[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

This week’s pick of the comics-litter is S.H.I.E.L.D. #5 by writer Jonathan Hickman and illustrator Dustin Weaver.

If all you care to know is which comic gets the Images & Words accolades, then you can stop reading right now. I offer only my thanks for entertaining my feeble expressions thus far and encourage you to plunk down $3 for this book.

For those of you interested in why this comic gets the nod: S.H.I.E.L.D. #5 affects me. Greatly. In that way that makes met step back and consider both otherworldly possibilities and the unactivated transcendences of inner-space.

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Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. My name is Caffeine Powered, and I will be guiding you through the final Variant Covers of the year. 2010? Done already. Jesus Fuck. Herein you’ll find the comics I’m digging this week. And with taste so remarkably suspect, I encourage you to drop what you’re checking out in the comments box. I’ll try anything. My therapist tells me its probably to my detriment.

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S.H.I.E.L.D #5
It’s fitting that an issue of my favorite comic of the year is dropping on the final week. If you haven’t been checking this comic book out, you’re missing a god damn adventure. Hickman and Weaver have journeyed through time and narrative technique to give us the finest Marvel has to offer. Taking something as rote as S.H.I.E.L.D and reworking it into a secret society designed to govern humanity’s destiny? Fantastic.

Hickman has weaved together enormous philosophical ideas and epic action sequences in a way that makes my nuts hurt. One minute he has Leonard Da Vinci and Isaac Newton talking in algorithms and symbols, the next he has goddamn Galactus storming the planet.

I love my wonderment and intellectual ideas strewn through epic. I can’t help it. I love my capes, but I love them even more when they’re getting the rusty cogs turning.

Read this fucking comic book.

Also In Marvel:
Captain America #613 is coming out, following Bucky as he heads to trial for his crimes as the Winter Soldier. Now that Daredevil’s massive run is done, Cap remains the book that quietly goes about its business. It’s solid every month. Also, Avengers #8 is droppin’, and it features the fucking Infinity Gauntlet. I don’t get pumped for many Avengers titles anymore, but this throwback to my childhood has it gleeful. Nostalgia a-go-go!
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Action Comics #896
Since I’m being introretrospective and shit, I should point out that 2010 was the year my appetite for the unexplored kicked into overdrive. I wanted to check out anything and everything people were ranting about. Comic book wise. Maybe fetish wise too. I figured if I was writing a comic book column, I needed to check shit out. So I snagged a copy of Action Comics based on praise alone, and I was pleasantly surprised. I never (ever) would have figured that a comic book starring Lex Luthor would have been dope. Mea culpa. Mea culpa. I started up with the issue following Luthor’s metaphysical rant with Death, and I’ve been engaged since.

Cornell makes Luthor at once sexy and diabolical. The douchebag you root for, the asshole you love. Also, as I’ve mentioned, the Jimmy Olsen serial in the back of the comics is hilarious and almost worth the price of admission alone.

Fair warning: This is a crossover issue, bleeding into Secret Six #29. [Which I’ll probably skip and read a synopsis of.]

Also In DC:
If I had enough money, I’d be checking out the current run on Detective Comics. Jock’s artwork is worthy of purchase enough. If you know, I didn’t have a caffeine addiction to fuel, and an already bulging pull list. Detective Comics #872 drops this week, and if you’re looking for something to snag that you usually don’t, you probably can’t go wrong here.

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