Cover art by Jamie McKelvie
Today is new comic book day! But with so many books coming out each week, what's a comic book fan to do? Your local Examiner is here to help, with a list of the top 5 must have (or least give a look) comics hitting stands this week. What are you reading?
1. Phonogram 2: The Singles Club #4 (of 7): The sequel to Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's original "music equals magic" miniseries, Phonogram, is a string of single issue stories, and they've all been pretty solid so far, even if they're sometimes so saturated with indie music references that the uninitiated may find it somewhat inaccessible. Indulge your pretentious inner hipster and pick up this critically acclaimed indie series.
Cover art by George Pérez
2. Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #5 (of 5): Several months after this conclusions of Final Crisis, this tie-in series finally reaches its end. Legion of Three Worlds is one of the few - possibly the only - big event tie-in books to be both as epic as the main series and nearly as good. Geoff Johns turned this series into a mini-Crisis unto itself, tying in threads from almost all of his previous DC Universe work, including Infinite Crisis, Green Lantern, and Teen Titans, and leading into his future work on Adventure Comics. Having George Pérez, the definitive Crisis artist, along for the ride makes this a finale that fans should be looking forward to.
Cover art by Doug Mahnke
3. Green Lantern #44: Geoff Johns claims a second spot on this week's shopping list with Green Lantern #44, the first Green Lantern issue to tie into Blackest Night. Picking up threads from Blackest Night #1, this issue sees Hal Jordan and Barry Allen investigating Batman's body-snatching and running into the recently risen Martian Manhunter while Sinestro prepares to battle Mongul for control of the Sinestro Corps.
Cover art by Mico Suayan
4. Captain Britain and MI:13 #15: This week, fans bid a fond farewell to one of the most vastly underappreciated superhero comics ever: Captain Britain and MI:13. Brilliant characterizations and exciting plot lines (at one point, Count Dracula meets with Doctor Doom just before firing vampires at the United Kingdom out of cannons on the moon) made this title a critical success, but the lack of star power made it a financial failure for Marvel. Let this be a lesson: if you only buy books with Wolverine, Deadpool, or Batman in them, great books like this get cancelled. The only saving grace is that Paul Cornell was at least aware of the books cancellation ahead of time, so fans should get a nice finish to this series and not just an abrupt fade to black.
Cover art by Scott Wegener
5. Atomic Robo: Shadow From Beyond Time #3 (of 5): Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener's Atomic Robo series has been, on several occasions, referred to as a more comedic, more sci-fi spin on Hellboy, and that description isn't too far off. WIth its third miniseries, Robo encroaches even further on Hellboy's territory by working some Lovecraft into the mix. Don't misunderstand this as saying that Atomic Robo is too derivative, or some kind of knockoff; far from it. Atomic Robo is, in fact, comedic, pulpy, action-adventure at its absolute best.
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