Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: 27 #4 – Endings are hard, and when I’m grading comics I definitely give points for “degree of difficulty”.  Charles Soule very skillfully landed his story about a guitarist who made a Faustian bargain in a way that was not only satisfying, but that also made you rethink what you thought you’d taken away from the first three issues.  What we’re left with is a great story about the nature of genius and the hard work that it takes to achieve true expertise.  Be 100% sure to buy the collected edition!  Runner-up: The Walking Dead #82

Most Anticipated: Unwritten #23 – Amazing that I came close to dropping this series ~6 months ago!  This series has really recaptured its magic over the last 3 months. Each month I was a little surprised, but now Carey and Gross are back to having a book that I expect to be one of the best books on the shelf! The ending of last issue where Tom Taylor learned how to splash from one story to another was sooooo cool and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Other Picks: 28 Days Later #21 (advertised as a jumping on point), Hack/Slash #2, Amazing Spider-Man #656, Hulk #30.1, Thunderbolts #155

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: PunisherMAX #11 – Jason Aaron has truly found his tone with this series, one that’s both all his own while also an acknowledgement to what has worked well in the past.  This was a fantastic issue with the best fight I’ve read in a comic in 2011 thus far.  Brutal, savage stuff and everything a PunisherMAX comic should be.

Most Anticipated: THUNDER Agents #5 – There’s a lot to choose from for me this.  Brubaker’s Fear Itself prologue offers us a glimpse of things to come in Marvel’s next big event.  Amazing Spider-Man follows one of the best issues in a while and features more Marcos Martin art.  Iron Man 2.0 intrigues, as does it’s big brother title Invincible Iron Man, both of which had strong offerings last month.

In the end though, I ‘m going with THUNDER Agents.  The twist/cliffhanger it ended on last month was outrageous and mind-blowing stuff that left me salivating for #5.  It seems unfair not to give the book top spot.  Almost as unfair that this title, as good as it is, sold just barely over 10K last month.  Yeah, that’s less than Doom Patrol and Rebels, both of which to be canceled.

Other Picks: Brightest Day #22, THUNDER Agents #5, DMZ #63, The Unwritten #23, Morning Glories #8, Amazing Spider-Man #656, Fear Itself: Book of the Skull, Invincible Iron Man #502, Iron Man 2.0 #2, Uncanny X-Force 5.1

DS’ Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris #1 – The concept of the series is to go back 500 years and look at the entourage of Martian characters when they were younger, dealing with different politics and challenges. This issue started strong and ended on a cliffhanger. I’m loving Dynamite’s new Barsoom!

Most Anticipated: Warlord of Mars #5 – This is chapter five in Arvid Nelson and Lui Antonio’s reimagining of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars. So far, it has been awesome and I can’t wait to see the new dangers and harrowing adventures in store for John Cart and Dejah Thoris (because that’s what John Carter is all about).

Other Picks: Kato Origins #7, Death of Zorro #1, Batman #708, Brightest Day #22, Red Robin #21, Uncanny X-Men Annual #1

PunisherMAX #11 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writer), Steve Dillon (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: At long last, Frank and Bullseye go one on one in a fight to the death.

The Review: I’ve read a lot of people, including other reviewers, really taking this series to task and frankly, I just don’t get it.  All right, there were a couple of issues that were weaker, but unless you’re reading a different comic than I am, PunisherMAX #11 is goddamned amazing.  It sees Jason Aaron both nail what Garth Ennis was going for in his Punisher work, while also truly establishing a creative voice all his own.  Issues like this one are everything you want out of a Punisher MAX book.  If you don’t like it then, quite frankly, you don’t like the franchise.

There’s so much to love here, but let’s start with the main event: the big brawl between Punisher and Bullseye.  Put simply, this was the best one on one fight scene I’ve read in a comic in quite some time.  It was insanely intense, personal, and goddamned savage.  It’s indescribably brutal, barely managing to skate past slapstick, instead managing to be just violent enough to challenge suspension of disbelief without breaking it.  The fight is crazed, wince-inducing, sickening, and I think I already said “intense,” but I’ll say it again to hammer that home.  Jason Aaron pulls out all the stops here.  You get construction tools, you get chemical weapons… You get it all.  At one point, Bullseye even uses his own vomit in a scene that is, quite honestly, one of the most disgusting things that I’ve ever seen in a Marvel comic.  It’s the sort of fight that pulls you the reader into it, managing to put you on the edge of your seat.  It’s also the kind of fight that, blow by blow, tells an actual story.  It’s a fight with a physical narrative, with a tempo and various chapters.

Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1 – What a great and refreshing comic this was!  I love that a comic that has such outlandish ideas as an actual Axe Cop Academy, a talking hammer extolling his now brainless warrior companion (the cup) and a hero named Handcuff Man who has to be put to bed at night is told with 100% seriousness.  Lest we get lost in all the accolades this comic is getting for its zany story, let’s not forget that artist Ethan Nicolle is doing a wonderful job illustrating this comic.  I’d gladly take an ongoing Axe Cop comic!

Most Anticipated: The Walking Dead #82 – Ya know….because the zombies are going to eat some people.  The shit got REAL last issue as a quasi-main character got chewed, and I’m sure it’ll just get worse/better this month.  I do know one thing……  If I were trapped in a locked-up facility with a horde of zombies, I’d feel pretty good that Andrea was “safe” on the outside.  Do you think she’d run away or do something to help?  Me too….

Other Picks: I, Zombie #11, 27 #4, Lil Depressed Boy #2, X-Men Legacy #246, Batman Inc #3

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Powers #7 – It was a real dog-fight between this and Sweet Tooth #19, but in the end powers gets the nod, if only because I love Thor and this issue of Powers’ approach to the more problematic aspect of mythologically based superheroes really rung true to me.  This book may have taken half a year to come out, but it was smart, funny, and and pretty to look at.  It also had Deena Pilgrim in it, while Sweet Tooth did not.

Most Anticipated: Venom #1 – When this was first solicited, I yawned.  I haven’t cared about Venom since I was ten and Eddie Brock was under the symbiote.  Also, another covert-ops book?  Worse still, I have yet to totally forgive Rick Remender for Frankencastle.

But then I read Slott’s back-up introducing the new Venom.  Then I got tricked into buying Amazing Spider-Man #654.1 and really enjoyed it.  Then I read the preview for this issue, and liked what I saw, especially given that I’m always a sucker for gritty narration.  Hell, I even went and checked out a little Fear Agent just to wash the stink of Frankencastle a bit off of Remender.

Now I’m excited.  And Tony Moore?  That man and has fantastic art are always in my good graces, even with Frankencastle on his resume.

Other Picks: PunisherMAX #11, New Avengers #10, Batman Incorporated #3, Superboy #5, Wonder Woman #608