As always, “Five & Three” brings you my favorite things in comics this week. Every week I pick my five favorite covers and three favorite panels to create “Five & Three”. I like to talk about why I picked the covers and panels and welcome hecklers and trend setters alike.
There were some great covers this week so I hope you like the ones I’ve picked. I sincerely did my best but I left a bunch of great ones out. I blame all of the wonderful variants and my favorite one is the one I’m leading with.
Fiona Staples makes her variant cover to “Thor #1” look like the Goddess of Thunder belongs in the “Saga” universe. With the amount of crazy things happening in her and Brian K. Vaughn’s creator owned series, a bad ass Viking warrior smashing an ice giant fits right in.
Vertigo comics are doing this thing where they’re “defying” covers and the results are very cool. This cover looks like it belongs in the panels section of this article but I love the idea and the design so much it just had to be included in the covers.
IDW’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” has shown up in “Five and Three” before but this time it’s a bit different. I liked this cover and the others by Eastman and Santolouco, but this one resonated with me the most. To me, it “looks” like the Turtles. These are my TMNT and I wish this summer’s movie would have used this look instead of the one they went with.
Declan Shalvey continues to bring the pain on Moon Knight covers despite his absence from interiors. The comic itself continues to delight and, if you haven’t checked it out, now would be a great time to get caught up because the first few issues are available in trade dress.
My favorite cover this week is from the surprisingly great “Detective Comics”. I was very sad to not see my favorite artist and writer from DC Comics on “Green Arrow” any longer but this opening salvo from Ben Percy, John Paul Leon and Dave Stewart has me happy to still say I have DC books in my hold. Coming up in panels though is a book I honestly can’t believe is being printed by DC so keep reading.
I’m not very happy with this whole “Death of Wolverine” thing Marvel is doing. They’re certainly shaking up many of the foundations of the Marvel universe over at the house of ideas, but they’ve been doing that for the last decade and putting out some amazing stories so I’ll continue to read them and avoid humble pie. I’m not ever going to say they’re doing something wrong when they have so often created amazing stories. With that in mind I picked a bad ass Samurai Logan from “The Death of Wolverine #3” to start off panels this week.
My ma’s birthday is only a month away. If I could get her a huge battle tank elephant to drive to her hospital she’d love it. I’m going to miss “legs” and her adventures throughout the Greek pantheon. Because of this series though, I’ll follow Cliff Chang anywhere.
Remember that book I didn’t believe was a DC Comic? I hope so, it was only three paragraphs ago. If you decided against picking up a copy of “Gotham Academy #1” by Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher, Karl Kerschi, and GeyseR. The art is spectacular and looks nothing like the traditional DC House style. The story is also sweet, even if it crams in a bit of the Bat to sell the idea home. To me, “Gotham Academy” felt a bit like a Nancy Drew mystery mixed with some good old fashioned Harry Potter. It’s oodles of fun and I suggest anyone who likes to have fun give this a chance.
That’s all for this week. If you disagree with a pick, let me know in the comments or on Twitter @MarkAvo or on Instagram @TheMarkAvo. If you think I should’ve picked something else or if you have a pick in mind for next week, give me a shout out and let me know. If you’d like to check out more “Five and Three” comic book moments start with “Five and Three” from last week. Until next week, be sure to have a spooky adventure and tweet about it!