This Week in Free Comics (29/04/14) - 'Battle of the Atom' and 'Arms of the Octopus'

Marvel Unlimited

• X-Men: Battle of the Atom #2 (Part 10)
• Thor: Crown of Fools #1 - A MCU story to tie in with The Dark World, also reprinting a recoloured version of Simonson's Thor #344.
• Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Special #1 (The Arms of the Octopus Part Three)

Overall, we have a number of partially completed series:

Battle of the Atom

• X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1 (Part 1)
• All-New X-Men #16 (Part 2)
• X-Men: Battle of the Atom #2 (Part 10)

The Arms of the Octopus

• Indestructible Hulk Special #1 (Part 2)
• Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Special #1 (Part 3)

Infinity

• Mighty Avengers #1
• Nova #8
• Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #3
• Thunderbolts #17
• Infinity: The Hunt #1
• Infinity: The Heist #1

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #3 and #5

Comixology 

• The Amazing Spider-Man #546
• The Amazing Spider-Man #700.1
• The Avengers: Heroes Welcome #1
• Avenging Spider-Man #1
• Ultimate Spider-Man #1

Comixology have also issued $5 free credit to anyone who has previously bought comics on the app, in light of the changes to their iTunes and Android app (they no longer accept iTunes or Google Play Credit.) Pretty good, especially for 99c sales where the credit divides (just about) equally. (The credit expires on 25th May.)

This Week in Free Comics (01/04/14)

Perhaps Comixology are fooling us, because their offerings this week are light to say the least.

Silver Surfer Infinite Comics #1

This is such an improvement on last week. It's a great (full length) story from the Point One issue, reads kinetically in the Infinite Comics format (or, as Bleeding Cool call it, 'decampi',) and I am engaged with Allred's pop art aesthetic and Slott's narrative ideas beginning to form.

Sure, the Doctor Who parallels are obvious. A lonely figure who can transverse the stars using an abstract, everyday object, joined by a young female companion in her 20s. We join them in media res, just as we joined the Doctor and Susan in An Unearthly Child. (Most Doctor/companion teams, we are able to see the roots of their friendship. Here, we are introduced to Dawn Greenwood in the midst of their travels.) The Surfer, our main protagonist, makes a conscious choice to land on an alien planet; the 'bigger picture' of space seems replaced with fun adventures.

But as a device to entice new readers? It's such a great idea: give them something free which tells a full story, acting as a sample without losing money but probably getting more attention. (A $6 book, by the way, is far from a sample: it's an annual.)

Marvel Unlimited

Nova #8

Another Infinity tie-in.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #3

Meh, the art's pretty.

The Trial of the Punisher #1 (of 2)

A limited series from 6 years ago finally reaching print. It's good, let me tell you that. Any modern Punisher fan, I direct you to this book. Guggenheim should keep writing comics; Francis Yu should definitely continue to draw them. It's a 23 page book (haven't heard that in a while) which takes longer to read than a 23 page book usually does. (This is a good thing.) I don't know if it will be collected in trade given the story length, but I recommend checking it out.

Thor: Road Force #1-2

A superhero team based on a motorcycle company How very exciting. Marvel Studios have been tied with Harley Davidson since The First Avenger, but the fact they are able to make six issues with The Avengers, Iron Man and Thor I really, really do not understand. It's dragging a promo comic into spin-off territory. Who even seriously reads these except for cheese factor? A comics fan can't expect the pinnacle of storytelling, and a Harley fan can't even expect pictures of sexy bikes.

This Week in Free Comics (25/03/14)

Comixology

• Ms. Marvel: Infinite Comics #1

A preview of a preview, essentially, presented as a post-conversion Infinite Comic (hint: it isn't effective.) Don't read it.

• Captain America: Theater of War

A Brother in Arms

To Soldier On

America the Beautiful

Ghosts of My Country

With The Winter Soldier just around the corner (as in, released today here in the UK), it seems like a great time for Marvel to get these Paul Jenkins one shots some more attention. They released them free as part of their '700' digital offer a year ago, and it was great to be able to finally read them then. These four extra-sized issues form the second harcover/trade paperback of the series, which goes pretty cheap on Amazon. I remember all of them being a great read ('America the Beautiful' maybe wasn't so great), but my favourite probably goes to 'Ghosts of My Country' - which was amongst the first comics I bought, back in 2011. Spanning four centuries of conflict, it explores the 'ghost' of Captain America, per Brubaker's run, and his appearances at key American events. If you need to check it out for even one thing, it's Elisa Bonetti's artwork. Really, it is gorgeous. Perhaps some will find this to be over-indulgent American patriotism, but I like it. 'To Soldier On' is kind of like The Chosen, exploring Captain America within the context of modern, Middle Eastern conflict, but having read not exactly great things about Morrell's epic, this is probably the better of the two. The other three one shots (which I've yet to read), 'Operation: Zero Point', 'Prisoners of Duty' and 'America First!' were written by different creative teams, and in fact 'Operation: Zero Point' (a World War II tale, featuring none other than Einstein) became the UK annual for The First Avenger, published by Panini. It would be good if the other three one-shots were available as free issues like these four, but I will hunt out the trade at some point.

Marvel Unlimited

• A+X #12

Wonder-Man+Beast is an interesting judgement of WHAT THE HELL IS BEAST DOING laws of time, etc., etc., etc., but a weird pairing and maybe a little too nostalgic for my liking.

Vampire Jubilee+Captain America vs. Nazi vampires. It isn't as interesting as it sounds. Cap takes up the tutor role again, but it just falls flat.

• Infinity: The Heist #1

Meh. It's a side-story with characters I've never heard of.

• Young Avengers #10

You know I love it.

(I promise I will get back to the timeline soon - I'm currently working on revising the notes for Captain America: Patriot, and should be onto Brubaker's Winter Soldier soon. I know I said initially that it was going to be a weekly venture, but with school and a burgeoning pile of comics, it's more likely to be every few weeks.)

This Week in Free Comics (11/03/14)

Comixology

• Avengers Arena #1
• The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes #1
• Secret Avengers (2013) #1
• War Machine (2008) #1

Marvel Unlimited

• Infinity: The Hunt #1
• Mighty Avengers (2013) #1
• Uncanny X-Force (2013) #11

Recommendations from the bunch:

• Avengers Arena #1 is awesome, but probably best with the rest of the series rather than on its own. A great, and unusual, continuation from Runaways and Avengers Arena. 
• Infinity: The Hunt shouldn't really be called Infinity. A cool premise of a Harry Potter-esque competition between the Marvel Universe's super-powered schools, but it's just talking. I liked it, but it is really set-up for the next three issues.
• Secret Avengers #1 is surprisingly good in setting up the direction of the series. Admittedly, they've moved onto volume 3 now. But for a series which concept I was kind of unsure on, the first issue really turned me around. Black Widow and Hawkeye are great together. I can't say I like Nick Fury Jr., but Coulson is cool.