This week's picks

Thee were a lot of books that were good this week but not too many that really stood out as blowing me away. That's not a bad thing; I'll take a book that's reliably good over a book that hovers around a mediocre point with a few blow-away issues mixed in. It's incredibly rare for a series to blow you away with every issue (though there are a couple books I'm skipping over this week in picks that have kind of done that throughout their series). That said, I do think there were a good deal of good books and plenty that I think laid the groundwork for possible huge issues. Still, this post requires a few books that stood out beyond the rest so HERE THEY ARE, in alphabetical order yet still somehow starting with 's.'

Secret Avengers 9
I've been a bit put off by this series so far, which I think has a lot to do with the needed set-up for the series, which is fairly convoluted, and the focus on SHIELD as an organization. SHIELD is a tricky animal because it exists so prevalently in the Marvel Universe but kind of needs to be crappy so that our heroes can shine. This issue still focuses on SHIELD in a wide-angle sense but it's more personal, dealing with Johnson vs. Hill. It's a more intriguing story and it's pretty easy to follow, even with the persistent talk of mind-wipes and international incidents. As I said in my review this week, the Secret Warriors feel doesn't hurt the book either. I'm not going to lie, this also gets added points for the inclusion, though we knew it was coming, of Winter Soldier. This is a good role to put him in, squaring him up against SHIELD knowing that they're toying with Natasha's memories (even if she agreed to it). Should be fun going forward. Also nice to see Guice drawing Bucky again.


Thunderbolts 15

Speaking of fun, this book is absolutely full of it suddenly. There's a real characterization to this Thunderbolts team which is rather the characterization I was waiting for when the lineup was announced. It's a solid team that lends itself to both tension and a sense of fun, in the same sort of way an action movie can. Deadpool's a great character for that feel because his brand of fun can be both like an action movie and something else entirely, just regular type fun. For example, this issue finds him strolling the streets of New York, being called Spider-Man and kind of rolling with it. It's not like the our and sometimes obnoxious Deadpool who would proclaim himself Spider-Man and get a little too into character, shouting through the streets. Instead, it's a Deadpool who is called Spider-Man and kind of just goes "yup, sure. Web things are broken so I'm taking the subway." It's a really good Deadpool, you guys. Even with the fun sense in the book, there's a real underlying tension ready to burst, with the Leader quietly sabotaging Red Hulk and the extremely powerful Mercy just dying to get freed (dying, that's kind of a pun, you guys, keep up). Really solid book. Still really like the artwork here.

Ultimate X-Men 31

This book continues to be one of the best books out there for pacing and overall storytelling. That's not to say that characters are a weak point or anything, I'd still say they're fairly well-defined, even given how big the cast is. But the tension, which continually ramps up without feeling overwhelming, is a really impressive touch. That's been true arc after arc and it continues here, as Kitty and Jean both react to moves made by the other. There's a lot happening and it would be easy to get lost in subplots or minutiae here but Wood stays his path and keeps putting out a really reliably good book with strong characters. Also, for all the worry of a lack of strong female characters in comics, this one features a few really solid ones. Kitty leads the pack but there's also Storm, Rogue, Mach Two (even for her age), Jean (even for her crazy), and plenty of smaller characters we haven't seen much of but who haven't been weak, for sure. Really good book all around, continues to delight issue after issue. I'd have to say this is one of the most consistently worthwhile buys.


Best Cover - Ultimate X-Men 31
G. Hardman w/ E. Breitweiser
I've long been a fan of the Ultimate X-Men covers which tend to go more for symbolic or idea over a standard comic cover of a specific character or characters doing something rather extreme. This week is a change from that as we get three of our lead characters driving and riding in a jeep while attacking an unseen target just to the side of the camera. It's a well-drawn cover but really, this goes back to the coloring for me, which is superb. There was a nice comforting feeling about this cover when I first looked at it, like someone I hadn't seen for a while showed up again in my life. That's exactly what happened, in fact. These are, one hundred percent Bettie Breitweiser colors and guys, she is amazing. I said way back in my post about colorists that Breitweiser was the first real colorist I noticed and could pick out because her palette was so defined. Even these colors, which aren't really the colors I've seen her use too often in the past (her great work through a lot of Captain America and Winter Soldier stuff tends to stray darker than this), stick out as being part of that very specific palette. Really wonderful stuff. This one beats out another solid Shalvey/Bellaire Venom cover and a Samnee/Rodriguez Daredevil cover.

Another book cancelled

Winter Soldier cancelled with issue 19

After missing the memo last time around about X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse's cancellations, I created a Google alert to warn me when the term "Marvel cancels" appears. Already, one new cancellation in, it feels a bit like getting a call in the middle of the night from a family member and knowing it can't be good news. Of course, it didn't help that the first cancellation my new alert informed me about is one of my favorite ongoings. So yes, the news is out, Winter Soldier is officially cancelled, ending with issue 19 in June. Suspicions arose with the July solicits revealed this past week and no sign of Winter Soldier 20. So sadly, we couldn't even figure out what Bucky's been doing for 20 issues, we just get the 19. I'm sure we'll get more of what Bucky's up to as time goes on, but for the time being, we're going to be left with what last month's solicits showed, Bucky in space intertwined with someone who may or may not be the Electric Ghost. Presumably it will the arc he's on now, as well as the series.

Readers of this blog will know that Winter Soldier is both one of my favorite ongoing series and one of my favorite characters. I love the conceit behind Winter Soldier and the story of his origin enough to boost him there (let alone his tie with other favorite character Captain America), but through his time in the Marvel Universe his personality and the strength of his books have further cemented him in my heart. I'm extremely saddened to see this series go. It seems like Latour and Klein are both reaching a level of comfort with the character and with the story that would have brought Bucky to new places and new areas of his life. It's particularly sad because Bucky is entering a new point in his life, fresh off re-entering his own life after the brainwashing that created the Winter Soldier. After Brubaker's run ended, he's without Natasha and presumed dead by most of the world. His connections are as diminished as they've ever been and the start of Latour's run aimed itself at reintegrating him into missions from Nick Fury. On top of that, all the things I said about X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse being really solid and entertaining books that have been kind of pushed to the side for bigger events and titles and characters apply to the Winter Soldier title as well. I'm sad about this, though I think we all kind of knew from the get-go this was either going to kill or never survive. It's the kind of book that has probably more of a niche than most superhero books and those tend to have some trouble surviving (with obvious exceptions like Hawkeye leaping to mind).

As sad as I am about the cancellation, it's not entirely a surprise. Like I said, I think most fans of the book probably knew we were living on borrowed time with this one. In fact, we only got as far as 19 because of the announcement last Comic-Con that the new Captain America movie would have the title "Captain America: Winter Soldier." Brubaker revealed in some of his exit interviews that the book had been teetering on cancellation before that. He had said, after announcing his exit from Captain America, that he intended to remain on Winter Soldier for the foreseeable future, at the time expecting the foreseeable future to put him pretty much where he ended, given the book's cancellation. Instead, the title saw a bit of a sales boost after the movie reveal and Brubaker had to jump ship anyway. Latour and Klein both note in their blog posts dealing with the cancellation (below) that they knew they were fighting an uphill battle when they signed on but that it didn't change their desire to do the book. The problem with a character and a book like Winter Soldier is that, even though fans of the cinematic universe might leap on to the book to prepare for the upcoming movie, it requires the origin story to truly understand. Bucky is so woven into his own history that jumping into the series midway through probably didn't help a lot of new readers, eager to learn about the character who will feature in the motion picture. Also, the motion picture will cast him as a villain and suddenly he's a completely different character, one that audiences of the first Cap movie will recognize as dead, in the book.

I'm sad to see the book go and that's my primary view on this. Was it expected? Yeah, a little bit. Was I happy to have whatever time I got from this book? Sure was. Do I think that this is the end of Winter Soldier appearing in the Marvel Universe? Absolutely not. Marvel will certainly continue to throw Bucky into situations, likely starting with Secret Avengers where he was promoted even before the book launched, because he's a great character and he's well-liked. Hawkeye hadn't caught on in a solo series until Fraction's and he's still cited as plenty of people's favorite Avenger. With a movie coming out, Marvel isn't going to keep Bucky on the bench. So take some solace, then, that James Buchanon Barnes won't be on the sidelines long before we see him again. Will it be in his noir-ish solo series? Probably not. Is that super depressing? Sure is. Is there comfort in knowing good characters won't just fall by the wayside? Yes. So thank you Ed Brubaker and Butch Guice and Michael Lark and Bettie Breitweiser and Jordie Bellaire and Declan Shalvey and Jason Latour and Nic Klein and everyone else involved with this risky book from the start and from the middle and from the end. It was a great title that, yeah, deserved a bit better than it got but certainly gave it all. Pick up every issue from here on out for support and, you know what, go back and buy the rest too.



Writer Jason Latour's blog post about the cancellation can be found here. Artist Nic Klein's can be found here.