Brave New Worlds

Scarlet #1 Brian Michael Bendis (w), Alex Maleev (a)

Not Your Father’s Funny Book Wow is all I can say. Bendis has gone and done it again. Hands down, my pick of the week in a week where there was a lot of good stuff Yo. Bendis knocks down the fourth wall with this one, shaking up the narrative and making readers take notice.

Just Another Hot Girl With Guns And what is your point? Actually, this is a hot girl with guns with a mission and attitude, a deadly combination even in the funny books.

Gritty Story Telling Maleev’s art is a perfect compliment for this book. It’s down and dirty, and real. Some great points-of-view as we get to know its lead character.

Quote of the Book This was another episode of f@$%ing pothead bicycle thief theatre. Welcome to Portland, Oregon, by the way. The actual passage was not censored mind you.

X-Force #28 Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost (w), Mike Choi (a)

Chapter 13 Oh, man. I so did not see that coming. I probably should have, but I did not. The solicits promise another sacrifice and this issue did not disappoint.

Revelations A lot of people are going to say they saw this coming. I have been fighting it since the beginning and still am going to fight it until final confirmation, which looked to happen in this issue. Interesting …

Threat Neutralized? Well there is just one chapter left to tell. Can this truly be the end of the story this week? Maybe I should just stop asking questions and strap in for the final ride. Second Coming has been a non-stop adrenaline ride since the beginning and shows no signs of slowing down in this penultimate issue.

Namesake It does appear that Hope is the Second Coming. Can not wait until next issue, and in the end, isn’t that how you want to tell a story, leave them wanting more?

Amazing Spider-Man #236 Joe Kelly, Zeb Wells (w), Marco Checchetto, Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano (a)

He’s Back Yes, Kraven the Hunter makes his glorious return this issue, and was so worth the delay. The Spider’s dead (WTF?!?) and all is well in the world of Kravinoff, or is it?

Cats and Dogs Living Together Well not yet, but maybe soon as Sasha Kravinoff has committed an a front to nature by bring Sergei back. See, just because the bad guys win, it does not mean they win.

Reveal of the Issue Well you know, the Spider is dead, or is he?

Great Line Ana explains she did what she was taught when she stabbed Sergei. He told her to never apologize … good girl. Awesome stuff. Just wait until you see why this transpired.

Keep Reading Don’t forget to check out the back up story by DeMatteis, Rios and Fiumara, which takes on even more weight after the main issue.

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #1 Christos Gage (w), Mario Alberti (a)

Jockularity Every week there needs to be at least one comic that brings the fun out, this week it was this issue. If you read Gage and Alberti’s previous Spidey mini-series (with the X-Men, collected and on sale now at Brave New Worlds) then you have a slight idea of what is in store.

Thunderbolts and Doom That’s right, this issue has General Thunderbolt Ross and Victor Von Doom, on American soil soliciting the FF’s help. Of course you can only guess how this goes.

But Wait, There’s More If Ross, Doom the FF and Spidey were not enough, how about throwing some Sub-Mariner action in as well.

Still Need Convincing How about time travel that probably links the four issues together like the Sinister plot weaved through Spider and the X-Men.

A Different Look Alberti, who has pencilled a couple of Amazing issues as well, has a real interesting, detailed style that I just love seeing in this book. He really knows how to draw Spidey at all his glorious angles and his full splash battle pages are breathtaking.

X-Men #1 Victor Gischler (w), Paco Medina, Juan Vlasco (a)

So It Begins After last week’s tease with the Death of Dracula (first prints still available at Brave New Worlds), the Curse of the Mutants begins here. It’s another slow build, which is actually refreshing after the speed at which X-Men stories have been told over the past few years.

New Voice Gischler’s narrative makes me think he has been writing the X-Men for years, even though this is his first issue with Marvel’s first team of mutants.

A Mystery If you read the solicits, seen the ads or read the Death of Dracula, you saw this issue coming, but not really and that is one of the great things about this issue.