Hello again kids and welcome back to Anthony’s Top Picks for 3/9/11. I, of course, am your own personal hero Anthony Silva of the geektastic podcast Comic Issues, and if you picked up your comics this week then I’m sure you were not disappointed, because I sure as hell wasn’t. It was a good week for comics as we got one step deeper into the alternate world of the X-Men in “Age of X”, Ultimate Spider-Man comes one issue closer to his death, and Batman comes face to face with angels.
Be warned, spoilers may be ahead.
Top Pick: Ultimate Spider-man #155 Creative Team: Bendis (Writer) Samnee (Pencils) Ponsor (Inks)
With still no clear path of where Death of Spider-Man is going, Brian Michael Bendis is building an amazing story that is starting to feel too good to be true. In this issue we find Peter fired from his McJOb only for things to get even scarier when J. Jonah Jameson calls him over to the Bugle.
Previously Jameson stated he knew who Spider-Man was but he had yet to confront Peter.
This issue really decided to shake up the Ult. Spider-Man world by changing one of the laws we thought was chiseled in stone. We thought J. Jonah Jameson would be a rival to Spider-man after even Osborne was long gone, but here we found Jameson offering an olive branch to Peter and looking to help in any way he could. I loved every word between J.J. and Peter, and I find myself only in fear of the impending heartbreak when death comes to Spider-Man’s door.
Runner Up: X-Men Legacy #246 Creative Team: Carey (Writer) Mann (Pencils) Leisten (Inks) Reber (Colors)
When it came to picking a runner-up this week, it was a rough decision. Everything I read this week was awesome, but when it came to what I wanted more of it was X-Men Legacy. Every chapter of the Age of X story is pulling me in more and more. Even though we’ve seen our fair share of alternate realities in the X-Books I still dig it when things get turned on their head.
What really drew me in was the seemingly sinister team up of Logan and Basilisk (Cyclops). I’m excited to see where this is all going and to see more twisted versions of the characters I’ve come to know.
Also this week:
- Batman and Robin #21: The new creative team of Tomasi and Gleason looks to be kicking it off strong with a story putting the families of Arkham’s inmates in mortal danger. Everything here looks to be running on all cylinders and I am ready to kick it into high gear.
- Batman Inc. #3: Bruce Wayne is in Argentina as Batman posing as Bruce Wayne. It sounds confusing but it’s written by Grant Morrison so you should be used to it by now. While out to recruit the Argentinian Batman, the real Batman gets drawn in by a little mystery with some Latino heat sprinkled on top.
- The New Avengers #10: Split over two stories, this issue follows both Nick Fury in 1959 as he seems to be putting together the original Avengers, while the New Avengers continue to bust bad guy butts. I love seeing the young Fury, and what may be even better is Sabertooth in a suit.
- Onslaught Unleashed # 2: The Secret Avengers and the Young Allies have teamed up to take on one of the most feared villains of the Marvel Universe. Onslaught is back and he’s taken Nomad as his new host. Oh noes!
- Sigil #1: Now I never was much of a Crossgen fan back in the day, but my fellow podcaster Darran was a big fan so I figured I’d give it a shot for its new re-launch. Being the first issue there’s a lot to establish but I’ll be in for the long run here.
Well it looks like that’s gonna be it for this week. Next week I’m looking forward to a lot of good stuff including the release of the next Comic Issues Podcast where was mourn the loss of Cap’n Crunch and get nostalgic over Thundercats.
Let me know what you liked this week by commenting below and be sure to check in next week for my top picks for the week of 3/16/11.