The Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Art by John Romita Jr. YP FIC BENDIS

The Avengers are back after Civil Wars, alien invasions, bad guys running America’s top security forces, and other assorted wackness. Now Hawkeye, Iron Man, Captain America (the Bucky one), Wolverine, Spiderman, Spiderwoman (they SERIOSULY needed both?), Thor, and Noh-Varr have to head to the future and stop a never ending war that will destroy the entire time-space continuum.

After probably the 33,467,898^th roster change we have an Avengers line up worth caring about (except for Spiderwoman and Noh-Varr. Nobody cares about them). And with the parenthetical exception all our new avengers have big budget movies coming out or have recently come out. Smart move Marvel! All imputing of crass marketing motives aside, this is an awesome roster of awesome heroes. Bendis makes good use of the heroes too and gives us plenty of super powered mega battles of EPIC proportion. When time gets all herky-jerky the Avengers have to fight foes from all sorts of alternate time streams, which gives Bendis and Romita Jr. to through in a bunch of shout outs to older Marvel stories that the super fans will appreciate (I did!). The art (as with anything Romita Jr. does) is superb. The plot is brisk and action packed and there is no drawn out soul searching or political allegories! A great read for fans of superhero comics and awesomeness

Captain America: Two Americas by Ed Brubaker Illustrated by Luke Ross

Steve Rogers, the original, Captain America is back from being trapped in a mental time loop in his brain (long story), so now he has to decide if he will take up his shield or leave it in the hands of the new Captain America, his former side kick Bucky Barnes. Whoever gets to carry the shield has to fight a totally different and TOTALLY INSANE Captain America from the 1950s before he and his terrorist squadron kill millions!

This is a straightforward action showcase with a fun espionage feel. The often times heavy handed super hero obsessing over the burdens of power is kept to a minimum for loads of awesome action sequences that pay off big time. Long time super hero fans will definitely appreciate how much page time The Falcon gets, because his adventures with Captain America have long been a highlight of the series. The art by Luke Ross is superb and harkens back to the great Marvel artists of the 70s like Jack “The King” Kirby”, Gene Colan and Neal Adams. Several panels are laid out to look exactly like their work as homage. So if you want to read a classic adventure super hero tale with great art then look no further.