The Trophy Room: Green Arrow, Hellboy, and Red Team

Hello, folks. Jacob Hall is a friend and a writer for Screencrush.com and Movies.com, and a lover of storytelling in all of its forms. With The Trophy Room, he'll give weekly awards to the comics that he thinks stand out. Take it away, Jacob...

The Third Time's the Charm Award: Green Arrow #17

Since the New 52 relaunch, Green Arrow has been a troubled (i.e., terrible) series. The team of Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino is the third creative team attached to the book and it's probably the best…mainly because it's the first time I've read an issue of Green Arrow and found it remotely competent. Lemire's storytelling is solid, but it's Sorrentino's gritty and cinematic art that makes the book work, lending the action a genuine sense of danger. This is good stuff -- it's not the best comic starring an archer on the market (Hawkeye!), but I'm up for issue #18.

Best Use of Canada-Related Humor: Dial H #9

Unadorned cover art for Dial H #9, art by Brian Bolland. DC Comics.

Dial H is a weird, confusing and often wonderful series and it's probably the only comic on the stands that can get away with a subplot about the Canadian government desperately trying and failing to enter the superhero arms race (after all, America has Superman). Yep, you've got me, China Mieville: I'm not above laughing at "Canadians are polite!" jokes.

Special Prize For Being Juuust Good Enough For Me to Buy the Second Issue: The Fearless Defenders #1

While DC attracts daily controversy for its weak and one-dimensional female characters, Marvel is building entire books around ladies. A few months ago, Sif took over Journey Into Mystery and the main X-Men book will soon feature an entirely female line-up, but right now, we have The Fearless Defenders, a book that's charming, funny and as light as feather. I'm not sure if there's any substance at the core of this series, but as a showcase for tough ladies kicking ass, it's solid entertainment. 

Most Accessible Batman Comic of the Week: Detective Comics #16

Scott Snyder's main Batman series may be the one that everyone talks about (and that's because it's pretty terrific), but John Layman's Detective Comics has been a thing of beauty, effortlessly using one or two-shot arcs to build a larger story (a tactic Layman has used to great effect over in Chew). While Snyder is running an effective marathon, Layman is sprinting fifty yards every month, quietly delivering the spiritual successor to Batman: The Animated Series. It's that good.

"Holy Shit!" Moment of the Week: New Avengers #3

I'm not going to spoil anything, but I will scream "THEY WENT THERE!" over and over again. This is the kind of thing that's going to have serious repercussions across the entire Marvel universe in the coming year and I can't wait to see the fallout.

The Ed Brubaker Award For Filling Ed Brubaker's Shoes: Winter Soldier #15

Hey! It turns out that Winter Soldier post-Brubaker may be fine! Jason Latour and Nic Klein's take on Bucky Barnes is a little funkier than their predecessor's, but they've nailed the series' fickle combination of noir and superhero silliness. Also: serious bonus points for proper use of Nick Fury Original Recipe.

Special Prize For "Thank God 'Rotworld' is Finally Over": Swamp Thing #16 and Animal Man #16

How did the crossover between Jeff Lemire's Animal Man and Scott Snyder's Swamp Thing go so horribly wrong? Who thought it was a good idea to separate two of the best characters in the DC universe from their vital supporting casts and fling them into a gimmicky future adventure where none of their actions mattered because of the obvious reset button waiting at the end of line? Why did both series devolve into a game of "Which Zombified Superhero Will We See Today"? 'Rotworld' is a pretty serious blemish on two books that have otherwise been highlights in the DC. Thank god it's over.

Runner-Up Comic of the Week: Hellboy in Hell #3

Variant cover for Red Team #1, art by Howard Chaykin. Garth Ennis/Dynamite.

As a recent convert to the Mike Mignola's Hellboy universe, great swaths of Hellboy in Hell have left me a little confused and issue three is more of the same. However, I'd be lying if I said this gorgeous and creepy series wasn't an absolute blast to read. Anything I don't understand isn't a deterrent, but rather a kick in the pants to get caught up on the back issues of this amazing character.

Comic of the Week: Red Team #1

It's amazing how good restraint looks on Garth Ennis. Red Team is still clearly his voice in that it's a dark, masculine story about finding your personal definition of doing the right thing (in this case, whether or not it's okay for a team of police officers to murder a criminal they can never catch through legal means), but Red Team is quiet, thoughtful, mature and about as far from the ridiculous excess of The Boys as you can possibly imagine. Stripped of his infantile crutches, Ennis' best qualities as a storyteller, namely his ability to sell complicated relationships and the weight he gives his pay-offs, are all that remain. I have a very, very good feeling about the future of this series.

The Trophy Room: Wonder Woman, Bedlam, and Brubaker

Hello, folks. I've asked Jacob Hall to come up with a regular feature, and this is it - The Trophy Room! Jacob is a writer for Screencrush.com and Movies.com, and a lover of storytelling in all of its forms. With The Trophy Room, he'll give weekly awards to the comics that he thinks stand out. Take it away, Jacob...

Comic That I Wish I Liked More: Young Avengers #1

There is so much to love about Young Avengers that I feel a little guilty for not falling head over heels in love with it. Kieron Gillen and James McKelvie have created a book that's bursting with personality and character, but strangely short on plot or momentum. As someone unfamiliar with the history of the Young Avengers and Kid Loki (which I'm rectifying right now), I found myself completely lost regarding the status quo of these guys and girls. A #1 issue, especially one this breezy and, charming, shouldn't be so uninviting to newcomers. But hey, at least I was lost with a bunch of characters who instantly liked. That's a start.

Special Prize For Regained Comedic Footing Following a Heartbreaking Story Twist: Chew #31

The events of Chew #30 were so dark and mean and drastic and horrifying and game-changing that I was wondering if the book could ever go back to the way it was. The answer is yes and no. Tony Chu's life has been forever altered and he has a new mission in life (and possibly a new disposition), but after the grieving is done, the series immediately and without hesitation becomes the goofy and imaginative romp its always been. Chew's greatest asset has always been its ability to effortlessly leap between genres and tones and #31 brought both the tears and giggles in equal measure. There's no reason for Chew to ever work, but damn it, here we are. Whatta' series.

The "Going Out in Style" Award: Winter Soldier #14

Cover to Winter Soldier #14, art by Daniel Acuna. Marvel Comics.

And thus ends Ed Brubaker's stint with Marvel. While his final issue of Captain America definitively closed the book on his version of the character, he concludes his Winter Soldier run with a big question mark, putting Bucky Barnes in a situation that is best described as "shitty and no good and horrible." Although a new creative team will attempt to throw him an emotional lifeline with the next issue, this tragic conclusion is straight-up Brubaker: noir-tinged superhero espionage that begs to be read with a tumbler of your finest scotch. I'm going to miss his distinctive voice in the Marvel Universe.

Best Example of Being a Bad Comic Book: Uncanny X-Force #1

Here's the dirty secret about Marvel Now: so many of the new books are good that I'm having a hard time keeping my pull list at a manageable level. So I'm almost relieved that Uncanny X-Force #1 is one of the worst books in the Marvel Now line-up and that I'll never have to buy another issue. In addition to being impenetrable, obnoxious, crass and full of '90s "kewlness," the issue doesn't even bother to tell a complete story or properly introduce its cast. This is the kind of comic that reminds me why I spent years actively avoiding comics.

Best Comic to Use When Judging Other People's Opinions on Art: FF #3

Good God, Mike Allred. You are the best penciller working in comics today. Never change. Your critics are people I judge immediately and harshly. Anyway, FF is proving itself to be a solid series on its own, but Allred's art lends the book an absurd amount of personality.

Default Best DC Book of the Week Because It Was the Only DC Book I Read This Week: Wonder Woman #16

Wonder Woman is still a really good comic book, but the fact that it was the only thing published by DC that I read this week is telling about the company's entire line-up. They need to do something drastic to get me back…and a Vibe comic isn't the trick.

The "Why Do I Like This?" Award: Deadpool #4

As a general rule, I don't read Deadpool comics. But I think Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan's writing is hilarious. I think Tony Moore's art is gorgeous. I love the fact that this book essentially co-stars Ben Franklin's ghost at this point. So, somehow, I'm still reading Deadpool. Keep it up, guys.

Runner-Up Comic of the Week:  Bedlam #3

There's no getting around it: Bedlam is an upsetting series, a horror comic that takes a familiar superhero/supervillain dynamic and turns it into a genuine nightmare (although the series' main inspiration is already getting a terrifying treatment of its own over in Scott Snyder's Batman). The latest issue doesn't necessarily propel the story forward - this is a dense book, but it's also deliberate - but it continues to turn the screws on our hero, a medicated and reformed supervillain and mass murderer, in fascinating ways. If you can deal with Bedlam's frequent cruelty (the first three pages of this issue feel like they're daring you to keep reading), you'll find a series with an infinite amount of promise. And of course #3 ends with a major cliffhanger. Of course.

Cover to Mind MGMT #7, art by Matt Kindt. Matt Kindt/Dark Horse Comics.

Comic of the Week: Mind MGMT #7

It's rare that I spend $3.99 on an individual comic and feel that I've truly gotten my money's worth. With Dark Horse's Mind MGMT, I feel no shudders of guilt and feel no need to mutter about costs to the person ringing up my purchase -- writer/artist Matt Kindt crams so much content into every individual issue that I feel like I'm reading more than one in a single sitting. Take this week's issue (the first after a two month hiatus), which tells not one story, but four of them, with several running simultaneously. After a twenty-panel recap of the past six issues on the inside cover, the series launches back into its strange sci-fi conspiracy tale, all drawn in Kindt's loose and expressive art. As the main story trucks on, an expository flashback story is told in the bottom margins of each page. A mysterious commentary deepens the mystery in the left margins. Images and notes overlap the art, creating the impression that you're not holding a comic, but some kind of hastily assembled conspiracy nut's document. This is a remarkable issue of a remarkable series.

The Trophy Room: Frankenstein, Captain Marvel, and Talking Cats

Hello, folks. I've asked Jacob Hall to come up with a regular feature, and this is it, in its inaugural form - The Trophy Room. Jacob is a writer for Screencrush.com and Movies.com, and a lover of storytelling in all of its forms. With The Trophy Room, he'll give weekly awards to the comics that he thinks stand out.

Welcome to the Trophy Room, where I'll recap my week in comics through arbitrary awards. Everyone's a winner! Unless you're a loser. And then you're probably not a winner. Sorry.

Hickman-iest Comic of the Week: New Avengers #2

The second issue of New Avengers has everything you'd expect from a comic penned by Jonathan Hickman: a few dramatically blank (wasted) pages, lots and lots of dialogue that's bound to pay off three times over in twenty issues and a villainous scheme so complex that it literally requires Mr. Fantastic to pull a Doc Brown and draw a diagram to explain it to the rest of the Illuminati (and the reader). This book certainly isn't going to win over Hickman's detractors, but if you like your superhero stories decompressed and filled with all kinds of nutty hard science fiction, well…then you really should be reading New Avengers.

Unadorned variant cover to Savage Wolverine #1, art by Milo Manara. Marvel Comics.

Least Hickman-iest Comic of the Week: Savage Wolverine #1

On the opposite end of the spectrum from New Avengers, you'll find writer/artist Frank Cho's Savage Wolverine, which manages to squeeze a ridiculous amount of action and momentum into its debut issue. I'm not enough of a Wolverine fan to pick up issue two (I hugely prefer Jason Aaron's silly take on the character over the every-popular growling badass), but this is a perfectly fine book that's going to please fans of the character and satisfy those who hungering to see Wolverine snikt his way through legions of baddies.

Best Use of a Talking Cat: Saga #9

What's up with talking cats becoming the break-out characters in my favorite books? Socks, the Animal Totem turned house cat over in Jeff Lemire's Animal Man, is somehow one of the best characters currently inhabiting the DC universe, but he's got stiff competition in this category from Lying Cat over in Image's Saga. The sidekick/companion of the mercenary known as The Will, Lying Cat is able to detect whenever a character is lying, no matter how petty the mis-truth. It's no exaggeration to say that I laugh out loud each and every time Lying Cat makes an appearance, so I was more than happy to spend an issue away from the series' protagonists and get to know The Will and his world a little better. This issue doesn't get the Comic of the Week award only because this series would win that honor every time it comes out and that's just not fair.

Best Horror Comic Disguised as a Batman Comic: Batman #16

There are parts of me that are deeply uncomfortable with Scott Snyder's Batman, mainly because I can't help but imagine an eight-year-old Batfan picking up an issue and being traumatized for life. But I'll just have to get over that because Snyder and artist Greg Capullo have turned Batman into one helluva horror comic, albeit one starring the Caped Crusader. Although the "Death of the Family" arc has been consistently unsettling, issue #16 is a special brand of grotesque, following Batman as he navigates an Arkham Asylum that's been completely taken over by the Joker. Readers looking for more friendly Batman adventures should check out John Layman's exceptional Detective Comics - Snyder's is a comic for grown-ups with strong stomachs.

Cover to Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #16, art by Alberto Ponticelli. DC Comics.

Most Confounding Final Issue For a Series That's Been Unceremoniously Cancelled: Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #16

Despite being one of the most consistently entertaining titles on the stands, Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. is no more and its final issue is baffling, to say the very least. That doesn't mean it's bad, per se, it just means that it ignores everything that went down in the past couple of issues, leaps backwards in time, revives a bunch of dead characters and tells a story set prior to the events of the "Rotworld" crossover event. I get why this happened - it lets the series end with our titular hero and his Creature Commandos triumphant - but it feels wrong, especially since the whole "Rotworld" thing is still ongoing over in Swamp Thing and Animal Man, leaving Frankenstein's side of the tale feeling woefully incomplete. This is a perfectly entertaining issue, but there's something quietly insulting about it. Instead of an actual ending, this final issue promises future adventures…which we'll never get. Because the series is canceled. Delightful.

Runner-Up Comic of the Week: Daredevil #22

Fact: there is no superhero book on the stands better than Daredevil. Mark Waid and Chris Samnee continue to tell the ever-pitch dark story of Matt Murdoch without wallowing in grime, walking the finest of fine lines between fun and morbid. Daredevil is telling a story about damaged people at the end of their ropes, but it's still, somehow, an absolute joy and pleasure to read. Bonus points for Waid's take on the Superior Spider-man, which made me realize that character is going to be genuinely hilarious as he navigates the dense Marvel Universe.

Comic of the Week: Captain Marvel #9

For its first eight issues, Kelly Sue DeConnick's Captain Marvel has been a consistently entertaining series with a solid grasp on its characters and fun (if not especially memorable) conflicts. Well, something went wonderfully right with issue #9 and the result isn't just good: it's Matt Fraction's Hawkeye and Waid's Daredevil good. Instead of sending Carol Danvers on another journey through time and having her fight another giant robot, DeConnick sends the former Ms. Marvel on her most interesting adventure to date: a very, very busy day in New York City (drawn by Filipe Andrade, whose anime-influenced pencils are stunning). By keeping her on the streets instead of in the cosmos, DeConnick grounds Danvers and her conflicts, making scenes like a battle with two time-displaced dinosaurs somehow relatable (because it's going to make her late for her cat's vet appointment, you see). I don't know if this signals a major shift in the book's tone or if it's just a one-off, but consider me a big fan of this (pardon the pun) grounded Captain Marvel.