Best Book Nominees for Wednesday, July 11
No real surprises this week. Every title on my list of nominees today (with the exception of one new #1 issue) I have nominated before. All good series. All worth reading. So we shall see how they compared not only against each other but against themselves, when applicable, this week.
Nominees!
AMERICAN VAMPIRE LORD OF NIGHTMARES #2 (OF 5) – Really good. Even for American Vampire. Loved how they wove the history of Dracula and the Carpathian vampires into the history of the Vassals of the Morningstar. Really liked the Russian angle. Really liked Mr. Generic White guy puking up a rat to feed Dracula! And the ending was great. A+!
AVX VS #4 (OF 6) – I will nominate all three AVX books this week. The Thor/Phoenix Emma fight in VS. was great. Easily one of the best matches yet. Showed how powerful Thor is. Showed how powerful Phoenix Emma is. Thor shattering Emma was great, but shattered Emma raining down on Thor was even better. What goes up must come down! Jason Aaron proved once again in WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #13 that he can tell a story about a character who we don’t really know (Warbird) and make it interesting and make us care about the character. Can’t wait for more Warbird! And it was all wrapped around the Phoenix Five kicking the crap out of Gladiator. Another good issue from a great series. NEW AVENGERS #28 gave us something totally different this month. Spider-Woman, Hawkeye and Luke Cage have been imprisoned on Utopia. They try to escape! It’s a twist ending so I won’t give it away here but I thought it was great.
BATMAN #11 – The epic finale of the Court of Owls. Not quite as good as issue #10, but did wrap up nicely. Did address the issue of whether or not Lincoln March is Bruce’s brother Thomas. I’m totally leaning towards not. But the jury is still out and you’ll have to read it and make your own determination. Did find it interesting that as Bruce and Thomas Talon are flying through the air, attached by bat-ropes, some distance apart, at high speed, next to an aircraft, they were still able to hear each other talking. Must be that Super-Bat hearing…
BATMAN AND ROBIN #11 – Once again not quite as good as issue #10. Still good. Cover was awesome. Too bad it didn’t appear anywhere in the issue. Really liked the beginning. Damian going after Jason Todd. Crowbar was a nice touch. Appreciated that Jason really wasn’t taking Damian’s “I’m the best Robin ever” attitude too seriously. He’s ten years old! Back half got a little wicky. Left me a little confused as to what Terminus is plotting. Bat Tattoos for everyone!?
BEFORE WATCHMEN MINUTEMEN #2 (OF 6) – Thought the first issue was probably better. Still good. Really started to get into a story and so I felt there was a lot of set up. But the set up was resolved by the end of the issue and the Minutemen’s adventure has begun. Silhouette is turning into an interesting character. And the Hangman looks to be the focal point.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #11 – Was way better than the past couple of issues. Finding out Buffy was a robot in issue #7 was fantastic but the aftermath petered out a bit. We start from scratch this issue. Guarded Part 1. Kennedy has incorporated the remaining slayers into a security/bodyguard firm. Which makes total sense as there is no more slaying to be had these days and a girl’s gotta eat. Buffy has to come to grips with the new world order and I like where the story is headed.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #14 – The best thing about this issue was that while this story arc, D-Man as Scourge and Henry Gyrich as the man behind the scenes, ended (and I totally enjoyed all four issues) the next story arc is just going to continue with threads that came out this story arc and I expect Cap to continue to be an excellent read. Hey. If you dropped Captain America on issue #4, 6 or 8, which I can totally understand (it wasn’t very good), try it again! Starting with issue #11. It’s been much, much better of late.
CHEW SECRET AGENT POYO #1 – Are you serious?! I started laughing on page one and didn’t stop for six pages! Wow. How much room do I have here to talk about Poyo? Not enough! It was awesome. From beginning to end.
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #6 – Was utterly fantastic. Could have been the best issue so far. And I thought the last issue was incredible. The pace was fantastic. The violence was off the hook. The dialogue. The narration. Forget it says Conan on the cover! Read it!
PUNK ROCK JESUS #1 (OF 6) – The sole newcomer to the list today. Have seen a preview of it in all the Vertigo books for the last month. I don’t read previews. But I did look at it again after reading Punk Rock Jesus #1. With the exception of the artwork and it being in black and white I don’t think it gave a very good picture of what the book was really about. First of all it’s set in 2019. Second of all it’s about cloning. The Shroud of Turin is mentioned. And reality TV. And a very evil broadcast executive. And the IRA. And a very interesting head of security. There was so much more to the book other than the “birth of Jesus.” Very interested to see where it goes from here.
WALKING DEAD #100 – Well. We’ve been waiting. They’ve been hyping. Did it live up to the hype? Don’t really see how it could. You tell me. I did like it. A lot actually. Thought it was one of the better issues of Walking Dead. Something of importance did indeed happen. But to me it was just another issue of the Walking Dead. Which of course is always a good thing. And we might get a status quo change out of the issue although I’m not totally convinced of that yet. Comments on the issue? I was wrong. The bus was not the place to be. Nevan has a very foul mouth. And eeny, meeny, miny, mo, I did not want to turn that page! Oh. How I did not want to turn that page!
Best Book of the Week? With apologies to a very fine, fine group of nominees this week, y’all got your asses kicked! By CHEW SECRET AGENT POYO #1! That Rooster is incredible!!!
See ya!
Rusty
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TWD#100 left me stunned. Not since the shot through carl has it done this. This time it was good and like Rusty said, it felt very walking dead-ish. Bravo issue 100.
While TWD was great, no can beat the winner of the Viltrumite Mustache Wars, the one and only El Pollo Grande Numero Uno, Poyo!
Poyo was great, very entertaining but I was able to read another comic right after it. TWD #100 made me stop reading what was left in my pile. Any comic that can cause that much of an emotional response has to be best of the week, if not the month.
I’m with James, just brutal and upsetting, but I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
Much like with Carl, it got the gut reaction I’m sure they were looking for, but there wasn’t much more to it than that. I think Walking Dead has two MAJOR problems. First, they haven’t introduced a single new character I can name in over 70 issues, other than Abraham, who was just killed. Think about, the last character they introduced that I care about is Michonne. That’s a problem.
Second, Kirkman always pitched this as “what happens after the credits role in a zombie movie,” in other words the story just keeps going. Ok, but it’s now reading like a bunch of knock-off sequels. How is this any current story different from the prison/Governor? We all thought we’d get a new status quo with new communities, new characters, and new plots. At this point I’m not sure Kirkam has that in him since the only big moments come from hurting/killing people from the first 6 issues.
Need to read Poyo, but TWD was a great issue.
As for Cap – you know Brubaker is off the book soon and I think they are cancelling the title for the upcoming Marvel Now stuff.
I do indeed know that Brubaker is coming off Captain America in the not so distant future. Doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the current story. Shawn talked about the Marvel Now stuff in last weeks news column and with the San Diego ComicCon this weekend I am sure he will have plenty more Marvel news in this weeks news column. Am actually very happy that Marvel is revamping. Seems to be the correct time to do it. AVX will be ending up. Many many creators have been on certain Marvel titles for many many years. And I’m looking forward to the realignment. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…this weeks haul of books was excellent. Glad everyone? liked the Walking Dead. I most certainly did. Poll should be interesting tomorrow. Batman always wins. Although I’m still going with Poyo! – Rusty
TWD #100 was my favorite of the week. Thought something like that would happen, but in a book full of brutal stuff, that is one of the tougher moments to swallow as a long time fan. And I think the book will be better for it.
And I was curious while reading Batman #11 if anyone else would notice the ridiculousness of them talking in front of that airplane engine. Glad I wasn’t the only one!
TWD was a disappointment as far as I am concerned. Just haven’t been into it lately and it read as shock value and little else. But I know I am not the big TWD supporter the rest of you guys are. I also though Minutemen #2 was lackluster and am afraid that does not bold well for the other Before Watchmen minis.
Poyo was amazing. And I loved many other titles this week. My review column goes up soon, and you can see my favorites.
I do think it’s funny that so many fans are crying about ending so many Marvel Titles. Most are just getting relaunched a month or two later. CAP will get a new #1. So will Iron Man, Thor, New Avengers, Avengers, etc.