Top Five Fridays 08/31/07
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
- Transformers Spotlight: Optimus Prime
- Hack/Slash The Series
- Manhunter Vol. 3: Origins
- Green Arrow Year One
- Fantastic Four
Dave Farabee
- American Virgin
- Warhammer 40K
- Green Arrow Year One
- Warhammer: Forge of War
- Incredible Change-Bots TP
Dan Grendell
- Punks The Summer Comics Special
- Hulk/Power Pack: Pack Smash TP
- Fantastic Four
- Manhunter V.3 Origins TP
- Hellboy: Darkness Calls
Randy Lander
- Incredible Change-Bots TP
- Manhunter V.3 Origins TP
- Brit
- Green Arrow Year One
- American Virgin
David Martindale (D3)
- The Order
- The Immortal Iron Fist
- Thunderbolts
- Annihilation Conquest: Starlord
- Mouse Guard: Winter 1152
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1. Local- This issue was great as usual, I just wish it came out more often. It’s right up there with the “two brothers” issue (#4 ?) as being the most depressing issue yet, but holy crap it’s good. I started picking this book up after hearing the Panteon talk about and it’s become one of my favorites, so thanks for that guys!
2. Fantastic Four- It’s too bad McDuffie is leaving in a few issues, i’ve been enjoying the hell out of his stuff here. Just a fun issue all around, it’s always good to see the FF in space.
3. American Virgin- Great art, great writing, more people need to read this book. Ryan Kelly does a kick-ass job filling in for Becky Cloonan.
4. Avengers: The Initiative- Best Marvel-U Avengers book without a doubt (and honestly, I enjoy New and Mighty every now and then), despite having about 20 characters and 10 different subplots I never feel lost or have trouble keeping up. Probably the best WWH tie-in stuff so far.
5. Ex Machina- I forgot how much I missed this book until I read this. I missed Tony Harris on art but John Paul Leon works pretty well here. I liked the sort of “Great Machine: Year One” thing.
6. Bioshock- Sure its not a comic but damn this game is fun. Seriously, if you have a 360 or a good PC buy this game. This the only game i’ve been motivated to buy this year and it’s totally worth it.
Action Comics despite coming out after All-Star Superman was pretty enjoyable, as was Hack/Slash. All in all, it was a pretty strong week for me.
31 Aug 2007 at 12:54 pm
Quote1. Mouse Guard-Winter 1152
2. Batman
3. Black Summer
4. Madman
5. anime porn
31 Aug 2007 at 3:41 pm
QuoteNo love for Ex-Machina Masquerade Special or the latest issue of Local? Did those series lost their charm as time went by? Also, nice to see Green Arrow Year One and Manhunter on the top 5 charts. DC should get both Andy Diggle and Marc Andreyko to write more comics.
31 Aug 2007 at 3:56 pm
Quote1) Ex Machina: Masquerade Special (for Jimbo…I agree…why not there?)
2) The Bakers #1: Okay, so I am late to the party. My normal store never got them (or never got enough) and I had to get it elsewhere. It is fantastic!
3) Hip Flask: Unnatural Selection HB: Finally found this thing. Good, but waaay too short for the asking price (especially compared to the two books that follow). I am an addict for the stuff, though.
4) Slow week overall: Read WWH: X-Men and it was meh. Black Panther: Meh (finally I have finished with Marvel Zombies…I think I can’t take it any more). Mouse Templar…meh.
5) Second for BIOSHOCK: Not a comic but would make a good one. Fantastic art and story and great gameplay to boot. Check it out.
31 Aug 2007 at 9:03 pm
QuoteI have moved to trade only reading on Ex Machina, as the delays have made it a frustrating single-issue read for me. But I still enjoy the trades.
As for Local, I’m not that big into Megan’s brother, so I was disappointed that he was the feature for the Austin issue. But I will say I enjoyed the issue quite a bit, it just didn’t make my top five.
My top five this week is:
1. Incredible Change-Bots TP - For all the reasons enumerated in my full review. This book is going to miss a lot of folks, I’m afraid, but trust me… it’s a lot of fun and worth special ordering.
2. Manhunter V.3 Origins TP - Truthfully, I had to give this one up so a customer could buy it, so I won’t be able to buy my copy until next week, but I read all these issues in single issue form and I know that the book just got stronger as it went on.
3. Brit - Lots of fun, and a nice benefit to have a book for those many weeks when Invincible doesn’t ship on time.
4. Green Arrow Year One - #4 is my favorite issue since #1, great action, a nice slacker to hero conversion moment and basically a good superhero action done up in action movie style. Diggle and Jock are a tough team to beat, no matter what the characters.
5. American Virgin - Kelly does a great job (he must if I didn’t miss one of my favorite artists, Becky Cloonan, *too* much) and Seagle’s story of the sexual culture in India is as fascinating as the other world sex culture that’s been going on in this arc. Best arc of the series thus far… I hope the trades are doing well, I don’t want to see this one canceled too soon.
6. Hellboy Darkness Calls #5 - Amazing art by Duncan Fegredo, great action and use of mythology too… love this book.
7. Fantastic Four #549 - Loving McDuffie’s take on this book, really enjoying Pelletier’s art… fun to see Black Panther and Reed Richards playing “two smartest guys in the room” Shame that Millar and Hitch are taking over.
8. Local #10 - As I said, not my favorite issue of the book, but still good art, good story and it was a kick seeing a couple familiar landmarks in the issue.
9. Walking Dead #41 - Crazy psychological shit going down in this book. Kirkman does *not* take it easy on his characters.
10. Didn’t get a chance to read, but I bet either Hack/Slash #4 or Usagi Yojimbo #105 would have made this spot.
Light week, but a really good week.
01 Sep 2007 at 1:45 am
QuoteThis was a good but really light week… the only thing that I’ve read was Walking Dead, so I guess that’s my number 1 by default. I did buy Ex Machina however, and I should really get around to reading it. I also really looked hard at that Batman Annual because I like Lopez’s art, but I ultimately passed.
01 Sep 2007 at 8:56 am
QuoteI don’t know, I wouldn’t mind seeing McDuffie/Pelletier get a long run, but I’m really psyched to see what Millar and Hitch do. Millar’s UFF was some of his strongest work ever, and Hitch is Hitch. Plus, I may be wrong but I think they were offered the book ages ago, before McDuffie/Pelletier, so it’s not like these guys are being kicked off to make way for the cool kids (not that you were making this claim, but it would suck if that were the reality).
But I do think this was the best FF issue of their run. Can Pelletier lay out an action sequence or what?
I also got:
Local. The feel good story of the year!
The Order #1. Got it based on Panteon praise and despite my dislike of team superhero books and found it to be just interesting enough to pick up the second one next week. Getting a real Milligan X-Force vibe from it, which is not at all a bad thing.
01 Sep 2007 at 11:55 am
Quote1. Hellboy: Darkness Calls
2. Green Arrow Year One
3. Fantastic Four
4. X-Men First Class
5. The Spirit
02 Sep 2007 at 10:22 am
QuoteHey Randy… did TSSTG ship to you this week? Some stores didn’t are getting it September 6, but we got it here in PR this week.
02 Sep 2007 at 9:16 pm
QuoteNope, but it’s on my invoice for next week. Usually it’s the L.A. stores that get it a week late, but it seems on occasion that the Memphis warehouse (where we’re stocked from) that has had 1-week delays.
02 Sep 2007 at 10:58 pm
QuoteOh, okay… I never got an answer as to why some stores get the book one week and others get it the next. Hope you enjoy it!
03 Sep 2007 at 9:04 pm
QuoteI have a suggestion: Why not do a top 5 Worst Books of the week (or month if you think one week is too less comic stack for this kind of judgement)? Would be interesting to see this ? wht do you guys say?
04 Sep 2007 at 10:12 am
QuoteHonestly, I’d rather be positive than negative. I’ll point out a book’s negative qualities in a review, sure, but doing a column that focuses on them just seems unnecessarily mean.
04 Sep 2007 at 2:23 pm
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