Comics Picks For 23.04.2014

This week I was a man on a mission. I’d resolved to make a big dent in my weekly reading pile, given all the great comics that were coming out, and I did just that. Not counting my graphic novel binges, since those count as a single item only, this has been my biggest week so far to date. 23 single issues in a week, with 15 reviews of these titles. Pretty damn good odds I say. I’m definitely hitting my stride here.

The best part of the week, other than all the fantastic new comics, was catching up with comics that I’d left off with or had put aside for other comics, such as American Vampire: Second Cyle and Pandora. The former proved to be really good while the latter not so much. But such is the way of things. I may be behind on novel reading, but I don’t care so much about that. Comics are where the excitement is going down!

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.

Original Sin #0 (Comics Review)

Last year Marvel went on a roll with their events, doing no less than four, and giving start to another. And this year it looks like things are following suit and that Marvel is once again doubling down with events. A while back Marvel announced that its next big event would be about the death of the Watcher also known as Uatu. He is a mysterious galactic presence that sees all, hears all, notices all, but never interferes. He is merely a… silent guardian of events as they happen. And its just any old death, it is a murder, the murder of a being of cosmic proportions and power and it all starts today in Original Sin #0.

The issue, written by Mark Waid and drawn by Jim Cheung and Paco Medina, tells the origin of Uatu and how he came to be the Watcher. Through the current human Nova Sam Alexander, we get a great introduction to this silent guardian and see what motivates him and there are some excellent scenes where the two characters bond, although such bonding is fleeting at best. While Mark Waid’s story is suitably cosmic and grandiose, Jim Cheung and Paco Medina’s art is not too far behind either and they turn out some gorgeous artwork along with the other artists involved on the issue (series?).

New Warriors #3 (Comics Review)

When you bring together a bunch of people with different attitudes and beliefs, there is bound to be some conflict. You add in superpowered teenagers into that mix, and you have a bigger conflict. One of the reasons I liked Kieron Gillen’s run on Young Avengers for Marvel Now was because the team pretty much started out as formed, or at least they didn’t take forever to get together. And their adventures were totally madcap and not-serious-but-still-serious. It was a far better mix than the newly launched New Warriors has been, that’s for sure. The first issue was just about decent enough, but the second issue was a big drop in quality.

The third issue now, well, I think that it dips even lower. Thing is, my main issue is that the team is taking ages to get together. In issue #1 they didn’t know each other. In issue #2 they started to get together in small groups. Now, they are in two camps but there is so much damn nonsensical bickering between them and the characters just act totally stupid. It is a big turn-off. The art is decent in this issue but that’s really the best that I can say about it.