Weekly Comics - February 4, 2009

Agents of Atlas #1 (Strong opener, and the use of Norman Osborn means that maybe more folks will pick it up who missed the original, great miniseries. Fun backup with Logan & Agents of Atlas in the '50s, too)

Bad Dog #1 (Shockingly fun and delightfully rude, Joe Kelly turns in a book that has his usual quirkiness, combined with a style more like that of Garth Ennis and a more straightforward storytelling style than Kelly's creator-owned stuff tends to have. And, in keeping with the theme of the week, this is another book with fantastic artwork. Diego Greco's digitally inked and colored artwork and unique character designs really help give the book its flavor.)

Buffy #20-22 (Picked these up on a whim, and they're not bad. The Harmony story feels like a weird fit for the universe we've seen, but issue #20's animated series flashbacky type thing was fun and #22's Japanese adventure (and interesting villain) was entertaining as well)

Dark Avengers #1 (I have to admit, I didn't hate this. Bendis's Avengers have always seemed kinda douchey and villainy to me, so having the much-hated Sentry and Ares side with the black hats, not to mention the Thunderbolts turn the team has taken of making villains in heroes' clothing, all seems to fit, and the artwork is gorgeous.)

The Mighty #1 (Honestly? I'm kind of tired of "realistic" superheroes at this point. But Tomasi, Snejbjerg and Champagne earned a look with Light Brigade, and they serve up a pretty intriguing first issue with great characters and great art)

Scott Pilgrim 5 (Spectacularly good, as always. Maybe not quite as much as volume 4, which was my favorite of the series thus far, but still an exceptional read. Now the long wait for the final volume begins.)

Secret Warriors #1 (Didn't hate this either, but it's a terrible first issue in terms of accomplishing what a first issue should. Doesn't establish who the characters are at all, drops a huge, nonsensical retcon and seems to think it's doing something different in establishing: A) SHIELD is corrupt and B) Now it's Nick Fury against SHIELD. We've seen it before. At least three times. He always comes back, SHIELD always comes back, and I'd much rather this was just a Nick Fury, Commander of SHIELD comic, knowing that. I also don't give a crap about the ill-defined and barely explained kid team Fury's running. But when Fury's doing his thing, the book is good, and the artwork by Stefano Caselli is terrific.)

War of Kings: Darkhawk #1 (Nice use of the "Loners" characters from Vaughan's Runaways, and while I'm sad to see the Darkhawk at Project Pegasus status quo disappear so fast, giving him a little Annihilation: Nova style upgrade probably isn't a bad idea. Also, really nice artwork from newcomers Harvey Tolibao and Bong Dazo, Marvel is really coming up with great new art talents lately. Reprinting the fairly bad Darkhawk #1 and charging an extra buck for the issue is kinda cheesy, though.)

X-Men: First Class #1 (Kind of meh, as an intro issue goes, even though I like Parker and Cruz together. But the villain reveal, and the tie-ins back to previous First Class stories, has me interested, and I did like the talk about what the kids were going to do when they graduated.)