This was one of the best comic book weeks of the month. Marvel, DC Comics, and more all had comics that were flat-out fantastic. It was difficult not adding Ed Brisson’s The Displaced, Greg Weisman’s Spectacular Spider-Men, or Joshua Williamson’s Superman to this list. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough room on the list, but they were all still awesome.
That being said, here are the best new comic books of the week starting with the best.
Comic book of the week!
I had no expectations going into this series. Jean Grey is one of the most powerful characters in any genre and that means it can be difficult to show her strength interestingly. Writer Stephanie Phillips wasn’t just up for the challenge, she made a believer out of this writer.
First, the series kicks off with Jean Grey using the Phoenix Force to absorb the power of a dying sun. Phillips then followed this up with her stabilizing a black hole. It makes you wonder how she can top that. How about Jean’s first big villain being the dark god who beat Thor, Perrikus? Yeah, that’ll do it.
Writer Gerry Duggan gave fans a memorable Invincible Iron Man series. The one thing he had to do was stick the landing in the final issue. He did that by concluding the twenty-issue run with a bittersweet ending for Tony Stark.
On the happy side, Tony Stark became a billionaire again and used his money to start funding the West Coast Avengers with his best friend, James Rhodes. However, it came as a parting gift from Emma Frost.
Emma said that they couldn’t be together, but left him with enough money to rebuild his life. The only thing she asked was for him to build a shrine for the fallen at the X-Men’s Treehouse base in New York. Of course, Tony agreed and made good on his promise.
The first issue of Destro laid the groundwork for the series. You learned who Destro is and who his rivals are. The second issue got into things in a big way with a violent battle between Destro and the twins, Tomax and Xamot. Even their parley was heated and ended with them continuing their war. Too bad they don’t realize they’re being pitted against each other. When they find out, the people behind it will have created a team-up that could destroy the world.
This was a good beginning to what will be an exciting series. Namor is still in prison, but we learn that he could have escaped anytime he wanted. He chose to be in shackles to atone for his crimes. Not against the surface world. He felt horrible that he hurt the people of Atlantis.
As the issue continues, Jason Aaron flashes back to a story about Namor’s past. Namor was always the self-assured, somewhat arrogant, and ruthless prince. This is where you see that he had to be. Hopefully, Jason Aaron will tell more stories like this as Namor attempts to stop World War Sea. It gives insight into why Namor is the way he is.
This was not what I was expecting from the second Dark Knights of Steel story. Tom Taylor moves away from Superman and Batman and focuses on Deathstroke in issue one. The black and white artwork helped convey that things were dire and it also helped with the colorful reveal at the end.
This issue explains why the book is titled X-Men and reveals the villain’s identity. As great as that was, my favorite part was the teases of new versions of classic X-Men and the Runaways characters. It was the perfect way to end what’s likely the penultimate issue of Peach Momoko’s first volume of Ultimate X-Men.
What were your favorite new comic books of the week? Is there anything your looking forward to? Let us know on the Bam Smack Pow Instagram and Twitter.