Comics Picks For 14.01.2015

Another week going by without a “Magic 40”, but still managed to read a fair number, albeit absent any graphic novels.

This week’s surprise hits were Ares & Aphrodite #2 from Oni Press, Lady Killer #1 from Dark Horse, Wolverines #2 from Marvel and Lazarus #14 from Image. The disappointments of the week were Battlestar Galactica: The Death of Apollo #2 from Dynamite and Spider-Verse #2 from Marvel. Ongoing greats were Vampirella #100 from Dynamite, Grayson #6 from DC, S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 from Marvel and Hexed #6 from Boom Studios among others.

Anyway, here’s another edition of “Comics Picks For…”. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.

Best of 2014 Part 2b: Monthly Comics

A few days ago I did my best of 2014 list for the comics I read in the second half of 2014. And back in July of 2014, I did the first “best comics of 2014” post. The reason I mention that is because of the changes I’ve made for this list. While previously I used to do it so that I put up my top 6 comics, in July’14 I did a top 12 on account of the increased number of comics I was reading at the time. And that same holds true for this list as well since I’ve gone up on the number yet again, and this list has the top 20 and then 20 honourable mentions.

More comics, yay!

So, with the books of the second half of 2014 already having been covered, I now delve into my favourite monthly comics of the same period. The next post will be a list of the top graphic novels I read in all of 2014.

Let’s see what makes the cut and which comes close then!

Comics Picks For 10.12.2014

Almost a month after the last time, I finally had a Magic 40 week! And not just any plan Magic 40 week, but one where I managed to read three graphic novels as well!

For this week, the surprise hits were Fables: The Wolf Among Us #1 from Vertigo Comics, Death of Wolverine: Logan Legacy #6 and Spider-Man & The X-Men #1 from Marvel Comics, Justice League #32-36 from DC Comics and The Valiant #1 from Valiant Comics. The comic (yes, the only one!) that proved to be rather disappointing, even unexpectedly so, was New Suicide Squad #5 from DC. Apart from that, a good run continued on several other titles like Hexed, John Carter: Warlord of Mars, Batman: Eternal, Birthright, Prometheus: Fire and Stone and others.

The three graphic novels for this week were: Grimm Fairy Tales: Code Red Volume 1, which is set during the recent Age of Darkness crossover event from Zenescope Entertainment, Mighty Avengers Volume 2 from Marvel, which is an effort by me to catch up on this mostly-good title, and Supergirl Volume 1, which is an older Supergirl title, pre-New 52.

Anyway, here’s another edition of “Comics Picks For…”. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.

Fast-Shot Comics Reviews 10.12.2014

This segment is proving to be quite interestingly popular in certain corners, and I still am taken with how it allows me to cover so many more comics than I would otherwise be able to. It is suitably time-intensive as well, which can sometimes wear on me when I have so much more to do, but not such a big deal. Plus, choosing which comic to feature here, while a challenge, is also quite a fun process in and of itself, so that’s something as well.

The picks for this week are: Brides of Helheim #3, Chastity #4-6, Dredd Uprise #2, Hexed #5, Spider-Verse Team-Up #2 and Prometheus: Fire and Stone #3-4. Lots of catch-up on the reviews this week, as you can see!

Scarlet Spiders #1 (Comics Review)

Spider-Verse has been crawling along for a few weeks without much direction so far. It started off well-enough but the utter proliferation of tie-ins has just about killed it for me. I’m hanging on only for a few characters like Gwen Stacy, Jessica Drew, Kaine, Ben Reilly, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man Noir and a few others but other than that, I’ve been feeling rather underwhelmed by the entire event. There are some gems in here for sure, but I think what this event needs is some strong narrative direction rather than focusing on each character on his or her own.

This week’s Scarlet Spiders #1 brings together three clones of Peter Parker for a short-lived adventure set in Spider-Verse. Kaine, Ben Reilly and Ultimate Jessica Drew are sent on a mission to a world identified as the one where the Inheritors are cloning their bodies (Amazing Spider-Man #10 I believe). Writer Mike Costa is at the helm of this series and he makes this first issue an absolute joy, bringing together three of Peter’s more famous clones, even as artist Paco Diaz makes them visually stand-out in a great way.

Spider-Woman #1 (Comics Review)

Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman has faced quite an uphill battle in recent years. There was the whole “boob-window” controversy last year during the Infinity event, when her space-suit had a boob window for some inexplicable reason. And then there was the utterly horrible Milo Manara variant cover a few weeks back for her debut issue, released this week. Despite being an Avengers stalwart for a number of years, she has had a tougher time in recent years with her own books than many other characters, though she has still come out on top with others like Black Widow and Ms. Marvel and others in getting a brand-new series this year.

Spider-Woman I had quite high expectations for, I’ll admit. I love Jess as a character, thanks largely to some of Brian Michael Bendis’ work with her and what Ales Kot has been doing this year in Secret Avengers. Despite the controversy, I was really looking forward to this book, but unfortunately, things just don’t work out at all. Writer Dennis Hopeless dumps you straight into the middle of Spider-Verse without any kind of context at all and it is more an ensemble title rather than a Spider-Woman title. Most disappointing.

Comics Picks For 12.11.2014

Getting on a roll again, this week I managed to repeat the “Magic 40” with 2 graphic novels and 38 singles, with many of the latter being absolutely new series, so that was a lot of fun for the most part.

My top picks for the surprise hits of the week would be Archer & Armstrong: One Percent #1  from Valiant Comics, Deep State #1 from Boom Studios, Django/Zorro #1 from Dynamite Entertainment and Vertigo Comics, and The Kitchen #1 from Vertigo Comics also. The most disappointing comics of this week were  Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #1 and Death of Wolverine: Logan Legacy #4 both from Marvel Comics, New 52 – Batman #36 from DC Comics and Grimm Fairy Tales: Cfinderella #1 from Zenescope Entertainment. Other than that, the regularly great titles like Hexed, Fables, New Suicide Squad, Red Sonja and Unity all proved to be immensely fun.

The graphic novels for this week were King Conan: The Hour of The Dragon by Timothy Truman, Tomás Giorello and Jose Villarrubia, and Fables Volume 5 by Bill Willingham, Tony Akins, Jimmy Palmiotti, Daniel Vozzo, Todd Klein, James Jean, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha.

Anyway, here’s another edition of “Comics Picks For…”. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.

Spider-Verse #1 (Comics Review)

Marvel’s Spider-Verse kicked off in full-swing last week with The Amazing Spider-Man #9 which brought Peter Parker from Earth -616 firmly into the middle of the event. Many of the most powerful of Spider-totems have already allied together against the all-consuming rampages of the Inheritors and we’ve also seen what the larger plan in effect is. This is certainly an event set to touch across all corners of the Marvel omniverse and the sheer volume of stories itself is pretty damn amazing, with Spider-totems from lots of different Earths being featured.

In this week’s Spider-Verse #1, we see some more Spider-Totems in the vein of Spider-Verse Team-Up and it is quite a fun look as well. Combining several different art styles and several different Spider-totems, this issue is mostly just an “extra”. Nothing important really happens in here unless we count this one story featuring the Master-Weaver himself, which is pretty striking in its implications. Though I must say that my favourite story is the steampunk one featuring May Reilly. Brilliant that one. With the mix of stories here, some of them work really well and some don’t and you run the gamut from serious intense stories to cartoony ones.

Comics Picks For 05.11.2014

After several weeks of trying to get back to the magical 40, I hit that number once again this week and the great thing was that this one consisted of 37 singles and 3 graphic novels, which was pretty fun in itself!

My top picks for the surprise hits of the week would be Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel #1  from Valiant Comics, John Carter: Warlord of Mars #1 from Dynamie Entertainment, both the new Death of Wolverine tie-in issues of Life After Logan and Weapon X Program from Marvel Comics, All-Star Western Volume 6 from DC Comics and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters #1 from IDW Publishing. The most disappointing comics of this week were Superman Unchained #9 from DC Comics, Jennifer Blood: Born Again #4 from Dynamite Entertainment and Grimm Fairy Tales: Cfinderella #1 from Zenescope Entertainment. Other than that, there were lots of other great titles such as the new John Carter: Warlord of Mars #1 from Dynamite, Trial of Jean-Grey from Marvel Comics, Batwoman Volume 5 from DC Comics and Vampirella #6.

The graphic novels for this week were All-New X-Men & Guardians of the Galaxy: Trial of Jean Grey by Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen and Sara Pichelli, Batwoman Volume 5 by Marc Andreyko and Jeremy Haun, and All-Star Western Volume 6 by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Staz Johnson and Darwyn Cooke.

Anyway, here’s another edition of “Comics Picks For…”. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.

The Amazing Spider-Man #8-9 (Comics Review)

Dan Slott, Christos Gage and many other writers have been laying down the foundation of Marvel’s current event, Spider-Verse for the last several weeks now and it is pretty much time for readers to get the dividends on their investments. In the pages of both Edge of Spider-Verse and The Amazing Spider-Man, we’ve seen how various Spider-themed heroes have been murdered and their souls stolen by interdimensional beings and how it is going to affect the main Marvel 616 universe. In recent weeks, we also got to see brand-new superhero Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel join forces with Peter Parker as well and The Amazing Spider-Man has definitely moved into a new phase of its second existnece

In The Amazing Spider-Man #7, we saw Kamala and Peter team-up to take down a supervillain who dressed up in one of Carol Danvers’ old outfits from when she was Ms. Marvel. It was a bit of a silly story in some ways but also executed well enough that I ended up liking it. And then we got to meet Spider-UK from an alternate Earth where he was part of the Captain Britain Corps. Fun stuff. But in issues #8 and #9, we see something altogether different. Kamala and Peter’s team-up comes to a nice soft close, we see the debut of Mayday Parker, and then Dan Slott kicks off Spider-Verse in the ninth issue, out this week. As I said, the title just keeps getting better, and the art is improving along with it, which is pretty awesome

Comics Picks For 22.10.2014

Slight lows on the reading this past week since I didn’t manage to finish either of the graphic novels I started this week, and generally didn’t read as many singles either, but I did manage to get through 35 of them, so that’s something, yeah?

For this week, I’d say that the surprise hits are Dungeons & Dragons: Legends of Baldur’s Gate #1 from IDW Publishing, Catwoman #35 and Secret Origins #6 from DC Comics and Predator: Fire and Stone #1 from Dark Horse Comics. The comics that win the “disappointment of the week award” are Grimm Fairy Tales: Dark Shaman #1 from Zenescope, Arkham Manor #1 and Sensation Comics #11 both from DC Comics. Ongoings like Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #8, Aquaman #35, Tomb Raider #9 and Nancy A. Collins’ prelude Vampirella: Prelude To The Shadows #1 were all first-rate comics this week, and quite satisfactory as well.

The graphic novels I’m in the middle of at the moment are Supergirl Vol.4 by Michael Alan Nelson and Diogenes Neves, and The Flash Vol.2 by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul.

Anyway, here’s another edition of “Comics Picks For…”. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.