Every Thursday we spotlight the very best and worst new comics for you. This week the P&P crew consists of the returning Adan Jimenez (Adan’s Aztec Musings), David Brothers (4thletter), Jason Michelitch, Jon Haehnle () and Katherine Dacey-Tsuei (Kate no Komento).

PICK: Bat Lash #1

Oh my oh my oh my, but John Severin’s hands ought to be enshrined in the National Trust. As his art on Bat Lash shows, he hasn’t lost a beat since the Silver Age, when he was one of the launch artists of Harvey Kurtzman’s original Mad and one of the best artists in the Marvel/Atlas bullpen. The fact that he’s still working when he so easily could fall prey to ageism or shifting market taste is a source of immense joy to me.

My joy is tempered only slightly by the fact that I’m not blown away by the writing on the book by collaborators Peter Brandvold and Sergio Aragones (another man with hands to be treasured – take a look at Groo or, y’know, any issue of Mad Magazine from the last forty years). The story is straightforward Western fare – too straightforward, really. There is absolutely nothing here you haven’t seen before plot-wise, but it’s told fairly well and it’s only part one of six so there’s plenty of room left to be surprised.

(I also wasn’t wild to find yet another “threat of rape” scene in the book – in actuality it’s a perfectly fine scene and not in any way out of place in a book set in the Wild West. Coming as it does, though, on the wrong end of mainstream comics’ Rape Parade, it sticks out like a sore thumb.)

Seriously, though, give me a book drawn by John Severin and it could be made up of Rob Liefeld’s napkin notes for rejected X-Force issues. Lucky for us, Bat Lash’s story is already more than competent – here’s hoping that it just gets better from here.

Shock Value: B - Jason

PICK: Criminal, Volume 2: Lawless

I love crime comics. They aren’t my original love, but they are definitely way, way up there. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s Criminal is, pound for pound, one of the greats and definitely worth your cash. Lawless collects the second story arc, sans back-matter, and tells the tale of Tracy Lawless. You could easily describe the story using
cliches– tortured past, man on a mission, revenge, femme fatale, and so on. However, that doesn’t get to the meat of the matter. All of that is a smokescreen for what’s really going on. Brubaker uses the cliches to lure you in, only to turn them on you at the last minute and hit you with a surprise. Phillips delivers some wonderfully moody art that, as in the first volume, fits the story perfectly. He’s great at drawing distraught people doing desperate things, or even just angry people doing terrible things. Buy this book. Shock Value: A+ - David

PICK: Emma, Vol. 6

From time to time, I’ll see a forum or blog entry reassuring male readers that they, too, can get their girlfriends and wives hooked on comics by putting an issue of “Sandman,” “Fables,” or “romance comics” in their hands. There’s just one problem: 95% of the time, no one can actually name a good “romance comic.” Let me help by recommending Kaoru Mori’s “Emma.” Set in Victorian London, the story focuses on a gentleman who falls in love with a maid, causing his social-climbing family great consternation. The heavy emphasis on character development and period detail make “Emma” read like a manga-fied version of “The Forsyte Saga”… and that’s a good thing.

Mori has created a handsomely illustrated soap opera that never insults the reader’s intelligence, even when she trots out some shopworn plot devices. And with just one more volume in the series to go, “Emma” promises something that very few comics can deliver: closure. You might just find yourself borrowing a copy from your lady friend, even if you don’t have a maid fetish. Shock Value: A - Kate

PAN: Green Arrow/Black Canary #3

Cliff Chiang’s art is beautiful. I loved every single panel in this book. The coloring is on point, the penciling and inking is on point, the facial expressions are awesome, and the action is believable. It looks and feels like a high action story filled with wonderfully colorful superheroes doing their thing. The characters are suitably attractive, and the facial expressions are dead-on. “Why is this your pan?” you ask? Well… the script is horrible. It veers from lame quips (Speedy speaking to Hippolyta) to clumsy exposition hour (Hippolyta speaking to Dinah) to “What could possibly go wrong here?” family bonding. Combine that with a cheap shot on the last couple of pages and you’ve got a comic that I would’ve loved to have bought unlettered. I can’t bring myself to care about any of these characters beyond how I already felt about them, and that isn’t a good thing. No sir. The art deserves an A+, perhaps even an A++ with a smiley face in a star, but the story is decidedly mediocre at best. Shock Value: C - David

PICKS: Green Lantern #25

Despite being incredibly successful and entertaining, both World War Hulk and Civil War sort of fizzled out at the end with final issues which failed to sustain the energy of the series and ultimately weakened their overall impact & legacy as mega-events. This week brings the final chapter of DC’s Sinestro Corps War, and Geoff Johns & Co. have seemingly done the impossible — they not only bring this epic storyline has come to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion, they left me wanting more! Ivan Reis & Ethan Van Sciver are stellar as always, but the real star here is Johns. The writer must have his own personal battery for powering up because, far from fizzling out, he has even bigger things in store for GL and the DCU. Sinestro Corps War is just over and I’m already eagerly anticipating Blackest Night! And bear in mind, this fanboyish excitement is coming from a mostly Marvel guy who isn’t particularly even into Green Lantern! Shock Value: A - Jon

PAN: Nightwing #139

The long-awaited Robin/Nightwing fight that was apparently demanded for by fans is here, and it sucks pretty hard. This is part six of “The Resurrection of Ra’s al-Ghul” and so attempts to further that storyline along while simultaneously not dealing with it all, really.

Now, I understand Tim’s all confused and he wants his dad and his friends brought back to life and Ra’s has just made him a pretty good offer to get all that done. That’ll make any teenager turn around and try to beat up his best friend. I get that. But why does Nightwing always throw the first blow? He jumps into the Lazarus Pit chamber and starts whacking on Tim, and then when they stop to talk and admire Talia’s ability to kick ninja ass, Dick starts the fight up again by trying to kick Tim in the face. Why? The talk wasn’t going well? You realized you weren’t going to convince him? Maybe you just wanted to have the real older brother experience and beat the snot out of your younger sibling. The point is, there is no real motivation for this fight. DC just wanted to pretend to “once and for all” figure out who was the better sidekick and then pussied out of even doing that much.

The only thing that saves this book from being truly awful is the inclusion of I Ching. That guy’s pretty funny. Also, the panel of a bloodied and beat-up Talia nonetheless walking out of the mountain victorious with a katana in her hand and an axe over her shoulder. That’s hardcore.

Shock Value: D - Adan