This week's picks

Solid week for comics this past week. There were 15 new issues out for review and nearly every one of them was interesting or worth reading for some aspect or another. Can't complain when that's the case. Still, I'm only to pick three of those issues for this, the most elite pull list recommendation I can muster.

Hawkeye Annual 1

One of the stand-outs about Hawkeye throughout its current run is just the impressiveness with which it's been constructed. Every issue jumps around in time a little bit or jumps around in time with the rest of the series. It's never so excessive that you can't follow what's happening but it's enough to keep you on your toes and to break up a regular narrative. More than that, it's great to let us in further to how the characters are feeling. The time will often jump around to indicate how a person is feeling or to go to a memory that spawned the current situation or mirrors an emotion the character may be feeling now. Hawkeye Annual does that a lot with Kate (double size issue means it can happen twice as often) and it works really well. We get a look into who Kate is and why she does what she does, which has been left out a lot of most books Kate has appeared in. On top of that, it's a really good story with really good characterization and a very nice theme for everyone's favorite Hawkeye. Javier Pulido gives us outstanding and different art from the rest of the series (minus the two issues he was the artist on) and it works really well for the change of pace Annual. Solid book all the way around.

New Avengers 8

I'll be honest, this book was the closest it's probably ever come to not making this list. It was a bit of a slower issue than we've seen (which is saying something, as there's a major war breaking out and an alien invasion in its pages) and there was a lot of steady competition. Ultimate X-Men, Captain America, Uncanny Avengers, Superior Spider-Man, and Scarlet Spider all had a shot at this spot but I think my love for Black Panther and Namor fended off the rest of the entries. One of the things that's always fascinated me about Black Panther, Namor, and Black Bolt was that they were mostly heroes to the world but, while that's a role that they play, it's not the role that they play. They're kings and they owe first to their people. Black Panther cares about the world at large and about the Avengers and so forth, but his decisions are made for the people of Wakanda first. He's the best example because he's the one with the least resentment towards humanity. Here we see some of the weight of being king as he understands what the best path would be for the people but he must cede to the will of his sister, the actual queen of Wakanda (T'Challa is the King of the Necropolis right now, officially). The weight of power is something that every member of the New Avengers feels and it shines through here best with Panther and Namor.

Young Avengers 8

This book continues to be one of the best Marvel has. From its nicely defined character relationships (that still have more defining to go) to its intricate plots and intriguing villains to its cheeky writing loaded with equal parts fun and weight to its absolutely amazing art every single issue, Young Avengers has everything you could want out of a comic book. This issue saw multiple universes, which was all very fun before delivering three could-be book endings. Any one of the last three to four scenes could have been used as an ending to the issue but it just kept pushing forth. It wasn't an ending that pushed on too long, either, like in the best example for that, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, wherein the movie ends about eight times before it plods on to the chagrin of the watcher. Here, each ending just ups the stakes for the characters before they move on. No one could say that this book continues past its welcome as every issue, and this one is no different, feels like it ends far too soon. I've read this series issue to issue, obviously, but I imagine this is a great one to read in trade form. So if you're not buying this book on a regular basis (mistake), pick up the trades when they become available. It has the feel of a series that reads well continuously. And that reads well in general. Just a good series, you guys.


Character of the Week

New segment for me because I had a whole load of best-panels/best-pages but they were all spoilery from, well, pretty much from Young Avengers, which also had the best cover and guys, I didn't want to oversaturate all of you. I still am going to, given who I'm picking for character of the week, but whatever. Character of the week is just, to me, the character who had the most impact on a given week. In this case, it was almost Captain America, who had a huge week in his own book, obviously, but also a bit of a revealing one in Uncanny Avengers. That's the gist of it. However, the real winner is, of course, Kate Bishop who had a fantastic starring role in Hawkeye Annual and a solid narrator/co-starring role in Young Avengers. I'd love to see more from her in Young Avengers but being the leve-headed one in such an eccentric group probably means she needs to talk more in authority situations than in the typical situations the YA find themselves in. Still, she has solid heart in this book as she breaks down for the audience the way that the team has been dealing with the horrors they've seen and there's a nice moment between her and Noh-Varr about who Oubliette the Exterminatrix is when they run afoul of yet another Earth a different Noh-Varr had conquered. Solid performance out of Kate this week and it's nice to see her strong re-emergence in the Marvel Universe after a couple years off (well, not including Children's Crusade, I guess, which merely felt like it took nine years to come out).

Captain America 9, Hawkeye Annual 1

Captain America 9
Remender (w) and Romita Jr. and Janson w/ Hanna and Palmer (a) and White (c)

Sharon has arrived in Dimension Z, telling Cap that everything that's happened must be false memories or some other manner of brain manipulation; he can't have been here ten years because she followed right behind him through the portal. Everything, this now included, sends Cap a little off the deep end. He's dealt with a lot already this series and now, bruised and beaten with his adopted son apparently dead, shot by the woman he loves, while she tells him that it was all a dream seems too much to bear. Still, he's Captain America so even at his lowest he stands and, instead of leaving with Sharon immediately, demands they go save Jet, who is still working to free the Phrox.

Plenty happens in this issue, no less the idea, planted into Cap's head, that this may have all been a dream. He will not believe it but Sharon is adamant. Whether she truly believes it or if she thinks this is the fastest way to get Steve standing is debatable (though the first instinct, if she did follow just moments behind Steve, is obviously to believe that this isn't real, Sharon's certainly seen enough in her time to accept it as real), but the revelation that it could have been a dream really floors Steve. Still, his mantra of "always stand up" kicks back in and he manages to revive himself enough to keep moving and to attack Zola on Jet's behalf. There's more interesting stuff with Jet that rings up more questions about her character and what she's working for but one of the most interesting parts to me is the way that Remender has played this whole arc nicely into Uncanny Avengers. We were told in that book that Cap has just returned from Dimension Z, which no one else knows, and that plays into why he's so on edge. At first, there's a real sense that his anger at Logan is driven by what Logan's done, then the first instinct after you learn this is post-Dimension Z is that Steve's just been through a lot and he takes it out on Logan. However, knowing what we know about this series and about what made him so mad at Logan, we can really start to see deeper into what's happened with Steve. He's mad at logan because Logan killed a child who was bred to be evil but was still only a child. Remind you of anyone? It certainly should and it gives us pause as to how he's going to react to Sharon with this attitude. Another solid issue. The conclusion of this first arc comes next issue and the fallout will probably come with it.

Hawkeye Annual 1
Fraction (w) and Pulido (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Annuals, for those unaware, tend to be given to popular books at Marvel and are generally a double-size issue that may or may not be pertinent to the story at hand. You don't want to assume that everyone buying the series will buy the annual so you don't want to load it with too much giant stuff but you also want to give everyone a good read and a read that falls within the scope of the book that spawned the annual, especially since annuals tend to be more expensive. This one is 4.99 instead of Hawkeye's typical 2.99 (I believe it's still one of the 2.99 books; it might be 3.99 and I'm too far away to look at old issues right now. Well I could. But I won't. Could I look it up on the internet? Yup. But we're really already taking too much time from the review). With that in mind, you should buy this book despite its cost and its possibility to be skipped (I'm not sure it is really possible to be skipped at this point but I think you could gain just about everything you need to gain for the future out of past issues and future issues. Hard to say as I, too, am not in the future). This annual focuses on Kate Bishop, the Lady Hawkguy, the Hawkeye, the Young Avenger, and so on, and her travel westward. She's done with Clint and his desire to push everyone away when he needs them most and she refuses to be dragged down by him. With Lucky in tow, she drives out to California, happy to get away for at least a little bit and desperate to figure out who she wants to be in this world. However, she's not the only person interested in her identity (perfect segue); Madame Masque, who Kate royally pissed off back in Hawkeyes 4 and 5, has had her ear to the ground all this time, waiting for Katie Kate to resurface. Now Kate has to get away from a solid Marvel villain as well as the people she actually cares about, though frankly Madame Masque is the more threatening in that situation.

This is a phenomenal issue with a lot of fun energy from Kate, some good twists and turns, and a great emotional core to it that gives us a lot of background into Kate's life as well as her motivations for doing what she does. Kate's been around in the Marvel Universe for a while now but she's still something of a mystery, in truth. I think, because she's been here so long and she's so personable, it's easy to forget that we don't know all that much about her. Maybe it's because there's not much to know; she doesn't have a hugely tragic background like Spider-Man or Iron Fist (guys, his mom was eaten by wolves practically in front of him). Her mother died and her father is a powerful business man who remarried someone not much older than Kate. He seems to be a good enough guy (he had been, if I'm remembering right, more overprotective in the original Young Avengers books than he seems to be in this one) but he's not a terribly interesting character nor a terribly interesting backdrop for the drama we crave from our superheroes. So where does the mystery come in? It's the question of why for Kate, and a little bit the question of how. They're, of course, interconnected and well explained here. The truth is, beyond this explanation, you don't necessarily need much. Heroes don't need to have a harrowing story behind them; they need to be heroes. Still, it's nice to have Fraction know that and, instead of trying to spice up Kate's past with darkness that she had to overcome, highlight the aspects of Kate that make her who she is. Great issue. Pulido's art is decidedly a switch from Aja's and gives the book a completely different feel. I can't quite put my finger on what I'm thinking of when I see it but it reminds me of an older time in comics. It's pretty gorgeous and there are some really great moments with it. Spend the five dollars, dudes. It's worth it.