. Solid start to the series back then and Cullen Bunn this year managed to take the helm and still tell a worthwhile story with some worthwhile characters. As everything starts to crash down around Venom from his new home in Philadelphia, Flash is put up against challenges in the form of Toxin, Carnage, and his own demons. That's not a metaphor, he really did get his own personal demon fighting for control of the Venom symbiote somewhere along the line. On top of that, he lost longtime girlfriend Betty Brant and he gained new pseudo-sidekick Mania after he tossed some symbiote to her to protect her from the attack of his kind-of archnemesis Jack O'Lantern. A more angry and wild new symbiote-wielding character, Mania had the demon transferred to her and began fighting like the dickens (if that's what the dickens does) to avenge her father's death while Flash struggled with the morality of allowing this girl to be a symbiote and a killer. Nice book all the way around and one that allowed Cullen Bunn to play around a little in the Spider-Man world and come out of it with a successful book after all was said and done.

13. Red She-Hulk
For as much as I said I couldn't really believe SCARLET SPIDER worked, RED SHE-HULK certainly shouldn't have worked, at least for me. I was never the biggest Hulk fan (though my top-ten books to watch list early this year will describe my turnaround on the character) and I didn't know these characters very well. Jeff Parker, though, did a phenomenal job creating and developing a wonderful friendship between the rather new character Red She-Hulk and the older but not particularly used X-51. The two had really distinct personalities and their team-up came about incredibly naturally as X-51 was tasked with keeping tabs on Red She-Hulk and bringing her down when the Avengers decided she was a hazard. X-51 analyzed his own findings and decided there was something more to her than what the Avengers had seen and chose to intervene on her behalf, eventually siding with her in the fight against the sketchier branches of SHIELD and General Fortean. Really good characterization supported by an intriguing story that took the pair all over the world and eventually into an alternate reality where Betty Ross became the Hulk back at the test site when Banner should have. This series certainly would have ranked higher if it had continued past the summer but what we did get was a really great book that was able to very clearly do what it set out to do and tell a story worth telling with characters that mattered. Very fun book.

12. Superior Spider-Man

The way I went about constructing this list was to first list off every book I thought worthy of consideration for the top (then) ten. When the list got too long, I adjusted it to the top twenty. Then I looked a little deeper into it and started to arrange by "top ten" and "bottom ten," finally beginning after that to sort more directly within those lists. As we near the top ten, only two books have really switched sides, one jumping out of the bottom ten and into the top ten (to be revealed TOMORROW) and the other sinking down to number 11, only to eventually fall to number 12. That was THIS VERY BOOK. I really love the way that SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN started this year, giving us a look at the brand-new Superior Spider-Man, Doc Ock with the powers and (kind of) the responsibilities of Peter Parker. It was a real separation from the Peter Parker Amazing Spider-Man, someone who leapt headfirst into danger to help and save those who needed helping and saving, no matter if he was playing into a villain's hands. The Superior Spider-Man, meanwhile, plotted and planned, rapidly developing his own methods for protecting the city and doing it with such aplomb and vigor that...well, that he was put on probation from the Avengers. Regardless, it was a great new look at a new type of Spider-Man and one that Dan Slott really stuck with despite plenty of hate tweets and death threats (still illegal, you guys). It slipped out of the top ten with the last few months of 2013 as it started to get into weaker arcs (notably one that stranded Spider-Man 2099 in the present) and started to present more of Doc's personality than I think we really needed at this point. Still, the series never became a bad read, necessarily (okay, it got a little tedious in the late months there) and it seems to be coming out of its spin a bit but the first half of this year with the new Spider-Man really solidified its place somewhere in this list; then it just became where it would land.

11. Avengers

Jonathan Hickman has taken over the major part of the Avengers wing of the Marvel Universe and has really done absolutely phenomenal things with it. I said in that very same top ten list at the start of this year that I wasn't really onboard with what Bendis had been doing in Avengers the last few years (as I'm suddenly even more vehemently against the happenings over in the majority of the X-books now) and that I was hoping for a solid change out of Hickman. Well I got it and I couldn't really be happier about it. All three of Hickman's AVENGERS related titles (INFINITY, AVENGERS, and, spoilers, NEW AVENGERS) will have made this list when it's all said and done and everything about that part of the universe seems to be on the upswing. AVENGERS has been a really interesting book, one that hoped you'd be following along but wasn't ultimately too concerned if you missed a beat or two. There were a lot of really cool single issues at the start of the series to establish some of our newer characters (like Smasher and Hyperion) and eventually the whole series got wrapped into INFINITY and told the tale of the story with a focus on the fight against the Builders. It was a pretty masterfully executed event and all of the groundwork was laid here, in AVENGERS. Looking forward to the next movements by Hickman as the Avengers celebrate one of their biggest victories with no doubt larger foes on the horizon.

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.

Comics this week

Plenty of big books out this week. But which ones are the BIGGEST? I don't really know. Well, okay, I have some ideas. I usually do. QUICK HITS.

Avengers 22
Infinity presses on in two major books this week, Avengers 22 and Infinity 5 (SPOILERS: guess what other book is on this list). We're rapidly reaching the end of this big event and I'm certainly excited to see how it plays out. Look for a focus on the Builders' story in this one, hot off the heels of what was, essentially, the defeat of the Builders themselves.

Captain America Living Legend 2
I really liked the first issue of this mini-series, penned by Andy Diggle and drawn wonderfully by Adi Granov. There's a solid characterization of both Cap and some of the Russians we saw the first time out. Downside, of course, is that we won't see most of those Russians this time out. Plus side is that it was still good writing and good characterization of clearly non-essential characters. That should give some encouragement going into issue two.

Infinity 5
I said pretty much what I needed to say up above, right? Except, of course, to note that this will give us more information about everything that's happening throughout the event, not just the events up in space. I'm really liking this event and I hope to see it go out strong. A lot of events lately have gotten complaints about slowing down in the middle. I don't think this one really has but I'd hate to see it stagnate now.

Scarlet Spider 23
We're getting close to the end of Scarlet Spider (sad, and so close to losing Venom. Where are our non-Spider-Man Spider-Man books going?) and I'm excited to see how this all goes down. I thought the last issue was pretty powerful, showing Kaine, despite the urging of Prey and the intense situation, fighting back against Kraven without killing. Of course, the twist now is that Kraven wants to be dead, so, you know, tricky.

Ultimate X-Men 33
This spot was almost given to Battle of the Atom 2 because I'm that excited for that event to be over, but, ultimately, I'm still not looking forward to actually reading that book. This one, though, I'm very much looking forward to. This continues to be one of the strongest books out there and the strongest Ultimate Universe book right now, maybe ever. Very strong story, great characters, incredible pacing, smart writing, good art, just a very good book all around. Every arc feels like an event without the downsides that tend to come with events.

Age of Ultron 9, Thanos Rising 3, Thor: The Dark World Prelude 1,

Age of Ultron 9
Bendis (w) and Peterson, Pacheco, and Bonet (a) and Mounts and Villarrubia (c)

One of my problems with this series, as I've said time and time again, is that it is way too long. I tend to have issues with Bendis on this front, which I'm sure I will examine again tomorrow as I write a review for the final issue of Daredevil: End of Days. However, I think we've officially reached the point where I have nothing more to say about this series. Everything I've written about this series (and recent Bendis as a whole, honestly) holds true; it expects that the readership, people currently reading comic books, I'd remind you, don't know anything about time travel, it focuses on characters who like to talk in quick bursts of snippy dialogue, and a bunch of the tones don't match with the seriousness of the situation. I'd add to that, in this case, that there are literally three pages of this penultimate issue which feature panels of destroyed New York and Wolverine making a plethora of grunts and groans and the like. All in the same area of blown-up New York. Then Tony Stark tells Wolverine that time is an organism and traveling back and forth through it to change things tears it apart and Wolverine proceeds to travel back to talk to himself about killing Pym. As the both talk to each other in snappy repartee, with the occasional interruption from Hank Pym saying "this is fascinating" and the likes, the opposite of what the audience is thinking before all three are greeted by Sue Storm, also still back in time, who jumps in to, first and foremost, blame Wolverine for knocking her out at the car so that she didn't come in to see what was happening. This might not sound that objective, but this is all so stupid. Then they tell Pym to create Ultron but make it so he has a design flaw that he can't fix and that Pym can activate to stop Ultron but Pym can't know he's activating it because this is all so stupid. Then he makes a weird new Ultron as the Wolverines and Sue arrive at the Savage Land and watch as one Wolverine kills the other, which is all so stupid.

As I said above, I'm not convinced I can say anything else objective about this book. This is one of the problems with a series that has dragged on too long; a once-noble reviewer dedicated to try to look objectively at the book is now forced to admit that maybe he's not in the right state of mind to do just that. Instead, he wants to type "stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid" all over this review. Frankly, we should all praise him as a hero for not having done that from word one of this review.

Thanos Rising 3
Aaron (w) and Bianchi (a) and Svorcina (c)

Thanos leaves Titan after killing his mother to go on and push forth in his new life. He goes across the universe, from galaxy to galaxy, with a crew of pirates, landing many wives and spawning many children across the cosmos. None of it is satisfying for him as he keeps taking more wives and fathering more kids and killing more aliens with his pirates in order to simply feel something. He doesn't, except lingering remorse over the things that happened at Titan. Mostly, he's upset that the mysterious girl didn't reciprocate his feelings towards her. She, he is convinced, is the only woman who will ever make him feel love. In this new life, he leaves all of his wives and children behind time after time and has sworn off killing, even though it enrages the pirate captain. He keeps his job because he's adept at finding new targets and turning off all of their sensors and everything. However, his seeming inability to kill is a point of contention with the captain, who eventually attacks Thanos to provoke a response. As Thanos continues to refuse to fight, he accepts his fate, ready to be beheaded. Instead, though, he seems to black out and opens his eyes to find the pirate captain disemboweled before him. He returns to Titan later to see his mother's grave and comes across the mysterious woman again. He asks her to marry him, deciding that she needs him just as much as he needs her, and promising her that he'll give her anything she could desire. She sort of consents, saying that he'll need to be hers and hers alone and demanding that he go out and kill all of his once wives and children, which he begins to do as the issue ends.

I'm unsold on this series. I'll be honest, I don't know the full history of Thanos. I know only what I've seen reading the books that I've read in my lifetime which means I've seen him more than a few times and through several different lenses. However, this is comics and he's been around for four decades now so I certainly don't know his full character. In what I do know of him, though, he's a comic book villain in every sense of the word. He's cold, he's calculating, he's powerful, and he's evil. Sometimes that can come off as cliche or lazy or any number of other negative attributes. However, sometimes the best villains are simple brilliant sociopaths, dedicated to chaos for chaos' sake. It's the character of Iago from Shakespeare's Othello and it sustains over time for a reason. Sometimes, then, giving these characters a background can actually weaken them. I'm not a hundred percent sure that's true of Thanos (particularly where I'm not sure of his background in general) but it kind of feels like, as the mystery is unraveled, it's going to leave people feeling a bit unfulfilled. I suppose if this woman turns out to be inside Thanos all along (a definite possibility) or something along those lines, it's going to equate to about that same thing and it will have been nice to watch his descent into madness (well, maybe "nice" is the wrong word). However, if it is a woman, I have some serious qualms about the message here and Marvel should probably be a little careful about the idea that one of its universe's biggest killers was turned this way by a woman. So let's all just hope it's his imagination.

Thor: The Dark World Prelude 1
Yost and Kyle (w) and Eaton and Hennessy (a) and Troy, Sotomayor, and Mossa (c)

This is a weird one. If you saw The Avengers, and you're reading this blog so I have a feeling you did, you'll recognize about 50% of this issue. This book takes place before and concurrent with the movie as we learn exactly why Thor hadn't yet returned to Earth prior to Loki's attack on the Tesseract. We also see a little bit of how Thor came back to Earth with the Bifrost destroyed, something that was glossed over a bit in the movie (with a throwaway line talking about dark energy and the cost to send him through). More or less that's what we get here as Odin shows Thor some dark energy and explains it will cost them both to send him through it. So pretty much exactly the same. However, we also get some interesting stuff about how hard Jane has been working to reopen the portal and what the universe is doing in Asgard's absence from it. For someone looking to get into the spirit of Thor: the Dark World with only knowledge from Thor and The Avengers, it seems that this comic is certainly accomplishing that. It's a good interweaving (not necessarily seamless, but good) of the storylines from the Cinematic Universe with some behind-the-scenes Asgard stuff tossed in. I don't have a huge idea of what's coming in the newest Thor movie, set for release in November, but it certainly feels like this book is going above and beyond to tie some plots together.

What intrigues me most about this book is that it's co-written by Christopher Yost, writer for Scarlet Spider and Avenging Spider-Man, most episodes of the amazing TV series Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (available on Netflix streaming), and, most importantly, co-writer for the screenplay of Thor: The Dark World. It's encouraging that one of the writers of the movie is entrenched in comics and has already had success translating comics for media with EMH. It's also encouraging for this two-issue prelude (which feels like it's being released too early to coincide with a November movie release) that one of the film's writers will be helming this tie-in. Fun stuff, probably not a ton of substance for long-time fans but great to get caught up in the Cinematic Universe and probably great for fans whose only knowledge of Marvel comes from the movies. Good way to introduce a lot of concepts that could be lingering on the shelf before this movie.

This week's picks

Lot of books out this week which always makes it trickier to narrow down. I also feel like there were a lot of books that were solid but weren't huge blow-away issues. A lot of them were nice or were great for set-up, but weren't huge rewarding books. That makes this complicated but FORTUNATELY, I'm on vacation AS WE SPEAK (thanks to the magic of technology and being able to post in advance) so I guess whatever?

Hawkeye 9

I always want to add TONS of Aja art in here, but
Natasha being amazing is always worth choosing

Another beautiful little book. This issue is another in a long line of great character pieces that also advance the plot and give us a real sense of an ongoing emergency. Between Darlene Penelope Wright's warning of "if you have to make a list of Avengers to kill, who do you go after first?" and the murder of Grills/Gil at the hands of the clown, we know things are on the move. We also know that Clint is in some hot water with his friend-girl and his other Avengers pals and that he probably wouldn't go to them for help even if he did know what was coming. Writer Matt Fraction is pretty great at connecting with his fanbase, too, which helps put some things in greater perspective and focus for this Hawkeye series (as well as helps spread awareness of The Rockford Files and the many great parts of David Bowie). On top of giving a page-by-page breakdown of his experience with this week's issue, Fraction re-posted an image from 30 Rock showing the character Pete saying "I'm good at archery and kind of want to die" and called him the "patron saint of team Hawkguy." Kind of a wonderful statement about the book. Aja's art and Hollingsworth's colors keep impressing like crazy and some of the style choices in this book (mainly the attire and hair choices of the lady Avengers we see) are brilliant. Another great entry to the series.

Avengers Arena 7

I really like the way Arcade is characterized in this issue. Hopeless does a good job taking a villain that, by all rights, is pretty pathetic and showing him as pathetic, even though we know he's doing impressive things with this island throughout the series so far. When this book was announced, I was skeptical enough about the idea of a bunch of teen heroes being sent to an island and fighting for their lives. When I heard that the villain behind all of this was Arcade, suddenly the idea that this would be anything more violent and/or threatening than his previous appearances were all out of my mind. Instead, the book has consistently delivered with real concern for the safety of the people on the island. On top of that, Arcade seemed suddenly like a real threat but didn't seem like he'd undergone some kind of crazy grit-enhancer. His personality was the same but his powers were upped. This issue explaining his transformation could have hurt the whole story a lot. Alternately, Hopeless showed us a completely broken Arcade reignited by his love for what he does and with an assistant who was willing and able to make it happen. It's both given us a much better sense of the character and kept us intrigued by the whole situation instead of removing us from it with more questions. Perfectly executed, well-timed, and a general boost to the quality of what was already a great book.

Avenging Spider-Man 19

There were a few other options I was toying with for this spot this week. Ultimates was up there but got knocked out pretty quick, preferring to see how the next issue pans out. Avengers and X-Treme X-Men were both on the table and easily could have made this list in a slightly weaker week. Fantastic Four could have snagged this spot and nearly did when I started thinking about this list last night. The closest competition, though, was Thor. After re-reviewing both books, I decided to go with Avenging Spider-Man because I think the Thor issue this week was a great set-up issue to get us excited for this arc (and therefore a solid issue as a whole) but that it'll have an even better chance of making the list next time, when the ball starts really rolling on the action. Avenging Spider-Man had seemed kind of like a long-shot at the start of the week, but I find myself consistently impressed with the tone of the book and the sudden seriousness of the situations. Otto has faced some real threats lately and is maneuvering things to his liking, even if the audience isn't quite sure what his end game is just yet. On top of that, I'm impressed again as Avenging Spider-Man appears to so effortlessly tie to Superior Spider-Man. It's brand management at its best and it's something to behold. The team-up this week, pulling Sleepwalker out of near-retirement, considering how long he's been on the bench for Marvel, was well-executed and created some new intrigue for a character probably few readers are totally familiar with (I know I sure wasn't). Finally, the art tipped it over the edge this week. Checchetto and Rosenberg knocked this one out of the park and gave us some really great dream images with mixes of realism and surrealism and a sharply defined ghost Peter Parker to create a contrast. Well done all around.

Fantastic Four 4, Scarlet Spider 14

Fantastic Four 4
Fraction (w) and Bagley and Farmer (a) and Mounts, Delgado and Beredo (c)

I give a lot of crap to Reed Richards. Like most people, I tend to find him boring. The character traits that I like best about him tend to be the kind of hypotheticals (the ego that makes him name himself Mr. Fantastic, the fact the like, 90% of the alternate universe Reed Richards we see are evil, etc.) that I can't prove with my knowledge of comics. It's why Fantastic Four has never really appealed to me; I like the idea of a family of superheroes (I love, for instance, The Incredibles), with all the problems that brings with it, and I rather like Sue and Johnny. Reed kind of cuts all that off (well, Reed and Thing, but I'll get to that in a second). It's issues like this that make Reed human to me. I like the idea of this series as a whole as it pertains to Reed; he picks up his family and demands they go explore again so he can secretly find a cure to save them. I think that all fits and it raises interesting questions about him as a character. We're going to get into a little bit of that soon, as it seems like he's going to reveal to Sue why they're really out in space now. But in an issue like this one, we see really human and genuinely nice moments from Reed.

This issue is framed as a letter to Sue from Reed, one he'll never actually give to her. It describes how much he loves her and how hard it is to be away from her. It's easy to characterize their marriage as an absentee husband and his wife who resents it but has grown somewhat accustomed because she loves him. Issues like this one go a long way to erase that. Here Reed makes a display of his immense love for Sue, one that she'll never knew he made and that goes beyond the bounds of everything his scientific mind stands for, simply to make it. Simply because he loves her that much and he wants an entire race to understand it. SPOILERS: he uses his time machine to paint a portrait of his family, with Sue as the centerpiece, in a cave fundamental to a civilization's development. When the F4 go there and meet this civilization, they hail Sue as a queen, almost as a goddess. It's how Reed sees her and it's...well, it's a little bit adorable.

Fraction has done a fantastic job already making me look at these characters in a new light. He has made tremendous steps with Reed and he clearly has plans for Thing, who spends much of his time in space with the family set apart. He's removed himself. It goes back to what I've said here before about writers trying to make Thing interesting by giving him the weight of being a monster, as they did in Fear Itself. I said then that it was too drastic a change to only show it in one event and ignore it again after (yes, I'm aware that mentality has always been tied to him, but it's faded so much in recent years). Well Fraction wrote Fear Itself and now here he is again, plugging away at Thing. Now it might just work. With that base in Fear Itself, Fraction can develop a deeper Thing through a much expanded series. It's exciting. Which is something I never thought I'd say about Fantastic Four.

Scarlet Spider 14
Yost (w) and Pham, Palmer, Pallot, Bit, Wong and Kessel (a) and Fabela (c)

Scarlet Spider, right now, is running pretty parallel to Venom in a couple different ways. There's a guy with a troubled past running around in a spider-based costume with spider-based powers (YES, Venom's are symbiote-based but he manifests them as a spider so WHATEVER) and something inside him is warping him to reveal his true nature. With Flash, the mystery is a little different, revolving more around the mystery of what demon it is that's causing all this. With Kaine, the demon is very much himself and tied to the spider-lore that Spider-Man built in either in the 90s or 00s. There's an idea that Spider-Man became Spider-Man not out of a fluke accident, but because he was chosen by "The Weaver" or "The Great Spider" or something. I don't love it because Spidey's initial appeal was that he was an everyman. He was every awkward high schooler who could have something magical happen to him just because he was in the right place at the right time (or wrong place at the wrong time, if you think this is a curse). Now it was never in his hands, fate was always going to choose Peter Parker. I don't love it, but it exists so it makes sense to go back to. I do like the way Yost ties it in here, too. Peter has rejected the Spider in favor of the Man. Kaine didn't do that previously, more or less. That's his brutality and his anger. In recent days, he's tried to amend for all of that but, as his situation is more dire, the Spider is willing to save him if he commits to that aspect of himself, choosing the Spider instead of the Man.

This way, it's pretty interesting. It's also interesting because Kaine says no at first and fights the Spider. He admits that he'd rather die than give in to the monster, even though it's his nature to be the monster. However, he feels the need to protect Aracely and the only way to do that is to accept. Eventually he does and he is reborn as a horrible spider being, more spider than man. Meanwhile, Aracely leads the two werewolves into a gang's turf and gets them caught up there. She's got dark little secrets, that one. The werewolves keep bringing it up and getting us to ask questions about it. They do reveal some more in this issue about those secrets, but we don't know the full extent of them. Stuff worth looking out for, on top of the goings-on with Kaine.