Review:
Aw Yeah! Marvel Comics for the Christmas Week!

Captain America Who Will Wield the Shield One-Shot

My favorite part of this is the opening message to the reader: The events of this book happen after Captain America Reborn #6, sorry folks! At least they’re finally honest about it. This one shot serves to spotlight both Steve and Bucky in the aftermath of Reborn. Brubaker does a good job of not totally spoiling the ending of Reborn, if nothing else lays down hints that makes me a bit excited to finally finish the Reborn mini-series. The interaction between the couples--Black Widow/Bucky and Steve Rogers/Sharon--is my favorite, really good dialogue and heart in there.

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Criminal the Sinners #2

Hot off the super hero pulp book, Incognito, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips return to their crime noir series Criminal. Staring Tracy Lawless (last seen in Criminal Vol 2 Lawless), mob bosses are turning up dead. Tracy is appointed to find out who is doing these killings. He’s also getting deeper and deeper into his own mess as he’s sleeping with his boss’s wife and the boss thinks he’s sleeping with his daughter. Plus the military is looking for Lawless as he is AWOL. This is the best crime book out there; you always get a great read. Don’t wait for the trade paperbacks on these as you get a lot of really cool stuff at the back of each issue.

New Avengers #60

Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen conclude their ongoing story of Nic Cage's heart problems. As Dr. Strange and Hank Pym shrink down to take out the bomb attached to Nic's heart, the Dark Avengers attempt to locate our heroes before it can be removed. Just where they are hiding out is quite clever on Bendis' part. A good issue with fun humor but it's obviously missing the heavy hitters that make the Avengers the Avengers. They've also nicely set up Nic and Jessica's possible exit from the book when they change the team lineup after The Siege.