Comic Book of the Week: New Year Edition

I’ll start by saying yes, this is a bit late, but I still wanted to share my Comic Book of the Week for the first week of 2013. I only picked up a handful of books that week, so there wasn’t much in the way of competition. But it probably wouldn’t have mattered much with All-New X-Men on the shelf. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve no doubt come across my praise for the time traveling mutant book by Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, Marte Gracia and Cory Petit. It’s a great book and easily one of my favorite Marvel NOW! books. All-New X-Men #5 keeps that trend going.

This fifth issue introduces a few more elements to an already good story. One of those is Beast’s health issue resulting in a new physical mutation. Another is the manifestation of Jean Grey’s telepathy much sooner than it originally had. We also see the chasm developing between her and Scott. Present-day Scott continues in his role which is something akin to an NCAA football coach recruiting talent around the country. In the place of top talent are young mutants who’ve just discovered their powers. There’s some interaction between young Scott and Logan that’ll make you think about their relationship over the years and from here on out.

The young X-Men have voted and decided to stay in the future to solve the situation. The Icemen have a moment that’ll leave you saying “yeah, that’s Iceman.” Left in the dust is poor Angel who, unlike the rest of the team, has yet to encounter his future self. If you’re curious about that conversation, look no further than issue #6, which is available as of this writing.

I think Stuart Immonen is doing the best work of his career on this title. With Wade Von Grawbadger and Marte Gracia doing the inking and coloring, respectively, they’ve been publishing a beautiful comic. Two artists assist in this issue: Craig Yeung on inks and Jason Keith on colors. The best visual is a two-page spread with young Jean Grey in the center of images she pulls from Beast’s mind showing some of her finest and not so finest, moments with the team. The art team makes the effort to distinguish between the two time periods in the borders as well as in a lighter shade of colors. Good touches on both counts.

All-New X-Men is a great book. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, as an X-fan who questioned this book in the beginning, I’m fully on board with what Bendis is doing. His writing is on point. Combine that with Immonen’s pencils and you have one of the best Marvel NOW! books on the shelf.

Book of the Week

Here we are on New Comic Book Day Eve and two days before Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it anyway). Speaking of new comic books, a subject I discussed on twitter yesterday, there are 20 comics I'll be picking up this week. You know what I'm thankful for? A holiday weekend that allows me to read all 20 books without worry of work or school. I foresee some good reading ahead of me.

Before we get to my favorite, take a quick look at the competition for the week. All New X-Men #1, Amazing Spider-Man #697, Batgirl #14, Batman #14, Extermination #6, Gambit #5, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #184, Green Lantern Corps #14, Invincible #97, New Avengers #33, Thief of Thieves #10, Thor: God of Thunder #1, Venom #27, Wolverine and the X-Men #20 and X-Men Legacy #1. With all that, let's give a round of applause to writer Brian Michael Bendis, penciller Stuart Immonen, inker Wade Von Grawbadger, colorist Marte Gracia and letterer Cory Petit. All New X-Men #1 opens the next chapter for the X-universe.

I'll admit I questioned Bendis handling the X-Men when this move was announced. Granted, this is just the first issue so we haven't had much time with the X-Men from the past. But I obviously enjoyed this issue and look forward to the next. If you're a long-time X-fan (as I am) and was hesitant about this: pick this up.

Cyclops has been liberated, he re-joins Magneto, Emma Frost and Magik in recruiting the newly mutated citizens of the world. The Cyclops fan and X-Man in me immediately fell in love with a three particular panels in which Cyke declares his stand on mutants in the world and the X-Men. Immonen's depiction of Summers making the "X" with his forearms is an image I won't forget. And I can thank the art team for that.

Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger have collaborated before and you can expect the same high quality level of work here. And who doesn't want more Immonen art? His characters look great all around. From a storytelling standpoint, his pencils convey the script well. Marte Gracia adds in his colors to really make the book come alive.

I'm looking forward to what this book will bring, even with my previously stated reservations. Long live the X-Men.

New Avengers #25 Review

New Avengers #25 serves to show a connection between the Phoenix force and the Iron Fist. That's it. No Avengers. No X-Men. Bendis takes us back some hundreds of years ago to K'un Lun. The tale is centered around Master Yu Ti and his dreams of "A bird of fire. A girl with hair crimson. The dragon versus the bird."

I find it hard to recommend this book even for fans of Deodato. There are only two parts of this book I took notice of visually. The first is the "battle" of the Phoenix and the dragon. It looks decent, but not enough to warrant purchasing this book. The second is one of the characters in the mystical city has hexagram 30 of the I-ching on his clothing. The only reason I mention this is because I thought of the Arashikage symbol from G.I. Joe which is hexagram 63.

Maybe the "events," if you can call them that, of this book will play out in the next issue. But I doubt you'll be lost. If you've already purchased this issue, I'm sorry for you. If you haven't, skip it. Save your $3.99.

Moon Knight #8 Review

Moon Knight is good. You should be reading it. Really, that’s all I should say, but that won’t do anything for you. This is an awesome series. I love Moony and have been enjoying the hell out of this series. Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev have been handling our mentally troubled hero with style. Visually assisting them are Matt Hollingsworth, on colors, and VC’s Cory Petit handling the lettering.

There are two specific aspects of this title that I absolutely love and those are Marc Spector’s personality issues and his interaction with Echo. And those aren’t always separate as shown by Bendis having “Spider-Man” direct Marc to kiss Echo during a conversation. There are quite a few characters with distinct personalities, especially of the crazier variety, that I gravitate to and Moon Knight is one of them. There are a few panels early in the book within which Marc has a “meeting.” Keep reading and you’ll figure out why I put quotes around those two.

If you don’t have any knowledge of this series, here’s a little background just to catch you up. If you have been reading, you’ll probably want to skip the next two paragraphs. That’s unless you just love my writing, which is likely. That’s not at all conceited, I assure you. You’ve no doubt heard many comic readers comment on how many heroes work in New York, right? Sure you have. So being the rebel that he is, Marc Spector set up shop in Los Angeles. His civilian guise keeps busy as the creator and producer of the television show “Legends of the Khonshu.”

His personality issues are well documented, and recently his split personalities took the forms of the fellow heroes and Avengers Captain America, Spider-Man, and Wolverine. Since his westward move, he came across the body of Ultron, which was being delivered to the L.A. kingpin of crime, who was revealed in the previous issue to be Count Nefaria. Tagging along are Buck, an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, who works on Marc’s tech. Moony has also been teamed up with Echo, the former Avenger who went by the name Ronin. And their working relationship is developing into much more. Goodness all around, this I know. You all caught up on the crazy train? Good, now back to this issue.

Moon Knight, Echo, and Buck have been making plays on Count Nefaria’s operation and recently caught one of his higher ups, Snapdragon, and capturing video evidence of him acquiring illegal tech. Moony and Echo also hit one of his bases, about which little detail was revealed. What’s shown in the panels makes it out to be a drug lab. They break through the window and kick a little butt. Baddies are hit with elbows and feet a plenty. We see some nice panel-by-panel shots of Echo throwing a match and burning up stacks of money. This is probably one of the only times money being burned looks good. The final page sets up what should be an awesome issue #9.

Examining the visuals, the three heroes within Marc are shown in lighter shades of color to distinguish between them, and you know, the real world. It’s a nice visual touch by Maleev who has a style I like to define as gritty, which fits a Moon Knight book quite well. I should say I’m not the biggest Maleev fan, but I like his style to a point. It does fit certain books, but there are times when I just don’t care for it. That’s not a knock against him, his style, or the book; it’s just my preference at times. I do have one question, what happened to the hand mark on Echo’s face? I had thought that to be some sort of permanent marking. I don’t know the full story on it, so maybe I missed something somewhere.

As stated earlier, there’s a page early in the book where Marc has a “meeting” with his internal heroes. Our lead is walking with one of his employees when he sees the heroes standing at the end of the hall. The next panel has Marc tell her that he has a meeting. She asks him with whom since she schedules his meetings. The panel shows Marc looking down the empty hall. It’s a nice sequence by our creative team showing the differences in realities.

There’s nothing wrong with this book. I don’t say that to mean I was looking for something to be wrong or that there would inherently be something off about, it’s just a good book. As I’ve pretty much abandoned a rating system, I’ll just say I recommend hitting your shop and BUYING it. Grab the previous issues as well. With the series being only 8 issues in, I doubt it would take much effort to track them all down. That’s unless you prefer trades, which I have no info on at all. Happy reading, funny book fans.