4. Favorite Comics of Early January 2012

OK, so technically I missed the weekly thing by two days. In my defense, time measurement is arbitrary, and if we were using the Mayan measurement method, we'd all be facing apocalypse, so two days late is really pretty minor when you think about it.

At any rate, I figured a quick post about the comics I've been really enjoying for the first couple weeks of January would cover the bases, and as it turns out, there have been some really great comics in the first couple weeks of January. These aren't reviews, just quick thoughts.

Week One:
Action Comics #5 (The lead story was pretty weak, an unfortunate trend in Action Comics ever since #3, but the back-up feature, a short tale of Martha and Jonathan Kent, did it's job quite well)

Animal Man #5 (Creepy horror comics at its best)

Fatale #1 (Brubaker & Phillips never disappoint, and this mixture of crime and Cthulhu is no exception)

Huntress #4 (I've been really enjoying this straightforward superhero story by Paul Levitz, and the artwork by Marcus To is jaw-droppingly beautiful)

Punisher #7 (Rucka's Punisher hasn't been my cup of tea, as I don't really dig the "Punisher as bogeyman" take, but it was great to see him working with Lark again, and Lark's artwork on this one is terrific)

Swamp Thing #5 (Has a great sense of "the heroes are totally screwed" going on, a nice complement to the Animal Man series)

Villains For Hire #2 (Abnett & Lanning continue to show everyone else how to do street-level superheroics... or in this case, super-villains)

Wolverine And X-men Alpha And Omega #1 (I remain uncertain about the wisdom of a spinoff of such a young series, but this feels like a standalone story, with nice art by Mark Brooks and good writing from Brian Wood, and I'm a sucker for alternate future stories, even if this one is purely psychic/imaginary)

Bprd Hell On Earth Tp Vol 02 Gods And Monsters (I'd fallen a bit behind on BPRD, but caught up on the Hell on Earth stuff, and they are definitely still doing some of the best horror/superhero stuff in comics. Gods does some great stuff with Abe and the increasingly unlikable Devon, and Monsters is a great intro for Tyler Crook's art and a nice showcase for Liz)


Week Two:
Activity #2 (Nathan Edmonson's espionage/action book is a great follow-up to Who is Jake Ellis?, and the artwork by Mitch Gerads is stunning. I do wish I could tell the characters apart a little better, but I'm fairly certain that, like Ellis, this will read better in trade)

Amazing Spider-man #677 (One of the best comics I've read in the last several months, as Mark Waid delivers some of the best, funniest dialogue Spider-Man has had in years, tells a great story teaming Daredevil and Spidey looking for the Black Cat, and basically delivers everything he's been delivering on Daredevil but for Spider-Man. Gorgeous art by Emma Rios, too)

Batman And Robin #5 (My favorite of the four Batman books of the New 52, mostly due to the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Damian, and the artwork of Patrick Gleason. Still can't touch the Snyder/Jock/Francavilla Detective run we had to give up, though)

Batwoman #5 (Beautiful to look at, I love the use of Chase and the DEO... but the storytelling is sometimes a little hard to follow, a little too ethereal, and I kind of wish they'd ground it a bit more)

Demon Knights #5 (I'd been slipping on this a bit in the last couple issues, but this issue has some key character revelations and a betrayal that brought me back - still probably an easier read in trades)

Frankenstein Agent Of Shade #5 (Fun little one-off pitting Frankenstein against OMAC. Not up to the standards of the first story arc, but solid enough)

Green Lantern #5 (Surprised how much I'm enjoying this, given that it's got some of Johns's storytelling tropes I don't enjoy, like casual murder and mutilation from the protagonists, but Sinestro and Hal interacting is, it turns out, a lot of fun, and a conspiracy by the Guardians something I'm surprised to actually care about)

Lobster Johnson The Burning Hand #1 (I didn't think I was a huge Lobster Johnson fan, but art by Who Is Jake Ellis's Tonci Zonjic and a fun pulpy tale made this one of my favorite reads of the week)

Resurrection Man #5 (A little bit of origin, a little bit of mystery as to where Mitch Shelley is now, and I'm still very much enjoying this book)

Severed #6 (One of the best horror comics I've ever read. I have literally no idea what's going to happen from issue to issue)

Shade #4 (Great art by Darwyn Cooke, but I feel like the surprise twist villain doesn't make a bit of sense if you examine the story for even one second, which drains a lot of the appreciation from me)

Star Wars Agent O/t Empire Iron Eclipse #2 (Stronger second issue, with a very James Bond feel)

Strange Talent Of Luther Strode #4 (Some big secrets revealed, the stakes get a little higher, and one of my favorite new books of 2011 comes into 2012 looking pretty strong)

Suicide Squad #5 (I've been enjoying this, but with this issue, the book went from casual pleasure to "book I will probably buy in trade" - it's very different from my Squad, the '80s book that is one of my absolute favorites, but it's a good take, and it's clear that the writer gets the concept and isn't afraid to kill off characters in much the same way Ostrander did)

Wolverine And X-men #4 (Another book that crossed the "I'll probably wind up buying the trade" threshold this week, due in part to the change in artist, which I hope is permanent, in part to the young class of characters Aaron has put together, and in part to the fun, quirky tone of the book)

Unwritten Tp Vol 05 On To Genesis (Some big, big revelations in this. I forget how much I love this book until a trade comes out, but every time I read it, I'm reminded that it's one of my favorite Vertigo books, with a lot of ambition and a lot of smarts)