@ The Mothership: Secret Avengers #8, Batman Incorporated #2 and Best of 2010
Newsarama's Best Shots has an interesting format for their BEST OF column. We were invited to submit our top three books (Bronze, Silver and Gold) as well as a "What to Watch in 2011." My three medal winners for Newsarama were:
- Bronze: Tumor (full review here)
- Silver: Sixth Gun (reviews here and here)
- Gold: X'ed Out
- What to Watch: http://floppytown.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/thor-the-mighty-avenger-5/ (although I guess that should be "who to watch in 2011.") (written a bit about his art here, here, here and here.)
I'm still working on a bit more expansive Best Of list for that should hopefully be up in the next week or so.
In addition to the best of, here are two reviews that just went live at Newsarama. Both reviews can be found here.
Batman Incorporated #2
The usually self-contemplative Morrison here gives way to the action-packed Morrison. Channeling his inner Michael Bay, Morrison reminds us of that, like in his JLA run, he can still write a blockbuster action sequence. Batman Incorporated #2 is one long sequence but it also shows us how this new, improved Bruce Wayne operates. Sure, like always, he’s fighting the bad guys and imprisoning them where they can hopefully do no harm, but it is Batman's allies that make this a bit different. In Catwoman, we’ve got the on again/off again relationship and the tension of Bruce Wayne being infatuated with a thief, but you’ve got to wonder what do they get out of their strange relationship? Is it the thrill of getting to walk on the other side of the street, to embrace their dark side without ever giving totally into it? And what does it say that Morrison begins this new series pairing Batman up with Catwoman, as opposed to Tim Drake, Damien or Dick Grayson?
Secret Avengers #8
With a lot of characters running around though, it gets tough to know who’s who or why they’re in the story. The team ends up being supporting characters to Captain America and there’s only so much room for supporting characters. What are War Machine, Valkyrie or Black Widow doing while Steve Rogers and Shang-Chi are running around? They make brief, token appearances, reminding us that they’re hanging around but that they won’t be the focus of this story. While they’re part of the team, they’re also part of Steve Rogers’ army, soldiers whose only purpose, it seems, is to ask “how high?” when Roger’s orders them to jump.