The Longbox Short-List - Week of January 21, 2015

Welcome to the first edition of The Longbox Short-List.  Each week, I am going to be posting my recommendations for the best comics to buy each week.  Just a warning, I make these picks BEFORE I actually read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.

You can find the comics shipping next week at this link.

• Powers #1 – There is something appropriate about Powers’ latest issue 1 being a few weeks late.  Delays have always been the bane of this book’s existence. BUT, Powers has pretty much always been brilliant, so I’m willing to accept the delays as the price of admission.  Powers is typically a detective story set in a universe with superheroes and villains, though the last few volumes have added a lot of political intrigue on top of that.  At the end of the last series, Walker and Pilgrim realized that they had been working for the same conspiracy that had killed FG-3 way back in Powers Vol. 1, so I’m curious to see how Bendis plans on getting them back to solving crimes.

• Groo: Friends and Foes #1 – A 12-issue Groo series??  Groo has basically been playing Where’s Waldo the last few years.  A mini-series here and there, but for the most part Groo’s been missing from comic shelves.  Last year’s Conan Vs Groo was a reminder of how much I missed the character.  It will be nice to actually have some consistent Groo for the next year or so.  Hopefully, this will lead into another Groo ongoing series.

• Batman And Robin #38 – Batman leads a team of heroes to Apokolips to bring his son Damian back from the dead.  And now the revived Damian has superpowers!  On the surface, this sounds like a comic that has really lost its way, but somehow Peter Tomasi continues to make this a compelling read.  It is arguably the best Batman book out right now, and that’s saying a lot since Batman and Batman Eternal are both great too.

• Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues #1 – The first time I saw Galaxy Quest, I actually hated the movie.  I thought it was a brilliant idea for a movie, and the cast was great.  But, for some reason, I just couldn’t get into it.  I think I was just in a bad mood that night.  I’ve seen it on DVD and cable many times after, and it’s become one of my favorite movies.  I’m not really sure it needed a comic follow up series, but I’m definitely going to check it out.

• Amazing Spider-Man #13, Scarlet Spiders #3, Spider-Verse Team-Up #3, & Spider-Woman #3 -  They really can do a better job of spreading these books out.  Last week, we got one Spider-Verse book, this week we get four.  That small gripe aside, Spider-Verse has been a real fun crossover, and I am really curious how they plan to bring this all together.

• All-New X-Men #35 – The adventures of the All-New X-Men in the Ultimate Universe continue! I keep hearing rumors that this arc will end with Miles Morales (Ultimate Spider-Man) ending up in the core Marvel universe.  I’m a huge fan of the character, and at this point, he’s the only salvageable part of the Ultimate Universe.  I’m hoping Secret Wars will finally bring the Ultimate Universe to an end, as long Miles is still around.

• Captain America And The Mighty Avengers #4 – At New York Comic Con, I told Al Ewing that Mighty Avengers was my favorite Marvel book.  But that was before it got relaunched as an Axis Tie-in.  I think it has lost some of its momentum during Axis, but I still look forward to reading this series every month.  Hopefully, now that Axis is over, it will be able to get back to being Marvel’s best book.

• Superior Iron Man #4 – Evil Tony Stark is evil!!  I was hooked on this book from the last page of the first issue where Stark basically offered San Fransiscans a perfect life…but it ended up being a freemium scam.  From there, the series has continued to get even more disturbing with Stark giving Daredevil back his sight, just to take it away again.  I honestly have no idea where this series is going, but they have hooked me along for the ride.

Ivar Timewalker #1 (Of 4) – It was always a contest each month to see which was my favorite Valiant book, Quantum and Woody or Archer and Armstrong.  Most months ended up too close to call.  Ivar has been a great character since the original Valiant books, so I’m glad to see him getting a new mini-series here, especially with Archer and Armstrong along for the ride.  It especially helps that Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry are the creative team.