This week’s series premiere features the return of Power Man & Iron Fist, courtesy of David Walker and Sanford Greene. When last we left Luke Cage and Danny Rand, the former was a family man and a focal New Avenger, while the latter was all wrapped up in K’un-Lun mysticism and immortal weaponry. Walker, a leading expert in African-American cinema and the producer of the documentary Macked, Hammered, Slaughtered, & Shafted, brings the band back together (don’t tell Luke) for a badass, street-level, Heroes for Hire-style adventure.

Also on shelves this week is the kickoff issue to the first crossover event in the All-New All-Different Marvel Universe. Avengers Standoff: Welcome to Pleasant Hill #1 by Nick Spencer and Mark Bagley is a sinister introduction to one of the more interesting storylines from the House of Ideas this year. Spencer, whose social commentary is already on display in the pages of Ant-Man and Sam Wilson, tackles the civil liberties question through a superpowered solution to supervillain incarceration. The series also serves as a vehicle to bring back… oh. No spoilers here. Read it and find out. And if you’ve been a fan of Marvel’s hip-hop variant covers, this first issue sports one of the best yet.

New Stuff:
Power Man & Iron First #1

Continuing and related titles
Amazing Spider-Man #8
Avengers Standoff: Welcome to Pleasant Hill #1
Carnage #5
Extraordinary X-Men #7
The Mighty Thor #4
Silver Surfer #2
Spider-Woman #4
Squadron Supreme #4
Star-Lord #4
Starbrand & Nightmask #3
Uncanny Inhumans #5
Web Warriors #4

So much of the story is unfamiliar to me, but I still enjoyed it. The pairing of Aaron and Dauterman reminds me a bit of Morrison and Quitely, especially their All Star Superman. Dead Elves raining from space is a great way to grab attention for this “war of realms event” and I like how turbulent the situation in Asgard is. I will say it’s depressing that cancer, not some mythic, comic-book disease is killing Thor, but it falls in line with this new Marvel theme of fantastic heroes being weighed down by real-world bullshit. This is a more interesting take on that concept. This book may be as all-new and all-different as Marvel is willing to get with one of their classic titles. – RF

< WEEK 19 | WEEK 20 | WEEK 21 >