Top Five Fridays 4/20/07
Some of you may have noticed on the sidebar, we have our “Top Five of the Moment” listed. These are the five books that are most clicking with each Pants writer. It may or may not represent the best books we’ve read all month, year, or just what we’re digging that week. We generally try to update it with books from that week, but there are no hard and fast rules. Inspired by an email from one of our readers, we’re going to post every Friday with the most recent Top Five from each member of the Panteon, and hope for your comments on our lists, or maybe even your own “Top Five of the Moment.”
Also, just as the Wednesday Number Ones feature is generally our spot for folks to talk about the comics of the week, we hope that Top Five Fridays is where you’ll come to talk about what’s going on in comics in general. News in the comics world, thoughts on comics you’ve recently read, talk about comic-related movies that release this weekend and more are welcome in the comments thread for Top Five Fridays.
This week, the Top Five Books of the Moment are:
Nick Budd
- 52
- World War III: The Valiant
- World War III: Hell is for Heroes
- Manhunter
- Birds of Prey
Dave Farabee
- DMZ
- Daredevil: The Devil, Inside and Out (TP)
- The Spirit
- The Brave and the Bold
- Batman and the Mad Monk (TP)
Dan Grendell
- Annihilation: Book Two HC
- Marvel Adventures: Avengers
- X-Factor
- Fallen Angel
- Birds of Prey
Randy Lander
- Batman and the Mad Monk TP
- Marvel Adventures Avengers
- The Spirit
- DMZ
- The Brave and The Bold
David Martindale (D3)
- DMZ
- X-Factor
- 52
- World War III
- The Brave and the Bold
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I only have a top three for this week. Not a whole big pile of comics for me this week. I found Ex Machina, The Spirit and The Brave and the Bold to be the best of the bunch. Everything else I had was solid but not worthy of being mentioned with those three titles.
20 Apr 2007 at 3:14 pm
QuoteWhat I’m reading:
1. Cross Bronx - man, I wish Oeming would draw more. I haven’t been impressed by much of his writing, but damn I love his artwork.
2. Loveless - screw the Lone Ranger. This is a raw, brutal Western.
3. Exterminators - what a fun little book, with perfectly suited art by Tony Moore.
4. Too Much Coffee Man: Parade of Tirade - tried this out based on a comment Randy made in the last Down the Line, and I’m not disappointed.
5. Fell - what can be said that hasn’t been said before? Ellis at his best and Templesmith’s art is delightful. Maybe the trade will come out on time after all.
20 Apr 2007 at 6:33 pm
QuoteI’m surprised to see World War III titles among some of the lists. I thought it was a mess, an exercise in maintaining continuity. And why four issues released in the same week? Is there anyone who was interested in the event who wasn’t planning on picking up all four?
20 Apr 2007 at 9:15 pm
QuoteHold on a sec, there is a collection of Too Much Coffee Man. I remember reading that years ago, I don’t even remember where I read it. I just remember finally relating to a comic as I was (am) a coffee addict. Tell me more about this collection.
21 Apr 2007 at 12:24 am
QuoteThere are actually three collections, with a fourth on the way in June. They’re all published by Dark Horse, and are all a lot of fun.
21 Apr 2007 at 12:11 pm
QuoteDefinitely agree with all the Spirit and B&TB love here. Those two books and ASS should be the standard-bearers for superhero books, and everyone should try to emulate the spirit of those books (which is odd, since everything else DC is doing is very uninspired IMO). These books are the right mix of classic fun and forward thinking, and every issue reads great by itself AND part of a larger story.
To make a top-5 I’d include Fell…I HATE the trend toward cynicism in comics the last 5-7 years, but Fell takes that cynicism almost to the point of parody.
And I’ll round out the list with Local and Optic Nerve. I dropped DMZ early in its run (just didn’t speak to me in any way), but Local has been one of the consistently quality books of the last year. And Optic Nerve has been so for the last decade.
I’d probably include the DD TPB but I haven’t bought it yet.
21 Apr 2007 at 12:55 pm
QuoteYeah, ASS is a really good comic book. Not as good as CROTCH, but still damned good
21 Apr 2007 at 1:03 pm
QuoteI had a similar reaction. It seemed mostly like a disjointed fight seen with a bunch of quick OYL explanations thrown in to appease fans. I also don’t buy that Black Adam is powerful enough to take on virtually every super-hero in the world no matter how pissed off he is. And if he was fighting to kill in the final battle, the death toll should’ve been much higher.
DC was pretty much forced into releasing all the issues together by the weekly 52 format. If they had waited to release WWIII, 52 would’ve already been over by the time WWIII finished.
22 Apr 2007 at 8:31 am
QuoteBeen away so this is a top five for the last 2 weeks…
1. Fell - Another fantastic issue. Feels like there’s 32 pages not 16 it’s put together so well. Always worth the wait.
2. All Star Superman - Another book, like Fell, that’s worth the wait between issues. Completely off the wall, yet totally nails the essence of Superman and expands on it. Helps that Frank Quitely is drawing it too.
3. Thunderbolts - Ellis has really hit his stride now. I’m much more interested in the behind the scenes stuff and I really like how Ellis is adding a human side to the likes of Steel Spider & co. I know he’s only setting them up to knock them down but I’m still enjoying it.
4. Iron Man - A bit of a hit & miss issue but when it hit it was excellent especially the Mandarin’s “awakening”.
5. Dark Tower - Picked up issues 1 to 3 while in holiday in Paris. A great read, annoyed with myself that I didn’t seek them out sooner.
Ex Machina & The Spirit would normally be on the list but this month’s issues weren’t up to their usual high standards for some reason.
X-Factor would’ve made it too if it wasn’t for the poor art.
22 Apr 2007 at 1:01 pm
QuoteMy top 5 from last week:
1.) Invincible - I don’t know why Kirkman’s Image work is so much better than his Marvel stuff, but this issue was amazing. There were several moments that could’ve served as issue ending cliffhangers.
2.) Shadowpact - Read this book if you want to see a DC super team done right.
3.) Birds of Prey - I’m still not sure how well the new member of the Secret Six will fit in, but this is the strongest arc this book has had in some time.
4.) Ex Machina - Strange but good.
5.) Dark Horse Comics Free Comic Book Day 2007 - My FLCS guy gave me an early peak at this and all three books previewed in it piqued my interest. The most interesting one IMO is The Umbrella Academy which should appeal to fans of offbeat superheroes.
22 Apr 2007 at 1:31 pm
Quote- X-Factor (though the art wasn`t as good as it usually is). I`m intrigued as to where this book is going. I love this title!
- Fell. Once again, the creative team delivers a satisfying, intriguing tale.
- All Star Superman. Great book, lots of fun. Love the Bizarro thing (just hate to think of waiting for the story to finish, though).
- Brave and the Bold. Fun, that`s all it is, fun, fun fun. Loved the Batman, Blue Beetle interaction. And the art! fuck, the book`s good!
I`ll echo the surprise at seeing WWIII books in some of your guys` list. I didn`t think it was that interesting, some parts of it were pretty stretched out to fit the explanations of OYL, the world`s superheroes couldn`t take out one guy? I suppose it`s because the big three were gone, right? Ridiculous. I dunno, seemed more of a dud to me.
23 Apr 2007 at 1:32 am
QuoteI just got a chance to read the DH FCBD offering, and it’s really good, possibly my second favorite of the batch aside from the Toronto Comics Fest issue which is just packed with impressive artists and writers. My particular favorite in the DH sampler is the second story, a sci-fi offering called Pantheon City with art by Clement Sauve… it’s jaw-dropping level gorgeous. Zero Killer (the post-apocalyptic story at the back) is good, Umbrella Academy reads like Madman meets Hellboy meets Casanova (and that’s good too), but Pantheon City looks fantastic.
Relating to Kirkman and FCBD… I read the first free issue of Astounding Wolf-Man, and it looks like another in a line of “Kirkman’s Image work being stronger than Marvel.” It’s a really good first issue, with nice art by Jason Howard, and a pretty substantial offering for free. Definitely pick this one up when you guys hit the FCBD bonanzas in a couple weeks.
24 Apr 2007 at 2:24 pm
Quote24 Apr 2007 at 4:43 pm
QuoteI really enjoyed TRUE STORY, SWEAR TO GOD.
So there.
26 Apr 2007 at 11:25 pm
QuoteWas TSSTG supposed to hit this week? We’re getting ours on Wednesday… wonder if this was one of those East Coast/West Coast delays Diamond occasionally has.
28 Apr 2007 at 11:06 pm
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