Top Five Fridays 5/04/07
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
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Hellboy: Darkness Calls
- Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
- Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil
Dave Farabee
- Fantastic Four Visionaries: Walt Simonson Vol. 1 (TPB)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Transformers: Escalation
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Warhammer 40K: Damnation Crusade
Dan Grendell
- Hellboy: Darkness Falls
- Warhammer 40K: Damnation Crusade
- Kindaichi Case Files
- Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
Randy Lander
- Korgi
- Johnny Hiro
- Fantastic Four
- American Virgin
- Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness
David Martindale (D3)
- Runaways
- American Virgin
- Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil
- 52
- Iron Man
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Buffy is an excellent, fun read BUT
it’s for fans only. As I’ve said, I only recently finished up the TV series with my girlfriend and found myself reminding her who certain characters were. “Yeah, remember this guy from *that* episode? That’s him.”
It definitely lives up to it’s status as Season 8.
04 May 2007 at 12:32 pm
QuoteOh, and Randy has TWO Marvel comics in his top 5.
I had to go back and read his list twice to make sure I didn’t misunderstand.
04 May 2007 at 12:34 pm
QuoteWell, you know Randy. Total Marvel whore.
04 May 2007 at 2:17 pm
QuoteThree weeks of comics to catch up on this week, so there’s probably some older ones in here:
1. Omega Flight - I know I’m biased on this one, but the comic is off to a good start, captures the feel of Alpha and Canada well, and I loved Talisman’s verbal ass-kicking of Iron Man in issue 2:
“Why is it that when America has a problem, Canada pays for it? Pollution. Gun Crime. And now the Registration Act. We’ve had a Registration Act here for years…and we’ve never turned it against ourselves–against our heroes. So you’ve screwed up again, and now you’re here to cover your tracks. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Very Canadian!
2. Buffy - It may be for fans only, as an earlier poster said, but for them, its excellent. I can hear the characters when I’m reading it.
3. Runaways - Does this ever leave my list? It shouldn’t.
4. Ex Machina - Got the first trade finally. Really good. I want more!
5. Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk - This was suprisingly good, considering the state of the relaunch. I really loved the interaction between the two characters, the fact that they didn’t “comic-book” a solution to a horrific problem, and the quality of the art. This is a sleeper series that more people should read, IMO. And not just for the real world implications it includes.
Honourable Mention: X-Factor - like Runaways, rarely leaves my Top 5. Consistantly excellent.
04 May 2007 at 5:38 pm
QuoteI finally checked out FF based on the recommendations here…I’m a big FF fan who was scared away due to JMS and Civil War…and I found it enjoyable. I’m not into “cosmic Marvel” so much, but it’s nice to see some good old zany, over-the-top fun in Fantastic Four (or a Marvel book in general).
Growing up reading and re-reading Claremont’s X-Men, it’s always been weird to see someone else write Storm, perhaps more than any other Claremont character. She just doesn’t “sound” right. But it’s all good.
04 May 2007 at 6:52 pm
Quote1. Shazam: Monster Society Of Evil - Pure goodness. Can’t say enough good things about this series.
2. Astonishing X-Men - All Whedon’s books were good this week but for me this was the best one. Buffy was good but have no idea who the guy at the end was and he spent 2 issues setting up a story with the Kingpin & the Punisher in Runaways only to go in a completely different at the end of issue. It’s a cool idea but I think it probably should be given it’s own arc. It felt like Whedon has ideas for 12 issues but only has time to do 6 so is cramming them all in. He’s definitely getting better at pacing his comics work though. Molly punching The Punisher in the gut was hilarious too. As for AXM, great dialogue, nice character interaction, a few cool action moments and, of course, John Cassaday drawing it all. It’s a pity I’ll have to wait for 4 months for the next issue.
3. Iron Man - Really enjoying the espionage angle here and the idea of Iron Man versus bio engineered villains is a really good one with some interesting contrasts and concepts. The art suffered a bit due to the changing inkers and it felt slightly rushed but nothing too bad.
4. World War Hulk Prologue - Mainly here due to the fantastic Mastermind Excello story included as a back up. The main story was good and enough to get to pick up the 1st issue of the series proper and Lee Weeks & Sean Phillips art in the same story is always a bonus.
5. Amazing Spider-Man: Swing Shift - Really cool old school Spidey story and best of all, it was free! My local comic shop didn’t receive any of the Dark Horse or Image books so really bummed as I was looking forward to those. As was my local as they were hoping to snag some emo kids with the Dark Horse book.
Totally forgot to pick up the new Hellboy (D’oh!) and any other week Dark Tower would be on the list.
Saw Spider-Man 3 last night and while it had it’s moments overall it was a bit of a mess. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of discussion about it over the next few days so i’ll leave it at that for the time being
05 May 2007 at 5:53 am
Quote1) Shazam! Monster Society of Evil: Continues to be a great series. Too bad it ends in one more issue.
2) Astonishing X-Men: Still a great read and it finally picked up steam. And by steam, I mean nekkid Kitty. Yeesh, talk about turning my childhood crush on her (from waaay back in the day) on its head. A good overall issue, though.
3) Runaways: I think Whedon was good choice for this book. While I think he has “gotten” most of the characters, I half wonder if he is responding to the criticism of X-Men in that it took him too long to tell too short a story. Now he rushes what I thought would be a nice run with the Kingpin and throws them back into old-timey NYC. Hmm. Still, a fun issue with great dialogue and some cool uses of their powers (yes, Molly’s gut punch is the greatest). Also, I liked Kingpin eating! They rarely ever show the big fat dude munching down as we know he HAS to because he is huge! Sure, he can whip a bunch of old ninjas in a fight but tubby gotta eat.
4) Comics 101: Free Comic Book Day pick up. Loved the snippets of all those ‘zines that I fail to read. Great stuff.
5) Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness: Great twist off the end of the last issue. Great dialogue. Great Nextwave cameo. This series is as fun or even at times moreso than Kirkman’s original run.
Free Comic Book Day was a blast! Our local shop has a midnight party every year and the place was jam-packed. Lines were out the door and all through the store (which got larger this year as they rented a bigger place). They had sales on back issues and trades, raffles, drinks and snacks. Very good time. Great selection of freebies, too. Haven’t gotten through all the ones I picked up, yet.
Also saw Spidey 3 last night. Maybe Comic Pants can open up a review thread for this movie for discussion and such? A new heading? Maybe Celluloid Pants? Moving Pants?
05 May 2007 at 9:36 am
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