Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Batman: Gates of Gotham #2 – Detective work and an overarching sense of mythos and history that serves to enhance the story and provide atmosphere without overwhelming the reader makes for an awesome read.  Really fun artwork makes it an even more awesome read.

Most Anticipated: Scalped #50 – Though it doesn’t get as much press as it should, make no mistake, issue after issue, Scalped is continually among the best of the month.  If you at all enjoy Jason Aaron’s other work, you need to be reading this; it’s the man’s best work by far.And here we are, at 50 issues.  Not at all shabby for a creator-owned Vertigo series.  I’m really interested to see what Aaron has in store for us in this sure to be special, landmark issue.

Other Picks: Detective Comics #878, THUNDER Agents #8, American Vampire #16, Amazing Spider-Man #664, FF #5, Venom #4

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: 2000 AD June “Pack” Progs 1732 – 1735 – This is kinda a weird pick because it isn’t one comic…..it’s four.  I just started reading 2000 AD for the first time and really enjoyed my first exposure.  If you aren’t familiar, 2000 AD is a weekly anthology comic that has been published in England since 1977, so the numbers get high really fast.  Here in the United States, we get them in monthly “packs” of 4 issues at once although they are going to weekly publication in the US in August I believe.  I can’t tell you how satisfying these were to read.  Even though I was picking up in the middle of an anthology series and many stories were 3-4 episodes into a tale, they had just enough exposition that I knew basically what was going on.  Bravo!  Really strong art too!  Why can’t American comics be more like this?

Most Anticipated: American Vampire #16 – Good Lord is this a packed week.  As I stared at my pull list about the only thing I was sure of was that X-Men: Prelude to Schism #4 would NOT be my most anticipated comics of the week.  Picking AV #16 off this list is like asking which of your 10 children do you love the most.  Still, Scott Snyder and Rafa Albuquerque’s tale of vampirism on a Japanese occupied Pacific island in WWII was taking some very cool twists toward the end of AV #15 and I’m very eager to see how things begin to resolve themselves.  American Vampire should be on everyone’s pull list.

Other Picks: Creepy Comics #6, Detective Comics #878, Scalped #50, Butcher Baker the Righteous Maker #4, The Walking Dead #86, Amazing Spider-Man #664, FF #5, Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #6

American Vampire #16 – Advance Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Pat Brosseau (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: When we last saw our Vassals of the Morning Star (masquerading as American Marines), they ran into some Imperial Japanese soldiers on a Pacific island infested with some funky vampires.  Will this be a case of “any port in a storm,” or will our heroes be sorry they ran into the Japanese?

Sustained Excellence: Anyone who has followed reviews of American Vampire knows that the stunning thing is how consistently awesome AV has been.  I’ve been keeping a database with notes on every comic book I’ve read for the last 2 years (when I began writing online reviews).  It has ~1300 entries and a couple of things jump out from that list.  I use a 10-point scale rather than the letter grade we use here, since it allows me to sort titles, calculate averages and really compare titles.  The lowest score I ever gave to an issue of American Vampire was an 8.0 for issue #1.  That would work out to roughly a “B” here at WCBR.  Issue #12 was an 8.1.  And that’s the lowest score the series has ever gotten from me.  Other than that, it is a steady string of 8.8-9.2.  In fact, AV has the highest average score of any comic series over the last year or so.  The other contenders are Scalped and The Walking Dead, but to paraphrase Larry Holmes, “they can’t carry AV’s jock.”  And, that’s not to be dismissive of those outstanding titles, but I’ve never read a series that kept hitting home runs like AV without ever striking out.  Surely at some point, AV will release an issue were I have to say, “It was okay, but it was in the middle of a story arc, so I expect it to get better next issue…”   But, it hasn’t happened yet.

So, trust me. I read a lot of comics and think about them pretty critically, and American Vampire is the best monthly series right now.  Most “good” series have an average score of 8.0 and blip up to 9.0 once or twice per year.  AV is hitting those heights with every issue.

Advance Review: Well, after that lead in, it is probably no surprise to tell you that AV #16 is really incredible.  When we last left our protagonists in American Vampire #15, the Vassals of the Morning Star were being pursued by these really nasty looking, feral vampires.  Just when things looked grim, they ran into a bunch of Japanese soldiers and we were left with a bunch of cliffhangers:  Would the humans band together?  What is the deal with these feral vampires that the Vassals have never seen before?  Will Henry be tempted to become a vampire by drinking the vial of blood that Pearl gave him?  Will Pearl come to their rescue?  And when will Skinner Sweet make his play?  This being an advance review, I don’t want to spoil anything, but this issue will give you answers to 80% of those questions.

And what makes this issue so tight is that the answers we get are quite complete.  The creators really know how to pay off a mystery.  For example, there’s no vague, lame-ass explanations of what these feral vampires are.  Boom! They hit you in the face with the vampires’ reality and move right on to the next story element.  Even though this issue is a “middle issue,” Snyder and company keep the pacing brisk enough that it never feels like we’re just killing time until the big finale.  Heck, I’m not even sure I want a finale because I’m enjoying the ride so much.