Off The Shelf

Hi all, this week in this little segment I call off the shelf I will be talking about a couple of comic books that I picked up this week and have been reading between my multiple compulsive viewings of Avengers Assemble (go watch it! also read Dave’s review!). Anyway I want to start this week with DC comic’s New 52 Batman #8, also known as Night of Owls Begins! I have been following this particular branch of the New 52 since its inception and have been consistently impressed by the high quality of the story, characterization and artwork.

Scott Snyder, Greg Cupullo and Jonathan Glapion continue to impress me here with the story continuing to grow even darker. The dialogue continues to impress too and in this issue focuses heavily on Bruce Wayne and Alfred and develops their relationship a little more than in previous issues. The art style is also nice and at an important point in the story changes style entirely and this I feel greatly enhances the story and book as whole adding some emphasis to some really dark but key scenes.

There is a particularly cool two page spread featuring a whole bunch of my favourite characters that I want to frame and put on my wall but I will say no more for fear of spoilers! Anyway go get this book, it’s great and if you can get hold of the back issues I recommend reading as many as you can.

Next this week I’m going to talk about a Marvel limited series called The Avengers Prelude: Fury’s Big Week which finished up last week (some bigger shops probably still have it all in stock). The series was basically a nice little promotional tool dedicated to  telling the story of Nick Fury as events unfolded during the previous Marvel movies including Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and it also lightly explores the discovery of Captain America.

All of the major players make an appearance here with the primary focus being on how Fury went about building the team we see in the film. Now as comics go this series is nothing special but I think it will be of interest for any Avengers completionist as it forms a neat little package that tie in to the film quite nicely.

Well that’s all for this week as far as comic’s go but be sure to check back next week (or subscribe to our RSS feed!) for more reviews next week.