WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best of the past week: Hawkeye #2 – I only read this because my partner in crime at WCBR gave it such a glowing review.  This was a great issue and it’s 99% due to David Aja.  It’s seriously going to burn me when I hear people talking about how “fresh and new Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye series is!” when the freshness and newness is mostly down to the art team.  I’d read somewhere that Fraction is working in more of a Marvel Method for him and I think that might be a good thing: Give Aja a basic sense of the scene, let Aja go bananas designing it and then have Fraction dump in some word balloons.  Honestly, this is the best place for Fraction as he’s a very smart, quick and funny guy.  Let Aja design the comic and let Fraction slap down some funny captions.  However, despite this being a really swell issue…..I’ve got no interest in reading another issue.  I’m just not that into Hawkeye and don’t really trust Fraction to keep the story moving this fast.  Surely a 9-issue story arc about Hawkeye building a new bow is right around the corner.

Most anticipated this week: Well golly…..all the good comics are coming out in a single week again.  Makes it kinda hard to create a list….

1). Punk Rock Jesus #3 – The art in this has been sublime and I’m really curious to see what happens now that some of the characters have left the little island base where the reality show takes place.

2). Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom #2 – The first issue of this was “pick of the week” and did a wonderful job of selling the fun, danger and atmosphere of the Rocketeer.  Of course, Waid and Samnee are pretty talented creators, so this was perfect.  Here’s hoping Samnee gets to draw Betty more in this issue.

3). American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares #4 – The penultimate issue of this miniseries will find our heroes in some pretty dire straits: Stranded in the snow against a LOT of vampires, but also with some nifty new allies.  Scott Snyder is one of the rare writers who is actually good enough to keep up with the talented artists (like Dustin Nguyen) he works with.

4). The Manhattan Projects #6 – I’ve loved Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four, but after reading a few issues of TMP it’s hard not to realize that those were his B-list ideas.  He saved all the cool stuff for his own series.

5). Stumptown v2 #1 – Welcome back!  The first Stumptown series was a gritty, modern-day PI/crime story set in the Portland area.  It introduced a great female lead in PI Dex Parios and I can’t wait to see what kind of stuff she get’s into here.

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Alex’s Top Picks

Pick of the Week: Hawkeye #2 – Fraction and Aja’s Hawkeye is nothing short of a revelation.  Great art and dynamic story-telling, this is a Marvel book unlike any other.  If you don’t buy this book, you forfeit your right to bitch about Marvel putting out five-million mediocre books starring the same characters.

Most Anticipated:  Stumptown #1– I can’t believe it!  Stumptown is finally back!  If you don’t know what Stumptown is, it’s Rucka doing what he does best: a creator-owned P.I. type detective yarn starring a female protagonist.  It’s a fantastic book with art that at times reminds me of Sean Phillips’ stuff on Criminal.  And for those worried about the series again being ruined by massive delays, fear not: Rucka stated that he would not release this second story-arc until the entire thing was in the can.

Manhattan Projects #6 – Some of the most fun to be had in comics right now, this book is just bat-shit insane, with Hickman running rough-shod over both history and science, bending both to suit his demented aims.  It’s amazing stuff and both the art and colouring are absolutely gorgeous in that European sci-fi sort of way.

Fantastic Four #610 – I’ve complained quite a bit that Hickman’s Fantastic Four books have gradually run out of steam as his run was stretched beyond its intended end-point.  The exception is this crossover with FF, which I’ve been looking forward to for some time, as it promises to deal with the one dangling thread that Hickman has left behind: the escaped Wizard and Bentley’s being with the FF.  Unlike most issues of FF/Fantastic Four lately, this finally feels like a story that has to be told.

Journey into Mystery #643 – The Everything Burns crossover has been nothing but killer thus far.  It’s brought Fraction’s Mighty Thor to all new heights, leading to some of Fraction’s best work on ever on the title.  For JIM, on the other hand, it functions as a giant, epic pay-off with everything that Gillen has been seeding since the start of the run coming home to roost.  This is great stuff and it’s clear that JIM is going out with one hell of a bang.

Winter Soldier #10 – With news that Ed Brubaker is leaving this title, every issue deserves to be savoured.  Much as I said about Rucka above, this is Brubaker doing what he does best: cloak-and-dagger espionage “superhero” books full of Cold War legacies and paranoia with a pulp noir edge.  The best part is that this comes out along with the latest issue of Brubaker/Bunn’s Captain America….so we can all scratch our heads and laugh at how much better this book is and how it’s impossible for both to have been written by the same guy.