WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best of the past week: Mind the Gap #1 – Admittedly, it wasn’t the strongest week in comics history, and that’s allowed a comic that wasn’t “awesome” to win honors.  But….that’s how it goes sometimes.  It looks like Jim McCann and Rodin Esquejo have a nice, longer-form mystery to tell us and I’m personally looking forward to it.  This comic has three things that set it apart:  (a) wonderful art, (b) a sense of freshness and (c) not knowing what will happen next.  Runner-up: X-Factor #235 – Talk about running against the grain!  There are no characters I “love” in X-Factor.  The art is a little spotty sometimes.  It is never central to any big Marvel stories.  And….I’ve been trying to convince myself to drop X-Factor for years, but every month Peter David writes an interesting and compelling tale that keeps the series on my pull list AND makes me wonder why I keep it on such a short leash.

Most anticipated this week: The Walking Dead #97 – It’s amazing how much I still anticipate this comic after nearly 100 issues.  As much as I’ve criticized it during reviews for “nothing happening”, I KNOW that I’ll be downloading this onto my iPad and furiously reading it during lunch on Wednesday.  This issue probably won’t feature anything HUGE (as the big events will likely be saved for issue #100), but we should be starting to see the basic shape of whatever horrifying things are to come.  My anticipation is also increased by the fact that last issue was a big improvement over the series’ recent form.

Other picks: Batman #9, I Zombie #25, Morning Glories #18, Takio #1, Wolverine and the X-Men #10

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Alex’s Top Picks

Pick of the Week: Invincible Iron Man #516 – This book has been on fire lately, even if no one seems to have noticed.  Exciting, high-stakes, and character work that leaps off the page for both the good guys and the bad guys.  This is Iron Man at its finest with energy to spare.

Most Anticipated: Uncanny X-Force #25 – Rick Remender begins a big new arc of X-Force.  That alone should excite.  This promises to be more than the Otherworld “breather” (by X-Force standards).  This is also the first issue that’ll see Mike McKone on art and the preview pages have already shown that that’s as awesome as it sounds.

Other Picks: Batman #9, Demon Knights #9, Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE #9, Green Lantern #9, Fatale #5, Captain America #11, Journey into Mystery #637, New Avengers #26, Punisher #11,  Wolverine & the X-Men #10

Mind the Gap #1 – Review

By: Jim McCann (story), Rodin Esquejo & Sonia Oback (art)

The Story: One of these people is not like the other…guess who and how?

The Review: The hallmark of a good mystery is not only where you the writer gives you enough material so you can actually try to solve it yourself along the way.  This requires the liberal sprinkling of clues throughout the story, but sort nudged into corners to make it harder for you to put them all together until it’s too late.  You can have the fun of challenging your own Sherlock prowess, and you can enjoy the intricate plotting and forethought of the writer.  It’s win-win.

And it looks like McCann is set to give you just that.  The spark of the mystery is as classic as they come: a woman’s been attacked—on a train (subway), no less—and the big question is, “Whodunit?”  Time is of the essence in figuring it out, as McCann sets a countdown (what my former creative writing professor would call the “ticking clock” device) of sorts for when the attacker will come back to finish what he’s started.

WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best of the past week: American Vampire #26 – This issue was a real treat.  For one thing, it introduced me to a wonderful fill-in artist in Roger Cruz.  I’d love to see more of his work after this AV stint is finished.  Seriously….how is Vertigo able to continually find guys of this caliber to fill in when most comic series are only able to get a B-lister (at best)?  The story is also really compelling.  Scott Snyder’s story about a black vampire in 1950’s Alabama has just enough depth and complexity to be interesting if you scratch the surface, but not require you read the comic 10 times and still be confused or have to wait 5 years for the pay-off.  Runner-up: FF #17 (for accomplishing the rare feat of making me laugh at a comic book).