Another month has passed us by, check out what Erik McAlister's Top Five for April.
5 - Archer & Armstrong #19
This is one of those go-to books when you need a guarantee of a good read. Fred Van Lente has done a terrific job of taking this re-boot to a place that it never had the mileage to go in the nineties. This crossover with Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps might be the best crossover of the year. The best thing about it is that it doesn’t require you to make any commitments to either book. You can just read this story and love it for what it is. I have read both of these series from issue #1, but Valiant does a good job of making it so that you don’t necessarily need to. That’s what I’ve always hated about crossovers. The feel of obligation. If I start feeling obligated, I leave. Wow, sounds like I have some major commitment issues.
4 - Magneto #2
I always felt like the X-Men universe could have existed completely independent of the rest of the Marvel universe. It created its own momentum. And it stayed moving. The possibility of reading a solo book from someone that appeared in the X-Men comics was always higher than with anything else. Magneto has always been bigger than those books. He’s evolved a lot from the time when his plans were getting foiled by Xavier’s X-Men. It’s about freaking time that we get to see the man enact some gritty vengeance on the human race. That sound a little self-destructive to anyone else. The humans in those books always seemed like a bunch of scumbags anyway. I’m pretty excited about going on this journey with Mags.
3 - Starlight #2
My connection to this story shouldn’t be possible. Why can I relate to this character? I don’t really know, but I’m sure that I’m going to be sticking around for the long haul with this one. I love everything about it. The dialogue, the art, the feeling that I get when I’m reading it. I feel like this is a series for the comic book reading veteran. It almost feels like the book was written for the fans. Maybe I just like to think that. I don’t have any idea how long a series like this will be around, but I am completely invested in it at this point, and I can’t wait to see where this story ends up. What other reason is there to read a comic book series than to reach the end? That’s irony for you.
2 - Caliban #1
It’s really nice to see Garth Ennis take on a story in the vein of science fiction fantasy. It’s always been one of my favorite genres. Second only to the more simplified science fiction genre. People get those mixed up a lot.
Initially, I recognized several things in this story, so I guess that you could say that it seemed familiar, but sometimes familiarity is a good thing. It means that the writer is using things that work. That’s always nice. By the looks of it, Caliban is going to take us on a very interesting trip through space, but have that fascinating Garth Ennis feel to it. I don’t know if the comic book reading world is ready for this. Looks like we don’t really have a choice.
1 - The Green Hornet #11
This book takes a genre like pulp and completely changes your perception of it. I’ve never read anything like this, and this particular issue is the best so far. Early on, I tried to figure out what I could expect from the series, and I’m happy to say that I was dead wrong. This isn’t a superhero story as much as it is a dismantling of crime as an independent entity. I like that. It’s original without the whole shock factor. That’s hard to come by.