Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Uncanny X-Men #535 – I should go back through my notes to see if I’ve ever let Uncanny X-Men wear the Big Sombrero and get to strut around as Best of the Week, but I don’t think I have before.  This comic made me so happy.  As a child of the 1980’s, Uncanny X-Men was the comic book for me and when I got back into comics as an adult, it really pained me that it often wasn’t a very good title.  Sure, there were often other X-books that were pretty good, but I wanted Uncanny to be good dammit!  So, I was extremely tickled to see Kieron Gillen knock his first issue out of the park with a fun and fast paced story that takes a small group (thank you) of X-Men off on a cool mission to mop-up some Break World leftovers from Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run.  Great art by the Dodson’s too!  Runner-up: The Unwritten #24

Most Anticipated: Dark Horse Presents #1 – I LOVE me some anthologies and not many anthologies have a stronger pedigree than Dark Horse Presents.  Dark Horse properties such as Concrete, NextMen and Sin City are just a few of the properties that were first printed in earlier iterations of DHP.  This issue promises the first Concrete story in awhile, a Star Wars story and a sneak-peak at Xerxes (Frank Miller’s follow-up to 300).  Chances are there will be at least one awesome story in this issue.

Other picks: 68 #1, Hack Slash #3, Super Dinosaur #1, 28 Days Later #22, Thunderbolts #156, Hulk #32

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Journey into Mystery #622 – Despite it being a big week, this was an easy pick.  Journey into Mystery was possibly the best first issue of 2011.  If you are at all interested in Thor, or fantasy in general, you need to be reading this comic.  If future issues are as good as this one, this may end up being Marvel’s best book, or at the very least in the running for that title.

Most Anticipated: Uncanny X-Force #8 – Whoa, two weeks in a row of Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force?  That’s awesome.  More awesome still is the fact that this issue sees the return of Jerome Opena on art.  I like Esad Ribic fine enough, but Opena’s work on this series has been outstanding.  Couple that with a plot that sounds like some over-the-top, 80s/90s, goodness and I am very excited.  Even if you can’t stand X-books, I highly recommend you give this book a shot.  It’s one of the very best team-books on the market.

Other Picks: Green Lantern Corps #59, Green Lantern #65, DMZ #64, Avengers #12, Invincible Iron Man #503, Iron Man 2.0 #4, Wolverine #8, Scarlet #5

Quick Hit Reviews – Week of March 30, 2011

What a strong week for comics!  Almost everything last week was at least “pretty good” and that makes us happy at WCBR.  Even though we’ll do out duty and tell you when a comic SUCKS, we don’t take any pleasure in doing so and it’s a LOT more fun to talk about what was good.  However, even though we review a TON of books in-full, there are always a few stragglers that get lost in the shuffle.  Thus, the Quick Hit Reviews….

Scarlet #5 – I can see people having two very different sets of thoughts on this title.  If you’re a police officer or otherwise a general believer of the benevolence of the government, you’re going to really hate this comic.  On the other hand, if you’re a more of a free will, distrust of the “man” type of person I can’t see how this doesn’t scratch a Libertarian itch.  I’m in the latter camp and just love Scarlet.  This issue represents the ending of the first story arc that has seen the titular Scarlet go from meting out some justice against dirty cops, to being the sudden leader of a political movements.  All of a sudden she’s Che Guevara, but she isn’t sure that’s what she wants to be OR if she even can be the leader her “people” want.  Meanwhile we are also introduced to some possibly sympathetic heroes within the power structure and that’s good too.  I know some people decry Alex Maleev’s art as “tracing”, but I don’t care.  Even if he is tracing (and he swears he isn’t in interviews), I like the way he’s using it.  He’s just creating art differently than more traditional artists and it is hard to argue with the stylish results.  Grade: A-   — Dean Stell

Captain America #616 – Well, here’s a comic that’ll earn your $4.99, with a main feature and no less than five back-ups.  Better still, for the most part, it’s all pretty good stuff and there are absolutely no reprints or picture galleries to bulk out the package.  This meaty package is all story content and that immediately earns it some points.  The main feature, written by Brubaker and featuring Bucky in a nasty Russian prison, is really dark stuff and a surprising component to an anniversary issue.  That said, if anything, it functions as an effective teaser for what’s to come.  Dark and nasty as it is, it lets Brubaker shine, somehow melding gritty prison drama with giant killer bear deathmatches.  It’s desperate, dire stuff but also a lot of fun and it brings the hard-hitting drama and excitement back to Bucky after a couple of fairly ho-hum arcs.  I hope the actual Gulag story arc keeps this up.  With five back-up features, you know you’re going to get a mixed bag, but Cap #616 actually delivers the goods for the most part.  While the stories by Kyle Higgins/Alec Siegel and Mike Benson/Paul Grist are fairly forgettable, they have the decency to at least look good.  Meanwhile, the Howard Chaykin and Frank Tieri/Paul Azeceta stories are rock solid, really effectively ruminating upon, and making use of, the sense of “history” that is such a big part of who and what Captain America is.  The real barn-burner, however, is the masterpiece delivered by Cullen Bunn and Jason LaTour.  Tremendous artwork and writing deliver a story that not only focuses upon the importance of Captain America, but does so in a manner that relates it to contemporary times and issues in a manner that doesn’t feel preachy or forced.  Bunn and LaTour paint a picture of a troubled modern America that needs a Captain America more than ever.  And it still finds room for AIM spider robots.  It’s the kind of story that has me very intrigued regarding Bunn’s future Marvel work.  Grade: B+   — Alex Evans

Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Kick Drum Comix #1 – From artistic genius Jim Mahfood comes this wildly awesome issue with two stories centered on the urban music scene.  The stories are very high quality, but the art is just at another level.  I always love to see an artist who isn’t pulling any punches and just letting the art be what they want it to be.  Do yourself a favor and be sure to check this out.  Runner-up: X-Men #9

Most Anticipated: Butcher Baker the Righteous Maker #1 – What a stacked week for non-Big 2 comics and rising above it all (at least in terms of anticipation) is this new entry by Joe Casey.  The teaser images features what looked like some kind of cosmic she-male and the preview pages showed what appeared to be Jay Leno and Dick Cheney going to a bar together.  That’s enough for me.  It is already “sold out”, but you may be able to score one at your LCS and, if not, there’s always eBay if you don’t want to wait for the second printings to drop.

Other Picks: American Vampire #13, Detective Comics #875, Scalped #47, Undying Love #1, Age of X Universe #1, Amazing Spider-Man #657, Incognito: Bad Influences #5, Kick Ass 2 #2, Scarlet #5  (I usually try to limit myself to FIVE ‘other picks’, but this is a STACKED week)

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Captain America #615.1 – The best issue of Cap since #600, this .1 book delivered everything you’d expect from a quality Captain America comic.  Great story-telling, great atmosphere, great character-work, and great action with a sign of big things to come.

Most Anticipated: Jimmy Olsen – Once again, courtesy of the big two, the final Wednesday of the month is ridiculously stacked.  That said, it’s an easy pick for me.  Nick Spencer and RB Silva have been delivering 8-pages a month of superhero-sitcom fun in the back of Action Comics, it’s been a total blast thus far.  While this issue marks the end of the feature, it also means we get a giant sized helping of what has been an awesome comic.

Other Picks: Detective Comics #875, Action Comics #899, Captain America #616, Thor #621, American Vampire #13, Scarlet #5, Incognito: Bad Influences #5, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8, Amazing Spider-Man #657, Scalped #47, Wolverine #7, Avengers #11, Secret Avengers #11