WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Picks

Best From The Past Week: Infinity #2 – This is a great event so far.  Marvel events usually start well, but this seems even better than most.  What I like best about Infinity is how it spins directly from the stories that Jonathan Hickman has developed in Avengers/New Avengers over the last year.  It’s really great stuff.  If you’re one of those people who has “sworn off Big 2 events” (as I have in the past), you’re making a mistake this time.

Most Anticipated: 

1. The Walking Dead #114 – Man…..Rick really seems to be screwed.  I know that he’s been in tight spots before, but this seems an even worse situation than we typically see him in……especially when you have people actually saying, “People like Rick just don’t die!”  It’s going to get messy over the next few issues, I think….

2. Avengers #19 – This is the next chapter in the Infinity event.  As you can see above, I’m really enjoying it.  Buy it and read it.  Avengers is good again!  No more sitting around a table and jabbering at each other or eating pizza.  They’re fighting global threats and that’s just what Avengers should be doing.

3. X-Men #5 – The third chapter in the other Marvel event: Battle of the Atom.  While the secondary X-events usually stink badly, the big X-events are generally quite good.  They almost always have something eventful happen that changes the status quo for a few years.  Well worth paying attention to.

4. The Manhattan Projects #14 – Zany fun with uber-scientists.  Last issue showed us Oppenheimer betraying the group and it looks like we’re headed for a showdown between Oppenheimer and Einstein.  My money is on Einstein because he has a shotgun and drinks a lot.

5. Ballistic #2 – The first issue of this was awesome.  For one thing, it was great to see Darick Robertson drawing something where he looked excited again.  This wasn’t him grinding out issues of a long-running series like The Boys…..it was him getting to draw all sorts of cool, demonic-organic tech.  We’ve got talking guns that (a) are powered by plugging into the user’s adrenal system and (b) get high at parties and can’t perform properly during the bank-robbery tomorrow.  The whole thing is really fun and I’m looking forward to whether I still love the issue now that I expect it to be awesome.

Hugo’s Pick

Best From The Past Week: Infinity #2 – It was a mixed week with some strong books and some not so strong, yet the continuation of Marvel big event comics was pretty satisfactory. Good art, big stakes and the focus on the more cosmic side of the Marvel universe alongside the Inhumans made this a clear winner for me.

Most anticipated this week:

1. Manhattan Projects #14 – More super science is always nice, as this definitely energetic and delightfully weird series keep on giving us readers plenty of shenanigans with Einstein, Oppenheimer and the other characters, courtesy of Hickman and Pitarra. It is currently one of his strongest series and it’s always nice to see a new issue coming out.

2. Avengers #19 – Another issue focusing on the galactic council’s war against the Builders? Count me in. Having loved the previous issue full of cosmic goodness, I am eager to see where Hickman and Yu can get this tie-in to as the Avengers struggle in this massive conflict set in space.

3. King’s Watch #1 – I rather have a certain fondness for old pulp heroes and I really like Jeff Parker as a writer. As it turns out, there’s a mini-series coming out this week combining those two very things. With a story focusing on Mandrake, the Phantom and Flash Gordon teaming-up, how could I refuse to read something like this?

4. Captain America #11 – Being done with the sci-fi chaos of Dimension Z, Rick Remender is moving on with a new arc as Steve Rogers and Jet Black gets acclimated to the normal world. I have faith in Remender’s writing and I do rather like Carlos Pacheco’s art, so I am curious to see if both can pull off a good issue this week.

5. Indestructible Hulk #13 – I really like where the current arc is going on this title, as Hulk wanders along while trying to fix time with Banner trying to direct him. Mark Waid has a knack to write fun-filled issues and his run on this title has been rather solid. It hasn’t been Daredevil solid, but good entertainment is not always something easy to do, yet I believe he can pull it off.