Review:
Matt's Comic Picks--Avengers Prime #1 & Jonah Hex No Way Back!

Avengers Prime #1

This is probably my favorite of the new Avengers Heroic Age titles so far. Avengers was solid, Secret Avengers disappointed me, but I really liked this one. It's a mini-series picking up right after the events of Siege and should have come out before all the other Avengers titles but that's pretty standard Marvel. The basic point of this mini is to make Marvel's big three friends (or at least friendly again)--Steve Rogers, Thor and Iron Man.

The issue starts with more bickering between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers--seriously these two need to get a room and get it over with. Regardless of weird tension, the big three head into the ruins of Asgard to the damaged Rainbow Bridge (too many jokes--brain seizing), the portal the Asgardians travel between dimensions with. Naturally it suddenly turns on and the three are whisked away to other dimensions. Bendis' writing is crisp and enjoyable--he doesn't go insane with dialogue and the action is fun. Alan Davis is fantastic as always; I wish he could be doing the Avengers regular series instead of John Romita Jr. To sum up, it's not brilliant, it's not groundbreaking but it is a good read.

Jonah Hex No Way Back HC

First off, get online and watch the Jonah Hex movie trailer. Take a second right now, I'll wait. Still waiting. Okay have you gone blind yet? If you haven't you might want to save your sanity and eyesight and pick up this new original graphic novel. It's written by the regular Jonah Hex series duo of Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Jonah Hex co-creator Tony DeZuniga! I don't remember the last time I saw DeZuniga do art on any book, but it's been a long friggin time. The story follows Hex's as he takes on a bounty to find his own mother, which leads to some brutal but great back story on Jonah's childhood. The journey takes him on the typical violence and brutality that makes a great Hex story as he tracks his mother and then his brother with a final showdown with El Papagayo (and a revelation of why he hates Hex so much).