Top Five Fridays 11/9/07
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
- Annihilation Conquest
- Hack/Slash Vol. 3: Friday the 31st
- Annihilation Conquest: Star Lord
- Criminal
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Dave Farabee
- The Order
- Hack/Slash Vol. 3: Friday the 31st
- Annihilation Conquest: Star Lord
- Annihilation Conquest
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Dan Grendell
- Nocturnals V.1 HC
- Art of Matt Wagner’s Grendel
- Modesty Blaise V.12: Death Trap
- Annihilation Conquest
- Kindaichi Case Files V.16
Randy Lander
- The Order
- Annihilation Conquest
- Annihilation Conquest: Starlord
- Art Of Matt Wagners Grendel
- Fantastic Four
David Martindale (D3)
- The Order
- Annihilation Conquest
- Criminal
- Annihilation Conquest: Star Lord
- Uncanny X-Men
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My Top 5 of the ‘mo:
1. Essential Moon Knight Vol. 2
2. The Transformers Spotlight: Ramjet
3. The Immortal Iron Fist
4. Midnighter
5. Welcome to Tranquility: Armageddon
09 Nov 2007 at 1:36 pm
QuoteMy top five starts and ends with “The Immortal Iron Fist” this week. And maybe this puts me in the minority, but I absolutely HATED “Annihilation Conquest” #1. I’m even thinking of dropping the book from my store “hold” just based on the issue.
09 Nov 2007 at 1:48 pm
QuoteWas Essential Moon Knight vol. 2 better than the first volume? I liked some stuff in vol. 1, but it was pretty scattershot until Moench and Sienkiewicz started their consistent run.
Sienkiewicz started with his experimentation stuff in the latter half of their collaboration, correct?
09 Nov 2007 at 2:09 pm
QuoteHaven’t read it yet, but Annihilation Conquest seems to be eliciting a love or hate response from the various reviews/reactions I’ve seen on different sites. I’m still enjoying it, even if a few of the prologue minis petered out. Lesbian dragons from space, oh my!
And no mention of the excruciatingly dragged out Y the Last Man by anyone?
09 Nov 2007 at 2:47 pm
Quote1.Criminal
2.Fantastic Four
3.Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4.Uncanny X-Men
5.Superman
6.Y:The Last Man
7.Supergirl
8.Mystic Arcana Sister Grimm
09 Nov 2007 at 3:14 pm
QuoteY’know, I thought the incidental writing on this one was pretty good, but…well, maybe you’d know this, Dan: has Ramjet generally been portrayed as such a schemer/would-be-leader type? I don’t know older Transformers comics or the cartoons so well, but just going by his “tech specs”, he always sounded like a dumb brute. Which I actually think might’ve made for a more interesting story. This early in the IDW relaunch, it seemed weird to have him come so surprisingly close to staging a coup. It felt like he was stealing some of Starscream’s thunder.
09 Nov 2007 at 4:17 pm
QuoteI’d be interested to hear what your issue with it was, and where you stood on the previous Annihilation stuff. I was pretty happy with the issue, though I’d maybe heard a little too much hype about the reveals for them to make a big impression on me.
09 Nov 2007 at 4:21 pm
QuotePut me on the list of loving the Annihilation titles. I was already spoiled on the big villain reveal, and I still thoroughly loved the first issue. I really hope the Annihilation line continues indefinitely (maybe drop the “Annihilation” and make it some other cosmic-related title), the space theatre just has so much potential now. That, and this will probably be the only line of comics I’ll be reading from Marvel, because their current editorial office is gonna fucking destroy Spider-Man, and possibly the rest of the universe afterwards
09 Nov 2007 at 5:54 pm
Quote1. The Order - Not a bad issue yet.
2. Criminal - Brubaker at his best.
3. Immortal Iron Fist - No Danny Rand? Still kick-ass.
4. Y The Last Man - Going to miss this series quite a bit.
5. Messiah Complex - Straight-forward old-school x-antics. Just how I like it.
09 Nov 2007 at 6:02 pm
Quote5. Immortal Iron Fist - Love the pulpy story, and Aja’s art.
4. Fantastic Four - McDuffie “gets” the characters, and Pelletier draws them excellently.
3. Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK’s 11 - This series was a lot of fun.
2. Criminal - Probably my favorite Brubaker series ever (after Sleeper), with great art by Phillips.
1. Annihilation Conquest - Pulp sci-fi, action, adventure, and the rebirth of one of my favorite cosmic characters (I don’t care much for his new costume, though).
09 Nov 2007 at 10:33 pm
QuoteDave F: Nope, this is the first time Ramjet’s been given any characterization whatsoever. I can’t even remember a story he appeared in besides his debut in issue #21 of the original series.
10 Nov 2007 at 12:26 am
QuoteHey Dan’s a Modesty Blaise fan! Always knew ya had taste.
10 Nov 2007 at 10:13 am
QuoteHeh, I’ve gotten every volume of these Titan books reprinting the Modesty Blaise newspaper strips so far, and I love ‘em. Just great stuff. I dig the novels too.
10 Nov 2007 at 12:48 pm
Quote1. The Order - Best issue of the series so far… it may have surpassed Thunderbolts as my favorite Marvel series of the moment
2. Annihilation Conquest - Really enjoyed this, I’ll go on record as pro-new Adam Warlock costume (although I’ve never been a huge fan of the character, but it does make sense he’d be here) and I loved the last page reveal
3. Annihilation Conquest: Starlord - Great finale, I’d love to see more minis with these characters and this creative team.
4. Art Of Matt Wagners Grendel - Another amazing art book from Dark Horse, this doubles as a sort of chronology/primer of Grendel as well
5. Fantastic Four - I’m a sucker for alternate future stories, and I like what McDuffie and Pelletier are doing here
6. Criminal - Wow, has Brubaker *ever* written a happy ending? Despite the dour, hopeless nature of it (or maybe because of it), I did still really enjoy this Criminal arc, although on balance I guess the first arc slightly nudges this one in terms of favorites
7. Y The Last Man - A decent issue, but I have to say, going into the home stretch, that Y The Last Man lost me. Basically, ever since the Japan trip and the reveal of what killed all the men, it’s become clear I’m not on the same page as Vaughan
8. Buffy The Vampire Slayer #8 - Faith vs. Buffy. Faith being tempted in a just barely subtextual lesbian way by a slayer gone bad. Kicks to the face. Plummets from high castles. Nice.
9. Immortal Iron Fist #10 - Coming to realize that I like reading this more in larger chunks in trade, but I do still love it
10. Fearless #1 - Intriguing new superhero book from Image… has potential
Oh, and Dan Breretons Nocturnals Vol 1 hardcover would probably have been my #1 pick, had Diamond not screwed up and decided not to send the copies that Nick and I ordered. Lobster Johnson and Hellboy also might have made the list, if I’d had time to read them.
10 Nov 2007 at 1:48 pm
QuoteCorrect. I’m still working my way through Volume 2 after having read Volume 1 fairly recently, and Volume 2 is *considerably* stronger than Volume 1.
It still has its rough spots, notably any of the issues when Moench and Sienkiewicz aren’t the team, but when those two are doing it, it’s surprisingly good modern pulp comics. Anyone who thinks Moon Knight is just “Marvel’s Batman” should read this work, he’s a lot more than that. He’s closer to Marvel’s “Shadow meets Mack Bolan meets The Destroyer” with a touch of the supernatural and even The Spirit thrown in for good measure.
10 Nov 2007 at 1:51 pm
Quoteonly got astonishing x-mena nd robin. like x-men and robin was… eh… just checking out the crossover since its short and i already buy a few of the comics anyway.
got my mail order package and really loved empowered vol. 2 and checkmate. checkmate probably is one of my favorite series. i really like Greg Rucka’s work with DC characters even though it seems to me online a lot don’t. and checkmate just gets better and better for me. also the showcase teen titans. those old stories i find more fun then the current titans. in fact, i actually don’t care for this characters at all grown up but i like them here. got some Neal Adams and Nick Cardy art and i love their work.
10 Nov 2007 at 5:23 pm
Quote1. Astonishing X-Men
2. Immortal Iron Fist
3. Criminal
4. Fantastic Four
5. Uncanny X-Men
Was disappointed with both Hellboy & Annihilation Conquest. They weren’t bad reads by any means but I was expecting more really. Hellboy will probably read better in trade and the final page reveal in Annihilation Conquest will keep me on board for at least another issue though.
11 Nov 2007 at 12:50 pm
QuoteThis was a week with LOTS of quality. All of these books are really, really good. I can go seven deep.
1. Criminal - I Loved Sleeper, and I love this.
2. Iron Fist - Frubaker!
3. Astonishing- People criticize this book, but I think that its been a blast to read, and its beautiful to look at. The trick is to never expect it and reread the last issue.
4. Modok’s 11
5. The Order - Fraction is really great right now. Where did this guy come from? Before a year and a half ago I had never heard of him. Now he’s writing 4 books and incredible.
6. Iron Man Enter the Mandarin : Havent read this yet, but I loved Casey’s last Iron Man mini. He should be writing the main book.
7. Buffy Season 8
11 Nov 2007 at 1:59 pm
QuoteI’ll go with:
1. Immortal Iron Fist
2. Criminal
3. Fantastic Four
4. Uncanny X-Men
5. Annihilation: Conquest
12 Nov 2007 at 7:46 am
QuoteI liked the previous “Annihilation” mini quite a bit, and am enjoying the “Nova” spin-off. But I thought all three “Conquest” minis were weak (outside of the “Starlord” art). And the Adam Warlock reboot, as well as the Ultron reveal, were the final straws for me. Seriously, there seems like there’s no consistency with continuity at Marvel anymore. Bendis does what he wants, regardless of other writers’ works, and vice-versa. Again, I will likely be dropping “Annihilation: Conquest” after the first issue …
12 Nov 2007 at 12:30 pm
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