This week's picks

There are five or six books I'm trying to narrow down to three for this week's picks and it seems like, at any moment, any three books could take the spots. It can be frustrating trying to whittle that many books down to three, but the upside, of course, is that I got to read a bunch of really good comics this week. Never going to be upset about that.

Daredevil 26

Daredevil has long been billed "the man without fear" and he almost always lives up to that title. Even if he's losing a fight, he tends to appear unafraid, just angry or depressed. His lack of fear often pushes him to keep fighting. However, here, in Daredevil 26, he is flat out terrified of what's going to happen next. After being soundly defeated by Ikari last issue and told that he'll be killed at some point, Daredevil is seeing threats everywhere. The really great thing, though, is that he's not necessarily wrong. Yes the people he's accusing could be completely innocent and appear to be after he attacks them, but each time something additional happens to show that he wasn't wrong. The issue culminates in a nice Matt/Foggy scene and in the reveal that Bullseye is behind everything. Daredevil gets back on track and finds Bullseye, taking out Lady Bullseye in the process. It's a great examination of everything Matt tries to be and what it takes to make him break. Great issue for comic fans and extra great for Daredevil fans.

X-Men Legacy 11

Like seeing Matt's resolve weaken under all his pressure and strengthen again after Foggy's pep talk, we get a chance to watch David tested over and over, by his own father's brain, by his own feelings about himself, and by the Red Skull. Instead of Matt, whose strength makes him aim to take down the villains he's facing, David's strength means giving up against Red Skull and sacrificing himself to save the world from the future he causes. The writing continues to be tight and David continues to be a perfectly broken protagonist. One of the great things about this issue is that it turns the expectations about comics on its head. As David keeps getting opportunities to turn tail or to discover that the facility he wants to use is, in fact, evil, his resolve continues not to break and he continues to want the chance to take his powers out. In every other comic that Marvel puts out, the hero MIGHT have made it this far, but then would have fought Red Skull and tried to think of another way or something. In this case, everything that piles up makes David say "I don't care, someone will deal with you eventually, the pill works, I want it." It's really brilliant and such a twist if simply because it's what he had wanted all along and he stuck to it. It's a twist without a twist. Fantastic.

Young Avengers 5

I like everything that happened in this issue. There's a lot of really fun stuff and anything that could be construed as cheesy is pointed out to be cheesy right away, before the reader can do it himself. What really boosts this book over other books this week like Avengers or Fantastic Four or Journey into Mystery or Superior Spider-Man is the Loki discussion that it generates. Loki finally reveals himself to the audience to be the original Loki posing as the much more lovable and kind of trustworthy kid Loki but there's a twist; kid Loki is still there as Loki's conscience of sorts (he points out that he's not real, of course, but he's still in there). For anyone who loved Gillen's run on Journey into Mystery (if you didn't, maybe go read all of it this instant), there's tons to be excited about going forward. There are lots of directions to go with this series and with these kids and with Loki. The book jumped right in and clearly intends to keep at this level even as the first arc winds down. This is a near perfect book for anyone. I would recommend this title to any comic reader and to a whole lot of non-comic readers.


Best Cover

Again, a lot of good ones out there. Superior Spider-Man had a weirdly haunting cover, Daredevil's cover is more beautiful Samnee art and Young Avengers is a really neat concept well executed by McKelvie. However, this run of X-Men Legacy covers have kind of blown me away one after another and manages to continue to do so here. It's a great image of David sliding on a bunch of pills, a bit out of control, as the pills form up to make the Red Skull. It highlights everything that needs to be highlighted that will come in the story and that the character is going through without giving the whole book away. Also, the art is solid on it and the very basic color scheme makes the image stand out even more.

This week's picks

Tough week to pick a top three as there were a handful of top three-worthy releases. While that's good for comic readers, it's considerably worse for readers of this blog. As a result, I'm leaning on some old favorites here and few new entries to the list. By few, I really meant zero. But you could kind of guess that, couldn't you? You're very clever, reader.

Hawkeye 10

I've written an awful lot about Hawkeye lately so I'm not sure anyone needs me to write more. I will though. I liked this issue even if it was largely setting up the villain. Fraction keeps you entertained and the temporary artist switch to Francesco Francavilla totally works, given Francavilla's style mixed with the fire and darkness of the story. Francavilla's color palette also fits the story incredibly well so giving Matt Hollingsworth the day off works for the book too. There are some great lines for Kate and a particularly telling scene between the Hawkeyes (as well as a really nice insight into the way Kate feels about Clint when she's away from Clint). I'm going to tell you right now that the next issue, which has been teased already, is certainly going to make this list next release. It's Pizza Dog centric and billed as "Pizza Dog in 'Pizza is my Business.'" Sorry any other worthy books, that one might take all three spots.

Winter Soldier 18

Not to stop people from reading my pull list entry for the week of June 5th but it's already 2/3 decided and I haven't any idea what books are out for the entire week and CLEARLY I haven't read them yet. However, Hawkeye 11 (wherein Pizza Dog solves a murder) will be out that week and the final issue of Winter Soldier will be out. So yes, those two will almost certainly make the pull list then. So why is Winter Soldier on my pull list now? To be honest, while I was reading it I wasn't sure it would be. However, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. That happens a fair amount, particularly while I'm blogging. I like the idea of Bucky being afraid that he can live with what he's done, not being afraid that he can't. It fits his character extremely well and makes the villain of this arc more interesting. Like with Hawkeye, this issue was largely focused on establishing the villain (though, unlike Hawkeye, it wasn't a little out of place considering the next one will be the last. Story timetables getting rushed are among the saddest sights) and it does a good job of it. She's smart, she's brutal, and she's not particularly predictable. She goes out of her way to establish for Bucky that she doesn't hate him for killing her parents, or hate him at all even. That's a pretty good villain. Interested to see how this series will wrap up.

X-Men Legacy 10

I told you it was going to be all old standbys. Not that any are undeserving. I think these are all great books and there were all solid issues of great books. Right off the bat we get David INSTANTLY agreeing to a deal with the extremely powerful Xavier personality in his brain so that he can try to see the future and the ways around how he destroys the mutant race. So there's plenty to look forward to storywise there. Then David takes active steps to try to stop himself from abusing his power. This issue also establishes a villain, like the other two picks this week. However, this villain isn't villainous in any way. He's extremely unfortunate and sympathetic but he doesn't even hate mutants. He's got a cure for powers but he's not forcing it on people. It's there, if it's needed he has it, if people want it they can have it. He's very straightforward about it, he doesn't seem to be hiding anything, and he's not doing it for personal gain or a vendetta or anything. He just knows well enough that there's a high probability mutants will do serious harm to the world on accident (or on purpose). It's hard to argue against that when we know our main hero is primed to do exactly that. Interesting ideas, well-executed. Solid book just keeps getting better.



Best cover
This was a tricky one. There were two solid Francavilla covers out there, with Hawkeye being solidly in the vein of Aja's simplistic covers but still looking distinctly Francavillan. I liked the baby Iron Man of Iron Man 9 and X-Men Legacy covers are always pretty great. Superior Spider-Man was close, with the plot pretty much set up by the cover and as succinctly explained as anyone could have done. Ultimate X-Men was simultaneously technically good and haunting. I ended up choosing the other Francavilla cover largely for the great colors and the appeal of the cover itself. Even if I didn't read every Marvel book every week, if I saw this cover, I feel confident I'd pick up the book, no matter how interested I had been in it previously. That's exactly what you want a cover to do so mission accomplished. I don't think it's necessarily a cover that blows you away but it more than does it job. Can't ask for anything more than that out of a cover.