WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Picks

Best From The Past Week: Ballistic #2 – I saved the best for last in my reading (and reviewing) stack.  I’ve never heard of this writer Adam Egypt Mortimer before, but love the madness that he and Darick Robertson are creating.  Adam Egypt Mortimer has to be a pen-name, right?  Anyway, this comic has so many things that I love: Great art, a sense of humor, inventiveness and a total lack of fear at being vulgar and transgressive.  We need more transgression in our comics.  Keep it coming guys!

Most Anticipated: 

1. Infinity #3 – I’m trying to remember the last Marvel event that still had this much heat going into issue #3.  Certainly not Age of Ultron, Fear Itself or Avengers vs. X-Men.  Perhaps Siege?  Regardless, Infinity is really good.  I love how it has grown organically out of the pages of the two main Avengers titles.

2. New Avengers #10 – See above.  This is a primary Infinity tie-in as in it links directly to the main story and isn’t one of those forced tie-ins just to show what Luke Cage was doing during Infinity..  If you’re interested in Infinity, it’s worth reading this too as it focused on the Illuminati’s role in matters.

3. The Unwriten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship that Sank Twice – This is an OGN and who knows when Amazon will ship it to me (since I refuse to pay full retail for OGNs at a comic shop).  I have a lot of hope that this OGN will return to the type of complex storytelling that The Unwritten is known for.  Please help us wash away the awful taste of the current crossover with Fables.

4. Uncanny X-Men #12 – This is the next chapter of the Battle of the Atom event.  Now we’ll see what happens when Past Cyclops and Contemporary Cyclops start working together.  Interesting that when the Future X-Men showed up, there was no Future Cyclops.  Surely he’ll be showing up at some point, right?  I wonder if this is all a ploy to rub out Contemporary Cyclops since he’s become kinda a jerk?   Anyway, I can’t remember the last time an X-event was poor so you should check this out.

5. Morning Glories #31 – I stopped reviewing this series 5-6 issues ago because I was too confused to really write anything coherent about the series.  But I still love reading it.  If you haven’t been reading the series, this probably isn’t the place to jump in, but I always encourage people to pick up the trades or to catch up digitally.

Hugo’s Pick

Best From The Past Week: Deadpool #16 – There were some great and not-so-great stuff this week, but the issue that managed to really impress me was the one featuring the Merc with a Mouth. The good, the bad and the ugly is continuing strongly thanks to the art of Declan Shalvey and the much more sober and darker storytelling of both Duggan and Posehn, which made it a great surprise in the previous week’s reading pile.

Most anticipated this week:

1. Infinity #3 – The big event of Jonathan Hickman continues, as the action seems to be ramping up, the cosmic vibe gets even bigger and the stakes gets higher. With so much teasing about what might happen in this issue with the Inhumans, I am really eager to see if Hickman can really bring those interesting characters to the next level thanks to this huge event. Even if he does not, there will still be Dustin Weaver and Jerome Opena on art duty, so it will still be magnificent art wise.

2. Thor: God of Thunder #13 – While it’s a bit of a bummer to see Esad Ribic going away from this title, this series should still be great as long as Jason Aaron continues his incredible take on Thor. I am unsure if the themes of divinity and how it affects the Marvel universe will still be there with this Malekith, but Aaron truly might be able to deliver and this is reasons enough to be hyped for this issue.

3. New Avengers #10 – The latest issue did not really live up to the pedigree of this series with the start of Infinity, but it is still a tale featuring some fascinating characters doing missions that are expansive and interesting in the setting of the Marvel universe. Here’s hoping the latest issue was not representative of the rest of this arc.

4. X-Men Legacy #17 – David vs. Cyclops. Considering the story behind both characters and the quality behind this title, there is no reason for me not to be looking forward to this issue. The craziness of David Haller and the whole angle on the mutant community makes this series very good, yet this fight issue could be something special. Let’s just say that I am looking forward to it.

5. Justice League #23.3: Dial E – This is part of Villains Month, a gimmick that I am not exactly fond of, yet this is more Dial H. More big concepts and more China Miéville playing with the ideas of superheroes. This might not be living up to what the series had been, but it is perhaps the last taste readers will truly get and this is why I’m looking forward to this last shot, no matter how it might turn out.