Panel Discussion: Scans from All-Star Superman #10, New Avengers #39, Transhuman #1 and More

Every week Geekanerd brings you the best, worst and weirdest panels from our week in comics. If you didn't read your books, there will be giant SPOILERS. Click the images for high res action!

Best Opening Page - New Avengers #39Albo: This issue is basically a Maya solo story, so starting through her eyes on a silent page (she's deaf) is perfect. The hand reveal is a wonderful "fade in", and the subtle touch of leaving the right side of the last panel open elegantly guides our attention to the next page. David Mack's got them skillz.

Saves, Skrulls and Slurs after the jump!

Best Save - All-Star Superman #10AHR: What really gets me about this sad, elegant sequence is the first long panel of the girl dropping her cell phone. It's a lonely image that sharply conveys a final decision to close off from the world. I think it gets to the heart of what makes Superman unique that even with all the crazy shit going down in both his life and the world at large, saving people from their own personal despair still registers on Superman's hero-sense. He wants to save everyone, and it's nice to believe he can.

To Me, My X-Monkeys - Transhuman #1
Albo: These familiar-looking primates are interspersed within a double page gag where a number of genetic engineering test monkeys are being evaluated.

Doom Gets Serious - Mighty Avengers #11
Albo: "You're a fat piece of furniture... Cow-mouth... Whore's Heart..." This is not your daddy's Dr. Doom.

SkrullWatch '08 - Mighty Avengers #11
Albo: To escape Dr. Doom's clutches earlier in the issue, Spider Woman did some wacky energy crap she's never done before. Needless to say, this makes Black Widow nervous because the earth is infected with shape shifting aliens and exhibiting a heretofore unknown power is suspicious behavior. Plus that look Spidette's giving the reader in panel four is totally evil. The complication is that Spider Woman is the person who brought the Skrull invasion to Iron Man's attention in the first place, when she brought Skrullektra's corpse to him. My guess? Skrulls are too smart to reveal themselves so recklessly, and Black Widow's nervousness isn't Skrullspicion (I can do this all night, ladies) but concern that HER SKRULL INTEL ISN'T COMPLETE. Oh yeah, babies, THE BLACK WIDOW IS A SKRULL!!!

Best Threat - Ravager, Teen Titans #57
AHR: "The only thing I'm scared of....is that I might not get a chance to hide your body before my teammates show up." There's nothing I love more than when a pseudo-evil member of a non-evil team gets a chance to cut lose and show their sadistically insane stripes. It's worth noting Ravager does indeed kill this so-called Persuader (worst villain name ever), or at least she would have if Robin hadn't killer-proofed her lightsabres(!) so they operated only on a non-lethal setting(?!), thus denying both Ravager and the reader a cathartic murder spree. *Wamp wamp waaaaa!*

Smooth Talkin' Mutie - New Avengers #39
Albo: If I had moves like Logan... Man what I could do.

Nerd Alert - New Avengers #39
Albo: You betcha Hawkeye Ronin has an MC Chris t-shirt.

Snap Judgments: Quickie Comic Reviews for March 26, 2008

Geekanerd's second attempt at writing short comic reviews based on initial, lizard-brain opinions. Arranged from BEST to WORST.

Blue Beetle #25: A+
This comic makes me want to be a better man. - AHR

Mighty Avengers #11: A
Probably the best Dr. Doom story I've ever read. Really! - Albo

New Avengers #39: A
Finally the Skrulls are here! Too bad they're pansies. Aside from the lame Skrull fight this is a fantastic standalone Echo story. - Albo

Teen Titans #57: A
An entire issue of Ravager sneering, quipping, and being excessively violent; that, my friends, is exactly what I came to see. - AHR

All-Star Superman, Transhuman and Gunplay after the jump...

All-Star Superman #10: B+ from AHR, C from Albo
A collection of moments that are alternately confusingly plot-heavy and timelessly emblematic of why folks love Superman. The issue feels disjointed without a single clear narrative line to reassure the audience that the book will eventually become coherent, but like most of Morrison's work it's worth the effort. - AHR

Trying to do way too much at once. Where the hell is Morrison going with this? - Albo

Transhuman #1: B from AHR, C from Albo
Setting a story about genetic engineering in the innately evil world of corporate pharmaceuticals is a stroke of GENE-ius, and despite a constraining "documentary" storytelling device (which visually translates as all talking heads all the time) it's a surprisingly fluid read and if you make it to the middle you get a great comedy interlude with monkeys and violence and X-Men jokes. - AHR

Comic masquerading as a documentary on genetic engineering and human manipulation. All info, no story, no thanks. Hickman's Pax Romana is a much better read with similar themes. -Albo

Gunplay #0: C+
The first bit of a soon to be released graphic novel, which judging from the first few pages I thought was going to be an anti-racist revenge fantasy/vaguely racist castration anxiety nightmare, and though this issue indicates a story more thoughtful and nuanced than that, you get the sense that the preview ends before the interesting stuff starts, which seems like a gamble, marketing-wise - and by the way, I'm not crazy for thinking there are castration themes in this book, like mid-way through a dude gets his balls grabbed. - AHR