Hello again friends, Anthony Silva here again for another round of my Top Picks in Comics for the week of 3/16/11. Things have been busy in the comic world lately; big events are kicking off, with the Fear Itself Prologue, Book of the Skull along with more Death of Spider-man. My pull list was a little light this week so I decided to pick up a couple extra books to round out my week and make sure you get your money’s worth out of my picks.
If you’d like more things that are free and awesome, be sure to check out this weeks episode of the Comic Issues Podcast where we’ll be talkin’ TMNT and doing horrible impressions of your favorite 80’s cartoon theme shows.
Now lets talk about some frakin’ comic books…
Top Pick: Avengers vs. New Ultimates #2 Creative Team: Millar (writer) Yu (pencils) Segovia (pencils) Gho (colors)
It was another tough week to pick the best book despite having a light pull drawer, but that damn Nick Fury worked his magic and made it to the top spot. Issues #2 of this 6 part mini follows Fury as he recruits old friends like the Punisher and Blade to help the team take stop to a black market meta-human sale; apparently selling engineered meta-human fetuses is a big market. Soon the team realizes that they’ve got more on their hands then a simple black market deal as Tyrone Cash (“The First Hulk”) starts roughin’ every body up, including putting a smackdown on War Machine.
This book has a Death of Spider-man banner at the top and has yet to have anything to do with Spider-man, but it is serving as a delicious teaser of what’s to come. Avengers vs. New Ultimates #2 made it to the top spot mostly for Millar’s writing, he legitimately pulled Punisher back into a team he wants nothing to do with and even got the greatest vampire slayer himself to join the team so he can get a shot at the vampire who ruined his life before it even started. Despite having two artists on this book the look still stays pretty consistent thanks to Gho’s work on the colors. This is an action packed book that’s got Millar pulling the string to make it all the more compelling.
Runner up: Power Girl #22 Creative Team:Winick (writer) Basri (pencils) Kholinne (colors)
This is one of the few books that go picked up on a whim based off of a recommendation by a friend and it was well worth it. This book was a lot of fun and could of been the top pick if it was a normal book that I picked up on a regular basis, but without knowing what was happening in the background it took away from the whole book. Aside from that it was a great book, but how could you go wrong when you got Power Girl, Superman, and DINOSAURS! Yeah, Dinosaurs. As Kara (Power Girl) is turning her secret identity’s life around for the better she finds herself with The Man of Steel tangoing with some particularly stubborn dinosaurs that are giving the two power houses more than they expected. The book has a tempting reveal at the end that will definitely have me coming back around for more.
The Runner ups:
Book of Skull #1 If Fear Itself is the big game, then this book is the tailgate party. Sin (Red Skull’s daughter) and Barron Zemo are hunting down one of the Red Skull’s old artifacts, but this particular item isn’t just laying on the coffee table. Brubakers gives a little back story into Fear Itself and we get treated to some old timey WWII Cap & Bucky. Rock on!
Avengers Academy # 11 In an attempt to bring Wasp back to life an omnipotent power is disturbed. Avengers come out of the wood works, both new and old, to do battle but it looks like it’ll be up to the new recruits to take it down this powerful force. The real question though is if they can save my wavering interest in this book?
Uncanny X-Men Annual #3 Hope, Cyclops, Namor, and Dr. Nemesis are transported to another world. Nobody likes each other, but they’ll have to work together to find a way home… ’nuff said.
Red Robin #21 Tim’s got his hands full with four insane villains with the power manifest anything they desire. It’s rock’em sock’em action cover to cover with more technicolor than the Wizard of Oz.
Ruse #1 The greatest detective of the Victorian age Detective Archard finds himself in another great mystery, but this time it’s his assistant Emma that really is in need of his powers of deduction.
Well that was my week, tell me what you guys got and tell me what I missed. Any good comic shop should still have a couple copies of any of these books so if you like what you see, then pick them up on your next trip to your local shop. And don’t forget to come back every Wednesday for a new episode of the Comic Issues Podcast.