One of which is even from December.
7 - Captain America #6 (last issue - 4 out of 7 books)
The promise of the previous issue, which is reviewed later down the list because Captain America double-shipped and I liked #5 more, is made good in this issue as Cap starts to lose sleep over the doubts planted in his dreams.
The problem is that the laser focus of the doubt from the last issue is removed and given a far more generic (later I’ll complain that the previous issue’s laser focus might have been a little too much so - clearly there’s no making me happy here) bent, meaning that a potentially great moment turned into another mind-altered riot six seconds after we were finally done with Fear Itself.
There was nothing wrong with this issue, there just wasn’t a lot that was terribly right.
6 - Frenemy of the State #5 (last issue - 7 out of 14 books)
This was a quick read. The sporadic scheduling didn’t help. Basically, by the time you remembered who the players and what the stakes were, the meat of the plot was finished and everything was tied up into a cute, easy bow. Thus ends the origin story. I’d like to see more of this title, because I think Rashida Jones and company are onto something, but the next arc needs a little more bite to keep me on board during the gulfs between issues.
5 - The Cape #3 (last issue - 2 out of 9 books)
The recap in the front tells us who Eric has killed in a nice summary and ends with “you wont’ believe what he does next.” The thing is, I did. Was I shocked at the scope of it compared to what he’d been doing? Yes. Was it a perfect illustration of just how deeply into crazytown Eric has descended? Absolutely.
I wish this hadn’t been so quick a read, and spent more time showing Eric playing with his brother Nicki in the present rather than the past. Sure the splash pages were effective, but I wanted more story than I got here. But holy cow, the story I got was good.
4 - Captain America #5 (last issue - 5 out of 11 books)
We know that Ed Brubaker likes to play the long game when it comes to Captain America. So when we see that this opening arc of the latest series is merely an opening salvo, we shouldn’t be surprised. The weakness of the title hero is preyed upon perfectly, because the villains are hitting him with some pretty undeniable truth that anyone living in this country would allow for being at least partially true.
I couldn’t go much higher than this because maybe the rantings of the bad guy were just a little too on the nose and depressing for what I want in my super hero escapism stories. At least, though, it’s being used well and as part of a larger and far more comic book villain scheme.
3 - FF #13 (last issue - 2 out of 3 books)
Don’t look now, but Jonathan Hickman has successfully spun off a book about Sue & Reed Richards’ kids. We all knew that Franklin and Val would be the focus of FF going forward from Fantastic Four #600, but I thought it would be an ensemble thing with Reed still running the show as the b-book.
This issue, though, proves that Val and Franklin are front and center. Conspiring and scheming with lost grandfathers, Uncle Dooms, and alternate “evil” dads. Getting some angry Celestials’ attention with god-like power. Racing towards danger in the spirit of adventure that founded the parent title. Everything works, and I love it.
2 - Kick-Ass 2 #6 (last issue - 5 out of 6 books)
There’s some serious catharsis in this issue, played with the same delightful mix of over-the-top violence and down-to-earth raw emotion that made this series great to begin with. You never think you’ll want the nerd to brutally beat up his bullies or the foul-mouthed girl who was on the path to a normal life literally go back from whence she came...
...but oh my stars, I am. Next issue should be big, silly fun. But this was the true climax of Kick-Ass and Hit Girl’s journey. Like the premise of real people trying to do super heroic things, it won’t end up in a nice little package but will severely damage these kids for years to come in ways they - or we the people pulling for them to go further into this madness - will never understand.
1 - Secret Avengers #20 (last issue - n/a)
Maybe I misjudged the Ellis one-in-done run when I ditched it a little bit ago. I mostly picked this up because the Ellis/Maleev combination was too good to resist. And it did look wonderful, better even than Maleev’s Moon Knight work. Warren Ellis got a ton of mileage out of the Black Widow, resulting in some of the best character work I’ve seen out of him in a long time.
In many ways, Natasha was perfect for this time-travel romp. Ellis emphasized the grey area that she lives in by putting her in the kind of paradox-avoiding circumstance that, say, Spider-Man couldn’t have executed due to his feelings on letting people expire because that’s the way it’s supposed to have happened. She was also the perfect character because she finds the particulars of Ellis’ sci-fi as boring as I usually do (I say “usually” here, because I’m a sucker for time travel sci-fi). This let Ellis use that other grand writing muscle of his, the grumpy main character.
You know, Remender is just around the corner. I may as well stick around until that run gets here.
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