Our weekly rundown of the best and worst new releases, brought to you by our friends Adan Jimenez (Adan’s Aztec Musings), Albo (Geekanerd) and our newest contributor Alan Kistler (Kistler Universe.

PICK: Brave & The Bold #10

Mark Waid and George Perez continue to bring tales that scream “high flying adventure” every issue. While the title involves some of the lesser known heroes of the DC Universe, it does its best every issue to give you a brief introduction to everyone involved (something more comics should remember to do, quite frankly). For instance, Superman teams up with the Silent Knight this issue? Never heard of the Silent Knight? No problem. You find out everything you need to know within the first few pages. This is also a title that emphasizes characterization over action. One page has the Silent Knight reflecting on Superman and the kind of person he is as he informs us of a battle that other writers might’ve taken two issues of splash pages to cover. Always a satisfying read.

Shock Value: B+ - Alan

PICK: Checkmate #23

Say it isn’t so, Greg and Eric!

No doubt, you’ve all heard that Greg Rucka and Eric Trautmann’s last Checkmate issue will be the twenty-fifth, a mere two issues away. As a result, these final issues will be somewhat bittersweet. I’ve looked forward to every issue of Checkmate since it was announced, and yeah, I thought it was a slightly watered-down Queen & Country at first, but it really grew on me (not that it had far to travel) and it was thanks mostly to Rucka and Trautmann’s excellent writing. The last few issues will be looked forward to, but at the same time, dreaded. Every new issue, while no doubt great, is one step closer to the end (and replacement writer Bruce Jones; who made that fucking decision?) and this issue is both those things.

Pawn 502, last seen in the “Pawn 502″ storyarc (imagine that), gets in a little trouble while infiltrating Kobra and Checkmate needs to deputize some big guns to get him out. I’m continuing to enjoy the new White Queen’s relationships with the other members of Checkmate, especially with the Black Queen and her Bishop. The “Bad Samaritan” and Vostok relationship is especially good, given their political backgrounds. The way Bordeaux handles Superman is also pretty awesome, as it’s way more devious than just bullying him around, something other government agencies have done in the past with less than stellar results.

The art is serviceable enough; nothing special, but nothing awful either. Once in awhile, though, the shading makes it look like some of the characters have fat lips. Bennett’s Superman, though, that’s a heroic figure. I’m glad he gets the two of only three splash pages in the whole book. That says he’s THE hero in a very literary way. He’s important, and the two splash pages tell you how important without ever actually saying so.

Shock Value: A - Adan

Iron Man #26

The rest of the world may see him as a jerk, but readers of Iron Man’s personal title will be pleased to see that he’s still been consistently written as a hero. A hero you may disagree with and who’s kind of manipulative, yes, but he’s ALWAYS been like that so it works. This week finally brings us a battle with the newly revived Mandarin, which the book’s been building up to for the past several issues. Just by putting him in a suit and emphasizing how clever he is rather than what color cape he should wear, the Mandarin proves in this storyline exactly why he’s the kind of guy who can bring fear to Tony Stark’s eyes. And the ending honestly had me thinking “Man, what happens NEXT?”

Shock Value: A - Alan

PICK: Justice League of America #18

The JLA have discovered the existence of the super-villain prison planet that’s currently featured in Salvation Run. Naturally, they’re upset and wind up crossing swords with Amanda Waller and the Doom Patrol while also setting up asylum for several villains. This story has great moments but moves a little too quickly for us to fully appreciate some scenes. I would have liked at least a few extra pages showing just how it was that Batman designed a cage that could keep the Key in place and what kind of legal tricks the team used to protect the villains in their charge. On the flipside, the back-up story featuring the Red Tornado is heart-felt and makes a lot of sense by referencing just how many robotics experts exist in the DCU.

Shock Value: B - Alan

PICK: Locke & Key #1

This book begins as a sort of Straw Dogs tale of rural violence, with disgruntled teen Tyler walking in on his mother being raped over the body of his dead father while a second psychopath looks on. The terrified boy is driven to murder one of the killers with a brick, and his mother takes the other one down with a hatchet. Needless to say, the whole experience shakes him up a good bit. Not helping his mental state is the fact that he knew the killers, and had even had a conversation with one of them about a hypothetical dad-less existence. And just like in Strangers on a Train, the other guy took it a little too seriously. His father also seemed to know something was going to happen to him, and had arranged for his family to go live at Keyhouse, an old house in Lovecraft (ahem), Massachusetts that has been in his family for generations. And if you couldn’t guess, there’s something about that house… Writer Joe Hill is doing a great job setting up a real world with just a hint of the mystical, and I’m hoping as the series progresses it stays like that without ever going too over the top with fantasy. The art, by Gabriel Rodriguez, is clean and expressive and aside from the occasional sloppy character it’s top notch. He puts an excruciating amount of detail into every setting–there’s not a single throwaway background in the whole book. I’m very excited to see where this one leads.

Shock Value: B+ - Albo

SEMI-PAN: Mighty Avengers #9

Okay, this isn’t a horrible book, but what’s with the pacing? Without taking a breath, we go directly from an Ultron battle to an attack by Venom’s whole family to a confrontation with Dr. Doom? Honestly, most of this issue I just found myself thinking “Man, I wish we’d get a more relaxed issue so I could see how this new team play together as teammates and characters.” The team also doesn’t seem quite as cool as previous incarnations to me when I see SHIELD backing them up every issue. SHIELD is fine and I know they have to work with them, but can’t I get a single battle where Ms. Marvel says “you know what? We got this.” And while I find some of the thought balloons funny, I think they’re definitely overused. If the artist is good enough to give me a genuine facial expression I don’t need a character’s thought bubble to tell me every single thing going through their head.

Shock Value: C - Alan

PICK: Superman/Batman #46

This issue concludes the surprisingly enjoyable three-part kryptonite storyline. The premise may seem dully, “Batman and Superman decide to collect all kryptonite on Earth”, but this story actually emphasizes characterization. Great touches include when Superman considers that each piece of green-K might have been ground that his parents touched and walked on yet it would kill him to touch it. This concluding issue is high-stakes hilarity as Clark encounters a new form of kryptonite that makes him, um, giddy, hungry, easily distracted, aloof and filled with a desire to play video games. And Batman will have to face magical forces (which he hates as much as Superman) and a volcano in order to cure his friend before the guy eats all the brownies in North Dakota and beats everyone’s high score on playstation. If you’re sick of angsty stories in comics, READ THIS ISSUE.

Shock Value: A - Alan

PAN: Ultimates 3 #3

Excerpted from Jason’s full-length review…

Now that everyone is in on the joke of Frank Miller’s Goddamn Batman, that joke has gotten a little stale, and I’ve been feeling the need for a new mainstream book that’s so over-the-top ridiculous you just sort of hold it in your hands and stare at it, a little shell-shocked, not sure whether to throw it across the room or convulse in laughter.

I’m actually finding it difficult to not be charmed by Ultimates 3. It’s so loud and slapdash that it’s like reading a comic written by a focus group of caffeinated eight-year olds. If you’re looking for any kind of intelligently written story, or even a bad story with a knowing wink, look elsewhere. But if you want to get a solid laugh out of an unapologetically ridiculous comic that has no idea just how bad it is, you really couldn’t do any better than this dumb, manic book.

Shock Value: D- on the regular scale, A- on the So-Bad-It’s-Good scale - Jason