-Tim Grubbs
1) Star Wars Legacy
I love Star Wars. I have ever since I was little. The entire saga (yes, even the crappy prequels) is epic and uses popular themes and character types to tell stories of a galaxy far far away. Star Wars Legacy forges new territory, farther than any previous Star Wars tale, while avoiding the stale territory that some of the novels stagger into. John Ostrander is an amazing writer who has written star wars tales for several years now. He's the epitome of what Star Wars comic writers should aspire to be. If you've ever read his world for the 'Big Two' (Suicide Squad and Blaze of Glory to name two of my favorites), then you probably know how talented a writer he can be. He can introduce a character, and it feels like they belong in this world. He's created dozens of characters for Star Wars Legacy that help expand the Star Wars universe by leaps and bounds with each issue.
2) Avengers: The Intiative
Starting out as a title dealing with the aftermath of the Marvel Civil War, Avengers the Intiative quickly established itself as the haven for rookie super-heroes in training, with a nice mix of established and brand-spanking new characters. Dan Slott originally wrote the title before handing it off to rising star writer Christos Gage, and the changes to the title are seemless. Both writers know how to make you feel for these characters, young people that have powers and want to use them to serve the public good. Also, the Initiative does give some legitimacy to the post-Civil Wars world as very few titles (save for the short-lived Order series by Matt Franction, a horrible story-line in Iron Man: Director of SHIELD and a better story in Marvel Zombies 3) have attempted to showcase the 50-State Initiative that was so important in the aftermath of Civil War. For a while, it seemed like each issue introduced a new Intiative team with an appropriate membership of new and old characters. I think the only gripe I can have with the book is that it lacks a regular cast. With so many characters to choose from, Slott and Gage seem to jump around, focusing one group one month, and another group another month. This might turn you off if you like following the same characters each month, but I think it helps to show how big the Marvel Universe is that so many normally-ignored characters can get the spotlight every once in a while.
3) Secret Warriors
As Avengers the Intiative spun off out of Civil Wars, Secret Warriors is a spin-off of Secret Invasion. Created by Brian Michael Bendis, Marvel made the right call in handing the title off to Jonathan Hickman. WHile I have no love for Bendis (in fact, customers who know me might even say I have a passionate hatred for the man's writing), I absolutely love Jonathan Hickman's style. His pilot season one-shot, the Core, is just one example of how much fun he can have with a simply 22 page story. He created the basis for a mini-Science Fiction universe using a standard size comic book that left me wanting more. The Marvel Espionage book Secret Warriors keeps him a little more grounded, but it doesn't limit his creative juices. Bendis established the Secret Warriors as a team put together of the descendents of past superhumans, some good, some evil. Nick Fury put them together because no one else had their eye on them. Hickman quickly established that there were around 20 potential recruits that Fury had to choose from in one of the 'files' in the back of the first issue. Other files covered the locations of Fury's secret bases (introduced in Civil War) and the heirarchy of SHIELD and it's rival Hydra. Later issues have similar files that expand the world. The book just wrapped its first year of publication, and it's poised to introduce two new teams of 'Secret Warriors', increasing the excitement I already feel when I read the series.
4) R.E.B.E.L.S.
Back in the 90s, Keith Giffen introduced a series called L.E.G.I.O.N. (yes it stands for something), which showed the ancestors of the 30th century Legion of Super-Heroes. You had everything a Legion fan could want, a Coluan (Vril Dox), a Durlan (called 'The Durlan' and later revealed to be Legion Financier R.J.Brande and father of Chameleon Boy), and dozen others that paralled the future Legion membership. Now, don't mistake this as a carbon copy of the 30th century Legion. In fact, despite Vril Dox's tight control, his team mates often despised him and hated some of the duplicitous acts he committed. Still, LEGION was a force for law and order in a lawless universe. After all, the Green Lanterns can't be everywhere. Eventually all good things must come to an end, with Vril Dox going on the run from LEGION with a new group of R.E.B.E.L.S. (and yet, it also stands for something) composed of several of his original team. That series lasted a little over a year before ending, and the LEGION remained in limbo for almost a decade afterwards. LEGIOn made a resurgence a few years ago during the Rann Thanagar War (and the preceeding Adam Strange mini), along with a wretched Omega Men mini-series a year after that. Now, Vril Dox and his team are back in an ongoing title of their own, with Vril recruiting a variety of aliens to help him depose the new leader of LEGION, a re-invisioned Starro the Conqueror. Tony Bedard (a writer I've enjoyed ever since his book the Negation for Crossgen Comics) has crafted a masterful tale that incorporates just about every previous LEGION story, embracing the past rather than ignoring it. This attention to history and his large knowledge of various DC space characters has given him a limitless cast of characters to use in his story. The cover above roughly covers a third of Dox's current team, but the large number of characters is not distracting, with each member given something to do. I can't wait to see what happens next in each issue as the exitement continues to build each month. Even the recent Blackest Night tie-in, where Vril Dox was bestowed with a yellow lantern ring, was handled well and didn't detract from the main storyline.
5) Chew
Tony Chu is a detective with an interesting ability. He has a form of edibile psychometry, meaning that he can read the memories of anything that he eats. This led to him embracing a vegetarian lifestyle (as meat would give him the rather violent death echoes of the animals that were slaughtered for his food). By the end of the first issue, he realizes that he can use his ability to investigate crimes. Eating a piece of human flesh or a single drop of blood would tell him the identity of a victim or the duplicitous acts of a criminal. The series is humorous, dark, and engaging. Tony Chu is a good everyman who seems thrown into one distressing situation after another, all while working in his new position as an FDA agent investigating black market Chicken smuggling. Oh, that's right. I forgot one of the most interesting aspects of the series. In the fictional history of Chew, the bird flu epidimic led to jarring legislation that banned all poultry from the United States, as well as most of the free world. Other meat products suffer similar bans. Now, individuals who need a chicken fix are required to go through illegal methods to acquire a once common food product. So the next time you pick up a ten piece bucket of chicken from KFC, just remember that you could be living in the world of Chew where you could be arrested and thrown in jail for a couple years just for being in possession of contraband poultry. If any of this sounds interesting, then check out Chew.
