WCBR’s Top Picks

[Alex will be on hiatus for a while, now that Real Life has caught up with him in a big way, so Dean will be handling the picks solo this week.  Let’s all wish Alex luck so he can get back soon.]

Dean’s Top Picks

Best of the past week: Witch Doctor: Malpractice #1 – What a great, great week for comics we had last week!  American Vampire #33 was great and Chew #30 was very strong too.  Heck, I even kinda liked All New X-Men #2.  But, the winner by a nose this week was the return of Witch Doctor.  Being an art-fan, I’m mostly drawn to the incredible art by Lukas Ketner.  This guy is like the second coming of Bernie Wrightson.  I absolutely love Ketner’s work.  The story is pretty snappy too as we watch a modern-day doctor and his team deal with freaky, possessed people (like people’s tongues being replaced by blood sucking parasites!).  The combo of rich characters and ideas with mesmerizing art is tough to beat.

Most anticipated this week: Not a lot lighting my socks on fire this week, but….

1). Fashion Beast #4 – This story won’t go down as “the best Alan Moore work of all time”, but it is still a cut above most comics out there.  You see how well an almost 30 year old adaptation of an Alan Moore screenplay comes out and you can kinda get why Moore can be dismissive about modern comics.  The guy doesn’t even have to do any current work to have one of the best things out there…..

2). Blackacre #1 – I’m not familiar with the creative team, but this #1 from Image is a post-apocalyptic story and I’ll almost always give those a chance.  The nice thing about post-apocalyptic stories is you can almost immediately tell if it will be a good story, or just someone fixated on showing you their minor twist on the fall of humanity.  Let’s hope for the former…..

3). I Love Trouble #1 – Another new #1 from Image.  It claims to be about a New Orleans grifter on the run from the mob who discovers that she has superpowers.  The words “grifter” and “mob” are enticing; the word “superpower” is not.  The art looks catchy, so I’ll give it a chance.

4). Avengers #1 – I’m pretty tuned out on Marvel NOW, but I do love Jonathan Hickman, Jerome Opena and Dean White.  In fact, I don’t think Hickman has written anything that I haven’t enjoyed.  Speaking of which, when is SHIELD coming out again?  Ahem…..

5). All New X-Men #3 – It mostly has to do with the skills of Stuart Immonen, but I’m actually enjoying Brian Bendis’ take on the X-Men so far.

6). Amazing Spider-Man #699 – I’m very curious to see how this issue plays out given that #698 was such a wet fart of a comic for me.  I know a lot of people dig it, but ASM hasn’t really clicked with me for about a year.  If this issue doesn’t do it, I’m just going to stop reviewing them.

– Dean Stell