1) Guardians of the Galaxy #1 - Written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, art by Kev Walker, colors by Matt Hollingsworth, edited by Darren Shan
I've been frustrated with Marvel for shelving the Guardians of the Galaxy for the last year and a half. Guardians has been their best team comic for the last five years, Avengers has been meh under Aaron, and the X-Men series is split into so many different teams it's always hard to keep track of which ones to read. So now the Guardians are back (suspiciously close to the movie release date), and Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing have done a good job re introducing the team and their newest threat: Grootfall. The first issue does it's job well, it introduced the threat, showed us the tension on the team (that Drax look), and gave us a little bit of context on the threat instead of teasing to for 20 issues (cough cough Amazing Spider-Man). The action was high stakes, the threat felt very real, and I'm looking forward to where Kelly and Lanzing take the story and the team. The art by Kev Walker also really stood out, each character's outfit was perfect (except maybe Mantis, a LOT of Mantis choices were made) and Star-Lord's and Gamora's really stood out. This looks like a strong creative team that can hopefully give us at least twenty issues of this team before Marvel cans them randomly again.
2) Moon Knight #22 - Story by Jed MacKay, art by Alessandro Cappuccio, colors by Rachelle Rosenberg, edited by Tom Breevort, cover shown by Stephen Segovia and Rachelle Rosenberg
I've said it before and I'll say it until they make a Tigra movie, this is one of the best creative teams in comics right now. Mackay takes Moon Knight out of the story (mostly) and still creates one of the best Moon Knight stories to date. Mackay gives Tigra the spotlight in this issue, and her strength, courage, rashness, and boldness all blend together to make a Tigra story that seems straight out of the West Coast Avengers runs (in all the right ways). Get Jed on a reboot of West Coast Avengers please. The art by Cappuccio is as beautiful as ever, and Rosenberg uses colors to really put Tigra in the moonlight, literally. Daredevil has stalled recently, so this and Ghost Rider are truly two of the best Marvel titles (heck any comic titles) you can pick up right now.
3) X-Men #21 - Written by Gerry Duggan, art by Stefano Caselli, colors by Federico Blee, edited by Jordan D. White
Cut out the Forge and Penance shenanigans and you have an incredible X-Men story being told over the course of the last few issues of X-Men. The Captain Marvel tie ins have been...interesting to say the least (lot of tentacle stuff going on SOS), but the X-Men side of the Brood arc have been excellent. Bobby and Scott are coming face to face with their decades long hatred of the Brood, and both wish to stomp them out for good. This culminates with an excellent and tense scene between Jean and Scott, debating what to do with the Brood. Stefano Caselli absolutely delivers on that page, giving us disappointed Jean, angry Scott, and ashamed Scott all in one go. Caselli and Blee definitely had too much fun drawing and inking that Brood popping out of a civilian panel and need to be put on some kind of government watchlist for it. X-Men has been the Marvel franchise of the last few years, but this series tends to let go of the "Krakoa" part of the X-Men (thankfully) and focuses on the team. I mean the Nightmare reveal, Scott's realpolitik creeping back in, Jean bopping Nightmare on the nose, these are all the reasons you need to subscribe to the current run of X-Men.
4) Fantastic Four #6 - Story by Ryan North, art by Ivan Fiorelli, colors by Jesus Aburtov, cover by Alex Ross, edited by Tom Brevoort
Another day, another beautiful Alex Ross cover of FF. The story is a follow up of the last issue, and it tells another story of intrigue, humor, and science. It's refreshing to read a comic that isn't just "Punch the guy or get the magic artifact" to fix problems. I like what North is doing, having the FF focus on their creativity and ingenuity to fix solutions, not just their powers. The characters are written really well too (except for one weird Sue Storm blind comment), and North really makes them seem like a tightly knit family, as it should be. Leaving out the Baxter Building (and it's inhabitants) was a stroke of genius writing wise, letting the FF shine in the spotlight alone for a bit, something they haven't been able to do in a long time. The art by Fiorelli and Aburtov stands out strong as always, I feel like the Thing's face looks different each time we see it, but Fiorelli really knows how to draw Mr. Fantastic, and I'll riot when they remove that handlebar on Human Torch.
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