Top of the Pile - 4/13/2016

It’s kind of a thing in literature these days to have unreliable narrators. Books like Girl on the Train tells the story through the eyes of a character who is completely within her own world. So the cool part is finding out what “really” happens in the story, because you can’t trust the person telling it to you. The one main character in the Marvel Universe that this happens to is Moon Knight. That’s why this book was my first read this week.

I have mentioned my fondness for the writing of Jeff Lemire, and he now is taking up the insane world of Marc Spector, the Moon Knight. In this book, Marc is in a hospital getting beat up by orderlies. Marc then learns from his doctor that he’s been in the same hospital since he was 12 and Moon Knight is just a delusion. He doesn’t remember anything and still hears the voice of the Egyptian god Khonshu, guiding him to fight his way free from his captivity. So, what is “really” happening? Since it’s a comic, we assume that there really is a god and that Manhattan is being overrun with flying dog headed warriors. But that would be crazy. Right?

The artwork by Greg Smallwood with colors by Jordie Bellaire is pretty cool. During the flashback sequences, Greg uses a colored pencil style where the lines are not smooth and inked. (Kind of like Gene Colan back in the day) And even plays with the panels. There is one page where Marc is going through electroshock and the panels form a large exclamation point. One thing to note is that reading this through Comixology, I didn’t see this element. But on looking through the print book, it was very obvious and made the page more dramatic.

So I will definitely continue picking up Moon Knight. The character is bat shit crazy, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Jeff Lemire tells his story.

Top of the Pile - 4/6/2016

The book that landed the top of the pile this week is Black Panther #1. Not because of the character or his place in the whole Marvel Universe, but because of the writer, Ta-Nehisi Coates. He is not a comic book writer, but rather a poet and journalist who is best known for writing the best selling Between the World and Me.

This book raises some interesting questions. What does it mean to be a king today? How does one rule over people when they have absolute power? What responsibilities does the Black Panther have with his country?

Though the first issue was really cool, it is just the setup for what hopefully will be a good story arc. Ta-Nehisi, for his first try at comic book writing, is pretty good. Often when a non-comic writer first starts writing for comics, they tend to be much too wordy not letting the pictures add to the narrative. But with this book, a good portion of the story is conveyed wonderfully by Brian Stelfreeze.

Interestingly, this book was pulled automatically by my local comic shop because the last time Black Panther was in his own book, it was penned by the best selling novelist David Liss. And with this new book, another famous non-comic world writer is making his mark.

Top of the Pile 3/9/2016

The All-New Wolverine wound its way up to the top of my pile this week. With the cover by Bengal having a Charlie’s Angels vibe, that was the main reason for me to read this book first.

This is issue number 6 in the All-New Wolverine title. Logan isn’t Wolverine anymore. Instead its Laura Kinney, also known as X-23, who has taken up the mantle of Wolverine in the post Secret Wars world. And this is the conclusion of a pretty good, but very derivative story. In this story line, it turns out there is another secret science group making clones of clones as assassins. And coincidentally, the clones happen to be of the new Wolverine. And in this book, Wolverine and her sister-clones take their vengeance out on the scientists and security who created them.

The writing by Tom Taylor is, again, ok. Nothing too over the top. But nothing horrible either. The plotline gets wrapped up tightly. But the one good thing is that he isn’t too wordy. He allows the artist, David Lopez, to carry some of the storytelling.

So I don’t know if this was the best book I picked up this week, but it was the first one I read.

Others I picked up:

Descender #11

Detective Comics #50

Doctor Strange #6

The Mighty Thor #5

Spider-Man/Deadpool #3

Old Man Logan #3

Deadpool #8

Legend of Wonder Woman #3

Uncanny X-Men #4

A-force #3

Top of the Pile 1/27/2016

The comic that made it to the top of my pile this week was Old Man Logan #1. Marvel is doing the “All-New All-Different” thing after the extended Secret Wars shakeup. And with Old Man Logan, what was a stand alone story by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven now becomes a regular Marvel series.

Written by one of my favorite storytellers, Jeff Lemire, Old Man Logan is lifted from the Mark Millar world of desolation into the contemporary Marvel world. This makes it seem to be Logan’s past, since the people in the Millar world who are dead are still alive in the Marvel world. And events that destroyed the civilizations in the Millar world haven’t happened in the Marvel world. Confused? Yeah, me too.

But I trust Jeff Lemire. He is great at telling time travel stories. (Check out his book Trillium) And he doesn’t skimp on the wild nature of Logan. Indeed, the title of this story is “Berserker”. Old Man Logan, once he believes he is in his past and can correct the future, immediately makes a list of people to kill to ensure that his bleak future doesn’t come to pass.

The artwork is by Andrea Sorrentino and it is really good. Not a typical “Marvel” style, he uses softer colors and a lot more shadows. We don’t really see Logan’s full face with it mostly concealed in darkness. The fight sequences are highlighted with sound effects, which makes them feel more kinetic. And though his expressions are subtle in a realistic style, his figures are really nice and substantive.

I’ll tell my comic shop owner to add Old Man Logan to my sub and when it get collected into a trade, I’ll let our teen librarian know it’s something we might want to pick up for the library.

Otherwise, it was a large week for me.
Batman #48
Deadpool #6
Wonder Woman #48
Angela: Queen of Hel #4
Black Magick #4
Chew #54
Monstress #3
The Legend of Wonder Woman #1
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #3

Saga #33

Top of the Pile 1/13/2016

Top of the pile this week is the final issue of the Secret Wars mini-series from Marvel. With delays and extensions, we finally read the conclusion of the multi universe altering storyline from Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic and Ive Scorcina. With this being the last book in the series, my explanation will have some spoilers. But I’ll try and keep them not too blatant.

I’ve always like the work of Jonathan Hickman. It’s almost always really out there in its scope. He takes huge, horrible, existential situations and boils the solutions down to individual choices and actions. And in Secret Wars, after destroying all the different universes with in the Marvel continuum, he stages a fist fight between Reed Richards and Dr. Doom for the fate of everything, That’s pretty cool.

The artwork, by Esad Ribic with color by Ive Scorcina is interesting. Certainly not the classic Marvel/Kirby style. Esad uses softer lines and the colors Ive selected are more subtle. The draughtsmanship is excellent with characters displaying strong emotions both in their facial expressions as well as their body language. But it does lack some of the kinetic feel of Marvel books. But for this story, the action pack fist fighting isn’t necessary.

I’ll ask out teen librarian to pick up the collected volume of Secret Wars for our collection since it’s the latest in the re-defining of the Marvel Universe. And I suspect it would be a popular book among our teen readers here.

Other books I picked up this week:
All-New Wolverine #4
Injection #6
Descender #9
Paper Girls #4

Top of the Pile - 7/3/2014

Uncanny X-Men #23 and #24

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Kris Anka

Marvel Comics

The very provocative, minimal cover is what made me put this on the top of my pile this week. I’ve been behind picking up by stack from the comic shop (with Comic Con and everything) so officially issue 23 came out a couple weeks ago and 24 today, which was good since it ended in a big cliffhanger.

In these issues, the main plotline involved the reading of Charles Xavier’s will. With the first couple pages showing the resident Marvel lawyer who isn’t Matt Murdock, Jennifer Walters (She Hulk), to preside over the reading of the last will and testament of Prof. X. But of course all the people named in the will need to be present, and since the whole breakup of the mutant clan and Cyclops on the outs from pretty much everyone else, that is there the tension in these book lay.

Other story threads include the emergence of a new mutant and the hunt for Mystique after she held Dazzler captive. Bendis is great at keeping all the crazy super stuff within a human mentality. Consequently, the most ridiculous situations still seem “normal”. People are sad, upset, angry, confused at the reading of the will, like any family member would be after losing a loved one. This touch makes Bendis’ writing always interesting.

And for Anka’s art. It is very good. I initially picked up this book for the work of Chris Bachalo, but Anka has a similar style. Bold lines, broad colors,, clear action, it was easy on the eyes and exciting to look at.

For adding this series to a library. with ongoing books that is always a tough call. Like genre novels in a series, where does one start and stop the collection? Subject wise, it’s fine for any graphic novel area in a public library. But again, if it’s popular, fans might ask for the entire run in trade paperback.

Top of the Pile - 6/19/2013

Age of Ultron #10
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Brandon Peterson
Marvel Comics

Here’s the end of the limited series that is one of the current Marvel cross title, universe destroying, end of all things books. The series started with the Marvel heroes at their wits end as Ultron, the malevolent AI created by Hank Pym, is close to destroying all life on earth. Fortunately, Wolverine finds a time machine and goes back to kill Pym before he created the Ultron program. And things go downhill from there. Timelines cross. Different evils destroy different universes. Different Wolverines battle each other, both being the best at what they do. All in all, an action packed ride.
But I didn’t really get into this book. I liked the start. The post-apocalyptic, battle for your life, nothing of civilization is left vibe was cool. I liked when Luke Cage and She Hulk, being the strongest, go into Ultrons layer to parlay with him. I enjoyed when Taskmaster and Black Widow are on the west coast tracking down Nick Fury’s safe houses. But once the time traveling began, I lost interest. And with it concluded, it was the usual “let’s just go back in time and tell us how bad things get so we don’t do that” kind of ending. And the big reveal at the end is that the Neil Gaiman character that has been in copyright limbo for the past 20 years, Angela, makes her appearance in the Marvel Universe.

As an individual issue culminating a 10 issue series, I thought it was ok. But instead of a satisfying conclusion, we get dragged into a new cross-title cluster of books that deal with the fallout of the time travel from this story. Sigh. I will not be picking them up for myself.

So is this series library worthy? I would certainly consider it optional. The story is ok but the art is better than average. Kids will pick it up and read it in the library as they hang out after school. But I would not consider it classic and certainly it isn’t a stand-alone story.

Top of the Pile - 5/29/2013

X-Men #1
Written by Brian Wood
Penciled by Oliver Copiel
Inked by Mark Morales and Oliver Copiel
Colors by Laura Martin

I really like the X-Men. They were my favorite book back in the Claremont/Byrne days. Back in the 80’s, they rocked the comics world like nothing else. But I grew disillusioned with the X books when they became too big for their breeches. New Mutants? Ok. Excalibur? Maybe. X-Factor, X-Force, Exiles, X-this and X-that. Too much. Since then, I’ve been mostly away from X books. But I have been looking at the new Marvel NOW books and picking up some #1 issues to see how they look.

And with X-Men #1, it looks like we will have the X-Women take the stage, which is pretty cool. Perhaps there will be a new Marvel issue that doesn’t have Wolverine in it. On the cover we see Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Summers, Rouge, Storm and Psylock; some of the most bad ass women mutants. And Brian Wood starts the story off with some “before time things started going bad” trope. By the second page, we learn Jubilee has a baby in tow and is trying to get to upstate New York to be with her fellow X-Men.

The comic book isn’t bad, but it’s not really great either. The bad guy apparently is someone named John Sublime, who I never heard of. But the X-Men seem to take him seriously. But again, the problem seems to be all the backstory baggage. With Marvel NOW, how much is brand new and how much is from the previous stories? That’s the biggest problem with this book, and comics in general. How much knowledge and backstory do you need to understand and enjoy the comic?

I did like the art from Oliver Copiel. Unlike the big boobed, scantally clad women from the 90’s that I remember and left behind, these X-Women are pretty demure. And the action is well done. The train crash would normally by a double-page, hyper-kinetic, super-detailed explosion with bodies and flames everywhere. But again, that would have been in a comic from the 90’s. Instead, we have a really cool sequence over a couple pages showing the lead up and crash in a small quarter panel. Nice.

Would I add this in a library collection? Perhaps. But with it being a book with baggage, patrons might ask for collections of back stories to fill in the gaps. That’s why I try and stay away from books like this that are part of a huge continuity for our collection. Instead I like relying on really good, self-contained story arcs or stand alone books.

Top of the Pile - 4/3/2013

Thanos Rising

Written by Jason Aaron

Art by Simone Bianchi

This week, Thanos Rising was the first thing I read from the comic shop. I picked up the Skottie Young variant cover from the shop and entered the digital code to read it on my iPad. And I have to say, I was a little disappointed.

For those of you who don’t know, Thanos is the bad ass of the Marvel Universe. He made a cameo at the end of the Avengers movie and has been at the center of most of the cosmic events Marvel superheroes have to deal with. And with Thanos Rising the story, related as a flashback, we get to see baby Thanos grow up to into a picked on sensitive tween. Most of the comic shows Thanos wanting to play with the other kids in the schoolyard and looking for his father's affections.

Written by Jason Aaron, this book doesn’t have the impact that I believe it should. It seems he’s trying to make Thanos into a sympathetic character by bringing up his misunderstood childhood. That’s not really something that needs to be done. Will this make Thanos that more evil as we see him become the destroyer? And if you’re a new reader to Marvel and don’t know Thanos, his true malevolence isn’t shown in this first book.

However, the art by Simone Bianchi is fantastic. He has a unique style that has a European flair. The characters have an emotional intensity that lifts from the page. And the detail in the backgrounds set the a space/science atmosphere. The colors by Simone Peruzzi also add a depth to the story telling. The different shades of purples for Thanos’ skin. He uses a lot of blues and greens in the book to give it a cool feel. But hopefully, the story will pick up and get a little more hotter in the color pallette.

This is a 5 issue limited series, so I’m going to continue picking them up. As for purchasing this book for a library collection, I think this is optional. There isn’t any real backstory for people to pick up on. And normals won’t know anything about Thanos, so unlike Spider-Man or Thor, it’s not likely a casual reader will pick up.

Top of the Pile - 2/27/13

Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1
Writer Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler Steve McNiven
Inker John Dell
Colors Justin Ponsor
Marvel Comics

Yet another Marvel NOW! book, this is a prelude to the Guardians of the Galaxy. In it, we learn the origin of Star Lord Peter Quill. As a child of a space traveler and an Earth woman, we are given a very quick look at how growing up was difficult for him.

This made the top of the pile because it’s new. Normally, a new run on a comic would start with #0.1 issue instead of a #1. I guess they wanted to tell more of the backstory before they start the real story arc of the book.

Bendis loves to invoke emotional content into the characters he writes. We see the crisis’ that the characters experience and hear about how they feel. Young Peter Quill is shown displaying a deep sense of justice defending a girl from a bully. Peter’s mother is shown anguishing over her son as he tries to deal with his missing space bound father. Emotion is rife throughout.

And the artwork is very good. I’ve been yammering on about the emotion of the writing, and the artwork conveys most of these feelings. There are a two page wordless spread where the Peter’s parents first fall in love. McNiven is able to show the expressions and with the added benefits of Dell’s inks and Ponsor’s colors, the whole book tells a nice heartfelt story with the potential for cosmic consequences.

I’ll continue getting Guardians. I hope Bendis is able to give Groot, the royal tree entity, a good part. But with a Marvel movie coming out of the Guardians, I suspect there will be interest in this lesser known property. I would pick up the collected volumes when they come out for my library.

Top of the Pile - 1/16/13

Savage Wolverine #1
by Frank Cho
Marvel

How many Wolverine books are there? How many way can he say that he is the best there is? We’ve been reading about Logan for a couple decades, and with this new Marvel NOW book, Savage Wolverine, Frank Cho is turning his art and storytelling styles in on Marvels favorite mutant.

Set in the Savage Land (hence Savage Wolverine), Shanna the She-Devil and a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are exploring when their aircraft breaks down stranding them in the inhospital wilderness. One frame later, Wolverine falls inexplicably out of the sky, gets attacked by dinosaurs and neanderthals. Eventually he latches up with Shanna as they are attacked by a gaggle of pterosaurs.

This is a fun start of a series, but I don’t know if it will have staying power. Back in the day when I would run to the local shop to pick up Marvel Team Up or Marvel Two in One, they were fun stories where Spider-Man or The Thing teams up with some hero and beats the bad guy. I kind of hope this book is like those. Not too deep where we delve into the psyche of Wolverine. Instead we see him going berserk on prehistoric animals. And blond, big-boobed jungle babes isn’t off putting either.

Is this book public library worthy? After a single issue, I’d say it’s an optional series. But that’s only after a single issue. It certainly isn’t for young children with the violence and decapitations. But for a 14 year old boy, I would certainly let them check this out.

Top of the Pile - 1/2/2013

Fury MAX #8
Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Goran Parlov
Marvel

Fury MAX #8 was the first thing I wanted to read from this weeks comic buy. This book, by Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov beat out a couple Image books and New Avengers #1. Why? Because I love the story Ennis is telling.


This series tells the tale of Nick Fury during the Cold War. This isn’t the Samuel Jackson, Avengers Nick Fury. This is a hybrid old school Nick Fury – Howlin’ Commando and Nick Fury agent of SHIELD. Nick is in all the good Cold War hot spots. Fighting with the French at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam, riding along with exiled Cuban nationals into the Bay of Pigs, and in the current story we find Nick back in Vietnam teamed up with Frank Castle in an assassination attempt on a NVA general.

It is obvious that Ennis loves his history. He crafts a compelling story concerning the realpolitik of the Cold War where the United States wasn’t necessarily doing good things around the world. He’s telling a tale where dirty work was done in secret to further American interests abroad. And what the coolest thing about this book is that Nick Fury is the guy doing most of this work. With this issue, we’re up into the Nixon administration, so Vietnam is close to being complete. I hope he has another story arc or two in him to continue. Perhaps Ennis can let Nick help take out Salvador Allende or perhaps have him work with Oliver North on the Iran-Contra fiasco.

And the art work by Parlov looks like the great old school European comic book artists, it made me look up his bio to learn more about him. It turns out he isn’t one of the old timers like Jacques Tardi, Jean Giraud. His work could even be compared to Milton Caniff, it’s that retro/cool.

However, this book is definitely mature. There are several F-bombs and Nick gets it on once or twice with the senators secretary. So I would not add this series in the teen area. But it is a great bit of storytelling that libraries should consider buying.

Top of the Pile - 12/19/12

FF #2
By Matt Fraction, Mike and Laura Allred
Published by Marvel

The Marvel NOW is going along pretty well. Of the books I have picked up, I have liked them fine. But the Jonathan Hickman Fantastic Four and FF were two books I looked forward to each month. And now that Matt Fraction is writing these, I’m a little more skeptical. Where Hickman thought cosmically with alternate universes and time jumps, Fraction is only dealing with one alternate universe. This saves on much confusion. The FF book tells the story of four replacement members of the Fantastic Four, (Ant-Man, She Hulk, Medusa and Ms. Thing) who are minding the story while the real Fantastic Four is away. Technically for only 4 minutes, something goes wrong and the replacements term of service is much longer.

I like this book. With all new characters, personalities are much more pronounced in this new iteration of the book. There is some fun moments and good action. In this issue, much like the first issue of Fantastic Four from 1961, The Mole Man attacks because he’s offended that these upstart newcomers are not the “real” Fantastic Four.

And with the unique artwork by the Allreds, this book should be fun as long as the creative team sticks together. I really enjoyed his work in I, Zombie and his style is so different than most Marvel books, it is definitely a positive aspect of this book. The humor also comes in a visual style as Medusa is ringing a bell for a maid to serve her, and being ignored as all the others are eating breakfast together.

So is this good for libraries? Indeed. Rated T+, there is the usual fantasy violence. But as for language and sex, there is nothing that wouldn't be appropriate for a young adult collection.

Top of the Pile 11/14/12

Fantastic Four #1
Written by Matt Fraction
Pencils by Mark Bagley
Inks by Mark Farmer
Color by Paul Mounts
Published by Marvel

I really liked the previous run on Fantastic Four by Johnathan Hickman, and with the renumbering of the NOW! Marvel is doing, this is their restarting of their original super hero group. And it looks pretty good, in a traditional kind of way. It has the same "family" feeling I remember with the John Byrne run on FF years ago.

The story maintains the setting and characters, with all the children from the Freedom Foundation running around the Baxter Building. Also, Johnny Storm still has pull in the Negative Zone after taking over from Annihilus. But the story starts off with Mr. Fantastic getting bit by a dinosaur and starting an irreversible degradation in his unstable, cosmic irradiated molecules. Meanwhile, Franklin Richards is having bad dreams and dreading going into space.

I like Matt Fraction’s work. It’s not quite as far out as Hickman’s, but it has some super sci-fi moments. And so far with the first issue, he has left the narrative wide open allowing for the potential to run the Fantastic Four through some crazy stories. I’m looking forward to where it might go.

And the art by Mark Bagley is fine. His character drawing is very good and his space ships and sciency backgrounds are detailed and interesting. And like I say, as long as the pictures doesn’t distract from the story, it’s a good thing.

I have always thought the Fantastic Four was a good book for any public library. The art and stories are consistently good. And though the Avengers and X-Men might be the big, popular Marvel properties, hopefully this book will find a good audience.

Top of the Pile 11/07/12

Deadpool #1
Written by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn
Art by Tony Moore
Cover by Geoff Darrow

Marvel is renumbering their books. We had Uncanny Avengers a couple months ago and more books are coming out each week with their Marvel Now! promotion. I had collected the previous volume of Deadpool since it started some 40 issues or so ago and really enjoyed their crazy stories. But now with a new creative team, we start fresh with a new #1.

First off, the cover by Geoff Darrow made me chuckle. With his hyper detailed bullet shelled picture, Deadpool seems to be shooting Godzilla who is vomiting up cats. Whatever. It’s just absurd, which is what Deadpool personifies.

As for the story, it starts off when Harry S. Truman is resurrected and then decapitated by Captain America. Some villain named the Necromancer is going around raising dead US Presidents. SHIELD, trying to end this hires Deadpool to take care of it quietly.

Written by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn, the story is clever and filled with horrible puns. It’s kind of like reading an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. But unfortunately, some of the inside jokes might be too much. I kind of gotten used to the previous Deadpool where he had two inner voices (and sometimes more) arguing with his dialog bubbles.

I kind of dig the art by Tony Moore. It’s rough and visceral. And with the resurrected Presidents, it has a Zombiesque feel and Deadpool doesn’t look much better. But the action flows and there is no problems following the story. That, in my opinion, makes for a really good comic artist.

One this issue, I noticed more of the AR symbol indicating that it uses the augmented reality. The cover image pulled up a kookie background video of Deadpool giving his history and such. Inside, we get to see some videos of the writers explaining the book. All pretty normal. But the best AR page was at the back of the book where there were a couple dozen resurrected presidents and the video went and identified each of them. I knew about two thirds of them.

Would I add this to a public library collection? Sure. So far after a single issue, it seems pretty cool. It has the “parental advisory” on the cover so it would not go into the children’s area. But I could justify it being in the YA collection with some contorted justifications.

Top of the Pile 10/24/12

Journey into Mystery #645
Story by Kieron Gillen
Art by Stephanie Hans
Marvel Comics

This is the end of a long story by Kieron Gillen. Starting with a young, resurrected Loki, we follow as he tries to change the whole god of evil – must kill my half-brother Thor trope. Through a couple story arcs that had the potential of ending the universe, young Loki uses his cunning for good throughout. With varying results, he usually comes out on top and saves the nine realms from some nasty fate.

With issue 645, we are presented with the aftermath of the “Everything Burns” crossover event. Through the various plots and schemes from the previous issues, Loki has unleashed Surtur (a huge fire demon) who likes to burn things. And as everything comes apart and the outcome looks catastrophic, young Loki rewrites reality and saves the day. In this aftermath, we learn that the loose ends will require young Loki to sacrifice his essence to save (yet again) everything.

I have enjoyed this book. I have mentioned that the Norse Marvel stories have always been a fun read. And with this reinterpretation of Loki, different types of stories were told. Not good versus evil in a huge fight, but a good tricking evil at its own game. There is an interesting panel where it shows some demon getting a book from a magpie with the title “Journey into Mystery: A Comedy in Thirty Parts (Or a Tragedy in Thirty-One)”. This made me chuckle and kind of broke the fourth wall a little.

The art by Stephanie Hans is very good. Unlike the Alan Davis Norse stories, there are no huge muscle battles. Instead, we see young Loki setting up with his past and decisions. It has a melancholy feel and a palette of greens and reds. I’ll have to keep my eyes out for other works by her.

As for adding this book to a library, I would definitely do so without hesitation. Teen hero? Tough life choices? Fate of the universe? Potential love story? All make for a compelling young adult novel. And with the benefit of great art and Marvel marketing, any library would do well with this book.

Top of the Pile - 10/10/12

Uncanny Avengers #1
Written by Rick Remender
Art by John Cassaday
Inks by Laura Martin

Since I’ve been out of town, it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve posted. But I’m back and into my regular swing of things. This week I picked up 8 books and the big title this time is the first in the Marvel Now! Reboot, Uncanny Avengers.

Marvel is doing a huge multi-title reboot and after the last one of Avengers vs. X-Men, having them come together in some way seems the obvious direction. The book starts off at Charles Xaviers’ funeral with Cyclops in prison and Havoc asked to join the Avengers by Captain America (because “someone has to stand up and represent the mutants.”) Also some of the other highlights in the book include, Rouge and Scarlet Witch getting angry with each other, Wolverine eulogizing, and a couple of brains removed from corpses (which is really pretty gruesome).

It’s been a long time since I’ve read many X books. But it looks like Rick Remender has written for both the Uncanny X-Force and Secret Avengers titles for a while. So he knows the lay of the land when it comes to Marvel. And with this book, he is starting to lay the plans for the next story arc. We see which character is stealing brains. We see the characters begin to deal with the loss of Professor X. And we see the fallout from the previous Marvel mega storyline AvX. Remender has many different ways to go and he seems to have some good ideas.

And with John Cassaday doing the art, there is no loss of clarity in the story. Cassaday’s style is clear as always and enhances the plot wonderfully. I like that his depictions of superheroes isn’t exaggerated in any way. They look like fit normal people. (Thor is a little beefier, but he is a god after all.) I’m sure other artists would do just as fine with a book of this scope, but having Cassaday on it makes it that much more pleasurable a read.

As for picking up more of this title, I think I’ll hold off. I’m already spending a little too much of my budget on comics, so picking up a new book with the potential of having cross title storylines is more than I could handle. But if I have the opportunity and funds at my library, I would pick up the collected volume for our collection. But with the level of violence in the book I would not put it in the juvenile area. The teen shelves is where this title would go.

Top of the Pile 8/22/2012

Supercrooks #4
Story by Mark Millar and Nacho Vigalondo
Art by Leinil Yu and Gerry Alanguilan
Colors by Sunny Gho
Letters by Clayton Cowles

There are tons of post-modern superhero stories where the heroes are as bad - or worse - than the villains they are supposed to fight. And Mark Millar has built an entire collection of books around this theme. His book Wanted and Kick-Ass have been made into movies. And he pumps out uber-violent, profanity laced tales that always entertain me.

With Supercrooks #4, we are at the end of a mini-series. The tale revolves around a heist. To get money for an old supervillain who gets in trouble over gambling debts, a team is assembled to steal the 800 million dollar nest egg of the greatest villain, with the obvious name The Bastard. So like all the old heist films, (Topkapi, Oceans 11, The Italian Job, A Fish Called Wanda, Reservoir Dogs…) each character has a role in the caper. And there is always a switcheroo to throw off the victim. And Millar hits all the tropes, which is good.

Leinl Yu’s art quite good. Though unique, he uses a rougher style which works well with this type of story.  The viscera are nicely drawn and the narrative isn’t lost in it’s roughness. There is a funny panel where The Bastard has been had. He ends up in front of the “Monkey Go-Round” in the Banana Land amusement park. That made me chuckle.

So for a thin week of few books purchased, what ended up on the top of the pile was a good read. Not great. But fun.

Top of the Pile 8/8/12

The Mighty Thor #18

Story - Matt Fraction & Kieron Gillen
Script - Matt Fraction
Penciler - Alan Davis
Inker - Mark Farmer
Colorist - Javier Rodriguez
Letterer - VC's Joe Sabino

This weeks top of the pile is a book I isn’t part of my pull list from the comic shop. The Mighty Thor #18 has the honor of being read first due to the fact that it is the beginning of a story arc that will contain the book Journey Into Mystery, which I do subscribe to and enjoy. They Asgard books are doing a crossover event called “Everything Burns” which will be a huge battle with the fire giant Surtur.

Written by Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen with pencils by the phenomenal artist Alan Davis, this was a book I wanted to read to see if it was worth adding the extra title to collect the whole “Everything Burns” event, or to drop Journey Into Mystery since I find these cross book storylines a pain.

As far as the story goes, I think it will be pretty good. It seems for the last couple years Asgard is in one existential crisis after another and only Thor can save the day. But I mentioned that I am only picking up Journey Into Mystery, which tell the story of a young, reincarnated Loki. Without the pure malevolence, I find this Loki a wonderful character. He tries to fight against his nature to do bad. He tries to do what’s right. But no one thinks he has changed that much from his old evil self. However, there was precious little of young Loki this book. I’m sure he’ll have more of a presence as the story continues.

Well, I liked this book. But what made it better than average was Alan Davis’ artwork. His style hasn’t changed over the years, and that’s a good thing since his style is wonderful for comic books. His draughtsmanship is top notch and clearly advances the narrative. Unlike some comic art where there are expressionless and featureless figures. His expressions and figures are unique. And I had to take about 5 minutes to look at the group battle double page spread.

So when the next issues of this story come out, I'll liked this issue enough to continue getting the story. But I'll wait till the end of the crossover event to read the complete tale in one sitting. I find this much more rewarding.

Top of the Pile - 7/18/12

Sorry for not having an entry last week. I was getting ready to attend the San Diego Comic Con for a couple days and didn’t make it to the shop. So I have a pretty big stack this week. What I would have picked for my top of the pile last week was I, Zombie. I thought it was the final issue of that run, but it turns out there's one more coming.

This week however goes to a Marvel book, Fantastic Four #608. There are other good books that were close to the top including Daredevil #15, Saga #5 and the new Captain Marvel #1. But the Jonathan Hickman run on the Fantastic Four book has been a fun ride for the past couple years. And another definite plus is the Frank Cho cover of three superwomen. That’s why I put this at the top of my pile.

On reading, this book is one of exposition. It’s not the most exciting, but Hickman is building the larger story. It starts with T’Challa and Reed Richards entering into the Wakandan necropolis because of dreams the T’Challa has been experiencing. While T’Challa’s sister, Shuri, the current Black Panther, along with Storm and Invisible Woman go on their own vision quest to confront the Jackal God who has been attacking Wakanda.

The art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Karl Kesel and Paul Mounts is better than good. The Egyptian motif is prevalent through the book. And with some dramatic angles and interesting facial expressions, I’m glad I put this one at the top. I suspect there are other books that would be better as a single issue this week, but I’m happy that this issue of Fantastic Four didn’t disappoint.