Top Five Fridays 4/4/08
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’s Top Five Books of the Moment
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Batman/Grendel TP
- X-Men First Class: Mutant Mayhem TP
- Nightwing
- Secret Invasion
Dave Farabee’s Top Five Books of the Moment
- American Splendor Season Two
- X-Men First Class: Mutant Mayhem TP
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- The Walking Dead
- Kick-Ass
Dan Grendell’s Top Five Books of the Moment
- Path of the Assassin V.10
- X-Men First Class: Mutant Mayhem TP
- Tonoharu V.1
- Nightwing
- Abe Sapien: The Drowning
Randy Lander’s Top Five Books of the Moment
- X-Men First Class: Mutant Mayhem TP
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer
- Dead Space
- The Walking Dead
- Nightwing
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only got Nightwing, Twelve and Secret Invasion. Nightwing was the best of those three. i got the last Fourth World Omnibus and the Showcase Booster Gold in the mail so i’m going to be reading those this weekend.
04 Apr 2008 at 3:19 pm
Quote1. Walking Dead - Wow, didn’t think Kirkman would actually do it, especially after the fake out at the beginning. This is one of the few books that can really affect me on a visceral level and churn my guts to pieces. Sets up an interesting new status quo a la Cormac McCarthy’s book, The Road.
2. Casanova - The Beatles reference was classic, “This bird has flown”. Kaito was the star of the issue and Fraction makes even the cliché death fake-out work and seem fresh with Seychelle’s hilarious aside.
3. Scalped - One of the best crime comics on the stands, up there with Criminal. Jason Aaron is a star.
4. Action Comics - Great finale to the storyarc which was probably Johns’ best yet on AC. Also pretty excited for the Johns/Perez Superman and Legion mini spinning out of Final Crisis.
5. Secret Invasion - I was pretty skeptical going in but it was actually a pretty good start to the event with plenty of action. I’m generally a fan of Yu’s artwork and it looks even better here as his sketchier tendencies seem to have been reined in by inker Morales.
Overall a pretty good week. The second issues of Cable and Logan were decent as well. Also, despite Romita Jr’s great artwork Kick-Ass just isn’t doing it for me.
04 Apr 2008 at 3:38 pm
Quote1) American Splendor vol 2 #1- I am kind of embarrassed that as a resident Clevelander and fan of comics that I never have gotten into Harvey Pekar. I loved the movie. I loved the tie-in comics, which became my first comics of his read. I don’t know why. Maybe it is the fact that I LIVE in the rust-belt he calls home that I need to be reminded. Or I love superheroes too much. Who knows. Anyway, I picked this up and found it to be fantastic. Equal parts funny and touching and Pekar just knows how to muse upon topics…and fume. And does it with style. Love it. Cool art, too.
5) On the other hand, my daughter got me hooked on the other Power Pack books. Reading through the FF and Power Pack mini and loving it, too. Good ol’ comics.
2) Buffy- Awesome. Just plain fun stuff. The Dracula and Xander moments were great. The ending was kind of confusing but I think I got what happened. Maybe. Still, great stuff.
3) Logan #2- I am surprised that there is no love shared here for BKV’s Logan mini. This is clearly the best take on Wolvie since Claremont figured out how to do him right. It read like a continuation of his original mini (even if a prequel). Moody and clever with some great quotable lines, especially from the last two pages.
4) Power Pack digest edition- Got it for my daughter and loved it. She reads it like a holy book. I think I got her hooked. Am I a bad daddy?
I am skipping the Skrull stuff. I feel like I am jumping on a crowded bandwagon to do so but Marvel is like 1 and 3 for giant crossover events, not counting the mini ones (like Endangered Species and so on ). I will just poke around and hope to find who the Skrulls are and pray the crossover doesn’t mess up my favorite Marvel books like Iron Fist (if one whiff of Skrull enters that book, my heart will burn and form into something like unto a thing of iron) or Nova.
04 Apr 2008 at 6:06 pm
Quote5) Moon Knight It appears I’m in the minority, but I like this book. Sure, there’s nobody to “root for”, but it remains a compelling portrait of the kind of lunatic you know would inhabit a world of costumed vigilantes and (except for Huston’s second arc) generally well done. Until there’s a Profiler series, make mine Moonie.
4) Buffy Continuing on with the Whedonverse goodness, Drac is the star of the show. This is doing a better job of making Buff a distant leader that you can respect than season 7 did. Maybe not terribly accessible to non-aficionados; I fully admit that my love of this shared universe probably colors this pick and…
3) Angel Much like the later seasons of the shows, I’m digging the adventures of the vampire(s) with a soul and company a little more than its sister series. This was a neat little anthology of tales showing how the gang got to the current status quo, each well illustrated by a different artist. And speaking of artists, the backmatter informs us that Urru has been “reassigned” and as he was everyone’s beef about the series thus far (especially the first couple of issues), that is very good news.
2) The Walking Dead That was ****ed up, yo.
1) Casanova I’m running out of ways to praise this book, so I’ll stick with one I used elsewhere - Just a heartbreakingly lovely issue. Fraction is my favorite writer right now: his ability to combine the big, mad ideas with a relatable, human core is amazing.
I’ll also say that, given some distance from it, I’m less and less impressed by Secret Invasion. It wasn’t bad, and I still like the art, but I’m not terribly interested in what happens next. That’s not a good sign for a project of its type.
04 Apr 2008 at 7:48 pm
Quote52 Volumes 1 and 2 so far. More often I buy trades at the time and read them a lot further on down the track. I’m halfway through Number 2 and all the storylines are becoming more involved. The writing is remarkable for a superhero comic.
So I’ll leave Countdown, Final Crisis and Secret Invasion where they are on the stands in preference of reading 52 for the first time : )
04 Apr 2008 at 11:55 pm
Quote1. Ganges
2. Southland Tales
3. Anime Porn
05 Apr 2008 at 1:32 am
QuoteI only got one book this week: Three Shadows by Cyril Pedrosa, an OGN on First Second.
It’s about two parents in a rural, vaguely medieval town who panic when three shadows (representing death) show up for their young son. The mom quickly learns to accept the inevitability of death and tries to appreciate the last days with their son. The father refuses to accept it and takes the son on this long journey to escape death.
Pedrosa has worked on Disney movies (Hercules and Notre Dame — not my favorites), but this book has astonishing art. Magical, swirling linework, expert shading, and storytelling of the highest degree. From a visual standpoint it draws you in like few books do.
Anyway I went in expecting nothing and was completely blown away by how moving and full of surprises this book is. In fact, despite being April this may end up my favorite GN of the year, and that’s knowing there are new Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Paul Pope books coming up.
Sorry for the glowing post, but I really cannot recommend this book enough.
05 Apr 2008 at 10:43 am
Quote1. Secret Invasion (C’mon, that picture of “zapped” Reed Richards? Cool!)
2. Casanova
3. Let’s Go to Utah (check it out on myspace)
4. Young Avengers Presents
5. The Boys
I’ve officially checked out on “Walking Dead.” The book is so unrelentingly bleak it leaves me depressed, much like Brubaker’s “Daredevil.” And I’ve read a couple of upcoming “Walking Dead” issues early, thanks to an insider friend. If you thought it was bleak before … yeesh!
Fil: I’m with ya on “Logan.” And on “Buffy.” The art in that book often has me confused (not a Jeanty fan at all). At least apparently they’re replacing the terrible artist on IDW’s Angel book, though. Yay!
05 Apr 2008 at 11:24 am
QuoteOh, and thanks for the recommend on “Three Shadows,” Bob. That sounds great. Hopefully my LCS ordered that book.
05 Apr 2008 at 11:24 am
QuoteSure, Jeff. I forgot to mention that there’s a preview on First Second’s website. The opening makes the book seem a bit lightweight and corny, but you can get a sense for the artistic style and storytelling here.
http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/threeShadows.html
05 Apr 2008 at 11:43 am
QuoteAgain, here’s hoping my LCS ordered the book … and still has it in stock.
06 Apr 2008 at 10:57 am
QuoteAnd I’ve liked a couple of First Second’s other books quite a bit, so I’ll definitely check that link … and the book … out. Thanks again.
06 Apr 2008 at 10:58 am
QuoteThis week I’ll go with:
1. The Twelve - are people not enjoying this book? I think it’s great.
2. Kick-Ass - Millar back on form.
3. Amazing Spider-Man - primarily for the art, but Wells turns in a pretty decent script.
4. Action - best mainstream Superman story for a while.
5. Logan - slightly cliched but very well written.
07 Apr 2008 at 3:02 am
QuoteI still can’t get over ‘the Walking Dead’. I don’t think I’ve ever winced that many times while reading a comic book.
09 Apr 2008 at 1:59 pm
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