COMIC PICK OF THE WEEK! 12/28

Word up! comic kids, it's time for another COMIC PICK OF THE WEEK, my weekly rundown of the comics I brought home from the shop the week prior, and pick the best of the bunch, the pick of the litter, the cream of the crop. Then I invite everyone to join in and post their favorites for the week in the comments!

WHAT IF: X-MEN DEADLY GENESIS #1 - Last week's worst book was Wonder Man #1, where I had to stop reading a couple pages in, something I never find myself doing, but here I almost did again... Instead I skipped a few panels and picked it back up. I really liked Brubaker's idea of the lost X-Men team, and since this was a "what if they didn't die" story, I thought I'd enjoy it, but what we get here is an alternate history of Vulcan (the evil Summers brother currently on a cosmic tear in Uncanny) told through ham fisted TV special flashbacks. It's bad, really bad.
HEROES FOR HIRE #5 - keeps walking the tight rope of cancellation. Here again, I'm entertained just enough to give it another issue...
CYBER FORCE X-MEN #1 - I've never liked an issue of Cyber Force, and I'm not a big Marz fan, but it's X-Men and Pat Lee art. I know, I know, Pat Lee's a terrible person, building his career on the backs of other artists or what not, but I try to separate art from artist... This was a pretty cool book. 2 members from each team, Wolverine and Psylocke (one of my faves) along with their clones from Cyber Team Sucky Force. A decent crossover with nice art (love the Lee wrap-around cover).
X-MEN #194 - Another week chock full'o X-books, go figure (and I don't even get the majority of them)... This is the new arc from Carey, and it feels just like the last arc, but this time there's awesome, fantastic, really cool Humberto Ramos artwork. Emmmmm, Ramos...
AVENGERS NEXT #4 - I'm really digging this throwback future universe story, and the multitude of future Avengers. It's a real Avengers book (not that New Avengers crap-ola)...
IRON FIST #2 - Another book I thought of canceling after number 1, that turned me 180 with number 2. Great issue. It's still lacking a spark to keep me around sans great storytelling though...
ROKKIN #6 - The strong climax of this mini is complete. A solid finish, and again, love the Bradshaw art. The only thing this issue needed was more pages, to flesh out the scope of the events, it was a bit crammed...
OKKO #1 - Alright, this was a tough pick this week, there were 2 books I really wanted to pick, this being one of them. Okko is the latest from Archaia Studios, a publisher in the midst of a perfect storm... First they caught fire with Mouse Guard, then they continued to release stellar acquisitions from Europe, Okko being the latest. It's about time someone got the imported graphic album right, there are simply too many unbelievable books going untranslated/imported to deny. Archaia though, opts to release them as regular comics versus the odd format and terrible price point of the original graphic albums, making it much easier for traditional US buyers to sample! Kudos!
Okko by the way, is incredible. Hubs art, and of course story, are of the highest order. I can't recommend this enough!

PICK OF THE WEEK: NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF HATE #11
I really should have given Okko the top spot, it's a book deserving of more attention, but I simply could not deny one of the funniest issues of comics in some time!

Ellis is accused of being on cruise control often these days, but Ellis on auto-pilot is still mad genius. Here he's amping up the series to 10 or 11 as we come towards the final 12th issue, and how does he do that? Besides giving us the first arc longer than two issues, or pointing our rogue HATE agents at their pursuer Dirk Anger? Well, by giving us a sequence of six consecutive, count them 6, double pages splashes!!!
Rokkin number 6, the final issue I just mentioned not being given enough space... this is the opposite, the glorious way to do things. Fuck 22 page format, serve the story, and when your story is big-dumb-crazy superheroes, you give us 3 issues of the fullest order. 12 straight pages of Nextwave facing off against every big, dumb, crazy idea you can throw out, and all skillfully drawn by the talented Mr. Immonen!!!

Ahhh, them's good comics!Yes indeed, those are Modok Elvi... in the words of those Guinness brothers commercials, "Brilliant!"

How about you, what's your pick this week???